American Heroes Series - 01 - Resurrection (20 page)

She was feeling glee and terror and everything else she could possibly feel. The pavement flew under her feet.  She couldn’t even look behind her, terrified that Nat was in hot pursuit and she would never make it to freedom. When another little alleyway came up, she darted off to the left and bolted as fast as she could. Her heart was pumping and her chest aching with exertion, but she continued running.  She had to put as much distance as she could between herself and those people with their weird scheme.  She had to run or die trying.

The next street she came to was a major boulevard. She turned left and ran as if the devil was chasing her.  The day was awakening and there were people about heading to work, and she tore past them with tremendous speed. Oddly enough, no one gave her a second look, as if they saw that kind of thing every day. Paris was, if nothing else, a relaxed city. They didn’t get excited very easily. Coming up to another major intersection, she turned left and continued her run.  But her stamina was beginning to wane.  Off to her right, she could see a big hotel.  It was a major American chain and she headed for it.

The building loomed ahead of her, already busy with guests at this early morning hour, and she began to see it as a beacon of safety.  Hyatt.  Something from home, something she recognized. Surely they would help her. The tears began to come because she was losing steam. Her legs were burning, her chest ready to explode. But she managed to run on to the sidewalk, avoid two taxis that nearly hit her, and plow headlong into the lobby.

The lobby was luxurious and modern.  Olivia ran through the lobby, past the main desk and concierge, and on into a small hallway.  There happened to be a restroom in an alcove and she bolted into it.  A woman who had just finished cleaning the restroom and saw her run past, followed out of curiosity, and found her huddled in the very last stall.

“Le miel, êtes-vous bien ?” the woman asked timidly.

Olivia was weeping and shaking. She looked up at the round woman and wiped the mussed hair from her eyes.

“Please help me,” she whispered. “Bad people are after me.”

The woman frowned, not entirely understanding her, but she knew that something was seriously amiss.  She put her hands out soothingly.

“Ne pas déplacer,” she said gently. “Je retournerai.”

Olivia had no idea what the woman said but she wasn’t about to go anywhere. She was absolutely terrified.  Hot, fearful tears came and she sobbed into her hands.  The next thing she realized, another woman with a crisp dark bob and glasses was opening the stall door and kneeling down in front of her.

“Are you all right?” the woman asked with a heavy French accent. “What is wrong?”

Olivia was sobbing so heavily that she could barely speak. But she managed to answer.

“People are chasing me,” she said. “They kidnapped me but I got away. Please help me.”

The woman looked both concerned and dubious. She muttered something in French to the maid still standing behind her and the woman darted off.  She returned her focus to Olivia.

“We will help you,” she assured her. “What is your name?”

“Olivia.”

“Olivia, can you please tell me what happened?”

Olivia put her hands on the woman’s wrists, grabbing hold, emphasizing her fears. “Lady, please put me in a room somewhere, someplace safe. You need to call the cops and hide me. Please. I’m afraid these people will kill me if they find me again.”

The woman could feel her fear but she still wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth.  After a moment, she patted her hand gently. “You’re American, are you not?”

Olivia nodded. “Please help me.”

The woman nodded patient. “Of course I will, have no fear.” Her gaze moved over the shaking, terrified girl and she realized she had to do something. Even if the girl was crazy, or a runaway, she felt compelled to do something. “Come with me, Olivia.”

Gently, she pulled her to her feet. “Where are we going?” Olivia asked, panic in her voice.

The woman put her arm around Olivia’s shoulders. “Someplace you can rest until the Police come.”

Olivia’s grip on the woman tightened. “You called them?”

“Someone is calling them right now.”

“Thank you,” Olivia was in tears again. “Can you please call my mother?”

“Where is she?”

“In California.” When the woman looked reluctant, Olivia spoke quickly. “Please? She’ll pay for the phone call, I promise.”

The woman’s brow furrowed slightly but she eventually nodded. “Very well,” she agreed. “Do you know her number?”

Olivia did.  The woman took her to a second floor room where she let her make a phone call to Cydney’s cell phone.  J.D. answered again and this time, Olivia was not surprised.  In fact, she felt rather comforted to hear the man’s voice. It somehow made her believe that this whole nightmare was over.  After telling him the story, J.D. had Olivia put the hotel employee on the phone so he explained the situation to her. The woman went from somewhat doubtful to deeply surprised with the FBI man on the other end of the line.  But when she hung up the phone, she brought Olivia a robe, let her take a shower, and then fed her pancakes from room service. She also bolted the door to the room.

By the time officers from the Prefecture of Police arrived, Olivia was fast asleep.  But she was finally safe. 

***

“I’m going to Paris to get my daughter and I’ll kill you if you try to stop me,” Cydney jabbed a finger at him. “Don’t give me that crap about letting the police handle this. We’re talking about my child and I’ll get to Paris if I have to cross the Atlantic in a canoe.”

Ethan was struggling not to laugh at her because he knew she was serious.

“Honey, I didn’t say that we weren’t going to go and get her,” he said patiently. “What I told you was that agents from the Washington Bureau are already en route to Paris to take custody of her. The Prefecture of Police has her right now and J.D. has already spoken with one of the Inspectors. She’s perfectly safe but they are doing some preliminary investigating until our Washington agents get there.  As soon as we can get a flight booked, we’re gone.”

“Prefecture of Police?”

“It’s the Paris Police department.”

“Aren’t they called Gendarmes?”

He grinned. “Maybe three hundred years ago they were.”

Cydney was standing in her kitchen in the see through nightshirt that had excited Ethan so much the night before. The sun was barely over the horizon and the phone call twenty minutes before that had awoken them had been J.D. with outstanding news: Olivia had escaped her kidnappers and was now in the custody of the Paris Police. But Cydney was so overwhelmed that her daughter had been found, safe, that she couldn’t process anything else.  She was even having difficulty making coffee so Ethan took the filter out of her hand and resumed making the coffee. Meanwhile, Cydney wandered around the kitchen, her mind a jumble of emotions and thoughts. 

“Why are agents from Washington going to take custody of her?” she wanted to know. “Why can’t we go right now?”

“Even if we go right now, we’re still at least twelve hours away,” he measured coffee into the machine. “The Washington agents are only six hours away and we want to get her into FBI custody as soon as possible.”

Cydney continued to pace, digesting his explanation. “My poor baby,” she ran her fingers through her messy blond hair. “This whole experience has been a nightmare. Do you think she’ll be scarred the rest of her life?”

Ethan poured the water into the machine and turned it on. “No,” he turned to her, eyeing her supple body through the sheer fabric. “She’s young and resilient. I think with time she’ll be fine.”

Cydney suddenly came to a halt. “Oh, my God,” her eyes were wide at him. “You don’t think… think they molested her, do you?”            

He shook his head, walking over to her and putting his hands on her shoulders.

“She said she was unharmed,” he said. “Besides, that’s not what this group is after. They wanted her for leverage, not sex.”

Cydney scratched her head, thinking on his words. “J.D. said that she escaped them,” she muttered, her mind completely wrapped around her daughter’s plight. “She must have been so scared, Ethan. Can you imagine being fifteen years old and running from kidnappers? Kidnappers who took you to Paris, no less. She’s never even been to Paris; how did she know where to go, where to find safety?”

He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “J.D. will be here shortly and he can answer your questions,” he looked down at the outline of her breasts through the nightshirt. “You might want to consider changing before he gets here.”

She looked down at herself as if her state of dress had just occurred to her. Then she gazed up at him, his incredible handsome face in the early morning light. Thoughts shifted from Olivia to Ethan. What she had experienced with him last night could only be described as purely magical and all reserve, all inhibitions, had vanished. She felt like a new woman. She pressed up against him, her arms around his tight waist.

“Any regrets about last night?” she asked softly.

He wrapped his arms around her, trapping her against him. “Are you kidding?” he said. “That was the most amazing night of my life.  Thank God for The Lucius Robe and Die Auhänger. I would have never met you otherwise.”

Cydney wriggled her eyebrows. “I’m not sure that my daughter’s abduction was a fair trade off, but I know what you mean. There’s no way we would have met otherwise. I don’t hang out in Glendale and I’m pretty sure you don’t get over this way.”

He shook his head, kissing her forehead tenderly. “They say that everything happens for a reason,” he murmured as his lips moved across her flesh. “I really thought I would never be happy again but the past two days have seen that opinion drastically changed.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

She closed her eyes as his mouth moved down her left temple to her cheek. “I never even thought of another man since Brad died,” she whispered. “It was just too painful. Not only did I not want to expose my emotions again, but I almost felt as if I was betraying his memory by thinking of another man.”

“And now?”

Her head lolled back as his lips suckled her neck and chin. “He wouldn’t want me to be alone the rest of my life,” she breathed. “And I think he would have liked you.”

“So you’re okay with us? I don’t want to rush you if you’re not ready.”

She could feel the heat in her body rise as his mouth moved to her collar bone and his right hand began caressing a full breast. “I’m ready,” she murmured, capturing his wandering mouth with her soft lips. “Oh, God, I am completely ready.”

The kiss was blazing with passion and raw emotion. Ethan picked her up and she wrapped her slender legs around his waist, hanging on to him.  Carrying her over to the kitchen table, he laid her down on the surface and made love to her. 

It was fortunate for them that J.D. rang the doorbell just seconds after they finished. They stared at each other in shock, like teenagers who just got caught behind the bleachers. When the doorbell rang again, Cydney began to giggle uncontrollably and Ethan pulled her up from the table and put his hand over her mouth.

“Shush,” he hissed. “Do you want to get me fired?”

She continued to giggle and he picked her up bodily and carried her down the hall, setting her down when he reached her bedroom.

“Hurry up and get some clothes on,” he told her as he rapidly pulled on his dress slacks from the night before; it was all he had to wear. “I’ll keep him busy while you get dressed.”

She fell on to the bed like a rag doll. “I don’t think I can get dressed,” she mumbled into the pillows. “I feel so… good.”

He struggled not to grin at her and slapped her bottom lightly. “Get dressed,” he commanded softly. “I’ll see you out in the kitchen.”

She suddenly flipped over. “Ethan!” she gasped. “The table… make sure there’s no remnant of… well, you know….”

He nodded patiently. “I’ll make sure.”

“And if he asks what that smell is in there, just tell him the cat farted.”

He burst into laughter, trying not to be too loud. “Don’t worry; the smell of brewing coffee should drown out any smells of sex.”

She grinned at him as the doorbell rang again. He went over to her and tried to pull her up from the bed but it was like trying to grab hold of spaghetti; she was falling every which way and giggling.

“Get dressed before I get in trouble,” he had her by the wrists. “He’s here to talk about Olivia, remember?”

Her smile vanished and he was sorry to see it go. He loved it when the happy and carefree Cydney emerged. She was dressed in yoga pants and a sexy little tank top almost immediately as Ethan pulled on his white tee shirt from the day before and went to the door to open it.

J.D. was standing on the porch looking at his feet. When he looked up and saw Ethan only in his tee shirt and dress pants, he shook his head and closed his eyes.

“I don’t want to know what you’ve been doing,” he put up a hand as if to stop any explanation that came out of Ethan’s mouth. “But I can guess.”

Ethan stepped back and ushered him into the house. “How did Olivia sound when you talked to her?” he wisely changed the subject.

J.D. smelled the coffee and went straight into the kitchen. “Scared,” he said frankly. “But her story is amazing. Where’s Cydney?”

“Here,” Cydney entered the kitchen, heading for the coffee pot.  J.D. had just poured himself a cup and she took it right out of his hand. “Thanks.”

He pursed his lips irritably at her and hunted around for another cup.  He spoke as he poured. “I have to give you all the credit in the world, Mrs. Hetherington,” he said. “Your daughter is one courageous kid.”

Cydney ignored the formal name address, but oddly, it didn’t upset her as much as it once had.  “Tell me everything.”             

J.D. took a healthy swig of the strong black brew and turned to her. “Well,” he started. “It seems that she escaped a car when it came to a stop.  According to your daughter, she ran in circles trying to lose them until she came upon a Hyatt Hotel. She ran in the lobby and asked for help. Fortunately, they didn’t think she was crazy and sheltered her until the police came.”