She turned around to face him, her mouth open to protest, her finger pointing at the drawer.
He narrowed his gaze. “Katie, please. Sit. Stop avoiding me.”
She cocked one hip out. “I’m not avoiding you. Don’t be ridiculous.” She didn’t meet his gaze, however. Instead she stared at a spot in the room past him. Nothing.
He set his pointer under her chin and lifted her face. “Look at me.”
She blinked.
“Sit,” he repeated again.
She lowered herself onto the mattress, huffing. “What?”
Water ran down Leo’s back. He didn’t give a fuck. His hair dripped between them when he tipped his head too.
“Look me in the eye and tell me what’s going on, or I’m going to flatten your sweet ass on the bed and hold you down with my weight until you do. Are you having second thoughts about our night together?” He knew that wasn’t true, but he used it to get the actual reason for her behavior out of her.
She gasped. “No. Of course not.” She met his gaze. “Last night was fantastic.”
“Good. Because I rather enjoyed myself. So what’s up with the weird questions about the ribs and the blood work? And don’t give me some medical lines of shit, because you know I won’t have a clue what you’re saying, and besides, I don’t think your concerns are related to ribs and blood. So spill.”
Her shoulders lowered, and she let her body fall back on the bed. Staring at the ceiling, she said, “I think I’d rather have you pin me to the mattress and fuck my brains out.”
“I never said anything about fucking you.” He climbed up to straddle her waist, scooting her backward so he’d have more space.
She had that damn towel wrapped securely around her chest, because it didn’t budge.
“I said I would hold you down and force you to talk. And I meant it.” He set his hands on both sides of her head and closed the distance so she was forced to look at him. “Talk.”
“Either I’m losing my touch, or something is out of whack with your friends.”
“My friends? Plural?”
“Yeah.”
“Who?”
“Mikhail and Dmitry.”
“Dmitry? What does he have to do with anything?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know. But some things don’t add up.”
“What things?” Leo stiffened. Holy shit. What was she onto?
“When Dmitry was here, I drew a blood sample the night he came in and the next morning. I was only concerned with his kidney function and making sure it was stable.” She took a breath. “I sent it to my lab the next morning. But both sets of blood work were strange. I assumed either my sample was tainted, or your friend was an anomaly. I filed the data and forgot about it.”
“Okay. I have no idea what you’re talking about, but what does that have to do with Mikhail?”
“I consider myself to be a pretty good doctor, you know.”
He narrowed his gaze. “I’ve seen you in action. You’re the best.”
“Well, not when your friends come in, apparently.”
“What happened this time?”
“The X-rays got my attention. I swear those ribs were not broken last night. Not six hours ago. They showed evidence of being several days old.”
“How is that possible?”
“If I hadn’t seen him fight last night myself, I’d say he was lying. But I watched the man not only fight but win. He didn’t have broken ribs at nine o’clock last night.”
“Weird. Could there be something wrong with your X-ray machine?”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not instantly implying I was a quack.”
He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her lips. He could get used to having her under him like this… “I know you aren’t a quack doctor with as much certainty as you know Mikhail didn’t have broken ribs at the fight last night.”
She blew out a breath. “Then I remembered the blood work. It can’t be a coincidence that the last time I saw something unexplainable in a patient, it was another Russian fighter.”
“Unexplainable? What was unexplainable about Dmitry?”
Her eyes widened. “Are you serious? The man fought with a kidney injury. Most regular humans wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed, let alone step into a boxing ring.”
“Cage,” he mumbled. “In MMA it’s an octagon.”
“Whatever.”
He frowned. “You didn’t need Mikhail’s blood, did you?”
“No. I just wanted to see what I might find.”
“And?”
“I’ll send it to the lab this morning as soon as they open, but I’m thinking I’ll find the same strange inconsistencies exist in Mikhail as Dmitry.”
He sat back, straightening. A chill raced up his spine. What in the ever-loving hell? “Is it something bad?” Whatever it was, he had little doubt she would find the same thing in his blood. And Ivan’s. And Sergei’s. And Nikolav’s.
Fuck.
She shook her head. “No. At least I don’t think so. It’s complicated, but it has to do with antibodies and DNA. I’ll explain it better later. Let’s just say Dmitry had very interesting blood. I’m surprised no one has noticed it before. I mean, it’s not even possible.”
“Unless no one has ever had the opportunity until now,” he muttered.
“What do you mean? Surely you six haven’t all gone thirty years without needing medical attention or checkups?”
Leo’s blood ran cold. He ran a hand over his head. “Oh, you’re right. We’ve all had numerous checkups and exams. Yearly. More than the average person probably.”
She lifted onto her elbows. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that since we arrived here twelve years ago from Russia, we’ve always gone to the same doctor for everything.”
“Really? But where? How?”
“In Vegas.” He shook his head. “That’s a longer story than your antibodies. Trust me. I’ll explain it all later, but right now I need to make a few calls.” He scooted backward off the bed, pulled the towel from his waist, and used it to finish drying his body. His mind was racing ahead.
Katie eased off next to him and stepped into his space, wrapping her arms around his middle and then setting her chin on his chest. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his palms up and down her arms. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Of course.”
“Don’t tell anyone what you found. Not about the ribs or the blood or the kidneys. Can you do that?”
She scrunched up her face and winced.
Leo stiffened. “You already told someone?” Of course. She was in her office for a long time while Leo ran interference with his friends.
“Sent the results of Dmitry’s labs to a colleague. Told him I’d get Mikhail’s to him right away to compare. Guy I graduated with. He’s top of his field in Chicago. I thought he could shed some light.”
“What field is that?”
“Epidemiology.”
“Uh-huh. And that is?”
“The study of diseases, basically. What causes them and how they spread. He doesn’t work with patients. He’s in research.”
“And who is this guy?”
“His name is Ted Christianson.”
Leo hesitated. It was too late to fix that. But he needed to call his contact and fill him in. It was a long shot, but if any of this had anything to do with the case against Yenin, the FBI needed to be made aware.
Chapter Ten
Katie looked up from her desk to find Leo leaning in the doorway, a grin on his face. The last patient had left her office about an hour ago, and she’d had a long conversation with Ted afterward and then began to study the blood work from both Dmitry and Mikhail more intently.
“Do you ever stop working?”
“Of course. I went to that stupid fight with you last night, didn’t I?” She batted her lashes in exaggeration,
knowing she’d get a rise out of him if she referred to his main source of income with such derision.
“Uh-huh.” He sauntered into her office and leaned over her desk, planting both hands on the worn surface. Considering last night had been the first time they’d crossed the line between friendship and…whatever this new relationship was, she was a little shocked for him to kiss her on the lips, lingering for several seconds before pulling back. “If I recall, you were back at work at about five o’clock this morning, and you’ve been at it ever since.”
“Not by choice. It was your friend who dragged me out of bed with his strange broken ribs and weird blood work. And what were you doing all day? Napping?” She grinned, knowing this wasn’t a man who lounged around.
He chuckled. “If you call five hours at the gym lifting weights and punching both humans and heavy bags napping, then yep, that’s what I did.”
She leaned back in her chair and tapped a finger on her desk, tipping her head to one side.
“What?”
“Would you mind if I took a blood sample from you?”
He stiffened long enough for her to notice. Righting himself, he turned around to wander back and forth in her small office. The carpet was old, worn, green Berber. The furniture consisted of mismatched pieces—a second-hand desk and bookshelf that didn’t go together at all. But they were cheap, and inexpensive was her motto in the clinic.
“You got Mikhail’s results back already, didn’t you?”
She nodded. “The lab did a rapid antibody detection test for me. I had it back by noon.” She glanced at her watch. “My guy could probably do yours within a few hours too. It’s only two o’clock.”
“Tell me what you found in Dmitry and Mikhail,” he finally said, wrapping his hands around the back of the fiberglass chair on the other side of her desk—the one she used for guests, though no one would stay long in her office sitting on that uncomfortable rickety olive-green contraption. The crappy love seat along the side wall wasn’t much better. Anything nicer wouldn’t fit in her budget.
She hesitated. Of course she had to tell him. No one in their right mind would want to be her guinea pig without knowing what they were up against. In fact, between patients, she’d spent the better part of the day trying to decide how much she wanted to divulge.
Not that she had secrets. Just that she didn’t want him to freak out.
So, she decided to give him a few crumbs and then divulge more after she saw his blood work. He deserved to know everything about himself. The other two men fell under a certain amount of patient privacy. “I can’t talk about their blood work without their permission.” She shrugged. “I was just surprised at some similarities, particularly the presence of antibodies for childhood illnesses I don’t often see.”
Never, actually. But he didn’t need to know that.
Leo stared at her for several moments. “Fine. Under one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“You tell me everything you find, and you don’t share the details with anyone. Not even your friend the scientist. Ted, or whatever his name is.”
Hmmm. Did it matter? She decided she could talk him into giving up the results later if it seemed necessary. For the moment, she was more curious than anything else. “Christianson. And you have a deal.”
He lifted a brow. “No one. Don’t even mention you ever took my blood.”
“Got it. Swear.” She pushed back from her chair and led him down the short hall to one of the exam rooms.
Without a word, he sat on a chair, rolled up his sleeve, and offered her the vein on the inside of his arm.
She was quick, tapping the vein a few times and then inserting the needle. Moments later, she had two vials of his blood and pasted a smile on her face. “You do realize besides Dr. Christianson, my lab guy has also seen these results.”
He grimaced. “Right. Didn’t think of that. Can he keep anything he’s seen to himself?”
“Stuart certainly can’t talk about labs with other people if that’s what you mean. It’s against the law.”
“Still, would you reiterate this to him?”
“Of course.” He followed close on her heels as she made her way to the back room at the end of the hall to her office. She picked up her phone and called the lab.
Stuart answered on the first ring. “Katie. S’up? Don’t tell me you have another ridiculous blood sample.” He chuckled. “I’m still trying to shake the heebie jeebies from the last one.”
“Actually, I do.”
“No shit? I was kidding. I mean the one you sent me six months ago made no sense, so I had to agree with you that something was wrong with the sample. But two more like it in the same day?” His voice rose.
“Yeah, and I need you to keep this information to yourself. It’s important.”
“Katie, you know you don’t have to ask that.” He sounded a little offended.
“I know.”
“I’m curious. I’ll send someone over to grab it from you. He’ll be there in ten. I’ll call you back in a few hours.”
“Thanks, Stuart. I totally owe you one.”
“Nah. You don’t, but I sure wouldn’t mind knowing what this is all about if you ever have the freedom to discuss it.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
He chuckled. “Got a few patient waivers around the office that allow you to discuss medical conditions with lab techs?” he teased.
She forced a chuckle. “No.”
“Anyway, my guy’s already on his way. I’ll have to live with the curiosity, I guess.” He ended the call.
Katie lifted her gaze to Leo. “Guy’s on his way to pick it up. It’ll only take a few hours.”
Leo nodded.
»»•««
It was five o’clock when Stuart finally called.
Leo had paced a hole in Katie’s carpet, driving her bonkers while she finished up paperwork in her office and filed patient data from the day.
She opened her email to read the results after hanging up with Stuart.
Damn. Unbelievable.
Finally she leaned back and met Leo’s gaze.
Leo stopped pacing and crossed his arms. He was nervous. “Talk to me.”
“Do you remember being sick as a child?”
He shrugged. “Not really. Considering I lived in an orphanage, I was surprisingly healthy.”
“I mean really sick. Really really sick.”
He cocked his head to one side and narrowed his gaze. “No. Not that I’m aware of.”
“Oh, you would know. In fact, according to the blood work, you should have been deathly ill a number of times. That and the fact that you must be about a hundred years old, considering the number of unlikely or extinct viruses you’ve had.”
“Pardon?”
She sighed. “Whenever someone gets sick or receives an immunization, their body makes antibodies to protect them from contracting that same strain again. You and your friends have antibodies in your blood from diseases you couldn’t have either contracted or been immunized for. Smallpox is the most absurd. The last known case was in 1977. What year were you born?”
“Eight-four.”
She shook her head. “It makes no sense. And polio? It hasn’t been eradicated yet, but it’s rare, and there haven’t been many documented cases where you were raised since before 1984.” She turned off the computer.
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea. I’ve been wracking my brain for hours. I shouldn’t be speaking to you about other patients, but at this point we’re way past that. When I saw similar results six months ago in Dmitry’s blood work, I thought I’d lost my marbles. I assumed my machine was broken or the blood had been tainted. I even had two samples, the one from the night he came in and the one from the next morning. Same results.
“With no explanation and no similar results from anyone else, I put the findings away and put it out of my mind.” She pushed herself to standing and rounded
the desk to sit on the front edge, facing him. “Honestly, I was embarrassed to show the slides to anyone out of fear I would lose my license if I made such a grievous mistake.
“Then you come in here with Mikhail, and, well, obviously I found the same results in his blood work.” She winced.
Leo swallowed hard and glanced at the floor. “What made you think to take a sample of his blood in the first place?”
She sighed. No sense holding back any information. “His ribs, actually. When you brought me Dmitry with a kidney injury, saying it was originally twelve days old, I thought you all had lost your minds. It was too far healed for that.
“Again, I assumed he’d been injured far longer than he claimed and put it out of my mind. But this time, with Mikhail, I’m stumped. I was there last night.” She leaned toward him, her hands on her thighs, her brain hurting from the absurdity of this entire situation. “I saw him fight with my own eyes. He didn’t have broken ribs when he started that fight.” She shook her head. “Not a chance in hell.
“And even if he did, he couldn’t have had four of them. Four…cracked…ribs… No one can fight like that. Not even you super-human Russians.” She sucked in a sharp breath at the end of her choice of words.
“Super human, huh?” Dmitry’s eyes were narrowed. His face was flushed.
She couldn’t blame him. “Seems like it. Those ribs were already healing after only six hours. Not possible.”
“So what do you think?”
“I don’t have a clue.” She reach a hand up and ran it through her hair, dislodging the curls and letting them fall through her fingers. “That’s why I called Ted and sent him Stuart’s results. He’s good with diseases. Even eradicated ones. He’ll know what he’s looking at. It’s not my specialty. All I can say is I hope he figures out what the hell it all means and sets me straight so I can sleep.”
Leo released his crossed arms and held them open to her. “Come here.”
She slid off the desk, closed the distance between them, and let him wrap her in his embrace, tucking her against his chest. He threaded his fingers in her hair just as she had and held her tight. “It’s going to be fine,” he said against the top of her head. “I’m sure your guy will have an explanation.”
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