Thrust

by Becca Jameson

  No one had heard a peep from Yenin since Thursday. Maybe he was regrouping, licking his wounds, plotting. Who knew? The FBI was uneasy too. That didn’t help matters.

  Ivan hadn’t let Alena leave the apartment since they’d returned from the fight Friday night. In fact, they’d fought that morning about her going to back to work. She had to swear on her life she wouldn’t leave the clinic for any reason or even go close to the front doors.

  In Ivan’s mind, she was a target several people would love to take out, and most of them were probably past being subtle about it. He believed both Yenin and the FSB were pissed enough to shoot her right through the front wall of windows and leave her for dead.

  Alena thought Ivan’s imagination was a little wild, but then again, the way things had been going, he had every right to be nervous. It’s not that she didn’t agree with the level of threat. It was simply that she couldn’t stay inside the apartment and do nothing day after day, either. She needed to get out, and the only place Ivan would consider letting her go was the clinic.

  He drove her there himself and spent fifteen minutes inspecting the entire clinic inside and out.

  Alena felt a bit like a child, and not for the first time. She growled at Ivan several times in those fifteen minutes while he went behind her back checking doors and ensuring the back exit had a loud alarm on it now.

  Even Leo’s word wasn’t good enough on that issue. Ivan had to test it out, much to the chagrin of everyone in the vicinity who had to put their hands over their ears to block some of the volume.

  Finally, Alena pulled Ivan by the arm into an exam room, shut the door, set her hands on her hips, and narrowed her gaze at him. “Stop it.”

  “Stop what?”

  “Running around here acting like I’m too stupid to take care of myself.”

  He lifted a brow, and she held up a finger to cut him off.

  “Don’t you dare insinuate I’m proving you correct. You can’t go around acting like I’m five and arranging people to watch me.” She pointed toward the door to the room. “If I want to leave this clinic for any reason, you can’t stop me. And neither can Leo. Or Katie. Or even the FBI. Their protection is voluntary. Yours is overbearing.

  “You have to take my word that I’m not going to do anything to put myself in danger and trust me. If you can’t, this is never going to work between us.” She waved her hand back and forth between them. “Leo put an alarm on the back door. It’s safer.

  “No one can get in or out without alerting the neighborhood. But the alarm isn’t there to keep me in, Ivan. You act like it was put there to keep me from running.

  “I don’t need a keeper, and nothing you do is going to change that. Either you trust me, or you find yourself another woman.”

  He frowned at her while she spoke, which annoyed her further. But when she finished, his face turned to a smile, and he stalked toward her. She hated that more.

  She backed up, holding up her hand between them, palm out. “Don’t touch me right now. I’m mad.”

  He kept advancing, forcing her to back into the wall in the tiny exam room. When she was out of space, he set his hands on the wall on both sides of her head and stared at her, the grin wearing on her nerves. It was arrogant.

  She shifted her gaze away from him to admire a spot on the far wall. There was a giant hole in the wall. She narrowed her gaze. “Did you punch a hole in Katie’s clinic?”

  “Yes. And don’t change the subject. Look at me, Alena,” he whispered.

  She ignored him and instead lifted a hand to her face to pretend to examine her nails. “Hope you plan to fix that soon,” she said, referring to the hole.

  “Alena…” he warned. “Look at me.”

  She didn’t want to. She told herself not to let him get under her skin, knowing if he touched her, she would be putty.

  He closed the gap, nudged her chin with one finger, and set his lips on hers.

  Dammit.

  She wanted to turn away, but couldn’t stop herself from accepting his kiss. It was that powerful. Every time he kissed her, she fell further under his spell. The power of his lips was unnerving.

  He tipped his head to one side and licked the seam of her lips until she opened for him. And then he teased her mercilessly with his mouth, devouring her until her knees grew weak and her entire speech dissolved.

  She knew she should stop him. She kept telling herself not to fall for this method of controlling her. And eventually she won. She jerked her lips away, ducked under his arm, and slid away from the wall to jump into the center of the room.

  Ivan was still smiling when she looked at him.

  “Stop trying to control me.”

  “Baby, I’m not. I swear.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Sure. Right. You didn’t just shut me up with your mouth?”

  “Did it work?”

  “No.”

  He sobered. “I’m teasing. I couldn’t help myself. You got sexier and sexier as you lectured me.”

  “It wasn’t meant to be sexy. It was meant to make a point.”

  “And you did. I get it. I’m being too bossy and overbearing. I see that. You just didn’t come up for air long enough for me to apologize. The only way I could think to stop your lips from moving was to put them to another task.”

  “Wait. Did you just apologize?”

  “Yes.” He smirked. “I’m not a dick. If I’m wrong, I’m willing to say I’m sorry. I’m just scared out of my mind, Alena. You got shot Thursday. Shot. Do you have any idea what that did to me when I heard? I couldn’t breathe.

  “And then I raced to the hospital only to find out you were already gone. Discharged. Half of me thought you had died and no one wanted to tell me. And then I had to wait hours to hear your voice again. The longest fucking day of my life.”

  They hadn’t taken the time to dissect that day. She appreciated his ability to set it aside Thursday night and just haul her into his embrace and give her space. She also understood his need to keep his head in the game for Friday night and leave the subject of her running and his fear on the back burner for that day also.

  But Saturday and Sunday they’d done nothing but lie in bed and occasionally come up for food and showers. What had that been? Why did he wait until Monday morning to freak out?

  “I can see the wheels spinning in your mind, Alena.” He stepped into her space again and took her in his arms.

  She let him. His tone had changed.

  He set his forehead against hers. “I needed to concentrate on Friday. Flipping out would have fucked with my fight.”

  Oh, yeah. He was a mind reader.

  “And then I just wanted to hold you for the weekend and pretend it never happened. I think I was ignoring the elephant. Denial.

  “But Monday came anyway, and here we are. And I need to leave you here for the first time since Thursday, and it’s killing me. I don’t think I realized how hard it would be until we got here. I’m fucking scared.” His voice dipped, and her stomach dipped with it.

  “It’s not that I’m so cocky I think I can prevent anything bad from happening to you just by my presence, but it helps me breathe to at least have you in my sight. It’s only been a week since we moved into new territory with each other. A week that I’ve held your body in my arms and your heart in my hand.

  “It’s not long enough, Alena. I’m greedy. I want more. I want seventy years more. I started hyperventilating at the thought of leaving you here.”

  She lifted a hand to his face and wiped her finger over the worry lines at the corner of his eyes. “I’m fine. I swear I won’t open a door or go into the front lobby. I won’t do anything more than show patients to their rooms, file Katie’s folders, and organize her office. Same as always.”

  “Okay.” He smiled, but she could tell it was forced.

  “You have to go to the gym. We have to live our lives, even with all those dickwads out there watching our every move. There’s no guarantee how long that might ta
ke. And I can’t remain trapped in that apartment any more than you can.”

  He nodded and whispered, “I know, baby. I know it intellectually. It’s just hard to come to terms with.” He righted himself and took a deep breath. “I’m done freaking out now. I’ll leave. You’ll stay. I’ll be back at five.”

  She nodded. “Good plan. I’ll be here.”

  »»•««

  The morning was hectic. Not surprising. The clinic was usually busier on Mondays than any other day of the week.

  Alena had been working there three weeks. She had the flow of the place down pat. Mandy, the receptionist at the front desk, was a doll. Alena had loved her from the moment they met. She ran the place, literally, and was a godsend to Katie.

  Usually Mandy got patients signed in and then showed them to available exam rooms. There were four, which meant sometimes a patient had to wait a little while before Katie—Dr. Schwan—could get to them. Most didn’t mind. After all, this clinic was the only option for those who didn’t have insurance or couldn’t get farther into the city for medical care.

  By one o’clock, Alena was busier than she’d ever been. She rounded the corner to the front desk, and Mandy handed her a file. “I doubt this one gave a real name,” she muttered. “Room four is available, I think.”

  Alena nodded as she took the folder and looked at the tab. Mark Smith. That was all it said. Not unusual. There were a lot of clients who didn’t like to give their name. They had their reasons, and it wasn’t a requirement. It helped when it came to keeping records, but Katie found a way to remember her patients by other attributes like hair, height, eyes, clothing…

  “Mark Smith?” Alena called out when she opened the door to the waiting room.

  The man who stood from across the room wore a hoodie over his head and walked with his shoulders slumped, dragging his feet. He seemed old. He looked like he was in pain with every step.

  Alena smiled at the top of his head, even though he couldn’t see her with his face lowered to his feet. “If you’ll follow me, sir. Right this way.”

  She led him down the hall to the exam room and pointed at the chair. “You can have a seat over there. Dr. Schwan will be with you as soon as she can.”

  He shut the door behind him as he entered, which made the hairs on the back of Alena’s neck stand on end. She had fought the unease creeping around her all morning. It was her first day back after getting shot. More than once she thought she should have listened to Ivan and taken a few more days off.

  But Katie needed her. Especially today, it turned out. And Alena didn’t want her fear to take over her life.

  “It’ll just be a few minutes,” she said as she quickly turned to head out of the enclosed room. Claustrophobia suddenly had a grip on her.

  Before she could manage even one step, the man righted himself to his full height, grabbed her arm with one hand, and covered her mouth with his other.

  She panicked, her eyes going wide. This couldn’t be happening.

  He hauled her against his body so she was facing away from him. With one arm holding her around the middle, he released her mouth long enough to slap a large, wide piece of tape over it. He didn’t say a word.

  The panic grew as she fought with all her strength to get away from him. She kicked backward into his shins, but couldn’t make enough contact. He was way too big and strong for her to have any impact on.

  When something slid over her head, she screamed into the tape. No sound came out, just a muffled cry only she could hear. What was covering her face? It seemed like a ski cap or some other knitted fabric stretched down to block her vision. Black.

  She clawed at his arm with her hands, digging her nails into him. All that did was earn her a backhand across the face.

  She fell to the floor at the impact, disoriented. Her thigh burned where the gunshot wound rubbed against her srubs. As she tried to scramble away from him on her hands and knees, he yanked one arm behind her back and then the other. In seconds he had them secured also, tied to each other with rough rope that dug into her skin and turned her attention to the pain of the binding. Way too tight. Her fingers grew numb.

  This guy was good. He knew what he was doing. He was prepared.

  While she continued to fight for her life, kicking out at anything she could make contact with, he grabbed one ankle and then the other and tied them similarly. The ropes were too tight on that skin also. Crude, coarse, rough rope that abraded her skin and took her attention off her bigger problem as the pain intensified.

  Her mind raced. What did he want? Did he work for Yenin? Was he going to kill her in Katie’s clinic right under Leo and Katie’s roof? Maybe to prove he could?

  Tears ran down her face to soak into the mask. She sobbed, but it only made her begin to choke. The last thing she needed was to die of asphyxiation.

  No. She needed to fight. She would not die today.

  Maybe he wanted to kidnap her. Take her to Yenin. Use her for the same experiments he’d been conducting on the homeless. The thought scared her even more, but she tried to remind herself there was little chance she would die from the experimental drug Yenin was developing.

  Alena had Hep A as a child. She wouldn’t die. She kept telling herself that as the man dragged her body closer to him and forced her onto her side. He put a knee on her bicep to hold her still.

  Why? What more was there to tie? She was totally bound and helpless.

  Then another thought raced through her head. How was he going to get her out of there? The back door had a new alarm on it. It would blare loud enough to alert the entire neighborhood if he pushed through it. Maybe he didn’t know that. Maybe he didn’t realize it had been installed.

  Please, God. Please.

  But the man didn’t make any movement to lift her. Instead, he grabbed her elbow with one hand and twisted it painfully away from her body.

  She shrieked, bucking futilely against him.

  He was way too big for her to escape.

  When a needle entered her arm, her eyes flew open wide.

  Oh God. No. Oh God. Here? He was giving her the experimental drug here? He didn’t intend to take her to Yenin?

  That scenario hadn’t occurred to her. What was his plan? How would he monitor his results if she wasn’t in his lab?

  Or maybe he didn’t need to monitor anything. Maybe he simply wanted to watch from afar and see that she was still alive. It made sense. Yenin was devious enough to go with this plan in lieu of having her snatched off the street. She’d never been alone long enough to easily be taken. Maybe he grew weary of waiting for an opportunity and decided this was the best course of action.

  How did he know she’d had Hep A, though? Had he figured out that was the missing link all along and needed her as a guinea pig? It was possible. He may have even assumed she had Hep A since she too was raised in a Russian orphanage where Hep A was obviously rampant in the late eighties.

  She grew light-headed. From the shot or from the stress? Either way, she was fading. All the fight fled out of her. Was she dying?

  She grew tired. Too tired.

  Shit. He’d drugged her…

  Ivan…

  She stopped fighting. A single tear ran out of her eye to drip into the mask. Ivan… I’m so sorry…

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ivan stood in the locker room of the gym. He was buttoning his jeans when his cell buzzed on the bench next to him. His hair, still wet from the shower, dripped onto the corner of his phone as he reached for it. “Shit,” he muttered, wiping off the moisture and taking the call.

  The screen told him it was Leo, probably calling to let him know everything was still good at the clinic. Ivan had left there that morning nearly punching people, including Leo, who had nothing to do with Ivan’s fear.

  “Hey, what’s up?” Ivan greeted.

  “Ivan…”

  Instantly Ivan’s heart rate increased, he dropped the T-shirt he’d picked up and lowered himself onto the bench befo
re he fell. He did not like the tone of Leo’s voice.

  A second later he realized he could hear shouting in the background. Loud noises. Lots of people, commotion. “Leo? What the hell’s going on?”

  “They got to her, man. Someone pretended to be a patient and got to Alena.”

  “What?” Ivan shouted. “What do you mean they got to her? Talk to me. Put her on,” he demanded, even though he knew in the pit of his stomach no one would be putting Alena on the phone.

  He could hear sirens in the background. And crying. Who was crying? It didn’t sound like Alena.

  “Dammit, Leo. Talk to me.”

  “Ambulance just got here. Meet us at the hospital.”

  “Ambulance?” Shit. “Leo…” He knew his voice was rising. Hysterical. “What’s going on? Give me more. Is Alena there with you? Is she hurt? Or did someone take her? Leo,” he shouted.

  “Ivan, she’s here. No, no one kidnapped her. She’s alive. Meet us at the hospital.” He ended the call.

  “Leo,” Ivan shouted louder. His fingers shook as he lowered the phone and spun around, sensing someone behind him.

  Mikhail. White as a sheet. “I missed a call from Leo… Is it Alena?”

  Ivan nodded. “Let’s go.” He slid his feet into his shoes, tugged his shirt over his head, and grabbed his phone and keys.

  Mikhail nodded, following Ivan out the door. He was dressed in street clothes. He must have been in the locker room the entire time. Probably heard the conversation. That wouldn’t have helped though, since he would know not one thing more than Ivan if he’d listened in.

  The two of them said nothing as they ran through the gym and out the front door to get to the parking lot.

  Abram must have seen him because he chased them down as Mikhail pointed to his Jeep Wrangler, indicating he would drive.

  “Guys?” Abram stopped them with a hand on Ivan’s arm as he swung the car door open.

  “Something happened to Alena at the clinic. That’s all we know. Heading to the hospital.”