Cat 'N Mouse (18 page)

At that moment she wanted Sam to hold her, to forget that she was Alexandria Prescott and to make love to her. But it wasn’t going to happen for he dropped his hand. He was afraid. Afraid of what she wasn’t entirely sure.

“I didn’t think so.”

“I want to,” he confessed. “But—”

“You’re the hired hand. How could I forget when you keep reminding me,” she said bitterly.

“We’re in the middle of a nightmare, Alexandria. With all the attempts on your life I think we need to stay focused. Anything beyond that would complicate things.”

She didn’t buy that whole argument. He was hiding behind his job. A job he didn’t even want to begin with.

“Focus bull,” she challenged. “What about what’s happening between us? I feel like I’m always fighting with you emotionally and you’re fighting with yourself.”

He stared at her stoned face, jaws clenched shutting her out.

“I can’t win with you, can I? What if I didn’t have money? Would it make a difference?” He looked toward the solarium. “Say something. Tell me you’re feeling something…that it’s not just me.”

Alexandria was a step away from falling apart. She needed him not another rejection.

“I’m sorry about Tiana.”

“Me too,” she said and left him standing in the living room.

Tiana was gone.

Alexandria sat on the bed in her room, waiting for the tears to come, but none came. She felt hollow and empty inside. Her cellphone rang and she reached for it without even thinking or feeling.

“Hello?”

“Hi, sweetheart. I’m back in town. Want to meet me for a drink?”

Damien Walker.

They were together for two years. He had dreams of changing the world. They were going to do it together. He disappeared with not even so much as a goodbye the day after he’d promised her she could travel the world with him. He was supposed to take her away from her life, her father.

When they first met, he was an intern at her father’s company. Then he got a better job offer. She thought that…

“Baby, are you still there?”

“You left.” Alexandria stared out the window, listening to the beat of the music in the background. Tittering on the brink of an emotional meltdown, she forced herself to remain calm. “You left. I loved you and you left me,” she said blinking back the tears.

“I’m at Elusions Night Club. Meet me, please. We need to talk. I’ll tell you everything even why I left.”

Tiana was dead. Her mother was dead. Someone wanted her dead and if he succeeded, then she would be as well. Sam was there to prevent that and she believed him. He had proven that he could. But she wanted more from him, more than he was willing to give. When he found the stalker, he would leave. He said so.

Damien was back. He wanted to see her and she would go to him.

“I’m on my way.”

•  •  •

Sam parked a block away because that was the closest spot he could find. He jumped out of the SUV and ran across the street. He heard the music before he saw the club, a large warehouse type structure. A line up still snaked around the building even at one o’clock in the morning.

Suppressing his anger, he approached the door, bypassing the roped off area behind the line. She shouldn’t have gotten out. He was too busy trying to figure out how to take what he wanted without the consequence. They were both two consenting adults and she knew what she wanted. Hell, she kept offering. Why not? That was how he’d justified it when he’d stepped out of the shower.

He heard the front door open but by the time he’d stepped into his jeans and pulled a T-shirt over his head, she was gone. If it weren’t for the doorman who had hailed her a cab, Sam wouldn’t have known her destination.

“Hey, back of the line,” someone yelled as he headed for the front door.

“Hey, buddy, the line starts back there,” a barrel-chested man, he pegged for the bouncer, yelled at him.

“I’m sure half of these ladies in line are not old enough to be here. What about inside? What would I find inside? I’m guessing liquor being served to minors, prostitution and drugs.”

“What are you, a cop or something?”

“And if I was a cop?” Sam didn’t have to pretend to be mean. It oozed out of him without even trying. All he could think of was Alexandria. What if something happened to her?

“What do you want?” The bouncer looked around quickly as if he was about to bolt. If a raid came down he knew he would be busted, along with the owner. It didn’t look like he wanted that kind of trouble. Sam used that to his advantage.

“I’m not here to cause you any trouble. I need to find someone and I may need some help to get her out. That’s it,” Sam said.

The man stared at him as if trying to decide if he was on the level. Common sense prevailed, and he lifted the red rope that stretched across the entrance.

“Hey, come on. We’ve been waiting for an hour,” someone yelled.

“Where’s the back entrance to this place?” Sam asked.

“Near the washrooms at the back after you pass the bar. Security has to open it.”

“Meet me there in ten minutes and I’ll make it worth your while,” Sam said.

He stepped through the door where a glass waterfall separated the entrance of the club and the dance floor. A wave of heat washed over him. The music pulsed. Lights of every color flashed to the beat of the music, and scantly clad bodies gyrated against each other on the dance floor. He stopped a woman wearing a black leather bustier with a micro mini skirt and stilettoed thigh-high boots carrying a drink tray. Wise? He didn’t think so, but who asked him.

“Alexandria Prescott’s table?” Sam figured she had to have some kind of private booth with her party. Isn’t that what rich people do when they didn’t want to rub elbows with the common folks.

“V.I.P. section, up the stairs.”

Sam pushed his way across the dance floor toward the narrow staircase guarded by a three hundred pound, six foot sumo wrestler. The story that he’d used to get by the front door didn’t work with wrestler man.

“Nobody is allowed up there unless they get permission.” He pointed a thick finger up the stairs.

“Well, that’s a problem because I’m going up.”

“You’ll have to get by—” Wrestler man howled in pain dropping to the floor like a stone, clutching his right knee. No one noticed the fallen giant because the music pulsed right on, drowning out his cry. Sam stepped over the man taking the stairs two at a time.

He hit the top of the stairs and lost his breathe when he saw Alexandria sliding into the booth. A one-shoulder black-laced getup that you could damn nearly see through draped over her body, or at least tried to. It was held together by two pink bows at the side, her right leg bare all the way up to her thigh. Some guy who looked like he’d walked off the cover of some fancy magazine, slid in right next to her, his hands all over her.

Jealousy raced across his mind like wild fire, desire trumped it, but anger won out hands down as he marched toward the booth.

•  •  •

Alexandria’s head hurt with every pulsating beat of the music. Conversation was futile, yet Damien’s friends, a Ken and Barbie couple, insisted on shouting at each other. She paid no attention when Damien introduced the other couple, the football player and his anorexic girlfriend. He and his girlfriend were too busy exchanging saliva to be bothered with the rest of them at the table.

She paid no attention to anyone and kept vigilant declining any drink offers from Damien. Paranoia didn’t begin to cover how she felt. She stared into the face of every person she encountered, wondering if they were the stalker. At one point, she actually thought about calling Sam to come and get her.

This was stupid, really stupid, and she didn’t even want to think of how mad Sam would be when he discovered she’d snuck out.

For a brief moment she pushed Sam to the back of her mind staring at Damien. He was tall and handsome in a male model kinda way. His tanned face was smooth, hairless, and flawless.

She’d thought he was the pillar of her universe. All he talked about was himself. At no point did he even ask what was going on in her life. It didn’t make sense to tell him about Tiana or the stalker. Had he always been this shallow and self-absorbing? Seeing Damien again was like looking at herself in the mirror for the first time, and she didn’t like what she saw.

He hadn’t changed. She listened to him talking about his business ventures around the world and where he was going next. It sounded like he was asking her to join him this time, but it wasn’t clear.

Damien had to work at it to keep his model persona. He had to hit the gym three hours a day, seven days a week. At least that’s how it was when they were together. Sam was very different from Damien. He was rugged and masculine. There were no moisturizers or manicures for Sam. As a matter of fact, she didn’t think he would be caught dead in a nail salon or spa. He was one hundred percent pure male and would definitely make her toes curl, of that she—

“Let’s go, Princess.”

Alexandria stiffened when she heard Sam’s voice and turned slowly around. Damien’s arm tightened around her shoulder.

“I’m not ready yet,” she said, with more bravado than she felt. The muscle in Sam’s jaw jumped and she turned her back to him.

“Get lost.” Damien stood up, pointing a finger in Sam’s face. Sam slapped it away and Damien swung at him.

Sam grabbed his hand, twisting it at the wrist and Damien dropped back in the booth, rubbing his wrist.

Mad didn’t begin to cover the emotion Alexandria saw on Sam’s face. His eyes blazed with anger. When the football player got up in defense of Damien, a mere look from Sam had him shrinking in his seat.

She remained seated as a dance mix of Eddie Grant’s song
Electric Avenue
pounded through the speakers, and the crowd erupted with a scream.

“Come,” Sam called, his hands beckoning her forward. “Either you walk or I carry you, Princess, your choice.”

He meant every word. They all knew it. Damien stood up allowing Alexandria to slide out of the booth like an obedient child. As they were walking away from the table heading down the stairs, she saw a white flash and knew it wasn’t any of the lights from the dance floor. She knew the difference and wanted to warn him.

“Sam?”

“You’re not allowed to speak right now.” Sam’s eyes traveled across the dance floor. He pulled her against his body and she felt the impression of his gun at her side. “Stay close to me.”

He took off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders. Pushing his way through the crowd, they headed to the rear entrance of the club down a narrow hallway, past the washrooms. The smell of marijuana floated through the air followed by laughter.

The man that was stationed at the backdoor Alexandria had seen at the front entrance earlier. He yelled at them, “Hurry up. You took Baba’s knee out from under him and he’s gunning for you.”

Sam pulled her into a sprint. When he reached the man, Sam took something from his pocket and pressed it into the man’s hand. The man looked into his hands and smiled. His smile revealed two rows of gold teeth.

“The guy, red hair with a flat top, with the camera,” Sam said. “Get your hands on the pictures he took tonight and there’s five hundred dollars in it for you.”

Gold teeth looked at Alexandria and she saw dollar signs in his eyes.

“Make it a thousand you got yourself a deal.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed. Alexandria thought for sure he would reach over and snap the man’s neck. Instead, in a deadly calm voice that had her wishing she was anywhere but where she was tonight, Sam said, “Are you trying to shake me down?”

“Easy man. Just trying to make a living.” He looked at Alexandria and smiled in appreciation. “She’s obviously worth it, isn’t she?”

“Get the pictures.” Sam handed him a card.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“You can reach me at that number.” Sam tapped the card. “Let’s go.” He pushed the door open and took Alexandria’s hand, pulling her behind him. “I’m about a block away.” He glanced down at her black stilettos and back at her, shaking his head. “Can you walk in those?”

The answer to his question was, no. Not a whole block, but she wasn’t going to voice it. Then Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, came to mind in the movie
Romancing the Stone
where Michael’s character had used a machete to chop off Kathleen’s heels so she could keep up with him in the jungle.

That was probably a little farfetched in her case, but since the vain was still pulsing at the base of his neck and given the state of their situation, she would suffer the discomfort in silence. At the moment she wanted to talk to the woman who coined the phrase ‘fashion knows no pain’. No. That had to be a man.

They got out onto the sidewalk and she had to run to keep up with him as the straps of her shoes bit painfully into her flesh. She let out a breath of relief when she finally caught a glimpse of the Land Rover. He opened her door and when she got in he slammed it. He walked around to the driver side, shoved the key in the ignition and sped away from the curb without a word.

The drive back to the condo was in silence. When he got inside he threw the keys on the kitchen counter and headed for his room.

“Sam, I’m—”

“Go to bed!”

•  •  •

Sam slammed his bedroom door, leaning against it. He tore off his T-shirt, threw it on the bed and paced the room like a caged animal. From the white duvet to the pretty heart shaped pillows that adorned the bed; everywhere he looked he saw Alexandria’s face smiling at him in that dress. The dress she’d gotten all dolled up in to meet pretty boy Damien Walker.

Matt had told him about her ex. From the description Matt had given him he’d recognized the man right away. The slime didn’t deserve her or love her for that matter. How could he have chosen Prescott’s money over Alexandria? She knew what he’d done and still snuck out to meet him dressed like… Anger and jealousy tore him up. Desire consumed.

He grabbed the knob, yanked opened the door and marched into her bedroom. Alexandria was sitting on the bed with her head in her hands but jumped to her feet when he barged into her room, like a man possessed. She stood up, back straight, ready for the next round. Only this time, they were not going to match words, he wanted more. He wasn’t about to walk away from her. Not this time.