Ponytail swinging, the girl ran toward them. “Is she okay?”
“My wife took a bad fall. Some crazy shopper knocked her down. I think she might have broken her wrist.”
Turning on the Jenkins charm, he relaxed his shoulders and smiled widely to reassure the young girl that he was harmless. Danni gasped as she stiffened in his arms.
“Do you have a back room where she could rest until our friend can pick us up? She hit her head, and I don’t want to leave her to get our car.”
“Do you want me to call an ambulance?”
Danni flicked her hair off her face and beamed. “We really appreciate your help. My husband is a nervous Nelly and overreacts to every little thing. We’re newlyweds, and he’s adjusting to the idea of being responsible for a wife.”
Lars squeezed Danni’s thigh, not to hurt, but to remind her that payback was hell. Despite the pain, the pallor, and the guarding of her wrist against his chest, she still could give him shit. “My wife is very reckless, and I’m always needing to rescue her.”
Lars couldn’t stop grinning in response to Danni’s mutterings under her breath.
He was sure she was using her creative and brilliant brain to besmirch his character.
“You can wait in the break room if you don’t want me to call an ambulance.”
“Thanks. We’re good. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
Using her good hand, Danni pinched his chest, causing him to flinch. “I’ll be right as rain once you get me Tylenol and some ice, buttercup.”
“Soon. I promise.” He followed the young girl through a back door. She led them down a narrow row filled with pallets of cat and dog food stacked to the ceiling. The smell of the crowded space was a strange mix of fish, beef, and possibly seaweed blended into a nauseating odor.
Lars searched the area for exits. There was only the one steel-hinged door where trucks made their deliveries.
“The break room is pretty bad, but it has chairs. And there is a restroom.”
The girl was right about the state of the employees’ “lounge.” It was a square white space, not more than eight-by-ten feet with a mini-fridge and an old microwave. He slowly lowered Danni to a rickety metal chair by the Formica table.
“Any chance you have ice?” Lars asked the girl, who remained at the door.
Danni made no sound as she was jostled but pinched her lips together, her wrist held tight against her chest. Her pupils were dark and wide in contrast to her pained, pale face.
“No, it’s just a refrigerator.”
The girl twisted at the sound of a door chime. “I need to go. A customer has come into the store. Just yell if you need me.”
“Thanks for your help. We’ll be out of here very soon.” Lars spoke calmly not to cause alarm since it might not be a “customer” who had come into the store.
Once the girl left, Lars pulled his gun out of jeans and, with a finger to lips, signaled Danni to remain silent.
Peering through the window, he watched a young family enter, followed by a single woman. Lars exhaled in relief, the first breath he allowed himself since Danni came flying out of the store. They were safe for now.
He ran back to the break room, pulling out his cell.
“Regular customers. I’m going to call Reeves and then I’ll check out your wrist. You’re doing real good keeping it stable like that.”
Her arm was against her chest, and a fine film of sweat now dotted her hairline.
“You were following me, weren’t you?”
Lars punched Reeves’s number. “I need a hot exit. And a MD at the safe house.”
“What? Is Danni okay?” Reeves’s intake of breath came loud and clear.
“She’s safe for now. But you need to get us out of here. We’re at the ACME Pet Store. We’ll come out of the back door in the alley. How long?”
“Not long. The backup team just left LAX once Sophie’s flight took off.”
Lars hung up.
“Where is your cell phone? We need to get rid of the SIM card.”
“God, I left it in the T-shirt store. I had a bag, but I dropped it on the floor when I was discovered by the men. My ID and everything was in the bag.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll get Reeves on it once we’re out of here.” He pulled the second chair close to Danni. “I’m going to put your ankle up. I’ll try not to jostle it.”
Danni nodded, chewing on her lower lip in anticipation of the pain.
He grasped her ankle, stabilizing the heel to prevent any motion. The tight-laced boots that caused her fall were at least keeping the swelling contained until he could get her medical care.
Lars tried to ignore how short her skirt was, but his gaze travelled up her thigh, giving him a glimpse under her skirt. Damn, the woman had on red panties. If backup wasn’t here soon, he’d need to lie down as well.
Chapter Nine
Danni floated in a sea of sensations. The hydrocodone made her feel loopy, but not a happy loopy like Dom Perignon. Fortunately, the agonizing headache and excruciating pain in her wrist that almost made her toss her cookies in the SUV had faded.
Now all she wanted to do was nap and forget the armed man who stirred up all the frightening memories of being held at gunpoint by her kidnappers. She never wanted to be a victim again. She wanted to get on with tracking down the brazen assholes, not be cloistered in some fancy safe house in exclusive Brentwood, home to the Hollywood stars.
Propped up in bed, with her wrist wrapped in ice and elevated on two pillows, she watched Lars unlace her knee-high platform boot. Her elevated leg brought her short skirt barely to the top of her thighs. This was too intimate, as he scrutinized her face while he carefully lifted her leg.
A tender and compassionate
