Page 20 of Hidden Raphael
"There is a murderer outside." He turned the Taser to face the ground and flipped it in his hand to offer her the handle. "I don't think you can shoot a gun."
"I can't." Her heart hammered in her chest. This wasn’t Zen or what her teachers ever taught her. But he had a point and she valued her neck. She let go of his hand and straightened the hem of her dress. "Okay. But do I have to wait until this afternoon to say my prayers over the graves you dug?"
His arms wrapped around her and her face pressed into the crook of his shoulder. He was her savior. Her lips tingled to kiss him. Without warning he jumped out of her embrace and she hugged the bitter coldness that remained. He pocketed the Taser, and her fingers now ached to hold it. She kept that to herself as he said, "Follow me."
Her heart had pounded in her chest near him, but the second he walked away, she became lightheaded. Without him next to her, she could think. He headed down an unfamiliar dark hall, and she wished she had remembered her candelabrum. How had she left that in her room? She sped up until she walked beside him. "Thank you for bringing me. Eileen and her husband, Ali, were so happy. I am happy they are resting together until justice can be done.”
Raphael's right eye ticked.
"Did you know them?"
"Why would you think that?" He avoided looking at her.
She clenched her hands, but told him the truth. "You refused to look at me and you held in your breath."
He turned and stared at her. She gazed into his succulent eyes, and her lips tingled to taste his full lips on hers. Without a word, he took her hand and offered a weak smile. "It gets darker the farther down the hall we go. Stay close."
He changed the topic. He had done that before. She opened her mouth to stay on point, but then she rolled her shoulders and let it go. If he brushed against her smooth skin with his calloused hands, she'd burn.
She inhaled the smell of old moss mixed with the masculine, woodsy smell of him. Time moved too fast. At last, Raphael pushed open a door at the end of a hall. "Roger likely took whatever he has on you to his camp,” he said. “Did you have anything that might identify you?"
"My passport." Kimberly stared into his intense eyes. Empathy stared back at her, and she sighed. "And maybe on my computer."
His lips thinned. "You had your computer?"
Why would that be a problem? She nodded and wished she had it with her now. "I intended to work when my trip ended."
He stared off again and not at her. "He'd have that in a safe place if he took it."
Her mother's and sister's addresses were likely in a file somewhere, as well as the wedding invitation. She shuddered. With the man who'd saved her life out there with a murderer, she'd go crazy with even more worry. She clenched her hands together. "I'd like my computer, though it's probably wrecked beyond repair."
"I'll see what I can do." He squeezed her arm. His touch sent a fire in her belly. "The necklace is pretty on you, Kimberly."
Her face heated from the brush of his fingers across her chest. Then he yanked his hand back and his cheeks blushed. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." She reached out to him, but then stopped herself.
He nodded, then reached behind him to retrieve the Taser. "Here. We’ll go outside this door, which leads into the courtyard.”
He massaged his neck, then gazed at her. The warmth in her belly went all over her body. "The graves are marked. Go left, and stay inside the walls."
If they were together, she'd be safe. "You're not coming with me?"
"No." His one-word answers again, but he shoved the Taser into her fingers. She held it uncomfortably in one hand. "I have to go find the man who pushed you out the plane and find your belongings. I want to get started before the sun rises."
The heavy door creaked open and dim light helped them see. He made sense, but there was something else. The fire inside her burned, but she had no reason to act on it. Perhaps he was right and she should stay here to tend to her friends right now. Her fingers curled into a circle and her heart agreed with this decision. She pretended to keep it cool and shrugged. "See you soon."
He held the door open for her, then let it shut as he walked back into the shadowy hallway. The stones closer to the door were dark green from moss. She turned on her heels and followed his directions around the corner. The castle was wet and her nose itched from the mildew smell.
The packed dirt under her sneakers felt worn, and the stone walls of the courtyard had dead ivy that seemed to want to choke the walls. The walls were at least eight stories high, but as she turned to see the castle, the towers, though surrounded by mist, loomed like a beacon in the morning sky. At least she could think now, though she might sneeze. The dreariness of the stone walls that surrounded her here wouldn't help. She turned her thoughts to something else.
Raphael Murphy made her insides quake. Ever since her major mistake where she’d left her family for a man, she’d shut them from her life. Yet there was a delicious fire that grew with every moment near him. She rubbed her arms and went further into the center. She clutched the Taser in her hand like it was a shield. She'd have to figure out a new way to block out her emotions.
Her nose itched a little less, but a sneeze was imminent.
The darkness of the skies matched the dreariness of the castle. She searched the grounds until she found the newly dug-up dirt mounds.
She wiped her face and took a few steps toward the center of the courtyard. Around her the walls of the stone castle took up most of the space. At the other end of the courtyard, there were two slits and what must be a drawbridge. In every medieval story, sieges seemed the worst at the gate. Her gaze drifted to above the gate. Metallic pipes with jagged edges jetted down from the roof of the castle. In the stories, those were for sieges as a backup in case someone stormed through the walls and front gate. Oil would drip down, catching fire once someone threw a torch.
