Chapter 9 #3
“If I’m concussed, being in the hospital won’t help.” But she wasn’t. She hadn’t bumped her head. Her muscles hurt, not her head.
“You’re coming home with me, then.” Sam’s deep voice was belligerent, as if spoiling for a fight. “And at the first sign of something I don’t like, you’re going to the hospital. That is non-negotiable.”
Usually, Nicole was like a cat. You did not order her about.
Under normal circumstances, her pride, if nothing else, would have made her refuse Sam’s orders.
But actually, going home with Sam sounded wonderful.
If she went back to her own home, she’d have to face the night nurse and, maybe, her father.
The last thing he needed was to see her bruised and shaken.
Going home with Sam, maybe sleeping a few hours in his arms, sounded like heaven right now.
“Okay,” she said softly. “Deal.”
Sam had assumed a fighting stance, legs apart and braced, clearly ready to put up a fight. He blinked, the wind taken out of his sails. He relaxed a little and nodded, eyes never leaving hers. “Deal.”
“Ma’am? I’m Lieutenant Kelly. Do you feel up to answering a few questions?
” Nicole looked at the man standing next to Mike.
Lieutenant Kelly looked tired, as if just coming off a very long shift.
He was tall, heavyset but very fit-looking, dressed in a rumpled gray suit that matched the gray at his temples.
She had to twist her neck painfully to look up at him as he walked around her, pulling up one of her client chairs.
A Louis IV, which she’d had covered in Antico Setificio Fiorentino dark green brocade.
It was exceedingly pretty and fragile. He sat on it gingerly as if hoping it wouldn’t crack under his weight.
She sat on its twin, turning it so they were face to face, almost knee to knee.
Sam pulled up another chair, placed it as close to hers as it could go, and sat down.
Lieutenant Kelly leaned forward, elbows on knees, holding a worn notebook. At his soft instigation, Nicole gave her name, address and office, home and cell phone numbers.
“Do you want to tell me what went down, Ms. Pearce?”
“Yes. Of course.” She took a deep breath, marshaling her thoughts.
“I, um, didn’t go into work today. I wasn’t, um, feeling very well, so I worked from home.
Or tried to.” Next to her, she could practically feel Sam vibrating.
The lieutenant was watching her carefully, bruised-looking gray eyes fixed on her intently.
Nicole hoped with all her heart the man didn’t have telepathic powers, because she would die on the spot if he figured out exactly why she didn’t come in to work today.
Because she’d been rattled by the most intense night of sex of her life. Whew.
He simply nodded at her, made an annotation in his notebook, then looked back at her. Go on. He didn’t betray any impatience, but the words hovered in the air.
God, she was tired. A sudden wave of debilitating exhaustion swept over her. She looked down in her lap, horrified to see her hands shaking. She clutched them, hoping the detective hadn’t noticed.
He’d noticed.
So had Sam.
Sam reached over and curled one big hand over her clasped ones, stilling the trembling. But she was trembling all over now and felt cold, chilled to the bone.
“Oh God.” She clenched her jaw to stop her teeth from chattering. “Sorry. I don’t know what’s happening to me.”
“Adrenaline dump,” Sam said, tightening his grasp. His hand felt so warm.
The lieutenant nodded. “It’s perfectly understandable, Ms. Pearce. You’ve had a terrible experience and your body’s reacting. We can take this downtown. Or do this tomorrow, if you want.”
“No, no, I want to do this now. I want this man caught. I want him caught and punished to the full extent of the law. Not only for breaking and entering but also for assault.” The lieutenant looked over at Sam, a brief electric glance of male understanding.
“What?” she said, indignant. “You don’t think you’re going to catch him, do you?
” The thought chased the chill away. The intruder had violated her space, threatened her.
She wanted him caught and put behind bars for scaring the living daylights out of her.
Oh, and for trying to toss her out of a ninth-story window.
“Well, we’ll do our very best, ma’am,” the lieutenant said calmly. He looked down at his notebook. “So…you weren’t able to work from home today. And you decided to come in after hours, is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct.” Nicole got a grip on herself. To catch this awful man, she had to get past her emotional reactions and give the police as much information as possible.
Grow a backbone, Nicole. She sat straighter in her chair and willed the trembling to stop. Sam’s hand around hers was like a small furnace. She concentrated on that warmth until she could marshal her thoughts.
“Do you know what time you came in?” The lieutenant bent his head over his notebook. He had a crewcut so severe she could see the scalp beneath the hair.
“No, I don’t—” she began, then stopped. “Wait. It was exactly 9:05 when I walked out of the elevator. I remember seeing the big wall clock at the end of the corridor. It’s digital so it gives the exact time.
That means it probably would have been 9:06 by the time I entered my office.
” She snatched a sideways glance at Sam.
“This time I made sure I had my keys with me.”
He nodded, unsmiling.
“And you opened your door with your key?” Nicole couldn’t imagine what the lieutenant was writing, but he was scribbling away.
“Yes. I, um, I entered with the key and—oh!” She cried out.
The other men in the room, the fingerprint tech, the medic and Sam’s friends Harry and Mike raised their heads.
“How stupid of me! I didn’t notice. I always engage the deadbolt when I leave my office.
Always. And yet when I opened my door with my key, I didn’t have to turn my key more than once. So—”
“So someone was in your office and you waltzed right into an ambush. Goddammit, woman. That wasn’t smart.
You could have gotten yourself killed.” Sam’s deep voice was harsh, his face stiff with disapproval.
His jaw muscles bunched as he clearly bit back further words.
Probably a lot of adjectives, like idiot and airhead, were rolling around in his mouth like marbles.
No, it hadn’t been smart. Nicole wanted to snap back at him, but the truth was, he was right.
If she’d been paying any attention at all, she’d have backed away immediately.
But this wasn’t the kind of thing she paid attention to.
She paid attention to her father and to her work and not much else these days.
This was just way, way outside her attention zone.
Besides, she’d been tired, confused about her feelings for Sam, worried about her father…and she’d walked right into a burglar trying to steal God knows what from her office.
“Sam, dial it down. This isn’t helping.” The lieutenant shot him one of those looks men used to quell each other. “Now, ma’am.” He turned back to her. “So the deadbolt wasn’t engaged, but you didn’t notice that.”
“No, not at all.” Oh God, the shame. Single women weren’t supposed to be so clueless when it comes to their personal security.
“What can I say? I was thinking about the work I had to do and I simply wasn’t paying attention.
So I just turned the key and…and reached for the light switch, but then a man slammed me against the wall, put a gun to my head and said that he’d shoot me if I screamed. ”
She shivered. Sam leaned over, planted a soft kiss in her hair and whispered. “It’s okay. You’re okay now.”
Mike and Harry exchanged glances.
“It—it was horrible. I was so scared and I had the breath knocked out of me. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think. I didn’t know what to do, I was paralyzed with fear.”
It was something she’d never forget—the feeling of utter helplessness.
Of knowing that he was stronger than she was and his strength gave him permission to do anything he wanted to her.
She’d lived twenty-eight years on this earth without feeling like helpless prey and she never, ever wanted to experience it again.
She turned to Sam. “I want you to teach me self-defense. All the moves possible to break someone’s neck. Or at least an arm.” She thought for a moment. “And maybe how to shoot or something. I never want to feel that helpless again.”
Sam closed his eyes and nodded. His eyes opened and stared fiercely into hers. “Count on it. An intense course in self-defense, several martial arts, we’ll find the one best suited to you, and also use of firearms…”
“And knives.” How satisfying it would have been to stick a knife between his ribs. Or cut off the man’s balls. “I want to know how to use a knife. A big one. Big black one. The kind that reaches the heart in a second.” She’d wear it in a thigh sheath, like Lara Croft.
“Knives, too, then. No question.” For the first time, a ghost of a smile crossed his lips. He bowed his head gravely.
Nicole nodded her head. She probably wouldn’t train, but right now the thought that she could, that she could turn herself into a mighty she-warrior, comforted her.
The lieutenant was immersed in his notebook, clearly as riveting as any best seller. “Then what happened?”
“He—he switched on the light.”
The lieutenant looked up at that. “Did you recognize him?”
“No.” Her voice rang with conviction. “I’ve never seen him before in my life.”
“Can you give me a description?”
Nicole closed her eyes. It had all happened so fast. “Um, I didn’t see him for very long.
He had short light brown hair, light brown eyes.
Dressed in this funny black jumpsuit.” She thought, then shrugged.
That was about it. “I’d probably recognize him in a lineup.
” Maybe. She’d been so terrified, her mind had simply blanked with blind panic.
The lieutenant switched his gaze to Sam.