A Million Different Ways (Horn Duet 1)

As soon as the door closed, Sebastian manacled my wrist and pulled me onto his lap. I flopped down against him and tried, without much effort, to squirm loose; I wouldn’t risk bumping into his wound. “Are you crazy? Anyone can walk in!” The forceful whisper was completely useless in distracting him. He held me close and placed a string of sweet kisses up my throat, followed by an assertive scrape of teeth.

“No one is walking in except for Ben, and he knows about us.”

“How could you?” Empty words. I was sighing in pleasure while I said them. The devil knew exactly how to disarm me.

“He’s my best friend, Vera.” His warm palm started moving up my inner thigh, closer to… a knock at the door startled me. I struggle to get off his lap. He held on firmly with his good arm however. Ben walked in, glanced at us with a blank expression, and threw his big body down on the couch with his long legs spread apart.

I would have laughed were I on the outside looking in. The two men started talking casually as if it was an ordinary thing for me to be sitting upright and rigid as a corpse on Sebastian’s lap, my eyes as round as buttons, heat flashing up my neck. My fingers found the edge of my apron and fiddled nervously with it.

“Did you find the shell casing?” Noting my unease, Sebastian pressed my hand flat and laced his fingers through mine.

“Yeah… .300 Winchester Magnum,” Ben’s eyebrow twitched up. “Not likely anyone’s hunting big game around here.”

They were both quiet for a while, an icy chill suddenly permeating the room. Sebastian sighed deeply and when I turned to study his face, I didn’t like what I found.

“What does that mean?” My voice was high and tight. I waited patiently while Sebastian and Ben exchanged knowing glances.

“It means that maybe this was no hunting accident,” he answered grimly and squeezed my hand.

“Someone is intentionally trying to hurt you?!” Now I was legitimately worried. Cupping my face, he forced me to meet his eyes.

“Look at me. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Vera, I’m going to have three of my best guys here by morning. Sebastian will be well protected––until we can figure out who’s behind this,” added Ben.

“Your guys? I don’t understand. And what are the police doing about this??!”

“Ben runs one of the most respected private security firms in the world. If anyone can figure this out, he can.”

“Private security?” I was so inundated with information and raw emotion that I found myself repeating everything like an imbecile.

“Yeah, all my guys are ex-Special Forces, ex-Mosaad. They’re the best at what they do.”

“And what is that?” I asked, genuinely intrigued.

“Hunt people down,” he replied, shrugging. Goosebumps popped up on my skin at the calmness of his reply.

“What do they do once they’ve found them?”

Ben’s eyes were glacial when he spoke again. “Whatever is necessary.”

I had never seen such total lack of emotion on a human face. It was terrifying.

* * *

I lived on pins and needles the next couple of days, worried for Sebastian, worried that inspecteur Tribolet would get a bug up his rear and start snooping around. It wouldn’t take much to find out I was undocumented.

As promised by Ben, three men arrived the morning after the shooting. Two of them looked like they were straight out of a Hollywood movie––large, brawny, and covered with tattoos that included Bible verses and skulls. Interesting combination, that. The larger man was bald, sporting a dark goatee, presumably to make him look even more menacing. The other was classically handsome, every feature perfectly symmetrical, and had a bored, unflappable look about him. And yet, out of the three, the less physically imposing one was indisputably scarier. He had a hyperaware look in his black as midnight eyes and a sardonic tilt to his mouth. Tall and slim, I couldn’t deny that he was handsome––in a villainous way. He reminded me of a picture I once saw in a textbook of a black mamba snake. Unremarkable and completely deadly.

I had been summoned to Sebastian’s office and found him leaning against the back of his desk, gripping the edge. A king addressing his knights. As he made the introductions, I stood silently, organizing my thoughts. I needed to strike a delicate balance, communicating my apprehensions without undermining him in any way.

“Vera, this is Bear Mahoney, Justin Luck, and Gideon Hirsch. They will be on duty until the situation is resolved.”

I shook the bald one’s hand. “Bare, as in naked?”

His face split with a perfect white grin. “No ma’am, as in the animal.”

Mr. Bored and Handsome merely nodded, couldn’t be bothered to extract his hands from his pockets. “Ma’am,” was all he said.

Mr. Hirsch took my hand and surprisingly placed a brief kiss on the back of my fingers. The word ‘assassin’ flashed through my mind. I didn’t have to look to see Sebastian stiffen and frown. Luckily, that’s all he did. In the silent moment that followed, I glanced at him and our gazes locked, a thousand questions self-evident in my eyes.