“Wrong.” Lucien punctuated this with another punch that clipped the man’s jaw and quickly stepped back. “She is my concern.”
The man shook his head and gingerly touched the spot. “You’re not half bad for a runt, but you’ve wasted enough of my time.”
Lucien’s eyes went wide as the man advanced on him. He had clearly just been toying with him. Lucien backed up a couple of steps before the man landed a solid punch to the gut that brought him to his knees.
“Alex,” he called out again, far weaker than before. The man then hit him square in the jaw and Lucien saw stars. He fell heavily onto the carpet and blinked. After a moment he tried to push himself up.
“Stay down, boyo,” the man said before delivering a swift kick to his side.
Lucien coughed as a fierce pain bloomed across his middle.
“Stop fighting it or I’ll kick you again,” he growled.
But Lucien wouldn’t give up. Not while Alex was in danger. Hewould push through the pain for as long as he could. Just as Lucien managed to roll onto his back, someone shouted at them from down the hall.
“Get away from him.”
Slowly, he turned his head just in time to see Alex marching toward them with a dark look on her face and something in her hand. Like some avenging queen. Lucien smiled weakly at the thought. She had come to save him. Then everything went black.
Alex had forgotten about the pistol in her desk. When she first started staying late, her parents had practically forced the weapon on her. She refused right up until they made it a condition of her employment, so she grudgingly learned how to use it from a retired army friend of her father’s. Then she separated the bullets from the pistol and safely locked it all away in her drawer. Until she heard Lucien shouting her name.
Alex would have come sooner, but her hands were shaking as she loaded the gun and it took a few tries. But as soon as she set eyes on Lucien laid out on the carpet, his face twisted with pain, a strange kind of calm took hold of her.
She raised her arm and pointed the pistol at the large, ugly man standing beside Lucien’s crumpled form. “I told you to get away from him,” she said coolly.
The man puffed out his sizable chest and looked her square in the eye, but Alex didn’t even blink. She had absolutely no qualms about shooting this great brute, and as she cocked the pistol, he seemed to realize that.
Rather than challenge her, he bolted down the stairs. Alex wasmomentarily stunned. “Thatcoward.” She had half a mind to run after him if not for Lucien.
Alex rushed over and knelt beside him. She gently placed her palms on either side of his battered face. His cheek and lips were already starting to swell. “Lucien, look at me.”
He groaned and opened his eyes. It wasn’t ideal, but at least he was awake. “Oh, you great fool.Lookat you,” she chided.
Lucien gave her a bloody-lipped smile. Then he mumbled something that sounded like “My heroine.” Alex’s heart lurched but now was not the time to indulge in maudlin emotions. He needed medical attention immediately.
“Wait here. I’m going to call for help.”
Lucien mumbled something in the affirmative and tried to nod before closing his eyes once more.
Alex hurried over to the telephone booth behind the main reception desk and demanded the operator send the police and a doctor. Then she returned to Lucien’s side and cradled his head in her lap. She began to brush her fingers lightly through his hair and he nestled even deeper against her.
“What were you even doing here?” she whispered, not expecting an answer.
But his eyes slitted open for a moment. “To see you,” he murmured. “I came to see you.”
Alex let out a sigh as guilt filled her chest. Guilt mixed with anger. She hadn’t listened to Inspector Holland’s warning and now her stubbornness had hurt Lucien. For that, Alex could not forgive herself.
“I’m so sorry.” As she bowed her head, a tear slipped down her nose and landed on Lucien’s bruised cheek.
“Please, don’t cry,” he said as she wiped it away. Then he grasped her hand. “It’s rather terrifying.”
Alex laughed despite herself. “Is it, now?”
“Unnatural, really,” Lucien continued as his eyes fluttered closed once more. “Like seeing a dog riding a bicycle.”
Alex laughed louder through her tears. “Or the queen in her dressing gown.”
But Lucien didn’t respond to her quip. His chest rose and fell, though his breathing was labored. Once Alex was sure he was unconscious, she cried even harder.
