Shadow Alpha (7 page)

His expression remained completely impassive. “No one is suggesting you do so. Lijah knows what to do. He’ll keep them talking until we’re out of U.S. airspace, after which we’ll change our flight plan and disappear off their radar.”

“We aren’t going back to England…?” She had been counting on them flying straight back to England. Had made her plans to disappear accordingly.

“Not immediately, no.” Dair took a sip of his cooling coffee.

Kat found herself staring at the long column of Dair’s throat as he swallowed the liquid, before quickly forcing herself to avert her gaze. Everything about this man fascinated her, it seemed, and the last thing she needed right now was another crush on this man.

“England is the first place the Orlovs will look, Kat,” Dair reasoned calmly, hating having to do this to her after all that she had already been through, but knowing it was necessary, for all concerned.

Just as it was better that Kat didn’t know about the verbal battle he’d had with Gregori over the need to keep everything about this mission as quiet as possible. Despite Gregori’s initial caution, he knew the other man would have gone in with all guns blazing if Dair had reported back to him on the way Kat was being treated. Which was why he hadn’t done so.

“Gregori and I had a long chat before I came to New York, and I eventually managed to convince him that, although I have no doubts the Orlovs will try to track you down on their own at first, when that fails Gregori needs to have deniability when the Orlovs make their call to him.” Dair’s mouth twisted at the understatement. “That’s why I haven’t contacted him once since I came to New York two weeks ago—no phone records, nothing that will link me to him.”

“So Gregori doesn’t know where we’re going either…?”

“No,” Dair bit out decisively, knowing from her suddenly wary expression that he wasn’t helping to ease Kat’s tension in the slightest. Had she been with the Orlovs for so long that she didn’t trust anyone anymore?

“What about you, Dair, don’t you need ‘deniability’ too?” Her voice had hardened noticeably. “The security cameras at the clinic were—”

“A joke, like the rest of their security,” Dair scorned. “It was designed to keep people in, Kat, not intruders out,” he explained at her questioning look.

“But you’ll still show up on the cameras?”

“Only ever in profile,” he assured her. “I did my homework, Kat, knew where every security camera was placed before I came in. All that will show up when they review their security discs is a man dressed in tweeds wearing a pair of thick-rimmed black glasses.”

“A man with a distinctive scar on his right temple.”

“I kept my right profile to a minimum—”

“Nurse Cruella will remember it, though.”

He smiled slightly in acknowledgement of the comparison between the nurse and the fictional character. “Yes. Well. Some things are harder to hide than others.” The fingers of Dair’s right hand went instinctively to that scar at his temple before he caught himself doing it, checked himself, and returned his hand to the arm of the chair.

“Maybe if you grew your hair longer…”

“Like when I was a teenager, you mean.” He eyed Kat mockingly.

A blush colored her cheeks, as if she remembered his ‘bad-boy’ image only too well. “How did it happen?”

“It’s a long story—and not one I’m prepared to talk about,” he added harshly as Kat would have spoken again. “I made an anonymous phone call to the police while I was in the cockpit, told them they should take a good look at the staff and patients at Harmony View Clinic,” he deliberately changed the subject. Because the scar on his temple wasn’t the only one he had, there was another one on his back, both wounds caused by bullets, because of a woman who had the same beautiful, limpid dark eyes as Kat Markovic, and he didn’t want Kat prodding any further into the topic.

“Thank you.” She gave him a tremulous smile. “I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone else being locked in there against their will.” She gave a shake of her head.

Dair nodded. “That should keep the police busy for a while. The Orlovs might have a little explaining to do too, regarding your admission there,” he added grimly.

“Not for long.” Kat grimaced. “They have too many judges and law-enforcement agents in their pockets. Sergei threatened to have one of those judges admit me to a mental hospital if I didn’t agree to go to the clinic willingly.”

Dair sat forward tensely. “What happened, Kat? Why did Sergei have you locked away?”

She turned sharply away to stare out of the window before answering him huskily. “He said I was imagining things, making wild accusations after—after I lost the baby.”

What the fuck?

Gregori hadn’t mentioned anything about Kate losing a baby.

Maybe because the other man hadn’t known?

“It happened the week before—before my father died.” The darkness of Kat’s eyes burned like twin coals in the pallor of her face as she turned back to look at Dair. “I was in shock. Traumatized. The doctor Sergei called gave me something, to calm me he said. Everything that happened after that is a blur. My father’s death. His funeral. The flight back to New York with Sergei and Ivan. My admission to the clinic.” She gave a shake of her head, tears now balanced on the edge of her silky dark lashes. “The only emotion I remember feeling through all of it is hatred for Sergei.”

Dair was convinced that Gregori had no idea his sister had suffered a miscarriage two months ago. He would never have allowed all this time to have elapsed between seeing Kat if he had known, no matter what Sergei may have said to fob him off.

No, for some reason Sergei hadn’t told Gregori that Kat had lost a baby, and Kat herself had been medicated and admitted to the clinic. All to stop her from talking to her brother?

Of course it could also be true that losing the baby had thrown Kat’s emotions off balance, her father’s death following so quickly afterwards having broken her completely. She certainly looked sane enough, but—

“I know what you’re thinking, Dair.” Kat eyed Dair mockingly.

Because she really did know what he was thinking.

He was asking himself the same questions Kat had asked herself until they had increased her mediation, after her attempt to stab Sergei with a knife, and she had no longer been able to string a single thought together, let alone questions.

Had
finding out exactly what a bastard Sergei was, losing the baby, and then her father’s death, all pushed her over an emotional precipice?

More importantly, was she still sane?

Kat was now convinced that the answer to the first question was no, and a definite yes to the second.

Anyone would have crumpled emotionally under the force of the blows she had received in so short a time. But that didn’t mean she was insane, only that she was grieving for all that had been lost to her.

She still felt those losses like an ache inside her, but she was no longer filled with that utter despair that had consumed her two months ago.
 

Without realizing it, the medication and being locked away in the clinic had also given Kat the peace and calm she needed to heal, to recover from the deep shock of that double loss.

She raised her chin determinedly. “I’m really not insane, Dair. And you don’t have to be concerned that I’ll attack you with a knife when you least expect it.” Her mouth twisted humorlessly. “The only person to bring out my murderous tendencies is Sergei.” She determinedly shook off the darkness of her thoughts. “Now, if it’s at all possible, is there’s a bathroom of some sort on this plane?” she continued briskly. “I would dearly like to have a wash that doesn’t involve being watched by some perverted security guard.” She had noticed that there was another door at the back of this luxuriously appointed jet, hopefully leading to a bathroom that was big enough to wash in.

Dair’s mouth tightened at the thought of the security guard he had met yesterday watching Kat while she stripped and washed. “There’s a shower through there.” He nodded towards the closed door at the back of the cabin. “A bedroom too, if you want to sleep,” he added as she stood up.

She paused. “Maybe I’ll sleep after I’ve spoken to Gregori… You’ll wait until I come back before calling to him?”

Was that anxiety Dair could hear in Kat’s voice? He thought it was, yes.

Why?

What was it Kat didn’t want him to tell Gregori?

What was she hiding?

Dair gave an inner snort; Kat didn’t need to hide anything, any and everything that had happened to her over the past two months would be enough to send Gregori into revenge mode.

Maybe that was the problem?

Kat didn’t want Dair to talk to Gregori because she didn’t want her brother to know what Sergei Orlov had done to her?

As if that was going to happen when Gregori was going to demand to know exactly what had been happening to his sister.

Or maybe Kat was reluctant to tell Gregori because she still had feelings for Sergei?

Yeah, like that last one was a possibility; she had tried to stab and kill the bastard only weeks ago!

“I’ll wait.” Dair nodded agreement.

Kat breathed a sigh of relief before entering the second cabin. She could almost have wept with joy when she walked into the bathroom and saw all the glistening-clean tiles in the shower cubicle and the fluffy white towels warming on the rack. Better yet, when she turned on the shower the water was up to temperature within seconds, but best of all she had complete privacy.

All of these were things she had taken for granted her whole life, but after her weeks in the clinic, they were now more precious to her than all the diamonds and rubies Sergei had given her, and which she had left behind in his safe.

“You look happy,” Dair commented with satisfaction when Kat rejoined him in the cabin fifteen minutes later, her hair still damp, her face aglow as she grinned at him.

“Whoever this jet belongs to has my eternal gratitude.” She resumed her seat opposite, still smiling.

“It’s hired.” Dair shrugged.

“Deniability,” Kat guessed ruefully.

“Deniability.” Dair nodded.

“What about Lijah?” She glanced towards the cockpit. “He doesn’t have deniability.”

Dair’s mouth thinned. “Lijah is one of mine.”

“‘One of yours’…?”

“We worked together for eight years, now he works for me. He’s one of mine.” He gave a shrug.

“I see.”

“Do you?” he mused.

“Not really.” Kat grimaced.

Dair shrugged. “It’s enough that I do.” He had tried to explain the relationship he had with his army buddies to Lucien once; his cousin hadn’t understood either. Men who served together necessarily had to trust the rest of the men in their unit to watch their back. Dair had a dozen such men now working for his security company, and he would trust each and every one of them with his life, as they knew they could trust him.

Unfortunately, Dair had never learned that trust where women were concerned. Not after trusting Karin had almost gotten him killed.

Which was a good time to change the subject. “Are you ready to speak to Gregori now?”

Some of the glow left Kat’s eyes. “I would like to talk to Gregori, of course I would. But first…” She chewed her bottom lip between her teeth.

Dair’s eyes narrowed at this visible sign of increased tension. “Yes?”

Kat gave a shake of her head. “Can you…hold off telling Gregori all of the details about my…my stay at the clinic, until you and I have had a chance to talk?”

“We can talk before putting the call through to him—”

“I’d rather put Gregori’s mind at ease first.”

“At which time I’m guessing you don’t intend telling him anything that happened to you,” Dair guessed impatiently. “The fact that Sergei had you locked away. The unnecessary medication. The being strapped to your chair. The complete lack of fucking privacy.” His voice had grown harder and harder with anger at each statement of fact.

“I don’t think too much of that went on at the clinic!”

“Kat…!”

She gave a heavy sigh. “You don’t have any sisters, do you, Dair.”

He stood up restlessly. “If I did you can be sure I would never have let them marry an animal like Sergei Orlov!”

Kat winced. “That had nothing to do with Gregori. You have to understand, Dair,” she looked up at him pleadingly. “My father was, above all things, the head of the Markovic family. His actions were always made for the good of all the family, rather than the individual—”

“Including his own daughter?”

“Yes.” She sighed. “An alliance, through marriage, between the Markovic and the Orlov families, benefitted everyone concerned.”

“Except you.” A nerve pulsed in Dair’s tightly clenched jaw. “You were just the sacrificial lamb.”

“Yes,” Kat could now barely speak past the dryness in her throat.

Dair paused beside her chair to reach out and cup his hand beneath her chin, lifting her face up so that he could look at her directly. The happiness no longer shone in those dark eyes, and Kat’s skin was so pale it was almost translucent.