Free Enthralled by Ann Cristy

her voice unsteady.
    "I'll have you back in a
little while. I'll just make a call, then we'll go." He pulled her behind
him, not looking left or right.
    Teel was faintly aware of Nancy calling to her, but Chazz's rapid strides made it impossible for her to turn around.
"Where are we going? I won't go." She struggled against his grip on
her arm, but her efforts were useless. She sailed along behind him like the
dinghy following the Deirdre.
    Chazz kept Teel
clamped to his side even as he dialed and spoke into the phone in terse
sentences. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Nancy behind her, hands
clasped anxiously.
    "Should I get
security?" Nancy mouthed, her throat working with concern as her eyes
darted from Teel's face to Chazz's hand manacled to her wrist.
    Teel had opened her mouth to
say yes when she was suddenly whirled around, her back to the phone booth,
Chazz at her side. "Who's this?" he growled, nodding toward Nancy.
    Teel glowered up at him.
"Don't you dare pull that Hitler act on Nancy," she panted, anger
making her out of breath. "This isn't the deck of the Deirdre. You have no authority
here."
    "No?" he cooed,
making Nancy jump.
    "No!" Teel flung the
words at him, using her free hand to try to pry the other from his grip.
"You try your strong arm tactics here and I'll have you thrown into the
slammer." She thrust out her jaw, itching to place a well- aimed running
shoe into his midsection.
    "Introduce your friend.
Then we'll leave." Chazz transferred his grip to the left hand and held
out his right to Nancy, who leaped backward in alarm. "I'm Chazz Herman
and I'm taking Miss Barrett to lunch. Any objections?" he snapped.
    "From me?" Nancy replied. "Hell, no."
    "Nancy!" Teel cried, grimacing at her friend and jerking her head toward the uniformed
security guard who was passing fifty yards away through the press of people.
    "Survival.
That's the key word," Nancy muttered, giving Teel a weak smile, then
beginning to edge away.
    "Bright
girl," Chazz pronounced, giving Teel a gentle smile that had all the
sweetness of a barracuda on the prowl.
    Teel sagged in defeat as Nancy disappeared into the crowd. She looked back at Chazz, whose expression was serene,
and hauled in a deep breath. "Mussolini," she hissed.
    Once again Chazz began pulling
her after him, down a long tunnel and through double steel doors to the
outside. He didn't stop until he reached a Ferrari parked in a loading zone.
    Teel prayed he'd been ticketed
and was incensed not to find a slip of paper under the windshield wiper.
"Carpetbagger," she seethed as he pushed her into the passenger seat,
then hopped around the car and under the wheel before she could figure out how
to open the door.
    "Don't bother, love. It's
locked at the wheel." Chazz smiled wickedly at her and fired the engine.
    "Bandit,"
she growled Then something clicked in her head, and she flung herself around to
face him. "Were you in the car Nancy saw following us this morning?"
    He nodded. "Fasten your
seat belt."
    "Monster."
she said. "You should be arrested. How dare you harass innocent women .
"
    "I didn't harass you.. I
had to make an emergency trip to Singapore the week after you left the Deirdre
and I just got back last night. I realized that my best chance of seeing you
now was to hang around the Special Olympics tryouts. When I saw you and your
friend jogging toward the Garden, I couldn't believe my luck." He shot her
a quick glance as the Ferrari peeled through traffic. "Don't you know how
dangerous it is to jog alone in New York?"
    "I realize now that I
could meet someone like you," Teel replied. "From now on I'll take an
attack dog with me."
    "That's what
I love about you, Teel. You're so affectionate." Chazz chortled, then gave
her another quick look. "Teel. That's an unusual name."
    "My father combined the
first two letters of my name Terese Ellen. The name stuck. I've never been
called anything but Teel," she answered in stilted tones, her chin in the
air.
    "I like