Retribution (9 page)

“That’s it?”

He shook his head and
nodded toward the package. Now he knew what was in it. “That it’s
your oldest daughter’s pinky finger in the box.”

Peter turned red—angry red,
twisted away and started cursing in his native language. Then he
stopped and leaned a fist on his desk with his back to them.
“Anything else?” he asked softly trying to regain his
composure.

“That there will be more if
you don’t pull out of Miami. The territory is ours. He flipped it
over to see if there was more, there wasn’t. That’s all it says Mr.
Nickolov.” They wrote this in their native language when they could
have written it in English. Obviously they wanted Peter to know
their origins and make him work for it. Whether that made it more
serious, who knew? He didn’t think so. Obviously they thought a lot
of themselves. Again, typical vermin he had to deal with in his
career. Arrogant and thinking they were omnipotent. Well, everyone
bleeds, and everyone dies at some point. Some sooner than
others.

Peter turned to face him
again. His eyes went past him to Ivan. “More pieces of my Anna. You
find these men and kill them!”

“Yes boss.” Ivan turned and
left the room calling for the two men outside the door.

Once they were alone, Peter
spoke again. “So you do speak Arabic. I was hoping with all the
time you’ve spent in the Middle East. I wonder what else my sources
didn’t uncover about you.”

He smiled slightly. “What
do you want to know?”

“Maybe I should have asked
you 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 our
circles. 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 note
on the desk and left the office. Peter clearly had this affect him.
Well, he probably wouldn’t appreciate the threat of having pieces
of his offspring mailed to him either. The dirt was still fresh on
Anna’s grave.

When he went back to check
on Katya, she was sitting in a chair in her room, bent over, lacing
up running shoes. She’d removed the sling, but he could see that
she was having some difficulty with her arm. By the way she was
dressed; in black athletic shorts and a pink sports bra, she was
going for a run.

“Going
somewhere?”

She spoke without looking
up, still struggling with the last sneaker. “I like to jog. It
helps me clear my head.” Yes, she was absolutely terrified, but she
was going to face her demons and not hide. She would not let her
father, or anyone else dictate how she was going to live her life,
and she was going to live.

“I’ll get
changed.”

She sat up with frustration
and blew a stray piece of hair out of her face. “I don’t need an
escort; like some small child with a babysitter. There’s a crowd on
the beach this time of day, and I’ll stick to it.” She was scared
to death to go alone, but she wasn’t going to admit it. She also
was hoping this would start helping her cope with her
fears.

He was amused, most
particularly at the metaphor. She was definitely no child. “You’re
getting one because you are not getting out of my sight. We’ve been
over this Katya.”

She took a resigned breath.
“Well fine, Mr. Babysitter, but I’m not slowing for
you.”

He smirked, walked over to
stand in front of her. She craned her neck to look up at him. Then
he adjusted his slacks by tugging on the material on his upper
thighs to give him room to bend, and got down on one knee. He met
her eyes and tied the remaining shoelace without looking at it. “Is
that a challenge?”

Her mouth parted as she
stared at him. Gosh, he was mesmerizing. His grey eyes held such
intelligence that she was momentarily speechless. And his
unwavering confidence seemed to melt her anger momentarily.
Get it together Katya
,
she scolded herself silently. This wasn’t possible, the
attractiveness, especially after what she just went through. Maybe
it was some sort of traumatic after effect of her captivity. How
the heck did she know? She knew nothing of what happened to someone
in her position, which is probably why he kept telling her to go
see the psychiatrist. Still, she felt something now, between them.
However, it only seemed one sided. He never gave any indication
that it existed on his end. Well, he was probably used to women
falling all over him. After all, she did witness the nurse’s
reaction to him. God certainly gifted him with all those masculine
skills and looks to attract anyone he wanted, so more than likely
he was immune to that electric feeling. Still that look went beyond
normal. 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 get
changed. Two minutes.”

He was actually ready in
less than that and came back for her.

***

They ran a good ten miles
along the beach. Neither one of them spoke and she was grateful for
the silence. She also noticed how out of shape she was. She’d
broken into a sweat and was breathing pretty heavy. Her arm was
hurting too. He’d yet to even show any fatigue. What a surprise
though, he’d caught her difficulty.

“You need to stop for a
minute.”

She nodded and slowed to a
walk. Then she paused and looked out toward the ocean with her
hands on her hips while trying to catch her breath. Her wrist was
throbbing. It was a bad sprain. One of her captors twisted it and
although she could wiggle her fingers now, she obviously still
lacked the strength to tie her shoe laces.

“You’ve been hospitalized
and 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. She
was usually puffing by the time she made it back home but he still
didn’t seem near breathless.

He never said
anything.

She turned back to him.
“How far do you usually run?”

“It doesn’t
matter.”

That was the first time she
came close to laughing since her captivity. Again, he was saving
her feelings. She was competitive and he obviously knew that. “I
hope there’s something I can do better than you Mr. Casey. My ego
is taking a beating so far.”

Again, he never said
anything but his eyes seemed to darken for a moment as if there was
some statement in them about knowing something she could do better.
Well, he kept it to himself. She was probably better off that he
did. Unable to hold his gaze anymore, she looked past him at the
crowd as something caught her attention. There was a man, a darker
skinned man, standing there in blue shorts just watching her. He
was a little on the heavy side, and looked very familiar. She felt
her skin crawl with fear and that hit her with a wave of
adrenaline.

“Katya?”

Her mouth fell open and the
bottom lip started to quiver. He was looking at her. Directly at
her. It was one of the men that hurt her. She was sure of it. Her
eyes started darting around the crowd. The beach was packed now but
there was no mistaking that face. “That’s him.”

“Him?”

“One of the men.” Then her
eyes went to another man. “Him too.” Then, she saw the same face
everywhere. Dark skinned, dark hair and staring at her with those
black, soulless eyes. In fact everyone was staring at her. It
seemed as if things were spinning around her. She buried her face
in her hands unable to look at anyone anymore. Suddenly she felt
blackness close in around her. She was close to
fainting.

Ryan spun around and saw
nothing. No one looked the least bit threatening. He would know. He
turned back to her. Shit, she was hallucinating. Jesus, what the
fuck did they do to her? “Stop. Look at me Katya. Look at me. ” He
grabbed her by her good arm and made her face him. She was
trembling under his grip. She lifted her head and slowly raised her
eyes to meet his. There was definite terror in them. He kept his
gaze steady on hers. “Good, now take a deep breath. You are having
a panic attack. That’s all this is. Deep breath.” Her eyes were
still wide with terror. Finally he cupped her face and made him
look at him. “Deep breath,” he repeated again.

“Th-they’re
here.”

“No one is
here.”

“I saw—”

“It’s your mind playing
tricks on you. Be strong and rationalize this. I could spot a
threat a mile away. There’s no one here even looking at you except
me. Now, again, deep breath.”

She nodded and inhaled
unsteadily. She was hyperventilating and had difficulty calming
herself.

“Take your time and take
another breath, and don’t take your eyes off of me.”

Her ears were ringing from
fear, but his voice was deep and soothing. She did exactly as he
said.

“Better?”

She nodded. “I—I think
so.”

“Now look around
again.”

“I—I can’t. They’re
everywhere,” she stammered.

“No, it’s in your head.
Don’t let it control you. Look around.” He released her and stepped
back.

Slowly she turned and
looked at the crowd. The one dark skinned man was retrieving his
son from a crude rendition of a sand castle and swinging him up in
the air laughing. It wasn’t the man she thought. Everyone else was
carrying on with their enjoyment of the nice hot day. No one was
looking at her, and no one seemed to even know she existed. “I
thought I saw—“

“Like I said, it’s in your
mind.”

“It felt like everyone was
watching me. It seemed so real.”

“It always does
Katya.”

She felt a tear escape and
run down her cheek. She roughly wiped it off with the palm of her
hand. She didn’t like feeling like this. She didn’t even seem in
control of her own mind. “I didn’t realize it was so bad. I thought
I had a handle on it when I left the hospital. I never had these
hallucinations before.” She couldn’t possibly imagine what would
have happened if he hadn’t insisted on coming along. She was being
too damn stubborn too soon.

“That’s why you need to
talk about it. Post-traumatic stress does not go away over time. It
gets worse and then there comes the reoccurring difficulty of
separating the hallucinations from reality.”

She looked away to the
horizon. “I don’t trust that psychiatrist, and I don’t trust my
father. I know he’ll tell him everything.”

“If you want, I can find
someone who you can talk to.”

She faced him again. “I can
talk to you.”

“Katya, I can’t do
that.”

“Why?”

“It crosses certain
lines.”

“What lines? You’re my
bodyguard and I’m supposed to trust you enough to save my
life.”

“Personal lines,” he
elaborated trying his best to keep his expression
professional.

“Oh
please
. I was practically naked in
your arms last night. I think we’ve crossed that boundary.” God,
did she really say that without stuttering…or blushing? Well, what
do you know, he was capable of surprise. It was subtle but there.
Then he smiled
. Be still my beating
heart
. He was utterly gorgeous. There was
a mischievous sparkle in his eyes to go with it and she was
momentarily captivated.

“Come, I’ll race you back.”
He took off.

She felt herself grin and
ran after him.

He took it easy on her and
didn’t go more than fifty feet ahead. Maybe having a bodyguard
would be so bad after all.

CHAPTER THREE

She could say dinner was
horrible, but it was way worse than that. Katya knew she had to be
there because her father would insist on it. She had no fight left
in her after today. Thankfully it started out just fine for her.
Hardly a word was spoken and she refused to even acknowledge
anything her father said. He sat at the head of the table. Ivan sat
to his right and she on his left. Beside her sat Ryan. At the other
end of the table sat her father’s twenty-something girlfriend,
Porsha. He had several, and always had since her mother died, but
it was something she grew up with so she never noticed it as odd.
Her father liked women, that was no secret. Problem was, they were
getting younger and younger, and that alone disgusted her. Porsha
was only a few years older than herself, and she had yet to take
her eyes off of Ryan. She spared him a few inviting glances, and he
seemed not to even notice the attraction. Well, she should know
better by now. He didn’t pay attention to things like that. After
all, he wasn’t a shallow man. Still, Katya found it very annoying
and distracting. If anyone else noticed, nothing was said. This was
not a normal family after all. The more she was around them, the
more she despised it. She also now appreciated the fact she wasn’t
raised there in such chaos.