The perpetrator flew over the New York skyline.

  Tito tried to watch and see where he might land, but he kept getting farther and farther away.

  A quick glance at the rooftop showed that the gunman had left nothing behind. Tito walked the area giving it a cursory look. One shell casing. One. He placed it in an evidence bag and sent it with one of the officers that had come up with him.

  If they were lucky, they would get a print off of it. If not, they had nothing to work with.

  Tito placed his hand on his hip and studied the path of the shooter.

  Now what?

  ****

  A group of law enforcement officers escorted Ericka to a suite of rooms. A doctor arrived. He checked her over, pronounced her unharmed, and left. He looked over no one else. As if everyone else there wasn’t important or didn’t need help.

  Ericka didn’t like it.

  “Is everyone okay?”

  Quinn had a nick on his arm. Ericka cleaned the wound out and placed a butterfly bandage, pulling it as tightly as possible to seal the wound.

  “Ow.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Can you believe that guy looked at her and left? Is this how people treat celebrities? Like god. It’s ridiculous.” Maggie massaged a spot on her jacket. It looked like a dried blood stain, but Ericka couldn’t be sure.

  “I thought he would check you as well. But I’m able to care for any of your medical needs.” Ericka knew she could. She’d had plenty of practice in the army and other places.

  Maggie propped up her leg. There was a place Ericka had missed. A bullet had grazed her. Ericka quickly cut the pants above the spot. She cleaned and bandaged it. Holding the area tight, she waited to see if it would bleed through. She would have suggested a hospital visit, but she knew that Maggie would say no. None of them would be leaving now. They’d been shot at. They didn’t take kindly to that kind of behavior.

  “It’ll leave a nice healthy, yet tough, looking scar.”

  “Does Tristan like scars?” Quinn asked.

  “I hope so! I have more than this one.”

  “I have a few myself.” Ericka’s scars were both physical and mental.

  “Thank you.” Maggie placed her hand over Ericka’s and looked into her eyes.

  “Of course. Maybe you ought to consider going to the hospital.” There she had said it.

  “Nah, I can’t. I have a friend to protect.

  Ericka sighed. She appreciated the sentiment and the friendly attitude, but the idea didn’t sit well. She could protect herself, sort of, but she couldn’t protect everyone else.

  She’d yet to check out Greg. He’d stayed hidden in the bathroom for some time. She went to his room. He’d removed his jacket and his shirt. Underneath was an undershirt with no sleeves. It reminded her of an old muscle tank. His biceps muscles bulged, but her attention was drawn to the slashes and cuts that ran the length of his arms. The back of his shirt was cut and darkened with drying blood.

  “Take that shirt off.”

  “Ericka! What are you doing in here?”

  “Take that shirt off right now. We need to clean these wounds.”

  “But—”

  “Would you rather go to the emergency room?”

  “No.”

  “Then off.”

  He pulled the shirt off with mild groaning. She could see his clenched teeth in the mirror. He didn’t want her to know how bad it hurt. If they were lucky, he wouldn’t need stitches. She should have insisted the doctor look at everyone before leaving.

  Alcohol rested on the corner of the sink. She wished she had cotton balls, but wadded tissue paper would have to do.

  She folded it into a thick square and soaked it with alcohol. She held it aloft next to Greg’s back.

  “Greg…”

  “I know. Just do it.”

  She saw him draw in a swift breath, then let the air go out slowly. As the air seeped out of him, she began to dab the wounds. His back muscles rippled as he tensed and untensed them. Once the wounds had been cleaned, she dried them and hurried to dress the worst of them. Most she had to leave open. There weren’t enough bandages for them all.

  Once finished, she went to his room and found a clean shirt. She helped him get his arms in and pull it around the front. When she faced him, her eyes focused on his well-defined chest. She knew she should look at his face or some other part of his body, but she couldn’t. She’d never seen that much of him before.

  Slowing his fingers reached her eye level as he had begun buttoning up the shirt.

  She swallowed. “I should leave you to it.”

  “I’m not sure why, I’m almost dressed now.”

  She could hear the humor in his voice. When she finally looked at his face, she saw his smile. His comfort with the entire event made her feel even more embarrassed.

  She began backing up toward the door. “I’ll just go in here.” She rotated and almost ran to the living area. Heat flushed her face, but fortunately no one mentioned it.

  She sat on the couch.

  The door opened. Tito entered. He looked at her but immediately moved toward the hallway. Greg must have come from his room because he seemed to be looking at someone. She couldn’t hear him, but she could read his lips. They lost the shooter and he…

  “He jumped from the top of a building?”

  Tito looked at her. “I forgot you can do that.”

  “Yeah, she’s pretty good at it.”

  “Yoo-hoo, how did he jump off a building?”

  Quinn and Maggie looked at each other before blurting, “Parachute.”

  “Wait, how do you know that?”

  “It’s on Channel 5 News.” Quinn pointed to the television that they had just turned on.

  “Do they have a clear shot of his face?” Ericka studied the screen from about five inches away.

  “I got a good look at his face. I’ll sit with a sketch artist later. But the biggest concern is it isn’t who we’ve been watching. Although, I’m not sure how we can be sure since Blake and Nick messed that up too.”

  “What do you mean?” Greg narrowed his eyes.

  “Those two yahoos put the camera in the wrong apartment, or they put the camera where it could be found or manipulated. Whatever happened, we thought we were watching Alexi, but he was never in the room.”

  “But, how?”

  “I’m working on figuring that out, but I had to rush over here first. All the lead officers refused to make the first decision to go in and rescue. They were local officers, which should have meant they went first, but for some reason they had a directive to wait. I just went in, and SWAT followed. I think the guy on scene was frustrated with waiting anyway.”

  “So, what now?”

  “I guess we have to start over. Whatever crazy is after Rosetta is serious about killing her. Very serious.

  ****

  Yuri landed and gathered the parachute. He cut the rope and hid it under a bush. He removed his jacket and turned it inside out. It became a windbreaker. He mused his hair and donned sunglasses.

  Instant disguise.

  His phone pinged.

  He flipped the top and read the text.

  Mission failed.

  They didn’t get her.

  While his sister would be happy, Josef would not be pleased. Not pleased at all. Keeping his sister happy was a good thing, but letting Josef down would have consequences.

  Now that they’d failed security would only be tighter. They needed to get her before they ran out of time. It was the only way to make the representative realize they meant business.

  He would sign the bill and he would smile doing it.

  Chapter Six

  Greg was on hold with the local police. The perch for the second gunman had been found. All evidence pointed to a weapon pointed in the general area set to respond to movement. Where the jumper had been located, they found the one shell casing and clear evidence of someone squatting in the ceiling debris. So, there had really only been one shooter.

  “So, you’ve got nothing?”

  “The shell casing was clean. We’re running the rendering supplied by your agent through facial recognition software, but it could be a while. They are several databases to search.”

  “Thank you.” Greg hung up. The idea that they had nothing grated on him.

  Tito had left and returned to his post. Hopefully, he would be able to determine what happened with the video feed and if Alexi had been the one to shoot at Ericka.

  The other agents, Quinn, and Maggie had relocated to an adjoining room. Ericka had offered to let Maggie stay with her, but she felt awkward about that since she was supposed to be protecting a pop star. The fear that someone would see Rosetta fraternizing too closely with the staff had been a real one. Apparently, Rosetta was friendly, that was well known, but she didn’t allow her security detail to become too friendly. That way if she lost one then it wasn’t too much for her to bear. At least that was the story.

  Ericka stood at the window and looked out over the Manhattan skyline. If they weren’t so many floors up and he didn’t know the thickness of the glass, he would be more worried. As it was, he was still worried enough to say, “Can you move away from the glass, dear?”

  She went to the couch and plopped down. “What now?”

  “Now we wait. We order food. We watch sappy movies.”

  “Action.”

  “What?”

  “No sappy movies, action movies. Adrenaline pumping, gritty, kick-butt, action movies.”

  “All right, watch action movies until we are forced by circumstances to leave tomorrow.”

  “You know I don’t like this.”

  “I do. But just think, you’ve already saved Rosetta’s life. And wasn’t that why you got into this business.”

  “You saved Rosetta’s life.”

  He cocked his brow.

  “You heard the first ping, dragged me back into the car, and laid on top of me. You saved Rosetta. She could have been with you and been fine.”

  Greg didn’t like the way she looked at this.

  “Be that as it may, the Representative wanted his daughter completely out of harm’s way.” And that was why they were doing what they were doing. The guy had pull, clout of some kind.

  “Well, she won’t be for a while.”

  “About that, they want you to watch old videos and mimic her style.”

  “What? I thought she was going to be available for me to mimic. She was going to come to the hotel before being taken to the safe house.”

  “Representative Vilo’s orders have changed. Probably because of the potential shooting at her.”

  “I see.”

  The democratic Representative of some random district in North Carolina wasn’t even from New York. His daughter could have gone home, postponed her tour, but that wasn’t something they’d even considered. If they had he wasn’t a part of it.

  “Let’s watch action movies first. The tapes haven’t even arrived yet.”

  She settled on the couch. He popped popcorn and placed it in a bowl. The bitterness melted on his tongue. The opening scene with distinct music echoed through the room. The adjoining door opened.

  Quinn and Maggie peeked their heads in. He would have asked them to stay away, he and Ericka needed this time. He was just about to sneak his arm around her, but there they were plopping down into armchairs. Quinn even reached over and grabbed a handful of popcorn.

  “So, which one are we watching?”

  “The original first one.”

  “Of course, the best Star Wars ever.” Maggie slipped out of her shoes and placed her feet on the coffee table and crossed her legs at the ankles. “Hey, do you have any more of that popcorn?”

  “I’ll go make some.”

  “Don’t move, boss. I’ll get it.” Quinn winked at him.

  Ericka was snuggled to his side. Her head had fallen over, and her eyelids drifted down to her cheek. Even though it was barely past lunchtime, she’d had a busy day and exhausting day.

  Quinn made more popcorn and brought it back to Maggie. They had just gotten settled when there was a knock on the door. They all jumped. Ericka rose and swiveled her head around. Quinn put up his hand as he stood.

  He approached the door with his hand on his holster. He peered through the peephole. “Looks like the tapes are here.”

  “Tapes?” Maggie looked confused.

  “Apparently, going old school on this one. I guess so they can’t be traced.” Quinn opened the door. He took the cart and looked it over; he pulled a unit from the cabinet and scanned the cart for bugs before pulling it inside.

  The man who brought it held out his hand and Quinn greased his palm with a small tip.

  Quinn separated the tapes by years. A VCR had been hauled to the room earlier.

  Ericka sighed. “I guess action movie time is over.”

  Quinn was behind the television switching out cables. “Sorry.”

  “No, I knew it was coming.”

  Greg couldn’t help but notice how down she seemed. Admittedly watching old videos of someone else’s life didn’t hold that much appeal compared to fantasizing about another world and other people. He understood.

  “Here you are, lady.” Quinn started up the tape.

  Ericka settled against the couch and studied the screen. Greg walked to the table where Quinn and Maggie joined him and took a seat.

  The phone rang. Greg answered. “Hello?”

  “It’s Tito. Put me on speaker.”

  Greg put the phone in the middle of the table on speaker.

  “I’ve been thinking, we need someone at the hotel entry.”

  The others needed no other encouragement. “And the lobby.” Quinn added.

  “And next to the elevators on this floor.” Maggie grabbed paper and started writing.

  “At our door.”

  “Everyone needs to be scanned and vetted.” Tito’s voice came over the phone line and Greg turned it down so that Ericka wouldn’t overhear.

  “It’ll never be approved.” Greg crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in the wooden chair.

  “But don’t you think after that attack it would be expected. Daddy dearest should be offering extra money, providing more resources, to protect his little girl.”

  Tito made a good point. But this is why they’d been contacted and given the position.

  An alert came over Greg’s phone. One look at the headline and he groaned.

  ****

  Ericka ignored them in the background and began to watch the tape titled “interview family.”

  Rosetta sat in an armed chair across from a well-known television journalist.

  “Tell me about your family.”

  The camera zoomed in on Rosetta. “My family. Well, it’s a long interesting story. My dad’s family migrated from France to Boston the year before he was born. He was born and raised in Boston and has the accent to boot. There were always a lot of accents in my household. Anyway, my dad met my mother on the military base in North Carolina while he was stationed there. He was a soldier; she was just a local girl. She had a job at a diner next to the base and my dad would make up excuses to go there.

  “He’d offer to purchase food for the commanders. He’d offer to run and get coffee. Anything he could to meet up with my mother. Over a few years, they fell in love. They got married. My dad worked, my mom stayed home and schooled me.”

  “How did your dad meet Ilsa Petrov?”

  “To get there we have to finish the other story. My mom passed away when I was about ten. She’d had polycystic ovarian syndrome and had a terrible time getting pregnant. They were in the process of adopting, and the day it fell through she found out she was pregnant with me.” Tears coated Rosetta’s eyes, but she didn’t sniffle or try to stifle her emotions.

  Rosetta was an intriguing person.

  She continued, “Ovarian cancer took my mother away from me. Dad sent me to a private school. He couldn’t take care of me and work, so it seemed logical.” Rosetta studied her hands. She had them clenched so tightly Ericka could see her knuckles whiten.

  “While I was away, he began campaigning and it was during a fundraiser that he met Ilsa.”

  “I guess it makes for interesting dinner conversation. Your dad’s family from France and up north, your mother from down south, and your stepmother from Russia.”

  “You bet! It’s like three separate countries are represented and coming together at the table.”

  They shared a laugh and it cut to a commercial break.

  Ericka heard Greg groan then he was there pausing the video, apologizing, and flipping the channel to a national news station.

  “My stepdaughter has once again been attacked while pursuing her career.”

  Ilsa Petrov Vilo stood at the podium amid flashes of light.

  “Well, she’s taking her moment in the spotlight.” Quinn’s tone didn’t sound like he thought it was right.

  “Where is Representative Vilo? Why isn’t he defending or checking on his daughter?” Maggie stood behind the couch.

  The way Rosetta spoke of her family during the interview showed a love that could rarely be expressed. Something was going on here. It didn’t seem like how she’d talked about it. Ericka planned to figure it out despite having her hands tied with her celebrity status.

  Chapter Seven

  “New plan. I’ll be Ericka’s boyfriend so there is another person to watch her.”

  The news announcement from Ilsa Vilo filled the airways. Not long afterwards, Tito had returned with his new plan. Greg listened to Tito argue that he needed to be Rosetta’s boyfriend while at public events. He would have immediately said no. He had personal reasons, but there were other reasons. But it didn’t matter, he wasn’t in charge of the decision.

  The knock on the door had them all on high alert again. Quinn opened the door and stepped back as Director Manis entered. He looked around the room and went straight for the table. He took a seat and drummed his fingers on the tabletop.

  Tito pitched his boyfriend idea. This time around he tried to give all the reasons why he should be in that position.

  One, he knew Ericka well.