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Fifty feet and I was out of there.
Only I didn’t make it.
A shadowed blur hit me and slammed my back against the wall. A hard body pressed against mine, a cool hand clamped over my mouth. My pulse jack-hammered away in my throat as I stared at a familiar black stone in a pale pretty ear.
Malik held me there, silent, unmoving, his dark spice scent invading my senses as he looked not at me, but off to the side, as though waiting. About us the light dimmed and shadows obscured our surroundings, leaving us marooned ... somewhere ... or nowhere.
I had a vague thought of struggling, but my body wasn’t interested.
‘You seem to be having a most informative evening, Genevieve.’ He spoke quietly, his jaw hardly moving under his pale skin. ‘It is about to get even more so.’
The words slipped over me as I gazed at the dark, silky hair that curled over the neck of his black T-shirt. The taste of Turkish delight melted over my tongue and my heart did an eager dance, swirling my blood through my veins.
‘When I remove my hand, you will stay quiet, stay still.’ He turned to look at me, pupils glowing red in his almond-shaped eyes.
Part of me didn’t want him to take his hand away; the part that was elated to be with him in this nowhere place. Staring into his perfect, pretty face, fear fluttered in my belly that I could even think like that. Fuck.I willed the feeling away and concentrated on the small pain digging into my spine—my watch. My right arm was bent and trapped behind me, and Malik was pressed so tight against me that I couldn’t get free. Maybe if I sank my teeth into his hand—?
‘Genevieve?’ His fingers flexed against my mouth. ‘You will stay silent?’ His hand tightened round my wrist and the bracelet of bruises there throbbed to his touch.
I glared at him. In my heels, we were almost the same height, and close enough that without his hand on my mouth, our lips would have kissed. I couldn’t nod, so I blinked.
‘Good.’ His hand slid down to circle my neck, thumb touching my speeding pulse.
‘What the fu—?’
He squeezed my throat, silencing me. ‘Look to your left.’
The pressure round my neck gave me no option. I looked.
The shadows shifted, thi
The door stayed closed.
Damn, it hadn’t been a way out after all.
Darius swung round and sprinted back the way he’d come.
Malik tapped a finger on my cheek, indicating that I should keep watching.
Heart thudding fast, I did as he wanted and slowly turned my head.
Darius slid to a halt by the ballroom, banged on the door. For a moment, nothing happened. He thumped it again and this time it opened. He disappeared inside, then barrelled back out almost immediately, frowning. He sca
I turned back to Malik. The glow in his eyes had dimmed, leaving them deep pools of black. ‘We’re ... what? Invisible?’
He gave a small shake of his head, spoke in an undertone. ‘Not quite. A smell, a touch, a heartbeat could draw attention to us and we would be seen, although unlikely by a human.’
Okay, so he could hide more than himself in the shadows.
I sniffed. ‘You might want to polish up your social skills, y’know,’ I muttered. ‘The caveman greeting was old even in the Stone Age. Most people content themselves with a handshake nowadays.’
He gave me an enigmatic look, then laid his cheek on mine and inhaled. ‘Good evening, Genevieve.’ His voice slid over me like hot satin. ‘I see you received my invitation.’
Fine, so he wasn’t going to hurt me. And he wasn’t into handshakes.
‘Yeah, and it’s been great, but I really must be going, so if you could just move ...’ I tried pushing him away, but it was like trying to shift a concrete troll.
‘The night is still young, and there is more for us to learn,’ he said. ‘I have concluded that you could be useful.’ Amusement flickered over his face. ‘We shall work together on this.’
Who was he kidding? Working together didn’t usually mean plastering colleagues against the wall.
I pulled a disappointed face. ‘Sorry, prior engagement.’
‘Yes, I know.’ He turned back to stare at the empty corridor. ‘You have an appointment at the police station, but that is not for some time yet.’
Well, if he thought I was just going to stand there ... I wriggled, got a leg free ... he shoved his thigh between mine ... my heel stabbed into the floor, jarring the bones in my leg—
‘Calm yourself,’ he said softly, not looking at me. ‘We have another show to watch.’
‘Thanks.’ I heaved a frustrated sigh. ‘I’ve seen all the shows I want tonight.’ He ignored me, intent on ... whatever. Okay, so he’d got me into a compromising position, but even with my heart thudding like a pneumatic drill, there was no evidence he was the least bit excited about it. And his body was touching mine in all the right places, so that I’d feel, just like I could feel his heart wasn’t beating, and he wasn’t breathing: he’d shut himself down, like the Earl had earlier. And like the Earl, and Rio, no doubt this was just Malik’s way of asking me to find whatever magic killed Melissa—except that he hadn’t wanted me to get involved in the first place—
He cut into my thoughts. ‘See who is coming now?’
Albie—Mr June—appeared out of the ballroom. He had a good scratch of his thighs through his uniform and strolled to the Théâtre. Before he got there, Rio stalked out, snarling with anger, the burn on her chest like a blistered red brand. An even-more-desperate-looking Darius hovered behind.
My pulse sped faster.
‘Slow your heart, Genevieve,’ Malik said soft and urgent. ‘Slow its beat, as you did before; you will draw their attention otherwise.’
I took a deep breath, concentrated, but nothing happened. I closed my eyes. One elephant, two elephants.
‘Now,’ he hissed, ‘or I will do it for you.’
Damn G-Zav.I gritted my teeth. Five elephants, six elephants.
‘It will not go well if they find us.’
My eyes snapped open, I glared at him and whispered. ‘Like that’s going to help!’
His hand plucked at my throat. ‘Why are you wearing so many clothes?’
‘Huh?’
He let go of my wrist, slipped my jacket open and pulled at the Lycra. ‘What is this?’
‘My top!’ I tried to push his hand away.
The glow flared in his eyes. ‘Be still.’
I couldn’t answer him, couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, frozen at his command. The flutter of fear returned on great beating wings.
He glanced along the corridor.
‘There is no time.’ He grabbed the neck band of my top, tore it down. Chill air kissed my naked skin. Incandescent eyes fixed on mine, Malik pressed his palm between my breasts, put his lips on mine. Cold seared through my body like a fast, freezing glacier. I screamed into his mouth. He shuddered, swallowing my screams into silence. Then my heart stuttered, stopped beating. My head dropped to his shoulder, eyes falling shut, body limp. I wondered if I was dying, but the thought was trapped in a sea of ice and didn’t matter any more ...
Open your eyes, Genevieve.His voice drifted unspoken through my mind.
My eyes opened.
Rio, Albie and Darius strode past us and through a door further down the hall.
We followed them in ... or we didn’t, I wasn’t sure, but now we stood against a wall in a spacious office. The room had a hollow feel to it. A desk, a plastic chair, a metal filing cabinet—and a stale rank smell that made my nose wrinkle. Old blood.