Peter turned to face himagain. His eyes went past him to Ivan. “More pieces of my Anna. Youfind these men and kill them!”
“Yes boss.” Ivan turned andleft the room calling for the two men outside the door.
Once they were alone, Peterspoke again. “So you do speak Arabic. I was hoping with all thetime you’ve spent in the Middle East. I wonder what else my sourcesdidn’t uncover about you.”
He smiled slightly. “Whatdo you want to know?”
“Maybe I should have askedyou questions instead of reading a ridiculous file.”
Of course he should have.“Did you want to report this to the police?”
“No. We keep it within ourcircles. I will deal with them my way, my style.”
“As you wish.”
“That will be all Mr.Casey.” He waved his hand dismissing him.
Ryan nodded, set the noteon the desk and left the office. Peter clearly had this affect him.Well, he probably wouldn’t appreciate the threat of having piecesof his offspring mailed to him either. The dirt was still fresh onAnna’s grave.
When he went back to checkon Katya, she was sitting in a chair in her room, bent over, lacingup running shoes. She’d removed the sling, but he could see thatshe was having some difficulty with her arm. By the way she wasdressed; in black athletic shorts and a pink sports bra, she wasgoing for a run.
“Goingsomewhere?”
She spoke without lookingup, still struggling with the last sneaker. “I like to jog. Ithelps me clear my head.” Yes, she was absolutely terrified, but shewas going to face her demons and not hide. She would not let herfather, or anyone else dictate how she was going to live her life,and she was going to live.
“I’ll getchanged.”
She sat up with frustrationand blew a stray piece of hair out of her face. “I don’t need anescort; like some small child with a babysitter. There’s a crowd onthe beach this time of day, and I’ll stick to it.” She was scaredto death to go alone, but she wasn’t going to admit it. She alsowas hoping this would start helping her cope with herfears.
He was amused, mostparticularly at the metaphor. She was definitely no child. “You’regetting one because you are not getting out of my sight. We’ve beenover this Katya.”
She took a resigned breath.“Well fine, Mr. Babysitter, but I’m not slowing foryou.”
He smirked, walked over tostand in front of her. She craned her neck to look up at him. Thenhe adjusted his slacks by tugging on the material on his upperthighs to give him room to bend, and got down on one knee. He mether eyes and tied the remaining shoelace without looking at it. “Isthat a challenge?”
Her mouth parted as shestared at him. Gosh, he was mesmerizing. His grey eyes held suchintelligence that she was momentarily speechless. And hisunwavering confidence seemed to melt her anger momentarily.Get it together Katya,she scolded herself silently. This wasn’t possible, theattractiveness, especially after what she just went through. Maybeit was some sort of traumatic after effect of her captivity. Howthe heck did she know? She knew nothing of what happened to someonein her position, which is probably why he kept telling her to gosee the psychiatrist. Still, she felt something now, between them.However, it only seemed one sided. He never gave any indicationthat it existed on his end. Well, he was probably used to womenfalling all over him. After all, she did witness the nurse’sreaction to him. God certainly gifted him with all those masculineskills and looks to attract anyone he wanted, so more than likelyhe was immune to that electric feeling. Still that look went beyondnormal. She slanted her eyes as something suddenly occurred to her.“You run don’t you?”
“Every morning.”
She sighed heavily. “Well,I should have known.”
He stood up. “I’ll getchanged. Two minutes.”
He was actually ready inless than that and came back for her.
***
They ran a good ten milesalong the beach. Neither one of them spoke and she was grateful forthe silence. She also noticed how out of shape she was. She’dbroken into a sweat and was breathing pretty heavy. Her arm washurting too. He’d yet to even show any fatigue. What a surprisethough, he’d caught her difficulty.
“You need to stop for aminute.”
She nodded and slowed to awalk. Then she paused and looked out toward the ocean with herhands on her hips while trying to catch her breath. Her wrist wasthrobbing. It was a bad sprain. One of her captors twisted it andalthough she could wiggle her fingers now, she obviously stilllacked the strength to tie her shoe laces.
“You’ve been hospitalizedand injured. It takes a toll on the body.”
“You’re being kind.” Yes,she was out of sorts, but he was obviously in immaculate shape. Shewas usually puffing by the time she made it back home but he stilldidn’t seem near breathless.
He never saidanything.
She turned back to him.“How far do you usually run?”
“It doesn’tmatter.”
That was the first time shecame close to laughing since her captivity. Again, he was savingher feelings. She was competitive and he obviously knew that. “Ihope there’s something I can do better than you Mr. Casey. My egois taking a beating so far.”
Again, he never saidanything but his eyes seemed to darken for a moment as if there wassome statement in them about knowing something she could do better.Well, he kept it to himself. She was probably better off that hedid. Unable to hold his gaze anymore, she looked past him at thecrowd as something caught her attention. There was a man, a darkerskinned man, standing there in blue shorts just watching her. Hewas a little on the heavy side, and looked very familiar. She felther skin crawl with fear and that hit her with a wave ofadrenaline.
“Katya?”
Her mouth fell open and thebottom lip started to quiver. He was looking at her. Directly ather. It
