Page 100 of The Perfect Stranger

Chapter Thirty-Four

The wind blew her long hair, and she pulled her jacket tighter around her neck fighting the arctic frost freezing the city. She moved with the elegant grace I remembered, and her beauty was still blatantly obvious to everyone but her. The last time I saw her, she had been naked beneath me. I watched as she weaved in and out of the New York crowded streets, my vantage point four floors above street level.

She paused, making people with places to go abruptly walk around her. Her head dropped slightly before she slowly turned, wisps of dark chocolate hair caressing her delicate features. She looked for the eyes watching her. Scanning the street, her beautiful brows creased together as she came up empty, wishing for answers.

She could feel me. I wanted to feel her.

She was perfection. I was a man with a kill list.

She deserved a knight. I had been her devil.

She didn’t need someone like me in her life.

But I couldn’t stop myself.

She was my kryptonite.

Nina Cross was my destruction as much I was hers.

It was ten in the morning. The streets were recovering from peak hour traffic, and Nina had just wrapped up a meeting with other agents in a small restaurant down the street and was making her way back to the station. I was keen to get to her, to pull her into my arms and hold her close, but I was too late. A convoy of black vehicles, all of the same make except one—a van, traveling close. The driver of the second car had his window down, a heavily tattooed arm resting on the door. A cigarette dangled from his lips, his attention focused on one thing. Nina.

I looked ahead. She glanced from side to side making a dash across the road before the green hand signal turned red. She wasn’t paying attention to what was lurking behind her. I picked up pace, dodging pedestrians who wouldn’t move or who were too distracted to see me. Nina was at least eighty yards away, too far for me to do anything. I had no guns. Still a national target, I couldn’t risk getting caught only for them to find me loaded with weapons. All I had was my knife.

I took off at a sprint as the cars edged closer to Nina. A class of school kids on excursion blocked the pedestrian causing me to come to a skidding halt before navigating around them. I took the turn too close, my shoulder colliding with that of the female teacher. Her male companion yelled after, but it fell on deaf ears. Nina had disappeared from view.

I slowed, looking frantically for her, ducking in and out of oncoming traffic.

“Nina!” I yelled, causing those in proximity to become wary of my outburst. And then I saw her hair, blowing in the cold breeze as she emerged from the crowd of people. She was close. But the car was closer.

“Nina!” She stopped and turned, confused, searching for whoever bellowed her name in the street.

She took a step back ready to start her journey again. And then she caught my eye and everything around her became a blur. She smiled, but at the same time she frowned, gauging my urgency and fear.

“Nina, run!” I yelled, knocking people out of the way to get to her.

The black cars pulled in, cutting into the sidewalk. Vehicles around them blew their horns as they brought the line of traffic to a halt.

“Run!”

A gunshot blasting into the air brought everyone to their knees and scrambling for cover. Frightened screams followed causing the street to go into chaos.

Nina ducked, ready to make a run for it, but the men were already on foot and advancing.

“No, no, no, no! Nina!” I bellowed, struggling to be heard. I needed to reach her. The tattooed man approached from behind hooking an arm around her waist, encasing her arms, while his hand clasped over her mouth. She struggled against his grip, her legs flailing as he pulled her off the ground. The man was two and half times her size, easily carrying her across to the waiting car. He threw her in, recklessly and without a care before crawling in after her.

I was jumping over people who had ducked for cover, but as I edged closer the vehicles reversed off the sidewalk and screeched down the street.

I searched the road for a cab, yet the closest was a block away and stuck behind traffic at the lights. People started to slowly rise, dusting their legs off and looking nervously around at their surroundings. Two men came jogging down the other side of the street from the direction of the restaurant. They wore suits and flashed their badges at those eager to tell the story of what had happened.

Two women in the forties, tourists, recounted the events, arms pointing in every which direction until they landed on me. Their accusatory faces met mine, knowing that somehow I was involved. The agents watched me as I started to back away, knocking into those keen to get off this particular street. One narrowed his eyes, recognition registering. He knew my face and couldn’t quite place me. While the other took notes from the women. The agent dialed a number and held the cell to his ear.

I had to get out of there.

If I was apprehended, I stood no chance of seeing Nina alive again. They would action too slow, and by the time they found her, she would be dead. I made to run, taking a corner down 23rd while dialing Zero’s number.

“Yo,” he answered, voice hushed. He still had his own charade to maintain.

“I need a trace on a number plate.”

“Go for it.”

I rattled off the number of the car that had driven off with Nina. Before I could thank him, a brutal blow to the head knocked me forward, the cell smashing to the ground. The pavement became a haze, the buildings surrounding me swaying from side to side as I fell heavily to the ground. Blood dripped down my temple and splattered onto the concrete. A pair of boots came to a stop in front of me, before I felt myself fall for the last time, the world turning black.

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