Her body was limp and stone-cold, her skin barely holding any shade of life. It took me too long to find the pulse of her jugular, but when I did, I scooped her up into my arms. She barely weighed anything, and I took another look at her frail body. Long, thin arms, a protruding collarbone, and sunken eyes. This girl looked like she’d already been acquainted with death, and I wondered whether there was any hope for someone like her to have a happily ever after.
Always hope for tomorrow. I recalled my late father’s words.
Another clap of thunder rolled over the sky. On my way out of the alley, I stepped into a deeper puddle, soaking my brand new Ralph Lauren dress shoes. My suit and wool coat were beginning to feel heavy from the pouring rain. It was a cooler October than the weatherman had forecasted.
When I stepped out of the limo, I was intending to make a quick dash to underneath the awning of my apartment’s entrance, but a tiny sob from the side alley, like someone was taking their last breath, sidetracked me.
“Good evening, Mr. Madden. How did the speech go?”
“It was a successful night, George.”
“Who have you got there?” George hurried to press the elevator button for me.
“That’s a good question, George. I’ll let you know when I find out.”
He removed a handkerchief from his pocket and gently wiped it over the girl’s face. She had a few scrapes and scratches on her left cheek, but those were not as bad as the gashes on her legs. They were healing now, but would leave permanent scars.
What happened to you? I wondered.
“Playing the superhero again?”
“You know me – can’t rest until the bad guys are all locked up.”
The elevator bell chimed and I stepped inside the empty box, dismissing the sad reflection in the mirror. I looked like the Grim Reaper carrying my next soul to the other side. With the top hat still on, I could have passed for Reverend Henry Kane from Poltergeist, a movie that still gave me the creeps every time I watched it.
“Have yourself a good evening, Mr. Madden.”
“You too, George.”
The doorman, whom I’d known for the past ten years living here, waved a polite goodbye and the door closed. The girl twitched in my arms, frowning as if she were having a nightmare.
“Shh, it’s okay. You’re safe now.”
Her body trembled, and her forehead sweated with fury. I lowered my lips to the skin over her brow. The burn there sent a flash of cold down my spine.
“Well, aren’t you a bundle of good news today?”
The elevator opened to my penthouse hallway. My foot slipped inside my shoe as water squeaked with each step over the marble floor. I set the mystery woman on the couch and went to the kitchen. I reached for my phone on the wall, pulling the tangled chord, and turned the dial. It spun back, and I immediately felt relaxed. I’ve been meaning to change the darn old thing for a newer push-button phone, but the old machine brought me too much comfort when it ticked back to its start. There was something timely about it, like men wearing top hats or carrying a handkerchief. I glanced over the counter toward the family room.
Or saving damsels in distress.
Her lips were parted, and she appeared to be having a difficult time breathing. My friend finally picked up his phone on the other end.
“Hello?”
“I need you to come over right away.”
“You feeling okay? Do you know what time it is?”
Was it supposed to matter when you called your partner in crime, the former doctor?
“It’s not me. It’s someone else. Bring your medicine bag.”
“Another stray off the streets?”
“What can I do if they keep popping up everywhere I go?”
“I’ll be over in ten.”
I hung up and removed some ice from the freezer, packed it into a bag, and wrapped that in a cloth. The scissors were missing from the drawer, so I grabbed the first knife there. I knelt beside the couch and took the soaked sandals off her feet before placing the compress to her head.
Who wears sandals in October?
She was shivering. It was the first sign of life I’d seen from her, which was good, but the drenched clothes weren’t helping. I aimed the knife for the tangled mess of a dress between her legs. It had been tied so many times over, concealing rips and tears, that it barely resembled an outfit. As I cut through the fabric between her legs, a scream tore through the apartment.
“Ahh!”
I jumped back. “Whoa! It’s okay. I’m sorry. You’re okay.”
I looked at the carving knife in my hand and saw her gaze dart from my face to my tight grip, fear filling her eyes more by the second. As I hovered over the girl’s body like a psycho, I could only imagine what was going through her mind.
“No te arrimes a reso toda mi vida que vengan el diablo por ti.”
“You know the devil personally?” I felt my brow rise in bemusement.
“You understand Spanish?”
“Si. But I see that you speak English as well, so we won’t have a problem understanding each other, will we?”
“Who are you?” Her chin flew higher, in a cute way. Her spirit and charisma were electrifying.
“My name is Jack Madden.”
“I don’t know a Jack Madden.”
For someone who spoke Spanish so well, she barely had an accent. “Well, you know one now.” I extended my hand but forgot that I was still holding the carving knife.
“Stay away from me.” She sat up, digging her heels into the cushion as she scurried back to the end of the couch.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I moved away at her request, but not too far. “I’m the good guy.”
“It’s true. He won’t hurt you.” I heard from the hallway, as my friend entered through the front door.
Her head turned his way, and she gasped. Xavier had that charm about him. Women threw themselves at his feet. Actually, they stuffed their panties in this eligible bachelor’s pocket any chance they had. I believed he had a collection of them in one of his drawers.
I picked up the pieces of ice that fell onto the carpet and put them back in the bag. “He’s a doctor. I called a doctor for you.”
“You… you know him?” Her gaze flew from me to Xavier and then back. She didn’t know me either, but the earlier fear I saw in her eyes faded.
“His name is Xavier.”
“It’s okay, Jack. I’ll take it from here.”
My friend stepped in like a hero, as if the girl’s almost bare and caramel legs weren’t affecting him at all. The cuts didn’t take anything away from their beauty. I guessed we were playing good cop, bad cop again. That’s how I scored my wife, Mary.
I cocked my head to the side with amusement at how easily she seemed to trust him. I swear I taught my friend all the tricks of the trade, and he was using them to their fullest potential. Maybe that’s why we made such good partners. Business was booming, and though we’d considered hiring someone else to help us with the demand, we decided to keep a lower profile with the partnership. People like us, who hid better than ghosts, needed to remain out of sight.
“I’m not sure how I ended up here.” She let out a choking cough. It took her more than a minute to regain control over the convulsions, and all the while, she held onto her lower stomach. I narrowed my brows and reached for the box of tissues, passing one to her as Xavier listened to her lungs through a stethoscope. She didn’t even object to his touch.
“Thank you.” She blew her nose once, then once more. The rims of her nostrils were raw and swollen.
“You sound like you could have pneumonia.” Xavier shifted and motioned for her to turn around.
She coughed again, quieter this time, completely trusting my friend as he placed one end of the stethoscope over her back. “How… how did I get here?”
Her voice trembled with fear, but I could see that she was coming around. At least that’s the way she seemed with Xavier. For the first time since she’d screamed, I moved and made my way to the kitchen to dispose of the melting ice. The stray on the couch eyed me like a hawk.
“I found you in the alley beside the building. At first I thought you were dead,” I called out toward them. “I brought you here because they’d ask you for documentation at the hospital. You didn’t have any on you, so I doubt they’d treat you there. I called Xavier instead. He’s one of the best doctors I know.”
“You frisked me?” she asked.
“I didn’t frisk you,” I called out. “You’re wearing a dress without pockets and a half-torn sweater. There was nowhere to keep identification.”
Her question forced me to pause at the thought of actually touching her. My hands would slide over her rain-infused skin, capturing her tiny body in my palms. It would be slick and soft, guiding me higher and higher. The tremble on her thighs as I reached them would reveal her need for me and she’d let out that soft little moan which has had the power of arousing a thousand men at once, since centuries ago.
Fucking human nature!
I lowered my gaze, pretending to look for something on the counter while willing my hard on down.
Think of Mary. Think how much trouble you’d be in if she knew that you had another woman at home.
I wasn’t a cheater, but even I sometimes had trouble controlling my drool, or other parts of the body. Having been deprived the past couple of months because Mary was hormonal wasn’t helping my case either.
“Do you mind if I take your temperature?” Xavier fortunately saved me and was kneeling at her side, keeping her attention on his ‘gorgeous’ eyes.
Blargh!
Maybe that’s why they were getting along so well. I’d looked into his eyes for so many years that I’d gotten sick of them. But the women never got sick of them. The ladies oohed and awed at their gorgeous green shine. My best friend, though five years my junior, was as close to me as a brother. He’d saved my life. And those eyes were only one of the reasons women were willing to leave their husbands for him. The other reason was apparently in his pants, but I had no intention of confirming the rumors of his skills.
I am a married man, I repeated in my mind.
And if my wife finds out how hot I think this girl is, she’ll make herself a widow.
My guest didn’t seem to be as afraid of Xavier as she was of me, and so I took my time in the kitchen making tea with lemon and honey. When I brought the tea tray out to the family room and set it on the table, she seemed to have settled a little. At least she wasn’t trying to run away.
“What was a pretty girl like you doing in a dark alley on her own?”
Her cheeks flushed with pink, and I saw Xavier shift in an uncomfortably painful position, too-well known to me, where your suddenly swollen dick doesn’t fit the right way in your pants. The new color on her face suited her much better than that translucent skin, which was now shaded with a healthier tone.
Her lips were round and puffed up, and her eyes, which matched Xavier’s gorgeously, sparkled.
Jesus, she looks barely legal.
“How old are you, kid?” I asked.
“I’m twenty-four, and I’m not a kid.”
She was right. She definitely wasn’t a kid. If I weren’t taken, I’d give Xavier a run for his money with this one.
“Her name is Anna.” Xavier finally managed to change his position and moved closer beside her. “And she doesn’t know anyone in New York.”
She caught his gaze, and I thought something passed between the two of them.
“What brought you to New York, Anna?” I asked.
And where did you come from?
She shook her head, and the pinch of curiosity I’d seen in her eyes when she was looking at Xavier vanished.
“I’m sorry for your trouble. I should leave,” she said.
“You’re running a fever.” Xavier’s hand returned to her forehead. Another roll of thunder sounded outside, shaking the windows. The night was momentarily brightened with a flash of lightning. It was our third gray day in a row, and Manhattan was kept underneath constant fog. “Why don’t you at least wait out the bad weather here, with Jack?”
No, this wasn’t even up for an argument.
“I was hoping she could stay at your place,” I said.
Xavier stood up and turned my way. “You know that I’m leaving first thing in the morning,” he replied.
“It’s only for three days, Xavier.”
“I haven’t cleared the place, so unless you change one of our rules, I can’t let anyone in without clearing it.”
While I appreciated Xavier’s commitment to our business, I was a bit more afraid of Mary’s reaction than breaking a business rule.
“You’re going out on a job without having cleared it?” Keeping our houses free of work was essential. No work at home; it was the only way to keep safe. Our jobs and our private lives could never be connected.
If I bit down any harder, my jaw would snap. Anna stood up and looked down at her bare feet.
“I already told you guys… I can just go. I’ll be fine.” She swayed and almost lost her balance. Xavier caught her before she fell to the ground, and we both said at the same time, “You’re staying here. No arguments.”
“Are you two related?” she asked.
“We’ll tell you all about it in the morning, once the antibiotics begin working.” Xavier was holding her body against his. Though she didn’t seem like she was completely comfortable, she didn’t move away.
“What antibiotics?”
“The ones I’m about to give you,” he whispered from the side, and then in one swift move, he lifted her into his arms.
“What are you doing?”
“Carrying you upstairs to the guest bedroom. I don’t think you can walk.”
“Put me down. I’m fine,” she yawned. “Me siento cansada.”
I knew the few drops of valerian in her honey tea would ease her to sleep and reduce the anxiety.
“I’ll put you down to go to bed if you agree to take the antibiotics. Then I’ll tell you how I met Jack.”
Yup, Xavier was smitten with the girl. I couldn’t blame him. I wasn’t sure what drew me to her as well, but my gut told me that I’d run into her for a reason. I didn’t know what that reason was, but I knew she would permanently change my life.