Maggie K. Black - Protective Measures

“Hey,” Leo said softly. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to sort your eyes and get you out of here safely. I promise.”

She felt his hands brush the sides of her face. He tucked her hair behind her ears.

“Wow, you really did take the blast full on, didn’t you?” He whistled softly under his breath. “I’ve seen men four times your size fall apart from way lighter blasts than that.”

She could tell he was trying to make her feel better. Somehow it helped.

“I shouldn’t have tried to force her to leave,” she said. “It was clear she was up to something. Alex told me The Anemoi crew had a woman on it. Her handle is Pandora. It was probably her. I don’t know why I didn’t just leave her and then run.”

“Because that’s not who you are. Even I know that.” He pulled a white handkerchief from his breast pocket and drenched it in milk from the coffee tray. Gently, he placed the handkerchief against her stinging skin. She almost gasped in relief. “Hold this to your face. It’ll help until we can flush your eyes out with water. Now, I’m going to pick you up and carry you out of here.”

Her chin raised. “I can walk.”

“You’ll bump into things.”

“Not if you guide me.”

He took her other hand and helped her to her feet. She followed him back into the building. Heavy smoke filled her senses. Then she felt him stop. She dropped the handkerchief from her eyes but saw nothing but a wall of gray.

“Can’t take the stairs, the fire’s spread to the second floor,” Leo said. Then she heard him pray for guidance.

“We’ll have to jump and aim for the river,” Zoe said. “It’s pretty deep. But there’s a stone walkway and a wrought iron fence between us and it.”

“How far out is it?” he asked.

“Six feet maybe,” she said. “I can jump it.”

“Not without your eyes,” he said. “Sorry, but I think we’re going to have to make this jump together.”

He swept her up into his arms. Then she felt him run, pelting out across the patio. The sizzle of the fire echoed behind them. The wail of distant sirens filled the air.

Help us, Lord. Please, help us.

She felt him take a step up onto the balcony railing. He leaped and they were airborne. They fell through the air. Her head pressed against his chest. His strong arms locked around her. She took a breath and prepared to hit the water. But then suddenly something jerked them backward. Then she felt him throw her forward, launching her out of his arms. Her body smacked the water. She went under and opened her eyes but saw nothing but the green-gray wall of murky water. She kicked hard and swam for the surface, blinking rapidly as she felt the sting of the pepper spray flush from her eyes. Chaos reigned around her. The castle was a wall of flame casting the scene in an eerie red glow. Sirens wailed closer. People crowded around the fence, yelling, pointing, and it took her a breath to realize she was what they were looking at.

“Leo? Where are you?” Desperately her blurry gaze scanned the surface of the water. Where was he? Why had he thrown her like that? Then she saw the segment of fence had caved in and broken off. Jagged spikes of what remained jutted out over the water. His torn jacket hung like a rag from one of the barbed points. She swam toward it. Ash and debris rained down around her. Panic filled her core.

Lord, where was he? Please, may he be okay.

Then she saw the air bubbles streaming up from beneath her. She gasped a deep breath and dove under again, feeling for him through the darkness. Thick seaweed grabbed at her body. Her lungs ached for breath. Then she felt him, thrashing in the water beneath her, caught on a portion of fallen fence. She reached for him but was almost flung back by the force of his arm. She gritted her teeth and swam forward again.

It’s okay. I’ve got your back, Commander. Let me help you. Her fingers felt for his arm. Then she felt his hand grab hers and squeeze. She yanked the knife from her leg holster and pressed it into his palm. He took it. She swam upward, praying with each stroke to feel him following her. She broke through the water and gasped for air. Leo surfaced beside her.

“Thank you!” He gulped a deep breath. Water streamed down the strong lines of his jaw. “You saved my life.”

“You saved mine.” Then she heard the rumble of debris rushing down toward them. He yanked her into his arms and sheltered her body with his as the flaming balcony caved in toward them.

THREE

It was like swimming through a minefield in a hurricane. Thick smoke filled the air. The heat was like a shimmering wave in the darkness. Falling bricks and rock crashed down around them, churning the water and threatening to crush them alive. But in the midst of it all she felt Leo’s strong arm around her, sheltering her from the crumbling building as it collapsed in flames and rubble around them. Zoe swam upstream, her strong legs kicking for her life against the current, only vaguely aware of the voices yelling somewhere beyond her in the chaos. They cleared the debris, but kept swimming, upstream, letting the crowd and fire fade behind them.

The air cleared. Then Leo stopped swimming, took her hand and pulled her into a bay. Rock rose sheer and high beside them. She tried to stand, but the tips of her toes barely brushed the bottom.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded, treading water. “Yeah, I’m okay. You?”

“Yep.” He slid her utility knife back into her hand. “Thank you for coming after me. I was good and stuck there for a moment.”

She took the knife and traded him for his cell phone, hoping for his sake it was waterproof. Behind them the fire raged, lights from what looked like an endless stream of emergency vehicles flashed and spun, and silhouettes of people crowded the shoreline.

“We should go,” she said. Her eyes searched the rock for handholds. “I have to find Alex and I imagine a lot of people will be looking for you.”

“Hang on.” He reached for her hand. “Just one second. We need to talk.”

Here and now? In a river?

“Okay,” she said. “But let’s get out of the water first and talk on the dry land. It’s so deep, I can’t even stand here.”

But instead, he pulled her closer until she was standing on her tiptoes on top of his boots.

“You’re right, people will be looking for us,” Leo said. His hand slid around her back, holding her firm, even as she could feel the current beating against their bodies. “But we need to talk alone, without an audience, and the moment I get to shore I’ll be swamped by people again. So please, quickly, tell me everything you know about The Anemoi.”

The intensity in his voice rattled something inside her. There was an urgency there that she hadn’t heard before. Had he been The Anemoi’s target? Did he know something about The Anemoi or the fire that he wasn’t telling her? She could feel his hand on the small of her back and the strength of his arms under her fingers. This man had saved her life. She had saved his. Yet, he was still virtually a stranger and she was still on a mission.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll give you five minutes, but then I’m climbing out of this river. Also, I’m talking to you off the record. None of this goes to the press. None of this gets repeated as gossip. Okay? I’m trusting you here.”

“Yeah, I got it,” he said. “I’m good at keeping secrets and I can’t abide gossip. You can trust me.”

She took a deep breath and hoped that was true.

“Two months ago, a client contacted us saying his identity had been stolen and his bank accounts emptied,” Zoe said. “Police had no leads. We said we’d look into it, but honestly didn’t expect to find much. We’re a private security firm, not detectives. Then, three weeks later someone else called us claiming to be the victim of a grand conspiracy to ruin his reputation.”