Page 34 of Edge of Secrets

He backed away, gun wavering, swinging wildly. The gathered onlookers screamed, scattering like startled pigeons.

“You don’t need to shoot,” I said. “Who hired you?”

“Some stupid fuck. Shut up. Don’t talk to me.” He backed up farther. “Back off. Everybody! Get the fuck back!”

Then, suddenly, he turned and ran, his legs a blur, like a double-jointed cheetah.

Nell sagged down onto the sidewalk. I dropped to my knees to break her fall, held her up. Fished my cell phone from my pocket—only to realize my fingers were shaking too much to enter the number.

Damn. I must be getting soft. Going civilian.

It took me a few tries, but I finally got Gant’s phone ringing. At that moment, his car pulled up, and he unfolded his long, lanky self from the seat, holding up his ringing phone.

I stopped the call and dropped my phone back into my pocket. The asshole was long gone, but I relayed the info with weary precision.

“Three of them. One’s rabbiting down Great Jones Street. Blond, six-one, jeans, gray sweatshirt, goatee. Armed and dangerous. Glock 9mm. The other two are long gone. One was a Black man, tall, thin. He ran, too. The car was a silver Jeep Cherokee. Busted front passenger window. Didn’t get the plates. Didn’t get a look at the driver.”

Gant relayed the info into his radio. He was a square-jawed guy with cold blue eyes and sandy hair, buzzed off short. He looked down at Nell, still curled up on the sidewalk. “This is her?”

I pulled Nell to her feet. “Nell, this is Lt. John Gant of the NYPD.”

She swallowed, coughed. “Ah, hi. Good to meet you.”

“You okay, miss?” Gant asked.

“Been better,” she croaked. “I’ll be fine. I think.”

“Did he hit you? Hurt you?”

“She broke his nose,” I announced in ringing tones. “She broke that fucking son of a bitch’s nose. Saved my ass doing it, too.”

Gant blinked at the fierce pride in my voice. “Uh, wow. Hot damn. How’d you do that, miss?”

Nell held up the plastic shopping bag and fished out a massive volume that she could barely hold in one hand. “The complete works of E. E. Cummings,” she said. “Just bought it.” She started to giggle. “I had no idea what a good deal I was getting.”

Her face crumpled, and she covered her face with her hands. I stared at her in helpless dismay. Fuck. Again. Gant gave me the hairy eyeball and jerked his hand toward Nell, snapping his fingers sharply.

Hug her! Asshole! he mouthed.

I flipped him the bird behind Nell’s back and pressed my nose into her perfumed curls again, inhaling her scent.

The next couple of hours were long and grueling at the police station. She spent a long time on my cell phone, pouring her heart out to her sisters, first one, then the other. Hashing the whole thing out and filing the report took forever, and after a while, I started eyeing Nell’s pale, stiff face and staring eyes. I wondered uneasily if I’d been stupid not to insist that she get medically evaluated. She’d told everyone she was fine—maybe a bruise or two at most—but I hadn’t considered psychological damage. I was as tough as boot leather myself. I was used to rough treatment. I’d forgotten what a tooth-rattling, shocking insult that violence was to normal human beings.

Her hand was icy cold. I rubbed it between mine. “I need to get some food and a good stiff drink into her,” I said to Gant. “Can we finish this up another time?”

Gant studied Nell with narrowed eyes. “Miss D’Onofrio, do you have someone to stay with tonight?” He shot me a keen glance. “A family member, maybe?”

She looked lost, chewing on her soft, cushy lower lip. “Ah ...”

“She’s staying with me,” I blurted.

Nell blinked at me, startled. I stared back, willing her not to fight it. It seemed so obvious to me, so inevitable.

She let out a long breath in short, jerky segments and nodded. “I’ll stay with him,” she murmured to Gant.

A jolt of hot triumph shook me. Urgency, too. I wanted to get her home now. Trap her in my lair. Before she changed her mind.

I made sure the car service was waiting before I let her leave the building. There could be snipers after her, for all I knew. I bundled her hastily into the car and gave the driver my address.

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