It was Zale who answered. He reached past Wayne to hit a button to respond. “Open the fucking door, Vienna. We need to get out of sight now.”
He was such an ass. He was back to the man he’d been when he’d ordered her out of her place of work and into his car. When she hadn’t cooperated, he’d simply abducted her. No second chances, just picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a child and took her to Shabina’s. He had that same low voice with the commanding purr. Not a growl, a purr. It wasn’t a nice purr.
She opened the door because Wayne’s face was pale. If she could have, she would have allowed him entrance and barred Zale from coming into the suite. She must have stepped into the doorway, because he put a hand to her belly and pushed her inside, closing the door after himself.
“I need you to check out Wayne for me, Vienna. I don’t think he’s hurt bad.” As he spoke, Zale helped Wayne to the nearest couch. She trailed after them, watching the older man carefully. He carried the cane, rather than leaning on it, and even though Zale was helping him, he walked as a much younger man would.
She noted blood on Zale’s shirt, a slash line on his belly and right arm. There was blood on Wayne’s shirt, much more of it than on Zale’s. Wayne’s wound was on his left side, along his ribs. Zale unbuttoned Wayne’s shirt as Vienna hurried to the bedroom to retrieve the small medical kit she always carried with her. She also got warm water from the master bath.
“Tell me what happened and why you didn’t take him to the hospital,” she ordered, nudging Zale aside with her hip so she could take over.
“We were outside the casino, just taking a walk. It can be difficult staying indoors so much when you’re not used to it.”
She understood that. She also caught the “we.” Wayne didn’t have to go with Zale to take a walk. He could have stayed locked in the safety of his suite. She kept her mouth shut. The knife had sliced into the skin, under the ribs, missing all vital organs somehow. The wound was shallow enough that she was certain she could close it with glue.
“Zale blocked the attack,” Wayne provided. “Otherwise, I would have taken the hit right in my heart. They came out of nowhere. I think they were in the flower beds.”
“They were,” Zale confirmed.
Her heart accelerated for a moment before she could get it under control. More than one attacker. Zale was obviously working undercover. This wasn’t a random attack, and there had been more than one assailant. She washed the wound carefully.
“Knife wounds are tricky. This isn’t deep. You don’t need stitches. I can glue it, but if the blade had bacteria on it, you can get an infection that could eventually kill you. You need antibiotics. I don’t have those, and I really mean you should have the wound flooded with them and you should take them orally. I’ve got a topical I can apply for now, but Zale, if the two of you have access to help, get both of you antibiotics. I can see the knife cut you as well.”
She finished up with Wayne and turned her attention to Zale, indicating for him to take off his shirt, although that was the last thing she wanted him to do. She remembered his body all too well. She’d mapped every single inch of him with her tongue. He was there in her mind, never to be forgotten.
Refusing to meet his eyes, she kept her gaze fixed on the wounds. Maybe it was cowardly, but she told herself she was a nurse, and she needed to make certain the laceration was cleaned properly. “Very shallow. Same with your arm. But I’m very serious about the antibiotics. No doubt the blade of the knife contained bacteria.” She hoped it didn’t contain poison for their sakes.
She smiled at Wayne cheerfully as she sat back on her heels. “You’re good to go.” Meaning they could leave her suite.
“Do you want a drink, Rainier? Rainier is a friend of Sam’s as well, and you’ll be meeting him soon enough at the wedding, Vienna,” Zale informed her. “He’s undercover as Wayne Forsyne.”
She put her hands over her ears. “I don’t want to know anything more. You two are obviously working on something important, and I don’t need to know anything about it.”
Zale ignored her and went to the bar, turning to raise an eyebrow at his friend.
Wayne sat up. “Nice to meet you as me, Vienna. Zale has assured me you know better than to break confidentiality.” There was warning in his voice.
“I take it you’re not seventy. I’d already guessed that. You don’t walk with your cane correctly.” She stood up and went to the master bedroom to change into actual clothes. Having no underwear around Zale made her feel vulnerable.
“You want a drink, Vienna?” Zale called out.
“No, thanks.” She needed her wits about her. Dressing hastily in leggings and a favorite comfortable sweater, she unwrapped her hair and brushed it out, leaving it down to air-dry. She wasn’t going to try to make herself look good for Zale. If anything, she wanted him to ignore her, just as he’d done these last few months.
Zale and his colleague had made themselves right at home, sitting in the living room, Rainier going through the menu. He looked up when she entered. “You sure are a beautiful woman,” he reiterated. He sounded like he was stating a fact rather than flirting with her. He just looked her over and then was back looking at the menu. “You hungry?” he added. Even the voice was different, sounding much younger.
“Yes.” Vienna went to stand beside his chair, looking down at the menu. “I was about to order room service when you announced yourselves. Do you think you were followed?”
“No one can get up to this floor. In any case, Zale wounded all three assailants.”
She didn’t look at Zale, but continued to peer at the menu as though she were really studying it. Three attackers. He’d managed to block the initial attack from Rainier, keeping him from getting killed, and then taken on all three.
“Won’t they go to a hospital and report that they were attacked by the two of you? There must be security cameras outside of the hotel.” She took the menu right out of Rainier’s hands.
“I jammed the cameras for a moment,” Rainier admitted, “but the fight was over in under eight seconds. Zale seriously wounded them. They don’t think the wounds are bad enough to seek help, but that’s classic textbook. They’ll bleed out slowly without even being aware they’re going to die. They’re heading to a safe place to lick their wounds, but it will be too late for them.”
Rainier sounded very satisfied. Vienna couldn’t blame him. If someone came out of the bushes and attacked her to kill her, she would want them just as dead. She wasn’t a forgive-and-forget kind of girl. That was one of the reasons she wasn’t going to look at Zale. No matter what, she wasn’t falling into any traps—if he even thought about going there again.
“You’ve looked at that menu long enough to memorize it, Vienna,” Zale said, using his purring, commanding voice after Rainier gave her his order. “Hand it over.” He didn’t come to her. He stayed across the room in one of the two-person cuddle chairs.
A red flag went up instantly. She thought about flinging the menu at him, hoping to hit him right in his hard head. But that wouldn’t go along with her calm, didn’t-give-a-damn-that-he’d-left-her-and-never-contacted-her-again façade.
“Sure. I do think I’ve memorized it.” She shared a little laugh with Rainier and then walked slowly across the wide expanse of the room to Zale. Before she reached him, she held out the menu. “I’ll call it in for everyone. That way, they’ll only hear my voice.”
Thankfully, Rainier responded, giving her the opportunity to turn back toward him.
“That’s a good idea. We’ll hide out in another room when room service gets here, although they’re going to think you’re a very big eater.”
Unfortunately, with her back to him, Zale was able to lean forward and shackle her wrist, drawing her close to him, toppling her into the seat beside him.
“What are you doing? I was going to call in the order.” She did her best to sound a little surprised at his outrageous behavior.
“I need time to look this over, and you can sit here while I do it. You didn’t seem to have a problem giving Rainier time. Or standing right over the top of him while you were deciding.”
“You do need to eat. I think you have low blood sugar. I might have trail mix in the other room so you can snack on something while we’re waiting for dinner,” she suggested helpfully, starting to push up from the cuddle chair.
He didn’t even look at her, but his arm swept across her like a bar, restraining her. “Just stay put. If my blood sugar starts to drop, you’ll be the first person I’ll tell.”
She looked across the room at Rainier. “Is he always this grumpy before he eats?” She poured concern into her voice.
“I never noticed it before.” Amusement colored Rainier’s voice until Zale looked up, pinning his friend with a dark stare. Rainier sobered instantly.
“I’ll have the steak, rare. Baked potato with everything. House salad. The roasted brussels sprouts.”
“That sounds eerily like Rainier’s order.” Vienna took the menu out of his hands and once again made a move to go to the phone. Again, Zale blocked her.
“Are you going to look at me?”