A Devil Is Waiting by Jack Higgins Read Free Book Online Page B

to the colonel, then turned, glanced briefly at Holley, and moved toward the exit leading to the restrooms.
     
    A voice said, “Heh, I bet that colonel’s more than just her boss. I love a girl in uniform, and that limp is kind of sexy. Maybe I could do myself some good here.”
     
    There were two of them, middle-aged, well-dressed and arrogant, and already drunk. They made for the exit, drinking from their glasses as the music started up again, and Holley went after them.
     
    At that moment, the corridor happened to be empty, just Sara Gideon approaching the restroom door, and the one who was doing all the talking put his glass down on a stand in front of a mirror, moved up fast behind her, and put a hand on her shoulder.
     
    “Hang on there, young lady. I know you soldier girls like a little action. We know just the place to take you.”
     
    “I don’t think so,” she said as Holley approached behind them. “I think my friend wouldn’t like that.”
     
    “And which friend would that be?” the second man asked.
     
    Holley punched him very hard in the kidneys and, as he cried in pain and doubled over, kicked his feet from under him and stamped in the small of his back. The other man reached into his inside breast pocket and tried to withdraw what turned out to be a small pistol. Sara put her elbow in the man’s mouth, then twisted his wrist in entirely the wrong direction until he moaned with pain and dropped the weapon. Holley pickedit up. “Two-shot derringer with hollow points. I didn’t know there were still any of these around. Very lethal.” He smacked the man’s face. “What’s your name?”
     
    “Leo,” the man gasped. “Don’t hurt me.”
     
    “The NYPD would just love to catch you with one of these. You’d be in a cell in Rikers tonight and, what’s worse, the showers in the morning. So I suggest you pick your friend up by the scruff of the neck and get out of here while I’m in a good mood.”
     
    “Anything you say, anything.” Leo was terrified and reached down to his friend, hauling him up.
     
    Holley said to Sara, “I get the impression you know who I am.”
     
    “Let’s say I’ve seen you on screen.”
     
    “Do you still need the restroom?”
     
    “No, I think that can wait. I could do with a drink, but I’d prefer to go to the hotel bar for it and catch my breath.”
     
    “The bar it is, then.” He offered her his arm, and, behind them, Leo managed to get his friend on his feet, and they lurched away.
     
    T hey sat at a corner table and waited until a waiter brought a martini cocktail for her and a large vodka for him. She picked up her glass.
    “You don’t take prisoners, do you?” she asked.
     
    “I could never see the point. The way you handled that guy with the derringer, though, suggests you could have managed quite well on your own.”
     
    “I have a black belt in aikido. Giles Roper warned me about you, you know.”
     
    “So you’re familiar with my wicked past?”
     
    “And Holland Park,” she said. “And what goes on there. I’ve been given full access. I must say he’s very thorough.”
     
    “He’s that, all right.”
     
    “That horrible man.” She sipped her martini. “He was afraid for his life. You frightened the hell out of him.”
     
    “I meant to, he deserved it.” He took his vodka down in a quick swallow, Russian style, and she watched him gravely, waiting for more. “Look, I was involved in a terrible incident years ago that makes it impossible for me to stand by and do nothing when I see a woman in trouble.”
     
    “Being familiar with your file, I understand why.”
     
    “Well, there you are, then,” Holley said. “Anything else you’d like to know?”
     
    “I saw you watching me dancing with Colonel Grant, but you looked startled for some reason.”
     
    He shrugged. “Just astonished at finding the best-looking woman I’d seen in a uniform for years.”
     
    She smiled. “Why, Daniel, you certainly