Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Parker didn’t understand what happened. She’d put her hand on this giant’s arm, this man she didn’t know and yet she felt more of a connection with him than with anyone she’d recently met.
How could she hope to comfort him, when she was nothing to him?
But that story broke her heart. And his. She could tell.
He didn’t look like a softie at all. In fact, he looked like he could chew glass.
Very tall and immensely strong. There were a bunch of Army and Navy officers here on the Consulate terrace.
Aunt Caroline made a point of always keeping good relations with military personnel wherever she was stationed and fully half the guests were military.
Their invitations read Dress Code: Summer Whites and wherever they congregated in a group you had to shield your eyes from the glare.
They were all tough men and women but Aunt Caroline’s security consultant—one Nikolai Garin—beat them at the toughness game. Effortlessly.
She’d been wondering how soon she could escape and go eat something somewhere that didn’t taste as if it had been regurgitated by the seagulls wheeling overhead, when he’d suddenly appeared beside her.
Parker had had zero desire to flirt, but he hadn’t flirted, or at least he hadn’t said or done anything to make her uncomfortable. Of course, the fact that he was a fan was a huge argument in his favor.
And then he’d told her that story.
And then she’d put her hand on his arm, for comfort.
And then she found herself gripped in his arms, shaken off her feet. Or she would have been shaken off her feet if he hadn’t pulled her to him in an iron clasp. The world moved, but Nikolai Garin didn’t. He was as solid as a stone monument when everything around her shook.
The world had suddenly gone crazy, the ground moving literally beneath her feet. She held on to Nikolai like her life depended on it, burying her face in his chest, because he was the only stable thing in a tilting world.
One long breath, two, three, and the world stopped rocking. She held on for another moment, leaning against a warm, living wall. Then she pulled away, ashamed.
It had been an earthquake, not an apocalypse.
She leaned back against his arms, and he loosened his grip immediately. He held her shoulders and he carefully examined her. “You okay?”
“Y-yes. What—”
Parker looked around and finally focused on the world around her.
Down along Via Acton, the boulevard which followed the bay, cars had driven off the road and drivers were honking.
Almost all the parked cars had sirens wailing, mixing with the sounds in the distance of ambulances and police sirens. An earthquake with sound effects.
On the terrace, several waiters had dropped their trays to hang onto something, and the terrace was filled with glass shards and broken plates and food.
One woman—an Italian by her dress— was sobbing and someone—her husband perhaps—was trying to comfort her.
The American military officers were all tight-lipped, looking to someone gray-haired and with a chestful of fruit salad for instructions. She was giving orders while talking on a cellphone.
In the distance came the sound of an explosion.
“Gas line,” Nikolai said.
Startled, Parker stepped completely out of his embrace. It had felt very natural to be near him during the earthquake, which was ridiculous. She had always been able to take care of herself and here the earth shook a little, and she cowered in a man’s arms.
Big strong arms, but still.
“Epicenter Campi Flegrei,” he said, consulting his phone. “5.5 on the Mercalli scale. What?”
She’d kept her expression neutral or tried to. But it seemed Nikolai Garin was unusually perceptive.
“Uhmm, nothing. It’s just that our dig is near the Campi Flegrei, in Pozzuoli.”
“A dig in a seismic zone, that’s not good.”
Parker sighed. “Can’t do anything about it. That’s where a Roman villa has been found. We’ll be careful.”
“If you’re a classicist, not an archeologist, what are you doing on a dig?”
“Not digging, that’s for sure. But I am gathering notes and taking photos.”
Luckily, he didn’t enquire what she was taking notes on. He looked around at the chaos on the terrace. Caroline Munro had arrived and was taking charge, but the reception was over.
Nikolai touched her elbow. “Looks like this whole thing is over. I have my car nearby. Can I give you a lift anywhere?”
She looked at him. Tall, broad, strong. She didn’t know him, but her aunt did.
Still.
Never get in a car with a strange man had been drummed into her since she was a little girl. It was instinctive, though probably stupid in this case. He wouldn’t do anything to her. Probably.
He didn’t seem put out at her scrutiny. He just stood there, still and silent. She blew out a breath. “I came in a taxi and would appreciate a ride home, thank you. Sorry, I—”
“You were calculating whether it would be safe to get in a car with me,” he said bluntly.
She bit her lips and said nothing.
“I understand completely, and I’d do the same in your shoes. I’d rather tear out my own throat than hurt you in any way, but you can’t know that. I imagine the deciding factor was that your aunt knows me. And that, if nothing else, would stop me from hurting you because there would be blowback.”
Parker hung her head. He put a finger under her chin and lifted her head.
“I’m not saying this to shame you or anything.
You’re quite right to be careful. It’s a bad world out there.
You can’t be too careful. But if you’ve decided, we should go before traffic becomes impossible. Shall we say goodbye to your aunt?”
Parker nodded her head.
Caroline Munro didn’t have a protective attitude toward her. She hadn’t had a protective attitude toward her own stepdaughter, but she’d want to know Parker’s whereabouts in the aftermath of an earthquake.
“She’s over in the corner,” Nikolai said. He was taller than anyone on the terrace and was able to see her.
“No doubt directing the clean-up.” She smiled. Aunt Caroline was super organized. Inside of an hour no one would know there had been anything amiss on the enormous terrace.
Nikolai put a huge hand on her back and directed them toward where he said her aunt was. But Parker still didn’t see her. Caroline was fierce but small. Parker heard her voice before she saw her, ordering staff around.
Parker couldn’t help herself, she looked up at the big man next to her and saw him smiling and smiled back.
“Yep, that’s Aunt Caroline. I almost feel sorry for you, working for her.”
The smile turned lazy. “Oh, I’ll hold my own.”
He was at least six foot four and probably weighed two thirty, all muscle. And he had that Master of the Universe vibe going. Aunt Caroline was a firecracker, but yeah, he’d hold his own.
There was a huge amount of confusion on the terrace, people disoriented, scared or annoyed.
Plus a massive clean-up. Nikolai managed to guide them across the enormous terrace without slipping on anything or bumping into anyone.
He had his hands on her shoulders, and no one bumped into her and given the chaos, that was a miracle.
Everyone seemed to automatically get out of their way, then coalesce behind them.
It was a gift. People somehow scrambled out of their way, and they managed to avoid food messes, until they were right on the edge of a vortex of activity, with Aunt Caroline smack in the center.
“Giovanni, over here!” called Aunt Caroline and Parker saw her, pointing at a man in waiter uniform, then pointing to a corner of the terrace where a tray full of hors d’oeuvres had fallen.
The area was slick with olive oil. “Clean that up with detergent after you sweep, so no one will slip on the oil. The last thing we need is a lawsuit.”
The waiter nodded, heading for the corner with a huge broom and a big metal scoop.
Aunt Caroline looked up and saw them. She looked at Parker, at Nikolai, then back at Parker. Nikolai still had his hands on her shoulders and of course she saw that, too.
She walked up to them, nodding at Parker. “Hi, I guess you’ve got a ride home.” She glanced sharply up at Nikolai, index finger out and pointing at him. “And you—you’ll make sure she gets home safely,” Aunt Caroline said. It wasn’t a suggestion.
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, voice devoid of inflection. A simple statement. I will get your honorary niece home safely.
Aunt Caroline’s shoulders dropped slightly, and Parker understood that, unexpectedly, for some reason, Aunt Caroline had been worried about her safety.
Aunt Caroline nodded. That was done, one thing ticked off her list. She had always been incredibly efficient. Aunt Caroline walked over to one of the officers, shook his hand and began speaking in earnest, having clearly forgotten all about them.
“Parker?” The big hands on her shoulders squeezed gently then dropped. “I think we should be going. We need to beat the traffic.”
Parker smiled up at him. “Yeah, you’re right.”
He took her elbow, very lightly, and guided them off the terrace, down the elevator, past offices down to the monumental entrance. Every step of the way there had been Marines standing guard, super alert, as if they’d just lived through a terrorist attack and not an earthquake.
At the bottom of the stairs, Nikolai held his elbow at an odd angle, and it took her a moment to realize he was offering his arm.
It was curiously old-fashioned, but oddly reassuring, in a way.
She slipped her hand in the crook of his elbow.
The muscles of his arm were steel-hard and warm and solid.
The earth had shaken, but he hadn’t. They walked across a small park and down to the Bay.
His legs were much longer than hers, but he kept pace with her.
Parker loved Naples. It had a very bad rep, sometimes justified. But it was chaotic more than crime-ridden. You quickly learned the areas to avoid, and you also learned to be incredibly vigilant.