Chained to My Bodyguard Until the Trial novel · Chapter 2 of 24
Chapter 2: Service Stairs
Two men come through the door, and Ray and Nico, still cuffed together, run through the hotel kitchen and out into the rain. In the car Nico stops shaking only when Ray holds his wrist, and asks to be put back in the cuffs.
The door opened two inches and stopped against the chain.
Ray was already off the bed.
He had Nico's wrist in his grip, and since the cuffs joined them, Nico came up off the covers with him.
"Get down," Ray said, very low. "Behind the bed."
A gloved hand slid through the gap and felt for the chain.
Ray slammed the door shut on the arm.
The man on the other side swore, and the door took a hard kick that rattled the frame.
"Two," Ray said. "Maybe three."
"Key," Nico said. He was fumbling at his throat with his free hand. "I can get us loose."
"No time. Where's the bag?"
"By the window."
Ray reached it in two steps, dragging Nico behind him.
He had never in his life run a protection detail with the client on his arm.
It turned out to be a very short chain, and it worked.
Nico had to stay close, and he stayed close.
The next kick split the frame.
The chain popped off its track and the door crashed inward.
Two men came in fast, both in dark jackets, one with a long black flashlight.
Ray shoved Nico behind him with their joined arms, which swung Nico sideways into the wall.
"Sorry," Ray said.
"Fine, go."
The first man swung.
Ray took the blow on his shoulder, turned into it, and put his elbow into the man's jaw.
The man dropped across the bed.
The second man was quicker.
He went for Nico, not for Ray, and his hand closed on the front of Nico's sweater.
Ray did not think.
He yanked the chain hard, pulling Nico's whole body against his chest, and the man's grip tore loose with a rip of wool.
Then Ray drove his free fist into the man's ribs and put him on the carpet next to his friend.
It was over in seconds.
Nico stood plastered against Ray's side with his glasses crooked and his breath coming in short pulls. "Stairwell B," Ray said.
"Stairwell B," Nico agreed, and grabbed the bag.
They ran.
Down the corridor, through the fire door, and down twelve flights with the chain ringing against the rail.
Nico was fast.
He kept his feet under him and his mouth shut, and when Ray took the last few steps in one jump, Nico jumped with him.
A woman in a white apron screamed as they burst into the kitchen.
One huge man and one slim man, chained at the wrist, ran straight past her stove.
"Sorry," Nico called to her. "Sorry! Police matter!"
A cook with a ladle stepped aside and let them go by.
The loading dock door was propped open for the trash.
Rain was coming down in sheets.
Ray's black SUV sat across the alley at the curb, exactly where he had parked it.
He shoved Nico into the passenger side from the driver's door, since the chain would not let them go around, and climbed in after him.
He started the engine, and they were out of the alley before the dock door finished swinging.
For six blocks neither of them spoke.
Ray checked the mirrors, took three turns without signaling and a fourth that doubled back, and nobody followed.
Only then did he look at the man in the passenger seat.
Nico was shaking.
It had started in his hands, and now it was in his shoulders and his teeth.
His wrist, still cuffed to Ray's, jerked against the chain every few seconds.
"I can't," Nico said. "The key, I can't get my hand to hold it."
"I've got you."
Ray pulled over under a viaduct and put the car in park.
He took the bootlace from Nico's neck, careful not to catch the curls, and fit the flat key into his own cuff.
The ratchet clicked open.
He freed Nico's wrist next.
There was a red ring around the skin where the steel had rubbed, and under it the pulse beat fast and light.
Ray did not let go.
He wrapped his fingers gently around Nico's wrist and waited.
The rain drummed on the roof.
After a while the trembling eased out of Nico's arm and then out of his shoulders.
He sat quite still with his hand lying in Ray's.
"They knew the room," Nico said finally.
"I know."
"They knew the floor. They knew the hour. I booked it through the U.S. Attorney's office." His voice was thin. "Who knew the room number?"
"Ms. Whitaker. Cushing Shield dispatch. My boss. Me."
Ray heard it while he said it.
The list was short.
It was also a list of people he trusted, and he put it away to think about later.
"We need to move you," he said. "There's a safe apartment on the north side."
"Okay."
"I'll check it before you go in."
"Okay."
Nico was looking at their hands.
Ray's was enormous around his, pale skin on olive, with the angry red ring just visible under his thumb.
Ray realized he was still holding on, and made himself open his fingers.
Nico's hand turned over and caught his before it could pull away.
"Ray."
"Yes."
"I think I want those back on."
Ray's mouth went dry.
"The cuffs," Nico said.
He held up the steel pair in his other hand, and his eyes were steady behind the rain-streaked glasses.
"Put them back on. Please."
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