‘Hello,’ Goodie murmured as Nick blinked slowly awake. Her head was resting on her hands on his chest, and her blue eyes were staring up into his.
‘Hey,’ Nick said, his voice thick with sleep. ‘How long have you been up?’
She smiled.
‘Little while,’ she told him, turning her head to lay it flat on her hands and then absently tracing patterns on his chest with her fingers. He brought both arms up around her to give her a firm squeeze, and then kissed the top of her head.
‘I need to tell you something,’ she said into the comfortable silence.
‘You can tell me anything, baby,’ he said into her hair, breathing in the clean, citrussy smell of her hair.
‘I …’ she broke off, then stopped tracing his chest for a moment to push up from him and stare into his eyes, ‘I am not whore.’
He frowned. ‘Goodie, honey, I know you’re not –’
‘I am not,’ she told him, either ignoring or not taking in what he was saying, her face looking almost pained. ‘But I have done things … I have …’ She broke off again and closed her eyes slowly, taking a deep breath in through her nose before she continued. ‘I am not whore but I have had to do things that would make you think that maybe –’
‘Goodie, you don’t have to –’
‘I want to tell you this,’ she said, fierce determination lighting her eyes. ‘I need you to know that I may have been with those men but I was never with them. You understand? Not like last night. Not like I was with you.’
‘I understand,’ he told her, all teasing leaving his voice, his expression suddenly serious. ‘Thank you for giving me that.’ Her blue eyes, so full of apprehension and tension, softened and her face lit with the widest smile he’d ever seen from her.
‘Jesus Christ,’ he muttered. ‘You are so unbelievably beautiful.’
Her smile faded and the delighted look on her face slowly changed to the one he recognized from last night as she moved to fully straddle him and slid her body up his chest. She kissed his neck, his jaw, his cheek, the corner of his eye, until finally she gave his ear a small nip and he laughed, flipped her underneath him and used both hands to push her hair out of her gorgeous, flushed, smiling face.
‘I’m glad you’ve only really been with me,’ he told her, kissing her lightly on the nose. ‘If you think about it you were actually kind of a virgin.’
Goodie snorted. ‘I am not virgin. Believe me.’
Nick grinned. ‘You are mine though.’
‘Yes. Lyobov moya,’* she whispered. ‘I am yours.’
*****
‘But it’s ridiculous,’ Nick said, the tone of his voice perilously close to a whinge. Goodie was learning that if there was one thing Nick liked it was to get his way.
‘Is not ridiculous,’ she told him, trying to pull her hand free – but unless she actually wanted to hurt him that would be an impossible task.
‘Come on, baby,’ he murmured into the side of her head, kissing her below her ear. ‘Nothing’s going to happen. Let me hold your hand.’
Goodie sighed. Nick might like to get his way but when he was being like this she found that she also liked to let him have it. ‘You need new close protection officer,’ she grumbled as she allowed him to link his fingers firmly with hers and lead her out of the building.
‘I like my close protection officer, thank you,’ Nick said through a cheeky grin. ‘As close as possible if you don’t mind.’ Goodie laughed and punched him on his arm.
What she didn’t do was scan the street; otherwise she may have seen in time.
Otherwise she might have been able to stop him.
She felt Nick’s body jerk and saw his eyes widen as he grabbed his shoulder.
‘Nick!’ Goodie screamed as he staggered back. She tore his suit jacket open and watched in horror as blood bloomed out across the white shirt below.
‘Get him the fuck inside now!’ bellowed Sam from across the street. Goodie was frozen in shock and fear as she stared at the blood. She felt Sam push past her to Nick and watched as he hauled him back into the foyer. ‘Goodie, snap out of it. Give me some goddamn help here for Christ’s sake.’ She ran inside after them and then covered her mouth to stifle a sob as Sam propped Nick up behind the reception desk and tore off his jacket to put pressure on his shoulder. She could vaguely hear the concierge phoning for an ambulance in the background, and Sam’s frantic voice, but all she could register was the blood. Nick’s beautiful body was bleeding. Her hands went into her hair and she pulled desperately and painfully at it as she took a step back. She realized she was shaking.
‘Goodie.’ She heard Nick’s voice and managed to focus on him through her panic. ‘Baby, come away from the windows.’ She shook her head and took another step back. ‘Darling, I’m okay, I’m fine. Come away from the window; it’s not safe.’
‘You’re … you’re hurt,’ she forced out in an agonized whisper. ‘You’re bleeding.’
‘Stop fucking pandering around me and get her away from the goddamn window,’ Nick shouted at Sam, who was putting pressure on his shoulder. Sam let out a whistle and Salem came bounding in from the pavement, padding up to Goodie and pushing into her side.
‘The dog’s not going to cut it,’ Nick growled at Sam, ‘go and get her. That’s an order.’
‘Shut up, you arrogant twat,’ Sam spat out. ‘What did you think was going to happen? Jesus. I knew I shouldn’t have let you anywhere near her.’
All Goodie could make out over the buzzing in her head was the sound of their voices, not the actual words. All she could see was that blood, so much blood.
‘Goodnight!’ Sam shouted in Russian. Her head snapped up and her hands dropped from her hair. She came back to awareness with a shuddering jolt. ‘Fall in, soldier.’ Her gaze became focused and she straightened, turning to Sam. ‘Come here,’ he told her, and she walked across the room. ‘Stay down.’ She dropped to her knees next to them behind the desk, her eyes still trained on Sam. Nick’s hand closed over hers.
‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Hey, honey, come back to me.’ As had happened once before in her life, the pain and fear Goodie had felt had been washed away by white-hot anger and determination. She turned her now cold blue eyes to him and watched as he flinched at the expression on her face.
‘I’m here,’ she told him, pulling her hand from his to wrap it around his wrist whilst she reached up with the other hand to lay it on the centre of his bloodstained chest. ‘You will not be hurt again.’
Nick frowned. ‘You’re not here here,’ he insisted, ignoring Sam as he rolled his eyes and muttered, ‘Crazy bastard,’ under his breath. Sirens from outside the building cut off Goodie’s reply, and then there was a flurry of activity as paramedics filled the foyer.
As they whisked Nick away to the waiting ambulance Goodie pulled out her phone and put it to her ear.
‘I need favour,’ she said, noticing Sam watching her out of the corner of her eye. ‘Any price.’ She shut her eyes briefly at the reply she was expecting but had been hoping not to hear. ‘I’ll do it,’ she said as her eyes opened and Sam frowned.
*****
‘Where is she?’ Nick asked for what must have been the thousandth time.
Sam sighed. ‘I’ve told you; she’s outside in the corridor, guarding the door.’
The bullet had been removed. It had lodged under Nick’s collarbone but not pierced his lung. He was lucky.
‘Tell her to come in here then.’
‘Nick, she won’t.’
‘Tell her it’s an order.’
‘Look, mate, I’m sorry but she’s a bit … um … shook up, okay? Maybe it’s best to give her a little while.’
Nick slapped his hand down on the bed in frustration. ‘I know she’s shook up, you prick. I was there; I saw the look of her face. What I won’t bloody put up with is going back to square fucking one with her again. I won’t have it.’ Nick was well aware that what he’d achieved with Goodie was nothing short of a miracle. She was not shutting down on him again. Not when he’d got this far. ‘You tell her to come in here or I’ll get out of this bed and get her myself.’
‘What do you want?’ She was standing in the doorway of his room, her whole body rigid with tension and her small fists bunched at her sides.
‘Goodie, come over here,’ Nick said, keeping his voice low and even, and trying not to let his frustration show.
She took a few steps into the room and then stopped, crossing her arms over her chest. Nick had sent his family home an hour ago. With his family here he hadn’t been able to make the fuss he needed to get her into the room, and he knew that damage control must start urgently.
‘I’m fine,’ he told her. ‘My arm’s in a sling but only so I keep it still for a few days and don’t do anything stupid. You don’t need to worry, okay?’
‘You were shot.’ Her words were said in weird, flat tone that instantly made Nick’s stomach turn over with panic. ‘You are not fine. Not even close.’
‘Listen we’ll go home tonight; I don’t even have to stay in here. We can order a takeaway, talk it out. It was nothing.’
That got a reaction. Her face twisted in anger, a white rim forming around her tight mouth. ‘It was not nothing,’ she said, her voice shaking slightly.
‘Baby, come here,’ he pleaded.
‘You are not fine,’ she shouted this time, her eyes flashing with fury. ‘This,’ she pointed between the two of them, then let her arm drop to curl her hand back into a fist, ‘this is not okay. You were hurt. You could have been killed.’
Nick opened his mouth to speak, then shut it when he saw them: Goodie’s eyes had filled with tears and two had escaped to fall down her cheeks. She blinked and touched her face, bringing her hand away to stare at it as though she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. Her eyes flashed back to his and he almost flinched from the pain and fear he saw in them.
‘You were hurt,’ she repeated, this time in a whisper, taking a step back. ‘I’m not doing this anymore. I can’t protect you, not like this.’ With that she turned and left the room, but not before he saw two more tears escape.
* Lyobov moya – my love
