A Match for Celia

Perrelli landed on top of Bennett. Not quite out, he groaned. Reed silenced him with a vicious thump on the head. Perrelli collapsed like a deflated balloon.

Celia felt her jaw drop. Just how would a mild-mannered tax accountant know hand-to-hand combat?

Before she had a chance to ask, Reed grabbed her arm. He pushed her toward the open doorway, a little gentler with her than Bennett had been earlier. “Out,” he said.

When she didn’t move as quickly as he wanted, he placed a hand in the center of her back and shoved. She stumbled, but remained on her feet.

Reed hardly spared her a glance. He closed and locked the storage room, then jerked a chin toward his right. “Move it.”

He sounded very much like a man who was accustomed to having his orders obeyed without question. Celia didn’t like it. Not only that, she was beginning to have serious doubts again about his professed career.

No tax accountant she’d ever met had behaved quite like this man.

A long line of flowering bushes—Celia didn’t know what they were called—lay between the storage buildings and the back of the darkened restaurant. Reed headed for the bushes at a run, dragging Celia with him.

There was a muffled shout from behind them, then a funny popping sound. With another hissed curse, Reed almost threw Celia into the bushes, then dove in behind her. He landed on top of her with enough force to drive most of the remaining breath out of her lungs.

It suddenly occurred to Celia that they were being shot at. The very possibility was almost too bizarre to accept.

Things like this just didn’t happen to her!

Spitting palm fronds out of her mouth, Celia clawed her way to her feet, then turned to run again, only to stumble into someone else’s arms.

This time, she thought furiously, she wasn’t going to be taken so easily. She struck out. With some satisfaction, she heard her opponent grunt when her fist connected with a firm jaw. The arms that had held Celia fell, releasing her.

“Damn it!” It was a woman’s voice, husky, but most definitely feminine.

Startled to realize that she’d hit a woman, Celia hesitated, then prepared to strike out again. Whoever this woman was, Celia had no intention of meekly surrendering. She wasn’t going back into that storage room again!

Reed caught Celia’s wrist from behind. “Chill out, tiger, this is the cavalry,” he murmured, sounding almost amused. “My partner, Kyle. Kyle, someone’s behind us. He’s armed, and he’s using a silencer.”

“I know. It’s Novotny. Don’t worry, Mike’s taking care of him.”

Her arm still caught in midswing, Celia squinted, trying to see the woman through the shadows. Reed’s partner? She caught a glimpse of a long, slender body clad in dark clothing, hair twisted behind her head. Colors weren’t visible in the darkness, but Celia glumly suspected the woman’s hair was red. Bright, glorious red.

Cautiously avoiding Celia, the woman touched a hand to Reed’s blood-streaked head. “You okay, Reed?” she asked with such obvious concern that Celia’s teeth clenched in sheer, raging jealousy. She almost swung again. Reed held her firmly.

“Yeah.” Reed released Celia’s wrist as he spoke, but kept his hands on her shoulders.

Maybe, she thought seethingly, he knew that if he released her, she’d go for the woman’s throat.

“What happened to Bennett and Perrelli?” Kyle asked, still ignoring Celia.

“Locked in the storage room.”

“Yeah, okay. At least we’ve got enough evidence on them already to hold them, even if we still don’t have enough on Alexander. If only we’d caught them together, making the exchange. This isn’t the way this was supposed to go down.”

“I know.” Reed spoke stiffly. “I screwed up.”

Kyle shrugged in the shadows, and spoke dismissively. “So, join the club. It was your turn this time.”

Only half hearing the conversation, Celia was trying desperately to assimilate everything she’d heard thus far. This woman was Reed’s partner—in what? And who was the Mike who’d supposedly taken care of Novotny? She pictured the affable waiter from the restaurant. Surely not…

But then, nothing that had happened during the past hour or so made any sense to her just then.

“Where’s Alexander?” Reed asked, his hands still resting lightly on Celia’s shoulders as he questioned Kyle.

“Last I checked, he was in his suite. I haven’t seen Chenault for a while, though.”