I shook my head, ordering myself to pull it together.
“It’s been a long day,” I told him as I handed over the fare.
“You and me both.”
As I stepped out of the cab, he asked, “You need me to wait?”
“I’m good, thanks. I’m catching a flight.” His gaze dropped to my dazzling evening dress, his eyes dubious. “It’s a bit of an emergency,” I explained.
“Well, good luck, love,” he declared and when I shut the door, he zoomed off into the night.
I turned, starting for the entry of the airport when a strange scuffling noise came from around the side of the building. Deciding to investigate in case someone was in trouble, I followed the noise. My heels made a distinct clacking sound, so I hopped about on one foot and then the other as I shucked them off. I held up one of the heels in my left hand as a makeshift weapon and rounded the corner.
There was no one there but I couldn’t shake the itchy feeling that something was very, very wrong.
“Hello?” I called out, peering into the darkness.
Nothing.
“Hello?” I called again, my heart hammering in my chest. Inching forward, I raised my heel higher so whoever was out there would know I meant business.
When I heard nothing back, I realised that Casey’s Batman tendencies had rubbed off all over me. I had no current aspirations to join the Badass Brigade and dispense vigilante justice across the streets of Sydney. Especially not if it meant cold, dark passageways that gave me the heebie jeebies. Eager to get inside the airport where it was warm and safe, I spun around and smacked into a big, hard chest. “Oomphf!”
A set of huge palms caught my shoulders before I could land hard on my ass. I glanced down. Attached to one of those huge palms was a gun. When my mind froze in panic, my body took over instinctively, connecting my knee with a groin. The impact made me stumble backwards. I teetered before righting myself and when I opened my mouth to scream, a gun jammed against my forehead and a male voice growled, “Don’t even try it.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I declared.
Opening my mouth wide, I let out an ear-splitting scream.
He backhanded me across the face. My head snapped sideways and my stomach pitched. Damn, that hurt!
I blinked, dazed, as he took a step forward, the moonlight hitting his face. My eyes widened and my stomach pitched all over again. “Oh my God,” I breathed, taking in the familiar features with a pounding heart.
“Grace, babe, you need to shut the fuck up, yeah?” He glanced behind me, his sharp blue eyes doing a quick scan. When he turned back to face me, it was just in time to catch me whacking him with the heel of my shoe.
“What the fuck?” He held up his forearm, deflecting my aim.
“You hit me!” I fumed, my blood pulsing with anger. I tried whacking him again. “You held a gun to my head!”
His response was to grab both shoes from my hands and toss them sideways. I watched them sail across the passageway, bounce off the wall, and fall to the ground. My eyes returned to his.
He used his gun to point at the ground by the wall. “Plant your ass there.”
I folded my arms. “No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Fuckin’ do it,” he growled.
I lifted my chin. “No.”
After calling me a stubborn bitch, he firmly grabbed my shoulders and I was shoved to the ground, my back hitting the brick wall behind me.
“Hey!” I started to get up and he held me there, his hands pinning me down. I strained to move until I thought my eyeballs would pop, but his arms packed too much strength and I was still recovering from my injuries.
Realising I wasn’t going anywhere, I paused to catch my breath and glare up at him. “Ass.”
He grinned and removed one of the arms that pinned me down to cup my face in his hand. The gesture felt almost tender. “You’re beautiful when you’re angry, Grace.” His fingertip ran a line down the length of my nose, his eyes following the path. Leaning in, he planted a kiss on my lips. I froze in shock, his tongue licking a line along my bottom lip before I could jerk my head away.
“Don’t touch me,” I snapped.
He grinned, his face close to mine. “I like a bitch with fire inside her.”
“Then you won’t like me,” I said quickly. “I’m cold. People call me the Ice Queen I’m that cold.”
His eyes crinkled and his chuckle rumbled deep and soft through the passageway. “Classy and fuckin’ sexy too.” The butt of his gun trailed down the side of my cheek, cold and more than a bit terrifying. “Casey scored the trifecta with you, didn’t he?”