Look at the men, ye eejit!
“...they said he’s scheduled to make an appearance at another party tonight,”Ginger guy says.“We’ll take him on the way…”Someone passes in front of them and I scream inside.“...car up and we’ll take him when he leaves through the side door. The fancy fuck’s Maserati is parked in that lot.”
“We can send the Boss his head. That’s proof.”Smaller guy chuckles.“Ah, he’s heading out.”His badly fitting tuxedo jacket flaps open and I see it. A big fecking gun in a holster.
This isreal. This is going to happen.
Chapter Two
In which Arabella finds that no good deed goes unpunished.
Arabella…
I’m ignoring the guests reaching out for a glass of champagne as I plow through them like a trawler through the ocean waves, creating a wake of disgruntled partygoers as I try to reach the man in time.
He’s not a hard man to spot, his broad shoulders towering above the rest of the crowd. He’s got his hands in his tux pockets, gracefully strolling toward the exit. He occasionally nods as someone greets him, trying to catch him in conversation, but he never stops.
Oh, shite. There’s the door. Right there. They’re waiting for him, they’re gonna-
I slam my nearly full tray into his chest, watching the champagne splash all over his jacket, soaking into his shirt. I can just make out the outline of a tattoo under the wet cotton.
“Oh, my god! Sir, I’m terribly sorry. I can pay to clean your jacket, truly, I feel terrible!”
He’s looking down in mild bemusement as I step closer and cringe at the feel of glass crunching under my shoe.
“Lass, it’s fine. I was leaving anyway. I’ll help ye pick this up.” Elegantly hitching up his trousers, he bends his knees, picking up the tray in one enormous hand. My descent is not as graceful.
“Listen to me!” I hiss, “I saw- I mean, I overheard a conversation between two men here, they were talking about killing ye. They know you’re going out this door and they’re waiting! Ye canna go out there!”
He looks at me, still gathering up the few unbroken champagne flutes as he murmurs, “One’s a ginger, the other a short wee bastard?” He has a gorgeous mouth; full lips, sharp white teeth and he shapes his words so beautifully.
“Aye,” I whisper gratefully. “That’s them.”
Rising, he helps me up with a hand on my elbow and his other effortlessly holding the tray.
“Such a good lass,” he rumbles in my ear, so close that I can feel his lips on my skin and his exceptionally deep voice cuts through the crowd noise. “Thank ye, you’re very brave. Take your tray back to the kitchen and take some deep breaths, aye?” He pulls back and I’m hit with the full force of his stare. Thick lashes, hazel eyes. The flat gaze of a predator. “Go on, now. Dinna ye look back.”
Like an obedient pup with no thought of my own, I do as he says, sailing through the kitchen doors.
“What just happened!” Kevin yells, “Ye dumped the bubbly on a guest? Mrs. MacGregor’s gonna lose her shite!” He takes the tray from me, wide-eyed and looking over my shoulder as if the HMS MacGregor’s gonna come steaming through the doors after me.
Mrs. MacGregor does not like me already. When I dinnae catch something she’d said earlier in the noisy kitchen, Kevin, my catering manager took it upon himself to explain that I was, “A wee bit hard of hearing, nothing serious, though!”
She dinnae look happy.
“I SEE. YOUR VOICE IS SO NORMAL, I WOULDN’T HAVE KNOWN.”
Always love the shouting, the small, uncomplicated sentences like I’m simple-minded as well as losing my hearing.
But here we are in the kitchen, me in my wet uniform and empty tray and Kevin looks like he’s about to have a stroke.
“I’m sorry! I just tripped on something and-”
“Go tidy yourself up,” he groans, shoving a dish towel in my hand. “There’s a servant’s washroom down the hall.”
This is insane. I am insane. I’m supposed to be hiding in the kitchen, acting like everything is normal.
Nonetheless, I pass the ladies’ room and hoof it out through the service entrance. If I take a quick left around the mansion and I’ll be able to see the exit that man used. He still walked out that way even after Itoldhim they’d be lying in wait for him.
