as he brushed past her. A clanking thud echoed down the hall as he jammed the broom in the door handle. Shoving the small phone table outside the bathroom against the door produced a squeak that broke the remaining silence.
The scene took two seconds and amounted to less than a few sounds and a rattle of drawers in the table, and she spent the entire time standing there, staring at his hands and wondering not for the first time what he could do with them. When she blinked, he was in front of her again.
“Did you really think I never had that on my mind? That I never wrestled with the best way to get you out of your clothes?”
“I thought you were a tax attorney.”
This time he didn’t hide the smile. “I’m pretty sure they appreciate pretty women just as much as other men do.”
Okay, not her brightest comment. She’d admit that. Or she would if she could. Something about this conversation made her mind turn to mush. “Well, yeah, I …”
“I’d bet attorneys like sex, too.”
She had no idea what to say to that. Luckily, she was spared coming up with something smooth or even coherent, when he held out his hand. She took it without thinking.
“We’re going to stand over here, away from this door, and check in with downstairs,” he said.
She hated just about every part of the plan. “I thought we were leaving.”
“We need to make sure it’s clear first. That we aren’t in some sort of lockdown.” His eyes swept over the sterile surroundings and kept moving as he talked. He checked all around them, as if attackers could come from any angle.
“This is ridiculous. I was just trying to book a party.” She rubbed her forehead as she muttered.
When his fingers brushed over hers and he brought her hand to his mouth, her breath caught in her chest. Just rumbled up and stuck there.
“It’s going to be okay.” He leaned in and touched his warm lips against her forehead.
She would have said something if she could have forced even a syllable out. Instead, the words lodged in her throat, right next to her last breath. Much more of this tug of emotions, this wobbling between fear and attraction, and she’d pass out.
With his gaze locked on hers, he let go of her hand and tapped his ear and began speaking. “Royal.”
“Is that code for something?” she whispered.
“It’s a name.” Aaron tried two more times, then frowned.
She didn’t need a law degree or a gun license to know the lack of a response was a very bad thing. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” His forced smile said the opposite.
With a hand on her stomach he pressed her back against the wall and lifted his gun as he approached the emergency door. The stance was sure, as if refined from years of law enforcement or security experience.
A flash of a memory hit her. The first time he held her hand, his strength surprised her. She now wondered if he’d ever spent a workday behind a desk.
As he reached for the doorknob, she felt a whoosh of air behind her. An elbow clamped around her throat, and the hard end of a gun pressed against her temple before she could cry out for help.
But she didn’t need to. Aaron had turned and now had his weapon trained on whoever held her.
The look of burning fury in his eyes turned them from green-blue to the deep, cold hue of the ocean. He didn’t look her in the eye. All his focus centered on the face hovering just out of her line of sight.
Her heart slammed hard enough inside her to hit the base of her throat. She would have fallen to the floor if the stranglehold on her hadn’t kept her upright. Between the roar of blood to her ears and the sudden buzzing in her head, she could barely hear.
“Let the lady go.” Aaron’s flat voice rang throughout the unfinished floor.
The man’s heavy breathing hit her cheek as he spoke. “This is not the time for you to be a hero.”
She totally disagreed and wanted to scream that fact, but she used all of her energy to stay still instead. Aaron had been playing the role of hero since he’d stormed into the bathroom to warn her. She would let him play it forever if he somehow got them out of this nightmare.
When she finally forced her body to breathe and her heart to pump in the nonstroke range, she picked up the sounds of the room. The uncovered lights hummed above her head, and the floor creaked beneath her feet as she shifted her weight.
“You know something?” Aaron slipped a second gun out of his jacket pocket and fixed that one on the attacker, too. “I’m getting tired of guys grabbing her.”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
“You’re number three and I’m about out of patience.”
The man’s hold tightened. “She’s coming with me.”
Risa grabbed on to the arm choking her, hoping to push him off, but the thick muscle didn’t give. The attacker tucked her body against his like a shield. She feared any bullet would travel through her before ever reaching him.
Even with Aaron’s skill and laserlike focus, he couldn’t make a bullet’s trajectory bend and sweep. This wasn’t a movie. This was real life, and the possibility of her bleeding out on the floor grew greater with each passing second.
Her attacker’s chest expanded against her back right before he spoke. “I have her, so you’re going to step back.”
“And I have a bullet just begging for you to move one inch closer to the edge of stupid.”
Fear had her teeth chattering and the blood pounding in her temples. “Aaron.”
“Yeah. Listen to the lady, Aaron.” The attacker gathered her even closer until his hair brushed against her cheek. “You’ve got her scared. I can feel her shaking, and it doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Why do you want her?”
“I don’t care about her.”
Not the first time she’d heard those words. But she’d never faced dismissal at the end of a gun. Lied to, dumped? Yes. Threatened? Never in her life until the past few hours.
“So this is about money,” Aaron said, the disgust filling his voice.
“Isn’t everything?” The attacker motioned with his gun. “Move to the side.”
When Aaron obeyed, her heart dropped to her knees. They’d barely gone out, but she expected him to help … to do something before just handing her over. She tried to wrap her brain around what she thought she’d learned about him today and what was happening now. He’d rescued her in the bathroom. Abandoning her now without a fight made no sense.
“I need your gun on the floor. All of them. Even the ones I can’t see.” The attacker pivoted as he spoke, keeping her angled in front of him and between him and the potential exchange of fire.
Aaron’s knees bent and his hands started toward the floor. She wanted to shout and beg. She went for attack mode instead. A smart woman didn’t wait to be rescued.
She could kick out, maybe hit this guy at a vulnerable spot and give Aaron a minute to get off a shot. She’d just decided to launch when his furious gaze caught hers. With an almost imperceptible shake of his head, he had her mind spinning in confusion.
“That’s it.” Her attacker braced his legs apart as he spoke. “You do the right thing here, Aaron, and we all go home.”
“Except me.” She knew that truth as sure as she knew anything.
The man chuckled. “I’m afraid someone has plans for you.”
“Who?”