Chapter fifteen

"No!" Dani shrieked when Troy fired his gun. For a moment, she almost forgot about the pain in her upper arm, caused by the bullet that had grazed her while she'd been running for the stairs. She tried to get a better look at the person that had been standing behind the tree and was now lying on the ground. She feared it was Jenny, but it appeared to be a man – and that's all she had time to register. Troy put the gun to her head again and started dragging her towards the car, his arm tight around her throat. No freaking way am I getting into that car! Dani started kicking and fighting him again. The man lying on the ground couldn't have been alone, could he? He must have brought reinforcement. She'd lost her slippers somewhere along the way, and her bare feet prevented her from doing much damage, but Troy did grunt a little when she delivered a good kick to his shin. At the very least she was making dragging her harder for him, buying her rescuers more time…

"Cutler." The voice coming from somewhere behind them was low and menacing, but Dani immediately recognized it and her heart jumped.

"Nico!" she yelled, doubling her efforts to get free from Troy.

"Hold… still… dammit!" Troy grunted. Then he yanked her around so they were both facing Nico, who was standing about thirty feet away from them with a gun in his hand.

Dani had no choice but to cease her struggling in favor of getting enough air into her lungs as Troy's arm held her throat in a viselike grip. Time seemed to slow down and she became sharply, acutely aware of every little detail as she fixed her gaze on Nico. His jaw was clenched tight and his normally hazel eyes now reminded her of black ice. She registered the tight grip he had on the gun, his knuckles white. But his hand wasn't shaking. In fact he stood completely motionless – yet at the same time she could almost feel the air charging around him. When he spoke again, she heard frozen steel in his tone. "Let. Her. Go."

When he saw Bennett go down, Nico didn't hesitate. He dove for the agent's gun, then rolled back to his feet in one fluid motion, calling Cutler's name. Cutler turned around, yanking Dani up in front of him until her toes barely touched the ground so he could keep hiding behind her like the coward he was. Ever since he'd received Bill's phonecall, Nico's anger had felt like it was a volcano getting ready to erupt. Now, as he locked eyes with Troy Cutler, the boiling lava in his veins suddenly seemed to freeze over, crystallizing his focus and wiping out the world around him. For long moments nothing moved, there were no sounds. Then a voice that Nico hardly recognized as his own and that seemed to come from miles away told Cutler to let Dani go.
The man flashed him an arrogant smile. "Or else? I really don't think you're in a position to make demands here, Mr. Careles." He hiked Dani fractionally higher up his body, making her gasp and struggle when her feet lost contact with the ground. She raised her right hand to Cutler's arm, clawing at it with her fingernails. "Drop the gun or I'll shoot her."

Nico felt the ice inside of him starting to crack, but his voice came out dead calm. "You shoot her – I kill you. In a heartbeat."

Cutler stared at him for long moments, then seemed to come to a decision. "Okay – you really leave me no choice." Suddenly he wasn't holding the gun against Dani's head anymore. Instead it pointed straight at Nico.

Troy knew Careles wouldn't risk returning fire as long as his girlfriend was in the way. As dear Abby had once put it, loyalty makes even the smartest people dumb. He pulled the trigger. As the gun went off, Santino suddenly pushed off against him and threw her bodyweight forward. Troy, dealing with the recoil of the gun, couldn't hold on to her and she broke free from his grip as he stumbled backwards, involuntarily firing another shot. A flash of triumph went through him as he saw her fall. Regaining his balance Troy turned around and made a beeline for the car.

Nico let his instincts take over and dropped to the ground as soon as he registered Cutler's finger tightening on the trigger. He rolled and was back on his feet before the echo of the first shot had a chance to die away. But then his heart froze as a second shot rang out and he saw the woman he loved more than life itself go down at the same time. Ice splintered into a million pieces as the darkness underneath came roaring to the surface. Nico felt it coming and gladly surrendered his control over it, allowing the tidal wave to engulf him completely as he dropped his gun and pounced upon his prey, taking them both to the ground.

Dani desperately wanted to breathe, so she could get up and make sure Nico was still alive. When she'd thrown herself forward she hadn't really expected Troy to let her go. As she fell, another gunshot had cracked. She thought she'd felt the bullet move the air beside her cheek – and then she'd gotten the wind knocked out of her upon landing. For a few moments she could only lie there, deafened by the shots and numb from the fall, her mind going blank until a single thought had pierced the haze – Troy shot Nico! – and she'd started struggling to get some air into her lungs again. She finally managed to suck in a wheezing breath, then another. The third breath she took returned some of her strength to her, and Dani immediately put her hands on the ground and pushed herself up. Her left arm screamed in agony but she kept pushing until she was on her hands and knees. She hung her head for a moment, gulping in some more air. Her left arm couldn't hold her weight any longer, so she pushed herself into a kneeling position with her right arm, looking up at the same time. And she forgot to breathe.

Troy Cutler was lying on his back, struggling, his hands clawing at the wrists of the man who sat on top of him and seemed to be choking the life out of him. A man that somehow was both Nico and a stranger Dani had never seen before. Strands of hair had fallen into his narrowed eyes and his teeth were bared in a feral snarl. His whole body shook with effort. He looked… Savage. The sight of him chilled Dani to the bone and she instinctively understood that he wouldn't stop until Troy was dead – and that she had to stop him from doing that. Not because she cared what happened to Troy Cutler, but because she was afraid of what killing him might do to Nico.
"Nico!" She had meant to call out to him, but her voice came out a hoarse whisper. She took a deep breath and tried again. This time her voice was stronger, but she didn't seem to get through to him. She stood up and took the dozen steps that separated them, then went down on her knees again in front of him. His head came up a little, but his eyes seemed to look right through her. "Nico… You can let go now… Please stop." When he still didn't hear her, Dani reached out and put her hand on his cheek, trying to ignore her fear that she might not be able to get through to him before it was too late.

Somewhere in the distance, he thought he heard someone call his name. But the sound was drowned out by the roar in his ears and he couldn't spare any of his energy to listen harder. He could still feel movement beneath him, although it was getting weaker now, and he needed to focus on that. Besides, there was no one here that mattered to him. The only one that had mattered was… Something soft and cool touched the side of his face. At first he tried to ignore it, but on the bottom of the sea he was drowning in there was something that refused to let him brush it off. Something that found the touch… soothing, wanted him to lean into it. Again, someone said his name. A woman's voice, closer now than it had been before. A familiar scent hit him, light and floral. As light began to pierce the darkness in his soul, Nico Careles struggled to make his way back to the surface. He slowly blinked and focused his eyes on the woman in front of him, trying to figure out if she was real or just a hallucination. "Dani…" he whispered. Her eyes were wide with fear – was she scared of him? Then she gave him a small, trembling smile and he let go of Cutler's neck to be able to pull her into him, desperately needing to hold her – to make sure that she was really alive.

Dani gladly gave herself up to Nico's embrace. Her left arm hurt too much to be of any more use to her, but she held on to him twice as tight with her right arm. He rested his chin on her head, she buried her face in his chest and breathed in his scent. A shudder ran through her body as her mind insisted on replaying that moment Troy had aimed for him and pulled the trigger – she would have lost him if his reflexes hadn't been that quick. And then when she'd heard the second gunshot… Squeezing her eyes shut Dani tried to swallow back her tears. Her shoulders tensed and her hands fisted as she fought to stay strong. She felt Nico kiss the top of her head. Dani wanted to tell him that she was okay, that they should go tie Troy up or something, but her chest felt too tight to get the words out. As the adrenalin that had kept her going for hours left her system, she started trembling violently and collapsed against him, sobs tearing from her chest.

"Is she okay?" Jenny's voice came from somewhere behind her. God, she had completely forgotten about the girl… And the man that had gotten shot! Dani started to push away from Nico, but he wouldn't let her.

"She will be," he said to Jenny. "She's tough."

"I know," she heard the girl say.

When Dani finally felt like she could breathe again she looked up at him through her tears. "God, Nico, I love you so much." Her voice shook as the words that she hadn't even realized she was gonna say tumbled from her lips. He released a small sigh as he raised a hand to wipe her tears away. Giving her a searching look, he barely noticeably shook his head. Then, gently cupping her cheek, he leaned down and his mouth touched hers in a soft kiss – but just as Dani closed her eyes and parted her lips, a man cleared his throat behind her. Startled, they broke the kiss and looked in the direction of the sound. Four men stood watching them, dressed in black coats that had the word Police stamped on them in white letters. A SWAT team? Where had they come from? And where had they been before, when they were needed?

"What the hell took you guys so long?" Nico voiced her thoughts.

Later, Dani could only remember fragments of the hours that followed the arrival of the SWAT team. More cops came, all of them asking her to describe what had happened. An ambulance came and took a severely injured agent Bennett away. Troy was arrested and put in the back of a police cruiser. A paramedic kept telling her that she had to come with him to the hospital, then finally dressed her wound when she kept refusing. Jenny came up to her and hugged her. But most of all she remembered Nico, staying by her side the whole time. Touching her whenever he could, reassuring her that Ray Jay was fine and just as tough as his mother was. When the cops offered to drive her home, Nico just told them no, put his arm around her shoulders and took her with him, to the helicopter that had brought him and agent Bennett here. Dani was so exhausted that she fell asleep as soon as she had her seatbelt on and din't really wake up again until the next day.

Orange light coming from the setting sun filtered in through the window and gave Dani's hair a golden glow. Nico couldn't stop himself from touching it, reveling in the softness of it. He had been touching her a lot in the past few hours, needing the physical contact to reassure himself over and over again that she was really alive. She was lying in her bed, the covers pulled up over her, fast asleep. He had been able to rouse her enough to get her to take a shower, but she'd been out like a light again as soon as her head had hit the pillow. She's tough, he had told Jenny Bruce hours before, and he still stood by that statement. But she looked so damn fragile right now. I love you so much, her voice whispered in his mind and he released a heavy sigh as he let his fingers slide to her face, careful not to touch the bruises. "I love you too, sweetheart," he whispered, barely audible. He wanted to tell her, even if she couldn't hear him. Because this would be the only chance he'd ever get. She had seen his darkest side today… and it had scared her, like he'd known it would. Remembering the fear he had seen in her eyes made his stomach feel weak. He knew she would fight her fear and that he, in turn, would do everything in his power to stop himself from ever losing control like that around her again – but he knew that dealing with his baggage would take its toll and that she would eventually end up hurt. By him. He still refused to let that happen. Nico leaned forward and kissed her forehead, wanting to stay, to get in bed with her and hold her close to him the rest of the night, but knowing that would only make it harder for him to leave…

"How is she?" Ray Jay whispered from the doorway, startling him a little.

"She's gonna be fine," he whispered back, getting up and walking over to where the boy stood. Together they stepped out of the room, Nico closing the door softly behind him. "Just make sure she takes the pain meds when she needs them, okay?"

"You're not staying." It was a statement, not a question.

Nico wasn't sure what Ray Jay wanted to hear from him, so he just went with the truth. "I can't. Take good care of her." He stepped past the kid and started for the stairs, but Ray Jay's hand on his shoulder held him back.

"Thank you for saving her." Ray Jay's hand dropped away and Nico was free to leave. He knew it was the right thing to do, but his heart grew heavier with every step he took.

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews, I hope I have done your expectations for the showdown between Nico and Troy justice. I'd love to hear your opinion on this chapter!