DARK BLISS (Dangerous Games,) Read Free Page B

the state police. Were you staying there?”
    “Yes. At the Viceroy.”
    “I’ll take you there. Once you’re back, you can decide if you want to report this.”
    “Why wouldn’t I?”
    “No one will doubt your story, especially once they see the bodies, but when you come to the part about the guy who saved you, they’re going to want to know where he is.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean I won’t be around.”
    “But you’re a hero!”
    “Not to any friends of these two. And I don’t want to have anything to do with the policia . I’ve been keeping a low profile since I moved here. I don’t want to come to anyone’s attention, especially cops.”
    “You’re just going to take me back and drop me off? Who do you think you are? The Lone Ranger?”
    “Look, I’m glad I was here just now but I don’t want to get involved in an investigation. Not convenient.”
    “ All right but I don’t even know your name.”
    “And I don’t know your s. Let’s keep it that way.”
    “I can’t believe the things that come out of your mouth. You didn’t pick me up in a bar, you saved my fucking life !”
    “Which is why you shouldn’t yell at me.”
    She drew a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I’m just a little stressed, you know? Listen, Mystery Man, would you do just one thing for me, one little thing?”
    “What’s that?” Rock said warily.
    “Would you put your arms around me?” She moved toward Rock and he instinctively folded his arms around her. “You don’t have to kiss me or anything. Just hold me for a couple of minutes because… because I think I’m going to…”
    She suddenly began to sob. Tears spouted and trickled down her face. Rock held her, arms around her shoulders and back, the way you’d hold your mother or sister at a family funeral, arms tight but not too tight, an embrace of consolation or, in this case, reassurance but nothing more, nothing that implied a deeper bond because the truth was there wasn’t any. He didn’t know this girl and though he felt sympathy and an instinctive male urge to protect, nothing else.
    No, that was not quite true because he also felt a familiar stir between his legs . Oh, God, no. No, Jones! Not now. He reached mentally back to a karate instructor who had taught him to empty his mind. Inhale: slow, deep. Again. Still the mind. Still the body.
    She pressed her head against his chest and bawled until his shirt was damp. From time to time, he patted her back. After a few minutes, she began to ease up and he told himself he should say something, not just stand there like a piece of dead meat.
    “There, there,” he said in what he hoped was a soothing tone. “It’s all right now. You’re safe.” He felt awkward. It had been years since he’d held a woman like this, talked tenderly to her. There had been women of course but none that inspired anything more than passing affection and gratitude for a nice fuck. None that got into his heart. This one wasn’t going to either.
    “I’m all right now,” she said finally. He pulled his arms away and dug in his pocket for a couple of napkins from his last meal at a taqueria. He handed them to her. “Sorry, afraid I don’t have a handkerchief.”
    She wiped her face. “This is fine. Thank you. I just thought of something.”
    “What’s that?”
    “I dropped my purse when they grabbed me. It had my ID, phone, credit cards.”
    “Where did you drop it?”
    “A parking lot.”
    “They did this in a parking lot in the middle of Tuláz?”
    “Yes. They were fast. They’d parked their SUV next to mine.”
    “Even so. That was brazen. There was an attendant?”
    “Yes, in a little booth at the entrance.”
    “They may have bribe d him. In any case, I wouldn’t count on seeing your purse again. What about your passport? Did you lose that too?”
    “ No that’s still at the hotel, thank God.” She sighed. “I’ll just have to wire Richard for money.”
    “ Richard is your