Santa' Wayward Elf (3 page)

Figuring her pointed ears were the biggest giveaway, she
pulled her wool hat down more securely on her head to cover the tips, then
fluffed her long, platinum blond hair over her shoulders before pushing open
the door and resolutely stepping out onto the street.

She’d intended to run directly across to the dance hall the
moment she got outside, but instead, she stumbled to a halt, her eyes going
wide. Oh, my Santa. There were so many people. And they were big.

Well, actually, now that she saw them up close, they weren’t
as tall as she’d thought. In fact, quite a few of the women were almost her
size. She’d expected them to be at least twice her height. But they weren’t. By
her calculations, the average height of the men was about six feet, perhaps a
little more. Still taller than she was, of course, but not enormously so.

She pressed back against the door and held her breath,
waiting for them to stop and stare at her, maybe even point. But they didn’t.
In fact, other than a few of them throwing a glance or two her way as they
passed, no one paid any attention to her. Pulling her hat over her ears had
worked. Her identity was safe. Maybe this Special Forces thing wasn’t so tough,
after all.

Now that she didn’t have to worry about anyone knowing she
was an elf, she turned her attention to the dance hall. Unfortunately, she’d
come out further down than she’d thought, so she was going to have to cross to
the other side of the street and walk a little bit to get to the dance house.

She warily eyed the street sleds as they zipped up and down
the busy thoroughfare. It seemed the reporter who’d done that exposé in
The
Snow City Gazette
had been right about one thing. These BPs did drive like
crazy people.

Should she try to dart in front of the street sleds? Maybe it
would be better to wait for a gap in the traffic. As fast as they were going,
they were likely to run her down without stopping. She forced herself to wait
patiently until she could safely cross, then ran as fast as she could to the
other side.

Resisting the urge to keep running all the way down the
sidewalk to the dance hall, she stopped to look up at the top of the building
she’d come from. She sagged with relief when she saw the shimmer of the
cloaking shield surrounding the transport sled. Still there. Good.

Reaching up to make sure her hat was still covering her
ears, Sosie hurried down the sidewalk to the dance hall. She’d just run in,
listen to the music, dance some, then go right back to the transport sled.

She got so distracted by looking at all the interesting
people, she barely realized she’d reached the dance hall until she was almost
past it. She stopped and rushed back to the door. If she asked sweetly enough,
maybe the people at the front of the line would let her slip in ahead of them.

When she got to the door, she saw that two men were blocking
the entrance. Snickerdoodle, they were huge. Almost twice as tall as she was,
they had wide shoulders and broad chests that seemed to puff up whenever the
next person in line approached them. She watched in fascination as they allowed
certain people into the dance hall, while turning others away. Since she didn’t
see anyone with an admission ticket of any kind, she wondered what the men
based their decision on and whether they’d let her inside when she got in front
of them.

If she ever got in front of them. She frowned as she looked
at the long line. Figgy, there were a lot of people. As slowly as they were
moving, it would take hours for her to get inside. She couldn’t wait that long.

Taking a deep breath, Sosie squeezed through a group of
heavily made-up women trying to talk their way inside and stepped directly in
front of the two men blocking the door. She hated being rude, but she didn’t
have a choice. She had to get inside the dance hall. Ignoring the unhappy
grumbling coming from the rest of the people in line, she smiled up at the
giants.

“Excuse me. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m only in the
city for a few minutes and I’d love to see inside your wonderful dance hall.
May I please go in?”

The man on the right didn’t look at her, but the other one—a
completely adorable black man with a huge expanse of broad chest showing from
behind his unbuttoned shirt—grinned down at her. Up close, he wasn’t as scary
as she’d first thought. Actually, he was kind of cute—in a big, ol’ teddy-bear
kind of way.

His grin broadened as he took in her red, wool jacket,
multicolored, horizontal-striped leggings, green skirt and low black boots with
their slightly upturned toes. “Baby doll, I’m absolutely digging that Christmas
outfit you’re wearing. With a look like that, you definitely get a trip to the
front of the line. Move on through, baby doll.”

Sosie frowned down at her clothes. She wasn’t wearing a
Christmas outfit. This was what she wore every day. She opened her mouth to
explain that to the nice man when the people behind her began to complain
again.

The black man’s charming smile disappeared to be replaced
with a dark scowl. “Shove that noise!” he bellowed over her head at them. “You
don’t like the way I run the door, you can always go to another club.” He
looked down at Sosie, his expression softening. “Run along, baby doll, and have
a good time.” He gave her a wink. “If you don’t find what you’re looking for
inside, just remember that I get off work at two.”

Sosie didn’t know why he was telling her when he’d be
getting off work, but she grinned and gave him a wave anyway as she hurried
into the building.

The inside of the dance hall was even bigger than she’d
thought and all she could do was stand there and stare. Strobe lights
accompanied the pulse-pounding music she’d heard from the rooftop, and the
people in the center of the room were dancing to it with the most awe-inspiring
gyrations she’d ever seen.

She dragged her gaze away from them to look around. Tables
and booths filled one side of the dance hall while a long counter ran the
length of the wall on the other side. Behind the counter, men and women were
serving beverages of every color imaginable. Some of the servers were throwing
bottles in the air and catching them as they created their concoctions. Fudgy,
that looked like fun. She wondered if they’d let her do it.

That would have to wait, though. She’d come here to dance.
Turning back to the dance floor, Sosie eagerly headed in that direction, but
was intercepted by two men before she could get there.

“Hey babe, you looking for us?” one of them asked.

Both tall, with blond hair that looked as if it hadn’t been
brushed in a while, they were attractive enough, though a bit dense. She
obviously didn’t know them, so there was no way she could possibly be looking
for them.

She shook her head, raising her voice to be heard over the
loud music. “No. I came here to dance.”

They exchanged grins. “Great. We can dance with you.”

Snickerdoodle, she wasn’t used to guys wanting to dance with
her. Now, she had two cute guys eager to dance with her and she’d only been in
this “club”—as the giant out front had called it—for a few minutes. She didn’t
know what city she was in, but she liked it already.

She gave the men a smile. “Then come on and let’s dance.”

Crooking her finger at them, she led the way onto the dance
floor. They exchanged another grin, then followed.

Dancing at the club with the BPs was way more fun than doing
it on the rooftop. Even if the two guys with her weren’t doing it very well.
They spent more time trying to circle around behind her so they could ogle her
wiggling bottom than actually dancing. She didn’t know what that was about, but
if they were more interested in checking out her moves than their own, that was
fine with her. She was having a good time anyway.

She was really getting into the music, even putting a little
extra wiggle in her hips for her dance partners now and then, when one of
them—the guy who’d done all the talking earlier—moved closer and yelled
something in her ear.

“What?” she shouted back, unable to hear him over the loud
music.

He moved in closer. “I said, if you like this, I have
something you’re going to like even better.”

Sosie found that hard to believe. She was having more fun
than she’d ever had in her life. This was like a dream come true. She was
dancing in a room full of people who didn’t think she was some freak of nature
simply because she was tall. If anything, they probably thought she was short
in comparison. But she had to admit she was curious about what the guy meant.

She grinned. “Like what?”

He took her arm. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

Sosie didn’t protest as he led her off the dance floor and
through the crowd of people, his friend in tow. She had no idea where they were
taking her, but this was sort of fun. Daring even.

They ended up in a long hallway at the back of the club.
Sosie glanced over her shoulder and saw that somewhere along the way, they had
picked up two more BPs. The new men were blond, too, but one was shorter and stockier.

Halfway down the hallway, the man holding her arm stopped in
front of a door. He nodded at the taller and lankier of the new men.

“You know what to do.”

Sosie frowned. “What’s he going to do?”

But the man ignored her. Tightening his grip on her arm, he
opened the door and shoved her inside. She frowned as she took in the row of
sinks on one wall and urinals on the other. She wrinkled her nose at the
unpleasant odor coming from them. She was in a men’s washroom.

She turned around and was surprised to see that two of the
other men had come into the room as well. The predatory way they were eyeing
her made the hair on her neck stand up and she took a wary step back.

She turned her attention back to the man who’d suggested she
come back here with him. He seemed to be the leader of the group. “I thought you
were taking me to another dance floor.”

He grinned. “Oh, we’re gonna be on the floor all right, but
we sure as hell won’t be dancing.”

Okay, now she was more confused. She opened her mouth to ask
him what he was talking about only to close it again when he began to unbuckle
his belt. On either side of him, the other two men were doing the same. That’s
when it hit her. Oh, figgy. They’d brought her in here to have sex with them.
Well, they picked the wrong elf because she wasn’t that kind of girl.

“I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding,” she
said. “I only came here to dance. While I’m sure you’re all very nice, I don’t
have time to make out with any of you.”

She didn’t wait for a reply, but instead started for the
door. The one she’d pegged to be the leader stepped in front of her, blocking
her path.

“Then you need to make time, bitch, because one way or the
other, we’re going to get what we came for.”

A tremor of fear rippled through Sosie. This had suddenly
gone from being the best night of her life to her worst nightmare all because
she’d been foolish enough to let some guy talk her into coming back here. These
three men intended to have their way with her, and she wasn’t sure there was
anything she could do to stop them.

Chapter Two

Derek knew the blonde was in trouble the second he saw the
two guys lead her off the dance floor. His fears were only confirmed when two
other men attach themselves to the entourage and head toward the back of the
club. The only thing back there were the bathrooms. That and a whole lot of
privacy for what those bastards probably had planned for her.

She didn’t seem drunk or high, and yet she seemed to be
going with them willingly. Didn’t the girl have a suspicious bone in her body?
It was as if she had no idea what could happen to her if she went off with
those assholes.

But as a cop, Derek knew all too well. And his gut told him
they had something nasty in mind for her.

He’d been hired by the club’s owner to act as extra
security. There had been some punks hanging around causing trouble and
management wanted them scared off. Problem was that the big, beefy guys the
club had around for security usually only figured out there was a problem after
everything had already gone down. The owner thought a real cop would have
better instincts and know when something bad was about to happen. Not only had
Derek done a good deal of moonlighting work for the various clubs in New York
City, but he had a reputation for taking care of things with the minimum amount
of noise and complications. That was the big thing here. Management wanted these
shitheads gone, but they didn’t want it splashed on the morning news. That was
bad for business.

Derek was fine with that. Handling a situation like this
low-key was actually in his best interest. The brass downtown was aware a lot
of cops worked extra jobs on the side. They knew more than anyone how hard it
was to try to make it in New York on a cop’s pay, and moonlighting paid damn
good. But the unspoken rule was simple—take care of business quietly and don’t
embarrass the uniform.

Of course, the other issue with moonlighting was the lack of
backup. It wasn’t as if Derek was going to ask the bouncers for help, so if
anything went down, he was on his own. Which was exactly how he liked it.

He left his post by the bar and headed toward the bathrooms.
Time to earn his extra paycheck.

The way that crew of guys had moved in on a single girl,
then quickly and efficiently gotten her segregated from the rest of the club’s
patrons without any fuss on her part probably meant they’d done this before.
The question now was whether they only meant to rob her or were after something
more. Derek was inclined to believe the latter.

As he approached the bathrooms, a guy dressed in leather
pants and a silk shirt stepped in front of him and held up his hands.