Still kicking and screaming, I fought against whoever had me in their grasp. I was being dragged backwards; the heels of my very expensive shoes slid across the carpet whenever I couldn't kick my feet up. It was still pitch black and I couldn't see anything. Fear coursed through me shutting down the rest of my senses. Panic set in further as I thrashed and thrashed in my captor's grasp and he didn't relent.
"Relax princess," he finally whispered in my ear.
Tommy.
"It's just me."
"Why didn't you say something earlier?" I asked him. I was pissed. I thought he was Carson. "I thought you were Carson."
"I told you I wouldn't let anything happen to you," he said cupping my face sweetly.
Before I could give him a sarcastic retort I shouldn't, gun shots rang out. "We've got to go. Now," he said. Tommy pulled a gun from the back of his pants and pulled me behind him. "Take off your shoes."
"What?"
"Leave them. You'll be quicker without them." Kicking off my shoes, I obeyed him. "We need to get to the roof."
"How?"
"The stairs."
"This building is nearly thirty stories."
"Good thing you got all that home gym equipment."
Jokes. He was making jokes at a time like this. When our lives were clearly in danger.
"Jenkins is meeting us there."
Before I could ask how and what he knew about what was going on, I was being dragged behind him. "Stay close."
Tommy lead us back out the hallway he'd dragged me down. Popping his head out he looked both ways before taking my hand again and pulling me down the open entryway to the ballroom.
It was empty now. There were purses and shoes and jackets and discarded jewelry everywhere. But I couldn't concern myself with what happened to the people fleeing. Tommy clearly knew what was going on, what the danger was and had at least suspected it had been coming.
Or did he always have an escape plan?
Ironically, both statements were probably correct.
We'd miraculously made it to the stairwell.
"Wait here," he whispered.
It felt like my heart stopped when I watched him dispppear into the door that accessed the stairs. And when ten seconds later I heard three gunshots, my body set off alarm bells. I couldn't keep my feet where they were like he told me to. Instead, I rushed through the door and found Tommy standing over a man in full on tactical gear.
"I told you to stay where you were."
"I thought something happened to you." My words came out strained due to the hammering of my heart behind my rib cage.
"And if it had? What would you have done Princess?" I couldn't tell if his words were meant to be sarcastic as in, there wasn't anything I would have been able to do. Which was true. Or if it was a question asking what it would have done to me. How I would have reacted to seeing him laying on the ground instead of the man he'd shot.
"I don't know," I answered. It was the best answer because it fit any question.
"Can you use one of these?" He asked, handing me the handgun.
"Yes."
"Safely?"
"Yes."
"Okay," he nodded although he seemed skeptical of my responses.
Tommy stripped the dead mercenary of his knife, automatic weapon that I'm sure Tommy could tell me the make and model of, but I didn't care all that much.
"There's nine bullets left in your clip."
"Okay."
"You should check. Never just take someone at their word. Especially when there's a gun involved."
Removing the clip I counted eight bullets. With one already loaded in the chamber, that gave me 9.
"Nine."
"Good girl."
Those two simple words had the adrenaline in my body going a different direction. And now was definitely not the time.
"Let's go."
I followed Tommy up the steps. He had his gun up and pointing where we were headed the entire time. When we got to the tenth floor, I was sweating, completely ruining my dress and panting for breath.
"I need a break," I said gasping for air.
Tommy wasn't even winded and was barely sweating. How?
"Not in great shape Princess?" He teased. "Looks like you'll have to get on top more often. I'll force you to ride me for hours."
"I." I took a deep breath. "Work out." Another deep breath. "Plenty!" I snapped at him. "And now is not the time," I managed to speak the last sentence in one breath.
"I don't care how many bullets are flying, or who the fuck is after me. There will always be a time and a place for me to bury myself inside you."
To further prove his point, he pinned me against the wall, his hips pushing forward into me while his hand went to my throat. My gun clenched in my hand while his rifle was held firmly in his free hand, pinned between our bodies. "Tommy," I whimpered.
Dipping his head, he moved his mouth to mine, stopping when we heard a door from one of the upper floors open and steps come into the stairwell. "Shhhh," he whispered before flipping us so he was pinned to the wall with me standing in front of him. "Moan for me Princess." He said the words but he wasn't touching me. And at least two people were coming down the stairs towards us. "You dated Carson for a year. I know you can fake it," he whispered. My brows furrowed at him. "Fake it," he whispered lowly.
Completely confused, I did what he asked.
"Tommy," I whimpered his name like I did when he was teasing my clit. "Please!" I made some moaning sounds of pleasure in my throat.
"Are you gonna come for me, Princess?"
No?
"Yessss," I hissed.
Even faking it for him was turning me on.
"Plug your ears," he whispered. His game was confusing me. Lifting my hands I plugged my ears and pushed my forehead into his chest. In quick succession, two gun shots rang out.
When I turned, two men dressed identical to the one he'd already killed were tumbling down the stairs towards us. When the hit the landing, Tommy moved me behind him before clearing both of the guns. He took one of the assault rifles and the clip from the other one and put a handgun and an extra clip into his waist band.
"We've got to keep moving," he said. Carefully, he helped me step over the bodies and making sure I didn't step into any of the blood with my bare feet.
The more flights we climbed, the more my legs hurt. They were burning now, and every step I took caused me physical pain. We weren't even to the twentieth floor and still had at least ten more stories to climb.
"Tommy. I can't," I said. Without the threat of bullets flying my body didn't understand the necessity of getting us to the roof. I didn't feel any danger anymore. When I thought about it, of course it was there. Somebody was still after us, or more specifically Tommy. But my brain didn't understand that enough to communicate it with my body. All I knew, standing between the white walls and grey painted stairs and ugly railing that was probably filthy, was that my body hurt. Everywhere.
"You have to." He said.
It took nearly twenty flights, but he was finally winded and sweaty, with a few of his blonde strands of hair falling out of his face.
"Tell me what's going on." I was fed up with the walking and climbing and running and holding this damn gun. Just because I knew how to use one, didn't mean I liked to.
"Not here." His voice was deadly serious. I shouldn't cross him. But I couldn't stop myself from being a brat. I'd had to push it down so much to survive with Carson, but it had always been my nature. Defiant. Questioning. I had to know why. I'd hardly questioned Tommy at all this past week, but running up the stairs had made me dehydrated, cranky and my body ache.
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what is going on."
"Someone is trying to kill me. They'll use you to do it if they have to. I'm trying to save your life."
"Carson?"
"I think so, but I can't prove it. And I have other enemies."
"Why would they use me?" I asked. "I don't mean anything to you.
"We cannot do this here, Claire. We need to get out of here. Now. Those three guys I put down? I guarantee there's a dozen more just like them coming up the stairs now. Maybe even down. We need to go. I'll answer all your questions once were at the safehouse. I promise."
Another big promise.
"Let's go."
Taking as deep a breath as I could, I filled my lungs with oxygen. Moaning and groaning in pain wasn't nearly as fun when that pain wasn't accompanied by some sort of pleasure. I was miserable. The more we climbed the more I went back and forth between saying I was never going to work out again and that I was going to do nothing but work out.
"Almost there princess," Tommy said when we reached the thirtieth floor.
"I thought there were only thirty floors," I gasped.
"There are, but most buildings have at least one more flight before the roof. This one has two."
"I hate you," I whispered, my head falling back.
"Both our lives would be a lot easier if that was true," he smirked.
Amen.
"I guarantee there's people on the roof. So you need to be prepared. Are you?"
"Yes," I nodded.
"If anything happens to me, run." He kissed me fiercely, like it may be the last time. And based on the way he was holding his gun, it looked like he thought it would be. "Let's go."
Tommy held his gun up as we ascended the last two flights of states. Concern and confusion were written on his face when nobody was guarding the door.
Kicking the roof access door open, he burst through the door, his gun immediately going off. The sound pierced my ears, making them ring. "Stay back!" I could barely make out the words he shouted to me through the incessant sound of bullets flying in all directions.
But even louder than that, was a helicopter. And it sounded like more than one.
What was happening?
The door had stayed open when Tommy had kicked it, but he was gone from my sight. When I stepped out onto the roof, the noise and wind from the helicopter was even louder than it had been when I'd been hiding. Bullets were still flying and I had to duck behind an air conditioning unit.
Where was Tommy?
Fear spread through me as I thought the worst had already happened.
Crouching as best I could, I moved towards the sound of where of gun shots could still be heard. There was definitely less shooting than before, but it was still a steady stream and each shot that rang out made me more fearful of what could happen to Tommy.
Leaning around a corner, I saw Tommy standing in the middle of the roof. He looked so powerful. His tall, muscular body rippled underneath his suit every time he pulled the trigger and took out one of his rivals.
Climbing the stairs and sweating must have made the gel from his hair sweat out because his perfect blonde hair was whipping in the wind from the low hovering helicopter.
Why hadn't it landed yet?
Walking further towards Tommy, I spotted one of the mercenaries behind him. He had his gun up, aimed right at Tommy's head. Acting before thinking, I moved from my spot, aimed, and pulled the trigger. Tommy whirled around, gun pointed right at me. His eyes widened when he saw the man between us laying on the ground. Furrowing his brows, he couldn't hide the shocked expression on his face.
Was he shocked because he hadn't actually thought that I'd be able to pull the trigger? Or was he surprised I did it to protect him?
He turned every which way he could. Confident that we were alone, he stalked towards me. Without saying a word, he cupped just face and kissed me madly. It was bruising and aggressive and I moaned into his mouth, fingers digging into the lapels of his suit jacket as I held him to me.
"We've got to get out of here," I said.
"Who do you think the helicopter is for?"
Was he serious?
"Jenkins?"
He nodded.
Taking my hand, he lead me to where the helicopter was finally touching down. What had Jenkins done with his life before coming to work for Tommy?
My imagination was running wild with images of him as John McClane, 007, and Jack Reacher.
And it made me giggle.
Tommy looked at me like I'd grown a second head. Why was I giggling when we'd just had multiple near death experiences?
I didn't know either but I couldn't stop it. It must have been the adrenaline. That or I'd clearly lost my damn mind.
Tommy climbed in before reaching his arm out and pulling me into the helicopter. "Go!" He shouted as soon as we were inside. The chopper jerked but Tommy held tightly on to me and buckled me into the harness before buckling himself in and grabbing the head piece, and started speaking to Jenkins.
"Where are we going?" I shouted. But he couldn't hear me.
Tapping his shoulder I drew his attention to me. "Where are we going?" I could barely hear myself and was certain he couldn't hear me. But he responded anyways.
"Safe house." I couldn't hear him but read his lips easily.
Wasn't our apartment a safe house? It was a virtual fortress, located nearly fifty stories in the air.
Okay, it probably wasn't fifty but still. It was high. I didn't actually know what floor we lived on because I never had to push the futons. I only punched in the security code and the elevators spot me out in our living room.
The city faded and suddenly we were flying over dense, plush, trees that were still brilliantly green, but they wouldn't be that way much longer. The smell of autumn was in the air.
We'd been flying for what felt like hours when we finally started to descend. Looking out the window, there was a gap in the trees situated a short distance from a cabin.
The safehouse.
When we landed, Tommy climbed out before helping me out. He took my hand and ran us towards the safehouse while Jenkins took off again. Daniels was waiting on the front porch.
"All clear boss. Miss," he nodded at me after speaking to Tommy.
"Lock it up."
When we walked inside, Daniels followed us in and flipped a switch. I could hear shades being drawn and panels dripping, sealing us in.
"Come with me."
Exhaustion was taking over my body. I was sure all the adrenaline was finally leaving it and that was the problem. Tommy pulled me to a bedroom and closed and locked the door behind us.
"You promised to explain."
"Someone is after me. And because of that, they're after you."
"Is it Carson?"
"I don't know."
"How can you not know?" I snapped. "You said you wouldn't let anything happen to me."
"Did I?" He asked, voice full of challenge. "I kept you safe."
"And I killed a man for you!" Tears started falling down my face then. I'd killed a man. Pulled a trigger and ended his life all to defend a man who would never be capable of loving me.
"Breathe, Princess," he said. He moved into my personal space again, cupping my cheeks sweetly like he always did. "Why did you kill him?"
Too sweet. Too much like a loving gesture.
"What was I supposed to do? Let him kill you?" Tommy's blue eyes flicked back and forth between my own, searching for something. I just hoped the truth wasn't there yet. That I was still able to hide it. The truth he could never see.
"Come on. We should shower." Either he couldn't see it. Or it wasn't there.
Tommy guided me to the bathroom before stripping me. He was taking care of me like a child because I was incapable of doing anything for myself at the moment. Once the water was warm he pulled me in and wrapped his arms around me, enveloping me in his bigger body.
"I don't know if it was Carson. My gut says it wasn't, but I can never trust anything where he's concerned. He called me when the power first went out. Saying someone was there for me. But that it wasn't him."
"He's a pathological liar."
"I know, which is why I don't believe him."
"Why are we here?"
"I need to keep you safe."
"Why?"
Why was he so concerned with my safety when he didn't love me. When he couldn't love me.
"I just do, Princess." He sighed before handing me the soap and switching places with me. Not a good enough answer, but I was too tired to argue with him about it.
"How are you going to do it?"
"We'll stay here for a little. Until I come up with a plan."
"Okay," I said softly.
Once we were both washed, Tommy turned off the water.
I could barely stand on my feet let alone walk to the bed. Tommy dried me before scooping me into his arms and carrying me to the bed. Laying me down naked, he kissed my forehead, something he'd never done before and covered us up.
For the first time, he held me while we fell asleep.
And I was too drained to think about the implications of what that meant.