On The Rocks (44 page)

Delirious, actually. But no need to split
hairs.

A thud sounded against the outer entrance.
Inside the room, the heavy vault door started to open, that squeak
and chafe combo coming slowly.

Xander fired off a round toward the vault
and it closed tight again. “We gotta move, Princess. Once the walls
go, they’ll know what we’re doing and we’ll be sitting ducks on
those lines.”

She didn’t want to do this. Actually, this
wasn’t even on her list of things she didn’t want to do, it was on
the list of things she didn’t even
know
she didn’t want to
do.

And then, the choice wasn’t hers
anymore.

Xander squeezed the trigger twice and the
rounds penetrated the glass. The entire south wall spiderwebbed and
then waterfalled away. There was a cross breeze now, not too
strong. But a flea sneeze would feel like a hurricane while going
across those cables.

Shoulder braced against the steel beam they
were about to bank their lives on, Xander leaned out a hair and
double-tapped the north-facing wall of the garage. The effect was
the same, the glass shattered and fell away to the oblivion
below.

“Ready?’

“If I say no, can we just wait ‘em out?”

Xander’s hand landed with a sharp crack on
her ass and she jumped. “Hey. You’re Kizzie Baldwin, you don’t
scare easy, remember?” Then he kissed her mouth. “Let’s move,
Princess.”

“You first,” she said, rubbing the sting on
her butt.

“Kizzie…”

“I’ll be on your six. I promise.”

A hard stare, another peck, and then he was
out.

Xander’s height worked in his favor. He
hooked his elbows over the top cable, steadied his feet on the
bottom one, and started moving like he practiced high-wire walking
all the time for shits and gigs.

Once she couldn’t see Nik Wallenda out there
for the darkness, Kizzie swallowed her nerves and stepped up to the
edge. She reached out with her left hand, hooking her wrist over
the top cable. The right hand followed quickly, hugging that thick
rubberized line. It was about a foot in diameter and held Xander
easily— unless he’d fallen and forgotten to scream.

Don’t think like that.

It held Xander. It would hold her. One foot
connected with the cold cable. The second followed.

Okay. Not so bad.

Thirty meters. Forty, maybe.

She could do this.

Right foot followed left followed right. She
got a rhythm, moving her hands along a little at a time and letting
her feet trail.

“Princess!” echoed off the nearby rock
face.

“I’m moving,” she said around the heart in
her throat.

Was that her voice? That tiny little thing?
Oh hell no, that wouldn’t do.

“I’m moving, X!” she bellowed back.

Right foot…

Left foot…

Short breaths punched out of her mouth, too
loud in her ears. Fighting back the shakes from a combo of nerves
and the cold, she came to the first vertical wire and paused. To
get around it, she had to let go.

She inched her right hand on the far side of
it. Hooked her right leg around it too. The line dug into her belly
as she slipped past, left hand coming over and then her left
foot.

Three more to go. Maybe less.

Moving slowly, she got herself situated so
her hands were on either side of the chubby cable again.

Right foot…

She picked up speed. Walking deep into the
darkness.

A quick check to see where the garage was.
The damned thing might as well have been in China.

Left foot…

She came to the next vertical wire. Shouting
sounded from behind her. Kizzie whipped her head around and nearly
lost her footing. She threw out a hand, strangling that vertical
line and the cable overhead like her life depended on it because it
kinda did. Full on Lamaze breathing now, the air shooting out of
her mouth in rhythmic little bursts. She steadied her grip and
focused on the office.

Abrahan was in the window. Or at least she
thought it was him. Scared shitless did a number on her
twenty-twenty.

The wind kicked up, the cables swayed, and
the waves slammed against the jagged rocks beneath her.

“Oh, god… Oh, fuck.”

Pull it together, agent!

Now was
not
the time to lose her
mind. Nope she’d do that when she was on the other side of this
thing, then she’d sc—

Pop! Pop!

Was this asshole firing at her?

“Kizzie!” Xander screamed. “Keep coming,
baby. Just keep coming.”

Pop!

That one came from up ahead.

Oh, good, Xander was shooting back. So long
as no one hit the lady doing a moving target across these cables,
life would be juuuust perfect.

Time to stop thinking and move. She picked
up the pace, using her hands as a guide more than a grip as she
scurried across the lines. One more vertical wire and then the
garage was just a few paces ahead, low lights inside throwing a
soft gleam off all those cars. She focused on the one nearest the
window. Kept moving until she was kissing the metal beam.

And now that she’d made it here, she
couldn’t seem to let go.

Her fingers clung to the overhead cable like
they had fused.

“Let go, Princess.”

“Nuh uh.” She shook her head.

Xander’s hand hooked her waist and he
snatched her from the lines, hauling her inside. She melted into
him as he stumbled back, errant glass crunching beneath his shoes.
They slammed to a halt against one of the cars.

Kizzie’s heart split down the center, racing
up into her throat and dropping to her toes simultaneously, kicking
blood so hard she jolted with every pound.

They needed to move. But she couldn’t get
her legs to go. And Xander didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He hugged
her tight enough to reinjure her ribs, but she didn’t care. They
were alive.

Then his brows slammed down hard. He held
her away from him, a tight grip on her forearms, and gave her a
little shake. “Don’t you
ever
do that again.”

Did he think that was a party? Like she’d do
that
in lieu of finger painting or something?

“I have z-zero plans to be suspended on a
c-cable over a cliffside in the near or distant future, X.”

Yup, her mind was close to mush.

“No,” he shook his head, that chocolate gaze
angry and relieved all at once. “Don’t make me leave you. Don’t you
ever
make me leave you again. You don’t sacrifice you for
me, crystal?”

His voice was scratchy and low, and oh hell,
there was a lump in her throat. Kizzie nodded dumbly. Whispered,
“Yes, Sir.”

He cleared his throat. Twice. “I’m gonna
spank the shit out of you for that later.”

That killed the emo moment and she grinned.
“I’m gonna hold you to that, X.”

“Come on.” Still gripping an arm, he dragged
her across the garage to the stairs.

Those stairs led down, and if Kizzie had to
guess they’d take them right back to where they’d started.

Then she saw it. The
box on the wall
by the stairs. The keys and fobs for all the cars dangled in the
valet and she quickly scanned the vehicles to get some semblance of
what was where.

She grabbed a fob just as the door down
below flew open. “Come on.”

She hit the button and the lights
flashed.

Oh, yeah.

Darting through the cars with Xander’s shoes
clipping the ground right behind her, Kizzie made her way to a sexy
Ford GT.

Color: Gunmetal gray with black racing
stripes.

Condition: Mint.

Her fave.

She flung opened the door as Xander went
around to the passenger side. The doors clamped shut just as the
first bullet pinged off a nearby auto.

Kizzie ducked. Jammed the key into the
ignition and fired it up.

The throaty purr echoed throughout the
garage, eclipsing the sound of the bullets.

Until one shattered the back window.

She threw the shift, grinding the gears. She
mashed the gas and they jerked forward.

“You sure you can drive a stick?” Xander
asked, huge frame crunched down low in the tight front seat.

I just traversed a fucking
chasm
in bare feet and half a designer gown. I can drive a goddamn
stick, X!

“Xander, pooh bear, stud muffin?” Kizzie
said evenly. She popped the clutch and shifted again as Xander
reached across her for her seatbelt. “Dom of my dreams and
controller of orgasms?” Cranking on all cylinders now, Kizzie got
her shit together and whipped out as she’d first intended. “I got
this, boo. But feel free to shoot at the people shooting at
us.”

The alarm had been sounded. The garage door
was coming down fast and Kizzie gunned it across the couple of
yards that would get them to freedom. She slipped the sports car
beneath the lower edge, scraping the hell out of the roof.

Condition: Speared mint.

They exploded into the night.

Right into a spray of bullets.

Kizzie whipped the car to the left,
barreling onto the two-lane road that snaked along the edge of the
cliff.

Two dark SUVs followed tight on their
tail.

Up ahead, was a hairpin turn. But a straight
stretch of road followed it.

“Kizzie, there’s a curve coming—”

“Uh huh.” Giving the GT more juice, she came
to the curve way too fast.

“Slow down. Kizzie. Slow d—” Xander’s hands
shot out. “Turnturnturnturn! Kizzie!”

She eased off the gas, yanked the emergency
brake and drifted that bitch right into the curve. Brake down, more
gas, minor fishtail…

And then, there was nothing but open road
and moonlight.

She topped out at ninety, knowing the SUVs
wouldn’t be able to handle that turn nearly as fast, and glanced in
the rearview. Nothing but blackness behind them, and she breathed
easy for the first time since being in Abrahan’s office.

Xander had the dashboard in a grip so tight
his brown knuckles were white even in the darkness.

“You okay over there, Sir?” she asked.

He twisted to look at her. “I really feel
like throwing up.”

Kizzie chuckled. “Not yet, X.”

“You can never drive my car, woman. Or my
bike. Or my bicycle. Skateboard… skates.”

Giggling, Kizzie navigated the dark roads
back to the cottage. A phone rang and she remembered she’d left
hers in the clutch back at Abrahan’s. Oh well. No way she was going
back for it. And once Galletti tried to tamper with it, a signal
would go to headquarters and the hard drive would get wiped.

“Yeah,” Xander said. “You and Nai safe?”

Kizzie remembered his wife, and that
something in her chest, that clawing feeling she didn’t want to
think about… wasn’t there anymore.

When it came right down to it, it didn’t
matter whether Xander loved her or not. Maybe it would one day, but
not tonight.

Tonight, he’d come back for her.

Tonight, that meant more to her than four
letters ever could.

“Head to the docks.”

“Can’t. Got mission sensitive Intel up here.
I need to wipe the place. I’ll be out in ten and get you to your
people.”

Damn, that sucked. Just as soon as she’d
found him she was losing him again. But she couldn’t go with him.
She had to report back to Connolly about the mission— a mission
she’d just blown by giving the NOC list to Xander Duquesne,
President of the International Club For Bad Guys.

Kizzie sighed. The man could fuck her six
ways from Sunday, but he was no good luck charm when it came to her
mission success rate.

His cool palm slid over her thigh, and he
stroked his thumb back and forth over her skin, burning another
memory of him into that one tiny inch.

For the seventieth time in the last twenty
minutes her heart sank. She was going to have to miss him all over
again, and she didn’t want to. Short or long, she wasn’t sure she
could handle another absence. Leaning back in the driver’s seat,
she slid her palm down the back of his hand, let her fingers fill
the spaces between his. She glided along his wedding band and
pulled back, but Xander squeezed his fingers closed before she
could get away.

She pushed it out of her mind. He was going
back to his wife soon enough, but right now he was here. She’d
savor these last few moments they’d have together until…

Until.

“Phil,” Xander said into the phone. “You two
get out. Burn Paris, go to ground.”

Kizzie glanced over at him. Put her eyes
back on the road. But her heart started racing and a stupid grin
worked its way across her mouth.

His thumb rubbed her pinky, gently stroking
over and over.

“Phil says hello.”

“Hey handsome,” she shouted, knowing Xander
would snip off the message at the first word.

Another pause. “Naima says thank you.”

She wasn’t sure she should respond. It was
kind of weird talking to her Dom’s wife now that they officially
knew about each other.

“No prob. All in a day’s work.” She checked
the rearview. Two dim lights were way behind them. She picked up
speed as Xander went back to his phone call.

“No. No, you can’t meet her properly, Nai…
I’m not saying that, N— because I’m
not
dreadful.” He huffed
a breath and chuckled. “Yeah, no more Mona Lisa…”

Xander jerked the device away from his ear
as excited screeches came barreling through the speaker.

Frowning, Kizzie looked over at him and he
shook his head.

“Get off my phone, Nai…” Xander said.
“You’re welcome. Take care.”

The phone call ended and he slipped the
device into his pocket. Let out a huge breath as he settled back
into the seat. They rode along in silence.

No plan. No evil to foil. No What happens
next?

Just together.

Finally together.

Minutes later, Kizzie whipped the car onto
the private road, following the curve as she gunned up the hill.
She flew by the SUV abandoned halfway up, noticing it was empty. In
the distance the cottage was dark and still.