Detect Me (19 page)

Ghost was hunched over next to the easel that
Starry Night
was propped up on. She was looking frantically between the police officers, who had come alive again and were pointing their weapons at her, and Mark. Her face was a horrible blur of rage and panic. In that moment she looked almost inhuman; desperate and feral.

“You’re done.” Nikki felt Mark’s words rumble against her skin, still pressed tight against him as she was. “Put the knife down.”

He sounded relieved, but for some reason Nikki felt suddenly anxious again. She saw Mark’s relief reflection in the police officers inching closer; their shoulders were slumped down in relief and their weapons were drawn, but lowered.

She wanted to say something, to tell them to be careful, but Nikki bit her tongue, feeling foolish. After all, this was their job, not hers. Why should she trust her instincts over theirs? Her instincts had never been any good.

The cop closest to Ghost cleared his throat. The thief swung her head around to stare at him like a hunted animal.

“Everything’s going to be okay if you put down the weapon,” the man said, clearly attempting to imitate Julian’s calm way of speaking. His cadence was slight jarred by nerves, though. Nikki glanced over at Julian - under his brown skin, the man was looking pale. They needed to get him medical attention now. She glanced up at Mark and saw him looking over with worry apparent on his face. He drew his hand away from her side and reached into his pocket, going for his phone.

Ghost’s eyes flashed.

She flipped the long blade in her hand over and slashed a bright red line up the cop’s arm. He screamed and dropped his gun.

The officer next to him went for her gun, but by that point Ghost had sprinted over to Mark and knocked him to the ground. With one hand still in his pocket Mark was an easy target; he couldn’t balance himself fast enough to avoid falling. Nikki couldn’t stop it from happening. All she could do was watch in horror as Mark’s body jerked away from her. Their eyes met for a second and then he closed them on a wince as his back hit the ground hard with Ghost landing right on top of him.

There was a huge bang as the gun in Mark’s hand went off. Everyone, even Ghost, froze and looked around the room wildly.

With her artist’s eyes Nikki glanced around the room and immediately saw the new bullet hole lodged in the thick door. She silently thanked anyone who happened to be listening that the bullet hadn’t ricocheted.

She whipped her head back around. Mark was paying more attention to her than to the gun, which was probably unwise but warmed her. Nikki swallowed.

She could do this. She could. Not all her ideas were wrong. A second ago she’d ignored her instincts, and look how that had gone.

Nikki subtly flexed her fingers and stared at Mark, trusting that he wouldn’t go along with her plan if it was a bad one. Mark would trust her, but not blindly. They could get out of this, together.

His light eyes widened and Nikki saw him hesitate. Her heart shrank.

Ghost must have found the new bullet hole in the wall, because she turned her head back to focus on Mark.

Mark’s arm shot out and he sent the gun skittering toward Nikki, ignoring Ghost’s shriek of rage. His wide, agonized eyes followed the gun’s progress. Nikki’s heart beat fast; she knew it could have gone off again. But it didn’t. It skidded to halt in front of her shoes and lay there innocently.

“I’ll kill you!” Ghost shrieked. Somewhere in the fray she’d lost her knife, but it still looked terrifying when she grabbed Mark by the collar and raised her fist.

Nikki seized the gun and swung it up to point it dead between Ghost’s eyes.

For a moment Ghost looked startled, and then her surprise faded into amusement. She gave Nikki a slick smile.

“So you haven’t gotten the lecture from Mark yet, I assume,” Ghost said. She slid a hand around behind her. Nikki watched helplessly as the light caught on the long barrel of the police officer’s dropped weapon as Ghost drew it out and pointed it at Nikki’s head. “I know it. I know everything about him.”

Nikki’s heart beat a tattoo in her chest, slamming into her ribs so hard that it hurt. The two of them stared down the barrels of each other’s guns.

“I’ve heard his opinion,” Nikki said quietly. “And I’m the same. I don’t point a gun unless I’m willing to use it.”

The corner of Ghost’s mouth drew up in a sneer. “How sweet. You think that you even qualify to have an opinion on grown-up business.”

In answer, Nikki cocked the gun.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ghost’s eyes widened. For a second Nikki did nothing but breathe and watch her.

Then in a brown blur of coat Mark swung himself up and grabbed Ghost by the wrist. He slammed her arm into the ground, eliciting a cry from her, and she dropped the weapon. Very efficiently Mark shoved the gun into the waist of his jeans and flipped Ghost onto her front. He produced handcuffs from the pocket that Nikki had assumed his cell phone lived in.

“I’d say this is a citizen’s arrest,” Mark said grimly, shoving Ghost down into the floor as she struggled, “but the cops are right there. And I’m pretty sure they want to get in on this action too.”

“That’s right,” the female cop stepped forward as soon as the cuffs were clicked shut and took hold of Ghost. She nodded to Mark and glanced over at Nikki with a skeptical eyebrow raise. “And happy as I am that nobody seems to have died in the attack, I’d prefer we keep it that way. Guns out of the hands of the traumatized civilians, please.”

Nikki made a face, but handed the gun over happily enough to the male officer, who was bleeding a lot and rather pale, but very game. She kind of wanted to give the man a hug, but that would probably hurt his dignity.

After taking a minute to ensure that the officer had a firm handle on Ghost, who was flailing and shrieking rather half-heartedly, Mark turned away. He walked over and brushed Nikki’s shoulder with an apologetic look and then jogged across the room to the big police officer huddled on the ground. The men around him already had their phones out and were clearly yelling at an ambulance to get here immediately, but Mark hunkered down next to his friend and spoke to him in low tones. The man gave him a wan, tired smile and nod.

The sound of a hiss, almost as lizard-like as Charm’s, caught Nikki’s attention and made her look around.

“You won’t just get away with this,” Ghost snarled at her from the ground. Even with her body pinned down and the thief having to crane her head away from the floor to look at Nikki, the woman was unnerving. “I’ll find you. I came back for Mark; what makes you think I won’t come back for you? I’ll…”

The police officer gave Ghost a sharp yank on the handcuffs and started briskly patting her down. “Right, that’s quite enough out of you,” she said. When she’d removed two small knives and something that looked horribly like a poison dart, the cop jerked Ghost to her feet and gave Nikki a reassuring smile.

“It’s alright. But you might want to sit down before you fall down.”

Nikki blinked. “What?” she asked stupidly. Everything felt very heavy all of a sudden. She couldn’t…

“Hey!” Strong arms grabbed Nikki and held her up, and she realized that she’d collapsed. Well, would’ve collapsed, if Mark hadn’t swooped in to save her. “What’s this about, huh?” He moved in front of Nikki so she could see him and tilted her chin up. Mark was smiling at her. That was nice. And rare.

The police officer gave Mark an approving nod and marched Ghost over to the group of cops, who efficiently pulled out forms and started to read the thief her rights. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult an attorney…”

The words were familiar, etched into her head from too many years of crime shows on TV. Somehow Nikki didn’t think she’d be watching those anymore.

“I’m so lame,” Nikki said. She couldn’t come right out and say the words -
I was so scared
- but her teeth were starting to chatter. “You pulled the gun right out of her hands when she was on top of you. You didn’t even look scared.”

Mark grinned wryly, and she couldn’t understand it until he reached out and took both her hands in his. He clamped down gently, bleeding heat into her until Nikki realized that she was chilled to the bone.

“I was terrified,” he said quietly. When Nikki’s gaze snapped up to him, he tilted his head and met her eyes levelly. “Nikki, the gun was pointing at you. It could have gone off. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.”

“Why did you do it then?” Nikki whispered, somehow needing to know desperately. She started to feel sick with leftover horror and panic.

Mark removed one hand from hers and brought it up to Nikki’s cheek. She flinched and then cursed herself for it. Mark frowned worriedly. His hand hovered in the air next to her cheek and Nikki purposefully leaned her cheek into it, trying to make it as clear as possible that she wanted his touch.

His face cleared a little and Mark cleared his throat.

“How could I not? You were so brave. Those decisions you made in a split second… the way you trusted yourself to make the right call. It wasn’t enough for you to stand around helplessly and watch. After watching you, I couldn’t live with myself if I did any less.”

Nikki gave in to temptation and let herself melt against his side. He could reject her if he wanted; she didn’t even care anymore. Mark froze in surprise for a moment, but then his body relaxed and he put his arm around her, drawing her even closer. Nikki burrowed her face in the hollow of his throat, stretching up on tiptoe past the collar of his shirt to reach bare skin.

“I thought we weren’t going to live at all for a moment there. Several moments. Way too many, actually,” she mumbled against his throat.

Mark held her close with one hand and stroked the other over her hair. The shivers that wracked her body finally started to diminish. Nikki wasn’t entirely sure she wanted them gone, if this treatment was what they got her.

No, wait. That was wrong. She’d proven herself today, hadn’t she? If she was going to give her heart to someone, she was going to make darn sure that the person deserved it. That they wanted it; needed it.

She drew back a little, though when Mark’s hand fell away from her hair she grabbed it and tangled her fingers with his.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Ghost?” she asked. Mark looked shamefaced; he glanced down and opened his mouth to answer but she cut him off at the pass. “In the ways that mattered, I mean.”

He opened his mouth and Nikki felt like she was falling forward toward him. They just needed to do this, and then they could move on to whatever came next. Weeks of hard work, exhaustion, and fear, and still the only thing Nikki really wanted to was to stay next to Mark. Their words were so much further apart than their bodies; their legs and arms were crowded up close together like they’d known each other for years. In a very basic way she felt comfortable with Mark, even at this awkward moment.

Nikki angled her head up to listen and tried not to think about how she would live without this if she needed to.

Before Mark could speak, the door to the restoration room flew open and slammed into the wall. Mark jumped; Nikki screamed her head off and wasn’t even ashamed after. One of the cops air high-fived her from across the room when she bit down on it and snuck a peek around. Yeah, everyone heard that.

A team of paramedics rushed in and set to work hauling Julian onto a stretcher. Mark twitched like he wanted to rush over and help, but he didn’t. Nikki wasn’t sure if it was because of her or because he didn’t think he’d be welcome, but she was selfishly glad anyway. Right now she was barely upright.

Hot on the heels of the medics was another group of cops that surrounded Ghost and hauled her into the hallway.

“Come on,” Mark said. It took Nikki a minute to focus on his face. Wow, he was good-looking, even when he looked anxious. Did she not usually notice that so much? Or had she been trying not to notice it?

“You’re pretty,” she said, reaching up to skim the roughness of his five o’clock shadow with her fingertips.

Mark went wide-eyed and some of the tension eased from his face. He studied Nikki and his expression softened.

“You’re in shock,” he said.

He took Nikki’s hand and led her out through the maze of hallways until they erupted from the dark mustiness of the museum into the outdoors. The sun was still up, which felt… wrong. Everything about this felt wrong and off-balance. Nikki wouldn’t have been able to stay on her feet if it hadn’t been for Mark guiding her.

“I’ll be more used to this next time,” she said determinedly.

They had just stopped and slumped against an abandoned police cruiser, but at those words Mark jolted upright, his back ramrod straight, and full out stared at her.

Nikki braced herself for rejection. It was going to hurt, but she could take it, she was sure. She’d lived through so much these past few weeks that she’d never even imagined before. Surely she could deal with this.

Unexpectedly Mark’s whole face lit up in a sudden, brilliant smile, that same smile that had enchanted her the first time she met him.

“Really?” he said, sounding hopeful and confident and like the man she… well. In the privacy of her own head, she could probably give up the ghost and admit that she loved him. “Next time? You… you want there to be a next time?”