Page 127 of Girl in the Water

The guy struggled up, but only barely. Only because Daniela was playing with him.

Ian pulled the lighter from his pocket with his free hand and melted the plastic tie that still restrained the other one. Four seconds, and he was free. But he wasn’t needed.

Daniela kicked the guy’s ass with beautiful efficiency, her moves as choreographed as a dance. If this was an action movie, the shot would have been slowed down so the audience could fully enjoy it.

Goat Man moaned as his nose broke with a crunch. But he didn’t give up fighting. He still had the knife. And Daniela faltered, as if her knee went out. Goat Man charged her.

Ian stepped between them. Four years ago, he would have let himself get nicked just to feel something. Now he shifted to the side and, elbow to the back of the guy’s neck, sent Morais sprawling.

The man was on his stomach on the ground, his nose bleeding. Then he rolled and came up again, spitting blood as he did.

Ian had to give him credit, he did know how to fight. But Ian had no patience for this. He wanted to make sure Daniela was okay. He stepped in, deflected the knife, and his uppercut sent Goat Man flying across the room, sending up a cloud of dust when he landed.

Daniela headed over, flipped him on his stomach, twisted his right arm behind his back, and took control of the knife at last. “He only got me tied up,” she told Ian with an apologetic look over her shoulder, “because I was out of it. He tasered me.”

“I figured something like that.” Probably her knee had buckled for the same reason. Muscles got twitchy after a shot of that kind of electricity. “I didn’t step in because I thought you couldn’t handle him. I just didn’t want to waste any time here. We have better things to do.”

He pulled his phone and called the police. The sooner they got here, the better. Before he gave in to the temptation to do something regrettable. Not that he’d regret stepping on the guy’s neck, but he didn’t want his time with Daniela to be restricted to prison visits.

Thank God she was safe.

He burned to get in a few more punches, but Daniela had already broken the guy’s nose. Too much more damage, and they’d spend the rest of the day at the police precinct answering questions.

Ian tied the man’s hands behind his back with a plastic tie while the guy swore steadily in Portuguese.

“Thank God we’re not partners anymore at CPRU,” Ian grumbled at Daniela. “I’d never see any action. When you kick ass like that, I feel superfluous.”

“Next time I get kidnapped, when you arrive to rescue me, I’ll fall into a dead faint.”

“I’d appreciate it.” Ian glanced at Morais, who was shooting them looks that burned with hate, breathing noisily through his mouth. Ian gave the man a speculative look. “He could escape his restraints, and then we’d have to catch him again.”

Morais folded to the ground with a groan and stayed there. Police sirens wailed in the distance.

Ian grunted. “And there goes the universe, conspiring to suck every drop of fun out of my day.”

* * *

Daniela

Daniela was looking at the cut on her neck in the bathroom mirror when Ian walked in.

“Naked. In the shower.”

She cast him a quick glance over her shoulder but began stripping.

They were back in Ian’s apartment after having spent the last two hours at the police station.

Eduardo had been so incensed by his capture, he was screaming threats, admitting to the kidnapping, even bragging about killing Finch. The police had it all on tape. Eduardo wasn’t going to see the outside of a prison again.

Daniela shed the last piece of her clothing and stepped into the shower. Ian was right behind her. She barely had time to turn on the water before she was pushed against the wall, her back to the tile, and Ian was lifting her legs, wrapping them around his waist.

Her body immediately flooded with desire, her voice breathless as she said, “What happened to going slow and barely daring to touch me? What happened to me being a fragile flower?”

“You’re not fragile.”

“Thanks for noticing.”

He covered himself with protection and pressed against her. His eyes filled with raw emotion. “I need you now.”