Detect Me (10 page)

Mark drew his index finger around the board in a spiral that followed the data points on Nikki’s map. He tapped the center point decisively, just the way she’d done.

“I think you’re a woman after my own heart,” he pronounced.

You have no idea how true that is
, Nikki thought, and cursed herself for a fool.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Nikki didn’t want to waste any time. She wanted Ghost caught yesterday, and Mark didn’t seem to have anywhere else to be. So she shrugged back into her jacket and they headed out together in the direction of the largest loop of the spiral.

“I think your secretary hates me,” she whispered as they exited through the big glass double doors at the front of the office, which still felt too fancy for her to use.

Mark looked amused for some reason. “I think you’re right,” he whispered back, and laughed when Nikki bumped him with her shoulder.

She hadn’t really been sure what they’d do once they got to the places she’d marked on the map, but thankfully that was where Mark came in. He seemed right in his element as a detective, investigating buildings without seeming to look at them and casually interrogating renters so they didn’t even notice he was pumping them for information.

“The neighborhood has really gone downhill lately,” Mark said sorrowfully to an elderly woman carrying groceries. She clucked and nodded in complete agreement while Nikki hovered in the background and tried to turn invisible.

“You’re telling me, young man,” the woman said. She gave a surprised exclamation of gratitude when Mark took the bags out of her hands and carried them to her door. “They don’t make gentlemen like you these days, I can tell you that. Or ladies, for that matter. Why, just the other day this, hussy near knocked me over bustling down the hall with a huge package in her hands! I’m sure it was heavy, but there’s no need for rudeness even so. And the get-up she wore! All black and leather. I tell you what.”

A tiny chill ran up Nikki’s spine. She and Mark glanced at each other.

“Really?” Mark asked. His voice was still airy, even careless, but Nikki could just make out the underlying thread of tension. “That sounds like quite the outfit. What did she look like? Perhaps she’s my type!”

The old lady giggled and opened her door, shaking her head. “Oh, that cropped sort of hairstyle the young ladies these days seem to go for. I can’t understand it myself. In my day, we wore our hair long.”

Keeping any disappointment from his voice Mark wished the woman a good day and set her groceries inside the door. When he came back out, Nikki gave him a wan smile. It had been so easy to get excited, to believe that their hunt was over already. Fear wore a person down fast. She had only been aware of the danger for a couple of days and already she desperately wanted to feel safe again.

Mark studied Nikki for a moment and then reached out. He squeezed her shoulder carefully with one large hand.

“These things take time,” he said. He gave her one of those tiny smiles that Nikki was coming to realize were more genuine than the wide grins he cajoled the public with. “We’ll find her. But half of detecting is having the patience to wait around until the right person spills their guts.”

Nikki sighed, though by the time Mark gave her shoulder another squeeze and pulled his hand back, she felt warmer.

“You never see Sherlock Holmes waiting around,” she quipped, and Mark chuckled.

They spent the rest of the day canvassing neighborhood after neighborhood until Mark’s voice started to rasp and Nikki’s feet felt blistered. The sun was starting to go down, and in the dusky light she hit her toe against a bump in the sidewalk and tripped.

She put out her hands in resignation. Over the past couple years living alone off-and-on, she’d gotten used to this sort of thing. She’d always been clumsy.

An arm swung around her waist and Nikki was left blinking at Mark’s concerned face as he yanked her in tight and peered down at her.

“Alright?” he asked when she failed to move away or thank him.

She was close enough that she could smell his breath, mints and street vendor coffee. Nikki’s face heated and she stumbled back.

“Yes, fine, sorry. I’m just, um…” she didn’t want to say she was tired. They had a mission, and dammit, she wasn’t going to wimp out on it. “I’m just… tired.”

Good going, Nikki.

Mark’s face clouded over with concern. She could’ve kicked herself. She wanted to be an asset, or at least not a hindrance. At this rate she was going to get herself kicked off of this unofficial investigation.

“I’m sorry,” Mark said, sounding like he meant it. That was almost worse. “I didn’t mean to run you into the ground. I forget that not everybody… Uh, I can get a little tunnel-vision, I’m told.”

“No, no, I want to keep going,” Nikki said desperately, trying not to shift her feet, which had started to feel like they were either burning or about to fall off. Maybe both. “Really, I do.”

Mark settled back on his heels. His gaze focused wholly on her for the first time since they’d left his office. Nikki tried not to feel too happy about it, but the knowledge fizzed in her chest and buoyed her up. She’d wondered if she’d lost the ability to command his attention, and was horribly relieved to realize she hadn’t.

“I’m sure you do. But you need to eat, and you need to rest,” Mark said firmly. He took her elbow, led them over to the curb, and hailed a cab with effortless precision that made Nikki jealous. She wondered if it was a native New Yorker thing. It sure as heck wasn’t a feminine wiles thing, because last time she’d tried showing a little leg, she’d gotten covered head to toe in a wave of muddy water from a cab that had skidded too close… but not stopped.

Mark gave out Nikki’s address without a single hesitation. It reminded Nikki just how smart he was - she’d never actually told him her exact address, but he knew the city well enough that he was able to put two and two together, not to mention able to remember her street and building number off the top of his head.

Another thing that he had over her - Nikki considered it a good day when she could remember her address without double-checking it on her phone - but his intelligence felt comforting rather than intimidating. Mark had things under control. Nikki felt waves of sleep washing over her, and rather than fighting it, she allowed her head to loll against Mark’s shoulder (just a bit, he probably wouldn’t even notice) and drifted.

Before they’d driven more than three blocks Nikki was out like a light on top of Mark. She’d started off gently leaning against his shoulder and then her body had curved around the side of his, nuzzling her face into the side of his neck. Nikki snuffled in her sleep and a lock of hair drifted against his face.

Tendrils of something soft and unfamiliar unfurled in his chest. Mark gingerly reached his free arm around to pull Nikki just a little closer. So she wouldn’t wake up when the cab jolted, he told himself. He glanced up and caught the taxi driver giving him a knowing smile in the rearview mirror. Confusion and warmth and guilt tumbled over inside of him and Mark found himself smiling tentatively back. His hand settled against Nikki’s side and he tugged her in close.

“Almost here, mate,” the cabbie said in a low voice. Mark almost wanted to tell the man to keep circling, but Nikki needed a real bed. He nudged her.

“Whazzit?” She yawned and pushed herself up haphazardly, rubbing at her eyes. Mark had seen that more than once now; it seemed to be what she did whenever she woke up. He could get used to that.

No, actually, he couldn’t. Mark felt grim reality settle over him and crush the fragile happiness of a few moments ago. Even if he wasn’t a walking disaster, he was putting Nikki in danger just by being close to her. He never should have involved her in the first place - but how could he have guessed things would go this far? How could he have known that in just a few short days, watching Nikki blink sleepily at him would make him feel this way?

“Come on,” told Nikki shortly. “We’re at your apartment. Time for bed.”

He paid the taxi driver, ignored the frown the man directed at Mark’s cold voice, and followed Nikki as she stumbled to the door and buzzed herself in.

“Oh look,” she said happily, wandering down the hall, clearly still in a sleep fog. “The elevator’s working again.”

Mark felt himself tense up. Of course the darn thing was waiting on their level and the doors slid open the instant Nikki pushed the button. She stepped in without hesitation and then, realizing Mark hadn’t followed, peered back out at him.

“Something wrong?” she asked, the muzziness starting to clear from her voice.

There were a hundred things he could have said. Mark could have told her that the elevator was still unlikely to be safe after its maintenance, or that it was unwise to get themselves into any tight spots with Ghost lurking around corners. He could have edged around the truth and told Nikki that he hated confined spaces.

He could have just turned and walked away from the elevator, the apartment, and Nikki, and never come back. There was nothing tying him to this place, not really.

As she waited patiently Nikki shifted her weight from foot to foot and winced.

Mark bit down on the inside of his cheek and set his jaw. Nikki’s feet hurt. He could take the elevator.

He strode inside, trying not to think too hard, and gestured for Nikki to hit the button. She did and the doors slid slowly shut while Nikki’s gaze burned against the side of his face.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly. Her voice was something good to focus on; something to distract Mark from the walls closing in and the panic threatening to claw its way out of his chest. It was immediately apparent that this had been a Bad Idea.

“I don’t… There was this thing. That happened. I don’t really care for… tight spaces, these days,” he said. It felt like he was fighting for air, but the words didn’t sound as strangled as he’d thought they would. The knowledge that he still had some self-control calmed him a little.

Mark was distantly aware that his hands were clenched so tightly into fists that his fingernails were cutting half-moons into his palms. He didn’t care. He gritted his teeth and squeezed his hands harder, anything for a distraction.

“Hey.” Fingertips touched his cheek and Mark flinched away in surprise.

Nikki drew back, looking hurt. But before he could apologize or say anything she narrowed her eyes, reached up again, and laid her hands flat on either side of his face.

“Focus on me,” she said, sounding not exactly cheerful but… calm. Confident. Her bright green eyes filled his field of vision. “Think about something else.”

“Like what?” Mark managed to say.

Nikki bit down on one full, pink lip. She opened her mouth to speak and then realized where his attention had turned. She licked her lips and the very edges of her mouth turned up.

“How about this?” she said.

Mark saw it coming, of course he did, but he still couldn’t quite believe it when she stretched up on her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss against his mouth. Nikki was warm and smelled like something sweet. His eyes slid shut automatically at the feeling of her plush lips pressed up against his.

Without thinking he put his arm around her and slid his hand down to the small of her back, pulling her close. Nikki made a noise against his mouth that was muffled as the kiss deepened. Her hands tightened on his face so that she was angling his face and pulling him down toward her, too. Mark traced his tongue around the outside of her lips and Nikki parted them.

The elevator dinged and jolted to a halt.

Nikki was still standing on her toes and the sudden sway nearly knocked her off her feet. She squealed and Mark grabbed her close. She clutched at his waist, safely upright but with her face now pressed against his chest. Mark wanted to curse, or maybe kick something.

She pushed away from him a little bit and peered up, an attractive brush coloring her cheeks. “Um, maybe we should…” she nodded toward the doors.

“Oh! Right. Right, let’s…” Mark gestured for her to go first and Nikki went, though she raised an eyebrow at him with a hint of exasperation. He appreciated the concern, but he appreciated the fact that she let him have his pride even more.

He stepped out smartly as the elevator doors began to slide closed, but he no longer felt the smothering sense of panic that had snuck over him before. His mind had other things to focus on, just like Nikki had planned.

Mark was either awed by her ingenuity or about to be very, very irritated. The answer mostly depended on how serious she had been about that kiss.

She hurried down the hall to her door, wobbling a bit on her sore feet, and though Mark’s eyes were trained firmly on the curve of her butt in the tight jeans she was wearing, sense slowly began to return to him.

Just because she’d kissed him didn’t make this any more doable than it had been five minutes ago. Nikki was beautiful and smart and determined, and she made him feel more alive than he’d felt in years – more alive, happier, than he’d ever felt, in fact. But he was still damaged goods.

Even if the two of them somehow managed to get rid of the threat presented by Ghost, the fact was that Nikki deserved someone better. Someone who wouldn’t drag her down; who could let her keep seeing the world the way she saw it now, as something always bright and clean and beautiful.