AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Thirteen
Cole
The cool metal of the gun pressed against the base of my skull froze me in place, my own weapon aimed right at Giorgio’s grinning face.
“Welcome, Mr. Porter. I’ve been expecting you.” Rising from his chair, Giorgio rounded the desk, obviously unaffected by the prospect of his imminent death.
“Do you really think I won’t pull this trigger and end both of us, Bianchi?”
“Oh, I have no doubt you would.” With his slimy smile still in place, he took another leisurely step toward me. “But then you would never learn all the wonderful secrets I’ve just been dying to tell you.”
Do it! End this. Now!
Despite the voice in my head urging me to get on with it, I couldn’t help the niggle of curiosity his words inspired. “What secrets?”
“Well, let’s start with the pretty little maid you’ve been consorting with. Did you really think you could seduce a member of my own staff without me knowing, Porter?”
Red colored the corners of my vision. “You leave her out of this.”
“I’m afraid she’s already in it. Deeper than even you realize.”
Before I could ask him what the fuck he was talking about, a crash echoed in the hall. The pressure of the gun against my head eased. Taking advantage of the momentary chaos, I ducked, pulling the trigger, not bothering to see if I’d hit my mark. Spinning around, I rammed my shoulder into the chest of the man behind me. We stumbled together out into the hallway, and I jerked my head up, hearing a loud crunch as my skull crashed into his chin.
Head throbbing, my vision going dark at the edges, I raised the gun I’d managed to hang onto to his chest and fired twice. Down he went, crumpling to the floor as though he’d been made of nothing more than paper.
No sooner had I pulled the trigger than the alarms began howling. Behind me, Giorgio was shouting orders in his native tongue, and despite not being fluent in Italian, I had no doubt he was ordering my death.
“This way!” a familiar voice hissed in my ear a moment before her hand found mine, tugging me over toward an alcove almost entirely hidden in shadows. “We can get out this way, they won’t be looking for you here.”
With a press of her fingers, a panel in the wall slid open, revealing a long, narrow passageway. I followed her through, my only thought at the moment of getting us to safety.
Adele led the way through the hallway, to a small room where another woman in a matching uniform stood frozen, watching us with wide eyes. Before I could decide whether to pull the trigger for a second time that night, Adele was speaking to her in frantic, whispered French. The other woman looked from her to me, then back again before nodding her agreement and scurrying from the room. With another tug on my hand, Adele guided us through a side door and out into the cool night air.
“Chloé will tell them she spotted us on the north side of the house, to draw the guards away from us. Where are you parked?”
“Across the street from the front of the house. But if we go straight across, we’ll be spotted.”
Gnawing at her bottom lip, she appeared to consider our predicament. “There is another, smaller gate along this wall. If we go out that way, we can follow this street up a few blocks, then cut across and back down for the car. Assuming they have not discovered it by then.”
“For your sake, it might be best if they’ve slashed the tires,” I growled, once again following her lead as we hugged the outer wall on our way to the gate.
“Why would you say such a thing?” she shot back in a fierce whisper.
“Because the second we get back to the apartment, I intend to get some answers. And then you have one hell of an appointment with the business end of Daddy’s belt.”
Adele
My breath caught in my throat at the threat, but I tried to ignore my body’s immediate, instinctive reaction. Just then, all that mattered was getting us to safety. Once I knew he was out of harm’s way, I didn’t care what he did.
Quiet as church mice, we hurried along the south wall to the gate. There was no fingerprint required to leave, only my code. By the time anyone bothered to review the logs to see who had left via this entrance, we would be long gone.
Once we were out on the street, Cole pulled me to a stop. Shrugging off his jacket, he wrapped it around my shoulders. With our size differences, the jacket was large enough to hide most of my uniform from view.
Holding his jacket tight around me, I leaned into him, allowing a small smile to curve my lips as we fell into a more leisurely stroll. To the untrained eye, we were merely a couple in love, enjoying the romance of Paris under a starlit sky.
My heart seemed intent on hammering its way out of my chest the entire long walk to his car. Especially when he would lean down every few steps and whisper in my ear. The gesture added to the visage of two lovers out for a stroll, but his words were anything but romantic.
“Do you know what happens to naughty little girls who lie to their Daddies, Adele?”
