Chapter 17
17
Alex moved over to his clothes, strewn on the floor. Bent down and picked up his pants. Pulled them on. Zipped them. Reached for his shirt. Draped it across the back of a chair. Smoothed the fine cotton. He wasn’t a professional actor, but a stellar performance was called for, now.
“Well?” Katie demanded angrily.
He looked up at her grimly. “I grew up with the man. I know when not to cross him. He opened that call by referring to you and Dawn. Don’t you see? He was threatening the two of you. I get him his list, or he comes after the two of you.”
Katie’s outrage deflated like a balloon with the air being let out of it. “But Alex, it’s treason to spy.”
“It’s not treason to share information from a private company. Doctors Unlimited is not a government-sponsored organization.”
“It’s still theft.”
“Is it?” He shrugged. “If the Russians want the information so they can stay out of our people’s hair, where’s the harm in that?”
“Seriously?” Katie’s outrage was back, and she was magnificent in her fury. Excellent .
He shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I’ll just go into André Fortinay’s office, copy the master list off his computer, and forward it to my father. No harm, no foul. It doesn’t hurt anybody at D.U. My father gets off my case for a while. And most importantly, you and Dawn are left alone.”
The ends-justifies-the-means argument appeared to give Katie pause. But only for a moment. “It’s wrong ,” she said forcefully.
“Information like this has no cash value. I wouldn’t even be charged with theft. Industrial espionage involves proprietary information that’s vital to a money-making process or venture.”
“You could still be charged with breaking and entering.”
“I work there and have legal access to the offices. All I have to do is walk in. No breaking required to enter, babe.”
“I cannot believe you’re being so cavalier about this! I thought better of you.”
Okay, that stung. But this was necessary. He had to goad her to action.
Mentally, he cursed his father for pushing him into this corner. He’d thought there, for a while that he was finally out from under his father’s iron fist. Roman had mostly left him alone since he got out of prison, and he’d been praying daddy dearest had gotten the memo when his son chose to go to jail rather than work for him.
But no. The bastard was back, full-force, jacking him around and screwing up everything good in his life. Just like old times.
A wave of despair washed over him. It was a weak emotion he refused to give in to, but jeez. Would the guy never leave him alone? Would he never get a shot at happiness for himself? The emotional connection Katie was offering him tempted him like no other vice he’d ever been exposed to. He could get addicted to her so easily.
A little more time. A little more bonding—over Dawn, over their shared work—and the two of them could’ve had it all.
And then along came Roman, he thought bitterly. Now all that was left for him to do was finish destroying what Roman had just told him in no uncertain terms to wreck or else be forever vulnerable to his father’s manipulations. Damn the man .
Alex looked over at Katie coldly. “I already told you I’m not a saint. This is the practical reality of my life. I walk a tightrope between men like your uncle and men like my father. It’s not pretty, but it’s how I stay alive. Deal with it or get out of my way.”
Odd, but it actually hurt to say those words. Intriguing. Disturbing. Just how far gone was his heart?
He tried to imagine never seeing Dawn again and thanked his lucky stars he’d already nailed down shared guardianship of the infant. Katie couldn’t legally prevent him from seeing Dawn and being part of her life as she grew up.
And if he remained part of Dawn’s life, he would, perforce, remain part of Katie’s life. No matter how angry she was with him now, he could win her back. He always got his way in the end. Superior intellect, patience, and cunning always prevailed, after all.
“If those are my choices,” Katie declared, “I’m out.”
“What?” he blurted in spite of his resolve to do this thing.
“I’m out. I thought I was getting through to you. Making a difference. That we had something special going. But I don’t sleep with criminals.”
“Getting the list is not criminal!”
“Maybe. But it’s not right .”
She was absolutely correct. But he wasn’t about to tell her that.
She was almost there. Almost ready to spite him. He would never, ever forgive his father for making him do this. Grimly, he pounded in the final nail into his own coffin.
He steeled himself and managed a casual shrug. “Fine. If that’s how you feel, get out.”
She stared at him for a long moment. Long enough for her rage to melt. Long enough for her eyes to fill with tears. Long enough for him to call himself every foul name he could think of for doing this to her.
But what choice did he have? He had to stay on the tightrope. And he had to get her to step off of it now before it got any higher off the ground. He had no net to catch either of them.
Katie picked up her purse and walked out of the hotel room. And he didn’t stop her .
She ignored the smirk a bellboy threw her as she crossed the lobby. The kid no doubt thought she was a hooker done with a job. Screw him. Her heart had just shattered in a million pieces.
She could not believe Alex would steal the list of names and places for his father. He hated Roman!
She’d stormed out of the hotel and asked the doorman to hail her a cab before it occurred to her that family relationships weren’t necessarily simple things. It was entirely possible that, as much as Alex claimed to hate his father, he also craved his father’s approval. Maybe even his father’s love.
She had, in fact, established tonight that Alex did appreciate and want love in spite of his big words to the contrary. Maybe he wanted his father to love him, too?—
Dammit, she was not going to make excuses for Alex! It was wrong to steal that list and that was all there was to it. But Lord, it hurt to realize that she hadn’t gotten through to him.
Her mother had always said it was folly to try to change a man, but Katie had really thought she could save Alex from the darkness within himself. At some fundamental level of his being, he’d seemed to want her to save him.
How could she have read him so very wrong? It shook her confidence in her ability to understand people. Heck, it shook her confidence in people. She’d been so sure, deep down in her heart, that Alex was a good man. Until his abrupt and complete about-face after a two-minute call with his father proved her so terribly wrong.
She suspected it would hurt for a very long time before she got over him. If she ever got over him. How could she ever look at Dawn and not see him? Her arms ached to hold the baby. Her baby.
She looked at her watch. It was after ten p.m. Too late to visit the convent, darn it. But there was one other thing she could take care of tonight. Now, while she was still angry and the hurt hadn’t taken over her soul. She had to do it now, before her resolve faltered.
She scrolled through her cell phone and found André Fortinay’s emergency cell phone number. All of D.U.’s field staff had the number.
“Hello?” he answered right away. The faint French accent was noticeable in his voice tonight.
“André? I’m sorry to bother you this late. It’s Katie McCloud. We have a problem.”
Alex sank onto the edge of the bed as the door shut behind Katie. He felt…empty.
When would he ever learn? It was always this way when he was a kid. If he found something to love—a teddy bear or a stray cat or even a friend from school—his father tore it away from him. Told him to be tough. To have no feelings. Discipline his mind. How was the bastard still doing that to him?
No, wait. Hadn’t Katie just said he was doing it to himself, now? Was she right?
Alex swore violently as he grabbed a little bottle of whiskey out of the refrigerator and downed it in a single gulp. These mini-bottles weren’t going to cut it. He called downstairs and had the bar send up a fifth of their best, with a fat tip if it could be here in five minutes or less.
The bottle was delivered and he skipped pouring it and tipped it up, taking a healthy gulp. Better. He was going to get drunk off his ass and pray oblivion laid in wait at the bottom of this bottle.
Katie sat in a chair in the hotel room she’d hastily checked into across town, as far from Alex as the Metro would take her. She stared at the gray carpet, her mind blank. She’d done it. She’d betrayed Alex.
She’d gone behind his back and warned André that Alex was planning to steal his master list of staff and their postings abroad.
The Frenchman’s reaction had been odd. He’d seemed almost…amused that Alex had told her what he planned to do. Of course, he’d been grateful for the heads’ up, but he hadn’t been nearly as alarmed at the moral breakdown in one of his doctors as she would have expected.
He had questioned her in some detail regarding Roman’s phone call and what Alex had said afterward about the call and his decision to do what his father asked. Come to think of it, that had been about the time André started to chuckle.
There was nothing funny about this situation! It sucked. She’d just lost the man she’d been falling in love with. Lost him to his grasping father and to the dark urgings of his wounded soul.
How in the hell was she supposed to compete with those? Apparently, the answer was that she couldn’t win. Blood ran deep in families. Of all people, she knew that coming from the big, tight clan that she did.
She sat there for a long time before finally crawling into bed.
Her cell phone’s loud ring yanked her out of a dark dream early the next morning. She pounced on the phone, heart racing. Let it be Alex. Let it be Alex .
She slammed the phone to her ear. “Alex?”
“Hi honey. It’s mom. And who’s this Alex fellow you’re so breathlessly eager to talk to?”
Katie’s heart dropped to her feet and she sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. “Hi, Mom.” She glanced at her bedside clock. Not even eight a.m., yet. Ugh. “Why are you calling me so early?”
“Uncle Charlie called. Imagine my surprise when I found out you were back home and didn’t give me a call to let me know you’re safe.”
“I’m sorry. It’s been really crazy since I got back. I was going to call you, but I haven’t had time.”
“Not one single minute to let me know you’re okay? I was worried about you, sweetie.”
Katie scowled. “You don’t make the boys call you every time they get back from a mission. And don’t tell me they’re boys and can take care of themselves, whereas I’m a weak, silly girl who can’t do anything for herself.”
Her mother chuckled. “That’s what your father would say, honey. Not me. I raised you to be a strong, independent woman. And I do make your brothers call me whenever they get home. They’re just embarrassed to admit it.”
Katie smiled reluctantly. Her mother was barely five foot three and would kick butts and take names if her big, bad brothers didn’t do what she asked of them.
“Why are you calling me so early, mom?”
“Ian’s home. Apparently, he got hurt on his last trip and he’s in a hospital in Washington, D.C. Charlie said you’re in the Washington area, and I thought you might check in on your big brother for me. Your dad and I are driving down today, but in the meantime, Ian might like to see a familiar face.”
“What hospital is he in?”
“Walter Reed in Bethesda. Do you know it?”
“Heard of it. I’ll figure out where it is and go see what he’s gotten himself into, now.”
“Thanks, sweetie. How about Dad and I meet you at the hospital this afternoon? We can do dinner and you can tell us all about your trip to that something-stan place.”
“That would be great.”
She tried to go back to sleep, but was wide-awake after the call. She gave up and got out of bed, showered, and dressed. The hotel front desk helped her find a rental car place, and its shuttle drove her to it. An hour later, she was headed toward Chevy Chase and Dawn.
Sister Mary Harris was chipper when she came out to meet Katie in the waiting area. Even better, she was carrying a bundled pink blanket in her arms. Dawn was sleeping, but Katie didn’t care and held the baby close, fussing over her and cuddling her.
“I’ve missed you so much, honey bunny,” she whispered.
“She’s a good baby,” the nun reported. “Eats and sleeps like a champ, and has a sunny personality.”
“That’s my girl,” Katie murmured.
“How’s Alex?” the nun asked without warning.
A shadow crossed Katie’s heart and she looked up at the nun sadly. “Not great. His father called him last night and wanted him to do something…unethical…for him. Alex agreed to do it.”
Sister Mary Harris sat down on a stone bench and gestured for Katie to sit beside her. “That man has always had his hooks deep into his son. You have to understand: Alex had no one else. His father isolated him from other children and other people. Made the boy totally dependent on him. You could even say he brainwashed young Alex. Roman Koronov trained his son to be like him from the time Alex could walk and talk.”
“So you’re saying Alex can’t say no to his father?”
The nun sighed. “Alex said no plenty. Roman just makes him pay for it every time he does. Alex used to come to school beaten black and blue.”
“I thought his father was arrested when Alex was eleven or twelve.”
“I’m talking about before that.”
Katie gulped. His father had beaten him when he was younger than that?
“Any time we asked him about his bruises, Alex always claimed it was martial arts training or boxing lessons And maybe it was.” She added gently, “But maybe it wasn’t.”
Katie spoke with quiet desperation. “The thing Roman asked Alex to do last night isn’t strictly illegal, but it’s morally wrong, and Alex said he would do it. I lost him. I thought I was getting through to him, but I failed.”
“The Lord doesn’t give up on anyone the first time they fail, child. And that boy may do more immoral things before it’s all said and done. But I believe in my heart that he wants to be a good person and is doing everything in his power to become a good person.”
“You’re saying I’m giving up on him too easily?”
The nun shrugged. “I learned long ago never to tell people what to do. You have to look inside your own heart and listen to the urgings of that small, quiet voice in the back of your head. Do what’s best for you. And for Dawn.”
Katie exhaled hard. “I don’t approve of what Alex is doing.”
“That’s what you think of him. What do you feel about him?”
A tear splashed onto Dawn’s fuzzy blanket and trembled there delicately. “I think I’m falling in love with him.” She added in a rush, “But it’s not enough. I have to be able to trust him, to believe in him, to respect him, if we’re going to build a life together.”
“A family,” the nun murmured.
“Exactly. I need a good man to raise Dawn with me. Not someone with no moral compass and living under the control of a monster.”
The nun threw her a sympathetic look and closed her eyes, launching into silent prayer. Katie sat quietly beside the nun, absorbing the love and concern and compassion the elderly woman radiated.
Had she reacted rashly? Judged Alex too harshly? Given up on him too quickly? Remorse for that angry phone call last night to André Fortinay poured through her. What was done was done, though. She’d sabotaged Alex, and she couldn’t take it back. She had no idea if he would even let her try to make amends to him. He’d been so angry last night. So cold and hard after the call from his father.
Sister Mary Harris commented reflectively, “I never thought I’d see Alex feed a baby a bottle comfortably, but he did that. And I never thought I’d see him let a woman spend the night with him, either.”
Katie’s gaze whipped to the nun and her cheeks heated up. She blurted unwillingly, “You do know he’s been with lots of women, right?”
The nun guffawed. “Of course, I do. But he never lets them stay with him. He always makes them go as soon as he’s done with them.”
Katie’s jaw dropped. She could not believe she was having girl talk with an eighty-year-old nun.
“I’m not dead, you know. And just because I took a vow not to have sex doesn’t mean I’m not aware that it exists.”
“Umm. Wow. Okay,” Katie mumbled.
The nun chuckled and patted her knee. “You’re good for him. Better than any woman I’ve ever seen him with. Not that he has had any real relationships. You’re the only who’s ever stuck around long enough to catch a glimpse of the real man.”
“And then he agreed to do a bad thing and drove me away from him without batting an eyelash.”
“Mark my words. He’s batting an eyelash.”
If only. Dawn woke and started to fuss as the telltale odor of a diaper in need of a change became evident.
“Let me take her, child. But do me one favor, Katie, dear.”
“What’s that?”
“Think about it before you give up on Alex.”
Katie climbed in her little rental car and sat in the parking lot of the convent for several long minutes. Was Sister Mary Harris right? Had she overreacted? Not given Alex a break he deserved?
Hope fluttered in her breast like a baby bird trying to fly and it was nearly impossible to think clearly around the emotion. One thing was for sure. She’d fallen hard for him and was way more invested in him emotionally than she’d realized before she walked out on him.
In a thoughtful frame of mind, she typed the name of Ian’s hospital into the car’s GPS and drove out of the parking lot. She was maybe halfway there when she finally started to be aware of her surroundings again. Had that red sedan been behind her when she pulled out of the convent’s parking lot? She recalled seeing a car like that back in Chevy Chase. What were the odds it was going the exact same direction she was for so long?
Traffic thinned as she exited the Beltway onto surface streets. The red car exited behind her. She shot through a yellow light and was dismayed to see the car run the red light behind her, causing a flare of honking horns. She was being followed!
She was nowhere near the driver Alex was, and this sub-compact was no German sports car. She didn’t stand a chance of losing the tail.
What was the harm in someone knowing she’d gone to a hospital to visit a patient? Heck, it probably wouldn’t matter if the person behind her figured out she was visiting her brother.
Goodness knew, Ian could take care of himself if anyone tried to mess with him. In his military career, he’d worked for some super-classified special ops group that operated way, way off the books. He was not a guy anyone should mess with in a dark alley.
Vividly aware of the tail behind her, Katie pulled into the hospital’s parking garage. The place was crammed, and she was forced to wind deeper and deeper into the underground structure in search of a parking spot. Finally, she found one at the very lowest level of the garage. She wedged into the space and got out, heading for the elevator in the claustrophobic gloom.
The man came out of nowhere. He wore a ski mask and made no secret of his intent to mug her. She held out her purse and started yelling for help.
But the guy batted her bag away and charged her.
Crap .
His shoulder barreled into her, spinning her around. She slammed into a car and its alarm went off, blaring deafeningly. Not that anyone would come check it out way down here.
A fist connected hard with her jaw, snapping her head back and making her see stars. But she hadn’t had five brothers for nothing. She lashed out with her foot and kicked the attacker’s shin so hard her toes shouted in pain.
She shouted, “Fire!” at the top of her lungs and prayed someone was within earshot and would come investigate.
Her attacker snarled wordlessly and slugged her in the stomach so hard it felt like something exploded inside her. She doubled over with a whoof of pain, right into the uppercut to the same spot on her jaw as before. Her head snapped to the side.
The concrete floor came up at her fast, and that was the last thing she remembered.