Chase Me (Paris Nights Book 2)(52)
So she knew plenty of people fighting terrorists emotionally, by refusing to give in to discrimination or by going out into the streets and celebrating life and being together.
But she had never known anyone fighting terrorists with bullets. Well, she knew some police officers, but more everyday riot police and traffic cops. Not RAID.
Not…she pushed her hand through her hair…not American black ops. Not outside of movies.
And a hundred scenes from Hollywood of men in black or camouflage with guns raised, going in, rose in her brain, and she tried to put Chase in the place of one of those men, and…
“You okay?” Célie said.
“Need a jacket?” Joss asked.
“I’m okay,” Vi lied. And, as the line shifted forward, “Oh, thank God, we finally get to go in. This guy had better be hilarious.”
He was, but not enough to take Vi’s mind off the utter bizarreness of receiving a call from the health inspectors right at intermission. It was nine o’clock at night. “We just wanted to inform you as early as possible that the test results came back negative, and the salmonella in your clients was traced to spinach they purchased at the grocery store. Your restaurant is cleared, and you can return to operations.”
Vi hung up and went back to her seat, staring at the comedian as he came back out on stage. She needed to call her publicist and try to get the vindication of Au-dessus and Violette Lenoir out as far and wide as possible, even if it would never have the same reach as the story that she had poisoned the president. She needed to call the U.S. embassy and see if the president would still come on his visit the day after tomorrow. She needed to get up early for the market tomorrow and figure out a menu that would absolutely knock everyone’s socks off.
But she couldn’t shake the conviction that her restaurant had been caught up in the throes of something she knew nothing about, that Chase was at the center of it…and that something might have happened that very day and she had no idea what.
The comedian might have been funny, his second half. But she didn’t hear anything he said at all.
Chapter 16
Chase bounced into the kitchens of Au-dessus like he was about to bounce right through the ceiling. He felt like one of those men on the moon—if he wasn’t careful, he’d bounce himself into space.
Au-dessus must be busy—what was it, eight p.m.?—because scents and sounds filled the kitchen, heady and clashing and warm. Color splashed across plates in ardent drama. There was motion everywhere and Vi was in full swing, precise and graceful like a whip cracking, pivoting between one station and another, checking food, confirming orders were coming up, calling for waiters.
Aww, look at her in her white coat and with her hair piled up on the back of her head and her skin glowing with perspiration, making everybody do what she wanted. She moved as if this whole kitchen was her orchestra, only they didn’t line up in front of her where she could see them, they were all around her, and her whole body was the conductor’s wand, jabbing, dancing, lifting, guiding, making sure everyone’s note came in at just the right moment, just the right way. Hell, she was hot.
As soon as he saw her, all that energy in him figured out exactly what it wanted to do with itself.
He sprang across the kitchens, so happy to see her and so full of himself he could barely stand it, caught her by the waist just as she pivoted toward him, lifted her up, and swung her around.
All around them, every single motion stopped for five full seconds. Any threat making the gazelles here freeze? No. They were just staring at him and Vi. So he dismissed them from his attention.
“Miss me?” He grinned up at her, set her down, swept her into his arms to squeeze her, and kissed her hard.
Damn that felt good.
He tried to do it again, and Vi shoved him, ducked, squirmed and…wait, what? He loosened his arms, staring at her in confused hurt.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked between her teeth.
Returning as a conquering hero? Ready to celebrate? Happy to see her? Okay, she didn’t know about the conquering hero part because it was really better she not, but…wasn’t the rest obvious? “Damn, I missed you,” he said, and started to reach for her again.
She shoved him back from her. “I’m working.”
Well…yeah, but…he’d been gone for more than a week. And he had ten stitches up his shoulder from a shrapnel wound for his job, and he and his team had just taken out one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.
A little kiss might be nice.
“I just got in,” he said. “Didn’t you miss me?”
Vi stared at him, and a muscle in her jaw flexed. She spun suddenly toward her staff. “Get back to work. I don’t need to remind you how perfect everything needs to be today. Adrien.” She jerked her chin at a young man and then jerked her chin at Chase in a very similar way but with more disfavor and strode into her office.
He followed after her, starting to get a little indignant, and let the door close behind them. The office was glass-walled. Vi reached up and closed the blinds, then spun on him.
Chase folded his arms. “What a warm welcome.”
He’d heard about these kinds of things. You just shot Bin Laden or something, and you come home and your wife puts your kid in your arms and says his diaper needs changing and it’s about time you started pitching in.