Falco: The Dark Guardian

“Trust me, Ms. Bissette. The feeling is mutual. I’m not into women who look into a camera as if they want to screw the guy behind it. I was simply making a point.”

“You made it. You’re contemptible.”

Falco gave an exaggerated sigh. “Disgusting, despicable, contemptible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all before.”

Elle Bissette folded her arms. “I’ll bet you have.”

“You said we couldn’t fool anybody if we pretended we were lovers. I figured I could save us ten minutes of talk by showing you that you were wrong.”

“Well, you didn’t. And I wasn’t. I’m an actress but playing at being your lover would take more talent that even I possess.”

Her insults almost made him laugh. From poor little victim to haughty aristocrat in the blink of an eye. Damned right, she was an actress.

But he was willing to bet that her terror a little while ago had not been an act.

“Look,” he said in as conciliatory a tone as he could manage, “why don’t we start over? We’ll go somewhere, have a cup of coffee, you’ll fill me in on why you need a bodyguard—”

“I do not need a bodyguard. Are you deaf? I want you out of here, right now.”

She pointed an elegant hand at the door and tossed her head. Her hair, a mane of jet black, flew around her face. He’d bet she’d practiced the gesture in front of a mirror until it looked just right.

“Get out or I’ll scream so loud it’ll bring half the world running.”

Enough, Falco thought grimly. He took a step forward and clasped her elbows.

“That’s fine,” he said coldly. “Go right ahead. Scream your head off.”

“You think I won’t? I will! And five minutes after that, you’ll be in jail.”

“You left out a step. The part where the cops show up.” He tightened his hold on her and hauled her to her toes, his head lowered so their faces were inches apart. “They’ll want to have a nice, long chat with you, baby. Are you up for that?”

She stared at him. The color drained from her face and she became still.

“What’s the matter, Ms. Bissette? Don’t you like that idea?” She didn’t answer and he flashed a smile as cold as a New York winter. “Maybe, if we’re really lucky, the paparazzi will come by along with the cops. Then you can talk to the whole world.”

Whatever fight was left in her was gone. She went limp under his hands, her head drooped forward and all at once he thought, to hell with this! He had not flown 3,000 miles to play games. She found him disgusting? Her prerogative. She had a reason to keep the cops away? Her prerogative again. She was not his problem, none of this was. How he’d let himself be drawn into the mess was beyond him but no way was he going to get drawn in any deeper.

The lady had said “no,” and “no” it was.

“Relax,” he said, his tone flat as he let go of her and stepped back. “You don’t need to scream to get rid of me. Just move away from the door and I’m out of here.”

She didn’t move. He rolled his eyes, shouldered past her and reached for the knob.

“Wait a minute.”

Falco looked over his shoulder. Elle Bissette swallowed; he saw the muscles move in her throat. Which color were here eyes? Amber or topaz? The thought was so completely inappropriate, it made him angry.

“What now?” he growled.

“Mr. Orsini.” She hesitated. “This is your—your line of work? You’re a bodyguard?”

He smiled thinly. “I am any number of things, Ms. Bissette, but it’s a little late to ask for my CV.”

“The thing is…I didn’t ask for a bodyguard.”

“Here’s a news flash, baby. I didn’t ask for the job.”

“But you said someone sent you.”

“I said someone I know told me you had a problem and asked me to check it out.” His mouth twisted. “And here I am.”

“Look, it’s not my fault you agreed to do a favor for a friend and—”

“He isn’t a friend and I don’t do favors for anybody.” Falco heaved out a breath. Why get into any of that? How he’d come to be here didn’t matter, especially since he was about to leave. “It’s a long story and it doesn’t change the facts. I came here because I was under the impression you needed help.” Another thin smile. “I was wrong.”

“You were wrong,” she said quickly. “You can see for yourself, I’m just fine.”

He thought of the terror that had shone in her eyes a little while ago. Well, maybe it was true. Maybe she was fine. Maybe all that fear had been strictly of him.

“Really, I’m fine. I’m just wondering why you…why someone would have thought otherwise.”

Falco dug his hands into the pockets of his flannel trousers. “You posed for a magazine ad,” he said. “A provocative one.”

Her chin rose again. He’d seen pro boxers with the same habit. It wasn’t a good one, not if you didn’t want to end up in trouble.

“It was a lingerie ad, Mr. Orsini, not an ad for—for Hershey’s chocolate.”

He grinned. “No argument there, Ms. Bissette.” His grin faded. “Fifty thousand lovesick idiots went out and bought their girlfriends whatever it is you were wearing in that ad, then wondered why it didn’t look on them the way it looked on you.”

She stiffened. He could almost see the gears working. She was trying to figure out if what he’d said was a compliment or an insult.

“For your information,” she said coldly, “statistics show that women are the target audience for lingerie ads.”

“Great. So fifty thousand broads went out and bought that outfit, put it on, looked in the mirror and wondered what the hell had gone wrong.”

For a fraction of a second, she looked as if she wanted to laugh. Then that chin rose again.

“Is there a point to this, Mr. Orsini?”

“Damned right. All those people looked at an ad and saw an ad.” His voice became chill. “One sicko saw something else and decided to—what’s today’s favorite psychobabble term? He decided to ‘share’ what he saw with you.”

A flush rose in her cheeks. “You’ve seen what that—that person sent me.”

Falco nodded. “Yes.”

He expected a rant. Indignation, that Farinelli had sent the thing to someone. Instead, she shuddered.

“It was—it was horrible,” she whispered.