Page 61 of Goodnight
Nick walked over to her and dropped down on his knees in front of her, gathering both of her hands in his. ‘Why is anybody going to come for you? Please, Goodie, no more secrets.’
Goodie gave his hands a squeeze. ‘It is unlikely, but I am exposed now. My picture has been in the press.’
‘Christ,’ Nick swore, ripping his hands away from hers and standing abruptly so he could resume his pacing. ‘I didn’t even think about that. It didn’t even cross my mind. I’m such a selfish ba –’
Goodie smacked both her hands down on the bed in frustration. ‘It isnotyou who has a past where you’ve made enemies. This is not your fault. Anyway I am not stupid; I went through all the possibilities before the first night we went out in public. There is little chance that anyone would connect who I was with the person in the public eye now. My jobs involved mostly sticking to the shadows, very few of my targets would recognize me and quite honestly those that could have done are … um …’ Goodie took a deep breath. She knew Nick had seen most of the files on her, about her life before, but he hadn’t seen them all. ‘… neutralized.’ Nick stopped pacing; his eyes widened and he swallowed.
‘Right, that’s … good.’
‘Yes, it is. Also, if anyone did recognize me they would be unlikely to view me as a credible threat. Not now.’
‘But itcouldhappen. I mean, you’ve thought about it.’
‘There is a remote chance it could happen. That is why I wanted to be separated from you, Nick. If they want to take me they will take me. No amount of security will stop them, and I would rather you were not in their way.’
‘Now you listen to me. I don’t care what you would rather. You’ve shown yourself to have extremely poor judgment when it comes to your own personal safety and I am not going to tolerate it. You’re mine. Nobody gets to you; nobody takes you away from me. That part of your life isovernow. The life you’ve chosen, a life withme,involves safety, it involves security, and it’s going to be as bloody boring as I can make it, okay? And you’re going to love it.’
‘Okay,lyubov moya, okay,’ Goodie said quietly, resisting the urge to smile.
‘Okay,’ Nick replied grumpily, then strode over to her again, took her face in his hands, bent down to give her a hard, possessive kiss, and then rested his forehead on hers. ‘I might not be some fancy, multilingual, highly trained secret agent type, and I might have to employ the help of countless security people, but I can protect my own goddamn woman.
‘Bossy,’ she muttered, slipping her hands around his neck.
‘Stubborn,’ he said back, smiling before he pushed her back into the bed.
* * *
‘Are you sure about this?’Sam asked, and Goodie rolled her eyes.
‘I’m here now. It’s a bit too late for second thoughts.’
‘Do you really know what you’re getting yourself into? There’s no going back, no escape,’ he muttered darkly.
Goodie narrowed her eyes at him. ‘You make it sound worse than the Sabaneta Prison in Venezuela.’ Sam shrugged and pressed his lips together.
‘You better be careful – the walls have ears, you know.’ Sam glanced around the alcove furtively and Goodie suppressed a laugh.
‘Don’t worry, she’s in no fit state for eavesdropping.’ Goodie took a step back and looked out to the entryway of the church where Tilly, Katie, Natasha and Arabella were waiting. Katie was sitting on a bench, her head in her hands. Natasha was leaning up against a pillar, her face green. One of Tilly’s hands was holding an overexcited Arabella back from storming into the church, and the other was pressed to her temple.
‘What did you do to them?’ Sam asked, a smile breaking through his previously serious expression.
‘It’s their own fault,’ Goodie defended. ‘If they hadn’t been threatening all sorts of beauty bollocks for this morning I wouldn’t have had to incapacitate them.’
‘I’ve never seen Katie so hungover.’
‘How was I to know she couldn’t hold her vodka?’ Goodie said innocently.
The girls had insisted on a proper hen party. They’d wanted to take Goodie into London but the furthest they managed to make her go was to the village pub. Once there they had told her all the manicures, pedicures, makeovers and hair appointments that they’d booked in before the ceremony. Goodie had nodded along, but she had never suffered a pedicure in her life (not that she even had a full complement of toes), and she was not about to start now. So she bought a bottle of vodka from the bar. Got some shot glasses, and told the girls that this was how they did hen parties in Russia; that it would mean a lot to her if they would follow the same traditions. So they matched her shot for shot.
None of them had emerged from bed until at least midday, and when they did, two out of three had done it vomiting. The most they had been able to manage before they had to leave the main house was drag on their dresses and spend a painful few minutes on their hair and make-up. They all left Goodie blessedly alone to get ready in peace. She’d pulled on her simple, pale ivory silk dress, left her hair down (as she knew that was how Nick preferred it) with just an ornate comb borrowed from Natasha securing it at the side, and spent her usual five minutes on her make-up.
Sam smiled and then slowly he reached forward, his hand going under her hair, which she’d now grown out to below her shoulders. He wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck and gave her a gentle squeeze before pulling her in for a hug. ‘I’m glad you got your happy too, honey,’ he muttered into her hair. ‘Hold on to it. Fight for it.’ He pulled back and searched her face. Her expression was hard, determined.
‘I intend to,’ she said. The absolute conviction in her voice made Sam pause for a moment.
‘Goodie, is there something I should kn –?’
‘Are you lot coming or what?’ Goodie and Sam turned to see Benji standing outside the alcove, his hands on his hips and an annoyed expression on his face. ‘It’s bloody boring sitting about in church, you know.’ He was wearing the same morning suit and green tie as Sam, which in turn matched the dresses (and in fact the complexions) of the three women in the entryway. ‘Come on, I’ve been ushering the crap out of this thing for an hour already. Let’s get the show on the road so we can get to the food.’ Goodie laughed and Sam smiled. Seeing her now he could almost believe he had imagined that look of grim resolution on her face from a moment ago.
