Free Like a Knife by Annie Solomon Page A

me."
    "Better me than someone else." He released her arm, but his face was still tense and irate. "Look, you have to get out of here. Now."
    He was right; she had a bad feeling about this. The clothes, the attitude, none of this was the Nick she knew. "Not until you answer some questions."
    "I don't have time for questions."
    "Make time."
    He muttered a curse under his breath, scanned the alley as if for enemy infiltrators. "Five minutes."
    Gee, thanks. "I spoke to the police about where you were the night Shelley died. They told me you're with Rennie Spiers now. Is it true?"
    He looked as though he wanted to strangle her. "You spoke to the police? For God's sake, are you trying to set yourself up as a target?"
    She curbed her impatience. "I'm trying to do what's right. You were with me, Nick. You didn't kill Shelley. But you did disappear. Right off the radar screen. For all I knew you could have been lying in a ditch with your throat slit." She paused to look him over. "But you weren't, were you? You were just getting a makeover."
    "Sorry to disappoint you."
    She could have bitten off her tongue. "I didn't say I was disappointed." Not yet, anyway. "So..." She looked at his face, at his dark eyes sharp with anger, at the rough twist of his mouth, and hoped against hope. "Is it true? Are you working for Spier again?"
    She held her breath. His jaw tensed. "Yes."
    The word hit her like a fist in the stomach. The man who had held her all night, who'd been sweet and gentle and made her feel safe in her darkest moment, that man would not work for a monster like Spier.
    So it must have been some other Nick who checked his watch and said, "Four minutes."
    She bit back a nasty reply, but even so her words came out on the edge of sarcasm. "So... is this your new uniform?" She waved her hand in front of him, in-dicating his attire. Somehow, the expensive clothes made his betrayal all the more real. And her own feelings all the more confused. Because much as she wanted to turn her back on him, the truth was, he took her breath away. She hated what he was doing, why couldn't she hate him? Why couldn't she turn around and walk away?
    "It's wicked of you to look so good," she said.
    His lips thinned into a tight smile. "Rennie demands a certain... standard from his associates." He watched her with unfeeling black eyes. "Three minutes."
    That was it. She'd had it. She didn't know this man. "Forget it." She stalked off. "I don't need you. It says right here Rennie Spier's headquarters are in Gramercy Park." She'd brought one of the newspaper articles with her, and now she waved it over her shoulder. "I'll find it eventually and ask him my questions."
    "Wait a minute. Wait a minute!" He captured her arm, spun her around. "You stay away from Rennie."
    "Why? What's he got to do with me?" She yanked her arm out of his grasp. "Or is he behind that little unexpected visit your friends paid me?'' Did his face blanch? In the dimness of the alley she couldn't be sure. They were your friends, weren't they?"
    "That's not the word I'd use."
    "Really? What would you call them?"
    The wall of steel softened. "Rachel, I-" He took a step toward her. She backed away.
    "He used me, didn't he? The... kidnapping. Releasing me at your doorstep. He wanted you to do something. Something you didn't want to do." Nick didn't say anything. He didn't have to. The answer was in the stricken look on his face. "What did he want?"
    "It doesn't matter."
    She pivoted toward the street. God, she was tired of fencing with him.
    He ran to block her way. "All right. He wanted me."
    "And you went? After six years, he snaps his fingers, and you come running?"
    His eyes hardened into two black coals. "He didn't exactly snap his fingers, did he?"
    No, he hadn't. Rennie Spier had used her. Hurt her. All at once she understood. "You did it for me, didn't you? My God. That's why you disappeared so suddenly, why you haven't contacted me, called... You were afraid he'd use me again."
    He