Those dreadful tweeds and the dark-rimmed glasses of yesterday morning were now gone, allowing Kat to look her fill of those harshly hewn features and that livid scar at his temple.
His eyes were a curious color between grey and green, cheekbones sharply etched, nose long and straight, sculptured lips set in a grim line, his jaw square and determined.
He was dressed from head to toe in black; fitted tee, jeans, and heavy boots.
He looked like a warrior.
He looked like Dair Grayson.
Not that much younger Dair she had fallen in love with when she was only fifteen, but a hardened soldier who looked as if he could take on a whole army single-handedly—and win.
“Satisfied?” he growled, his scowl emphasizing that scar on his temple.
A scar that hadn’t been there the last time Kat had seen Dair Grayson. How had he gotten it? There had been lots of rumors after his disappearance all those years ago, and one of them had been that he had gone into the army to get away from his family’s reputation. That livid scar on his temple seemed to indicate, if that had been the case, that he had seen action.
Dair really was a warrior.
“Okay.” Kat nodded as she wrenched open the passenger door of the vehicle and climbed inside. “Well?” She looked at Dair expectantly as he still stood outside.
“I definitely preferred it when you weren’t speaking!” he muttered as he pulled the goggles back on and climbed in beside her.
Kat was having difficulty holding back a smile. Whatever happened next, for the moment she was free. And that freedom had never tasted sweeter.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have told me how to avoid taking the drugs I hadn’t realized they were putting in my food.” She shrugged dismissively.
That her brother Gregori had chosen Dair Grayson, of all men, a member of the Montgomery family, to come and rescue her, seemed slightly bizarre; was it any wonder she’d had trouble believing her own eyes and ears?
Although it perhaps also made a certain sense, when Dair had no connection to the Markovic family, allowing Gregori to deny any involvement if questioned by Sergei, or more likely, Ivan Orlov.
Dair’s own reasons for agreeing to come here were harder to understand.
“Buckle up and hold on,” he now instructed grimly as he turned on the ignition. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride!”
That had to be the biggest understatement of the evening.
Dair didn’t switch on the headlights of the vehicle, and the complete blackness outside the windows made it impossible for Kat to know when or if the four-by-four was going to go down and up on the rough forest terrain, and she couldn’t help her gasp of terror every time she saw the dark shadow of a tree looming in their path.
Even hanging on to the handhold above her head, Kat felt as if her brain was being shaken about inside her skull, and her gritted teeth and clenched jaw weren’t too happy about the situation either.
“Close your eyes,” Dair instructed after she had given yet another gasp of surprise at those looming trees.
Like that was going to happen.
Kat may have lost several weeks of her life in a drug and despair-induced state, but that only made her more determined not to miss a moment more of it. Even the dangerous parts.
Especially the dangerous parts.
For the first time in weeks Kat felt truly alive again, the adrenaline pumping through her veins and filling her with a light-headed exultation.
“You’re enjoying all of this, aren’t you,” she said wonderingly as she saw the grin on Dair’s face.
He scowled darkly. “Risking my own life to save someone else’s?”
Dair had saved her life, yes. And with him beside her Kat felt safe for the first time in weeks. Possibly years. Besides which, she was as elated as he was by this wild ride. “Where are we going?” she prompted as she clung even tighter to the handhold.
“Private airport. Five miles away. I have a private jet fueled and waiting,” Dair dismissed economically.
Of course he did; they could hardly stay in the New York area. The Orlovs owned New York, knew if someone sneezed in the wrong direction. There was nowhere here for them to hide, nowhere for them to run where the Orlovs wouldn’t find them.
Which had become the story of Kat’s life since she married Sergei.
Something she really wasn’t going to think about right now. For the moment she was free, and when the opportunity arose she was going to make a run for it and get as far away from Sergei, Gregori, and Dair as she could. She hated doing that to Gregori, but hopefully she would be able to find some way later on of letting him know she was safe. And it may be a bit ungrateful of her, when Dair had put himself in danger by rescuing her, but it was the only way she could see out of this situation. With her out of the picture, both Gregori and Dair would have deniability, if—when—the Orlovs questioned them about her whereabouts.
The fact that she and Dair were shortly going to board a plane complicated things a bit, but once they landed in England, she would surely be able to find an opportunity to slip away and go somewhere far away from London?
In the meantime it would give her the opportunity to see if Dair had any money on him she could ‘borrow’, enough perhaps to see her through the first couple of days, until she found somewhere to hide and a job to pay her own way. At which time she would be able to pay Dair back the money she intended on borrowing from him. She wasn’t fussy about what work she did, and certainly no one would think to look for Katya Markovic working in a café or as a maid in a hotel.
Maybe she could go to Scotland, or North Wales; she had never been to either place and both of them looked ruggedly beautiful from photographs she had seen of them in magazines. It was—
“A few more minutes and we should be out on the road—damn it!” Dair swore profusely as they hit a particularly deep dip in the forest floor. “You okay?” He gave her a quick glance once he had the SUV straightened up.
“Fine,” Kat managed to mutter between her clenched teeth.
Dair gave a grin of satisfaction even as he concentrated on getting them safely out of here. It would have taken much longer by road, and there were no headlights visible to show any vehicles were following in the woods behind them. But he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that his intentions hadn’t been obvious, and one of the police cars wouldn’t have doubled back to be waiting for them when they emerged out onto the highway. If that was the case they were in for a car chase too.
He had to give it to Kat, though; she had taken all of this in stride, once reassured he was who she thought he was.
It was curious that she had recognized him earlier just from the sound of his voice when he had spoken to her in the darkness; he couldn’t claim he would have been able to do the same in regard to her own voice. Damn it, he had barely recognized Kat yesterday morning, and he had been looking at her in full sunlight.
That bastard Sergei had a lot to answer for. Luckily Dair knew that Gregori Markovic was exactly the man to make sure that he did.
Dair had been involved in some serious fighting during his years in the army, and several of the security cases he had worked on during the past few years hadn’t always been resolved without bloodshed. But a man drugging his own wife, and then locking her away in a secure clinic, leaving her totally defenseless, went against every code of honor Dair possessed. And his investigation indicated Kat had been at the clinic since shortly after arriving back in New York following her father’s funeral.
If Gregori didn’t kick Sergei’s ass hard enough then Dair was going to do it for him!
Dair didn’t have any time to give more thought to that subject as the SUV barreled out of the cover of the trees and out onto the highway, the vehicle skidding briefly as the wheels lost traction on the smooth surface of the road.
Luckily there was no other traffic on the road for them to hit, but even so it took Dair several seconds to get the SUV under control and acceleratin
g in the direction of the private airport.
He kept the night-goggles on and the headlights of the vehicle off, but even so he was able to ease up on the tension in his shoulders a little as he leaned back in his seat, the adrenaline still pumping hotly through his veins.
Only for him to tense up again the moment he spared Kat a glance. She was staring at him with those huge dark eyes a man could find himself drowning in if he allowed it.
Dair didn’t allow it. Instead he raised his hand and rubbed the scar on his temple, as a reminder of what had happened the last time he had trusted a woman with those same limpid dark eyes. He had been lucky to survive the experience.
Nor was he the adrenaline junkie Kat had implied he was. At least, he didn’t think he was. He had been given a job to do, and he had done it to the best of his ability. No personal involvement, no emotions, just the job he had been trained to do. End of story.
Yeah, and that was Santa’s sleigh and reindeer he had just seen winging their way across the sky.
It had been just a job, until his first glimpse of Kat in the clinic yesterday. Then it had become personal. Protectively personal. Sergei Orlov wasn’t going to get to Kat again without going through him.
“What?” the anger rasped in his voice. “Would you rather I hadn’t bothered to come for you, that I had just left you sitting in that place, strapped to the chair?”
There was silence inside the vehicle for several minutes, and then the sound of Kat’s raggedly indrawn breath. As if she had forgotten to breathe for those same minutes. “They always strapped me down before Sergei came to visit me.”
Dair gave her another quick glance. “Why?”
She gave a shrug. “Probably because the first time he came to see me…in there, I tried to stab him with the knife from my breakfast tray.”
“What—! Why?” So much for his having believed Kat to have a ‘gentle soul’; there was nothing gentle about wanting to stab your husband with a dinner knife.
“Shouldn’t you put the headlights on now?” she prompted calmly. “I think we will attract more attention, from other drivers, as well as the police if they should happen to drive by, if we don’t have any lights on the car.”
Dair was well aware that Kat was deflecting the conversation, but that didn’t make her point any less valid. They were only about a mile from the airport now, and ran the chance of meeting other traffic the closer they got.
He turned on the headlights before ripping off the night-goggles and throwing them onto the back seat, the lights from the dashboard now allowing for some vision inside the vehicle. For instance, he could now see Kat’s face as a pale oval, and that her hands were clasped together so tightly in her lap the knuckles showed white.
As if just talking about her husband made her feel violent.
“Why Kat?” Dair prompted again softly. “Not that I don’t understand the sentiment; I could happily put a bullet through Sergei’s heart myself right now, and not give a damn.”
It wasn’t a subject to laugh over, and yet that was exactly what Kat found herself doing. It helped a little to know that her violent feelings towards Sergei, the hatred she now felt towards him, weren’t as insane as she had thought they were.
“Obviously, whatever my reasoning was at the time, I didn’t succeed,” she drawled self-derisively.
“Didn’t help your case at the clinic, though, I’m guessing?”
“No,” she acknowledged heavily, remembering the humiliation she had felt at being strapped to her chair before each of Sergei’s visits after that. In retrospect she also realized they had probably upped the meds they were giving her too, because her memories became a little hazy after her first week at the clinic. “I really don’t want to talk about this right now, Dair.”
“Then we’ll talk about it again once we’re on the plane.”
“I would really rather not,” Kat cut in determinedly.
“Gregori is going to want to know what happened,” Dair insisted.
“And when the time comes I’ll tell him, but for now I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
Dair’s mouth tightened. No, it really wasn’t okay. He would be calling Gregori as soon as the plane had taken off, and once the other man got over his relief that his little sister was safe, he was going to demand answers. And damn it, Dair wanted those same answers.
But he wasn’t going to get them now, he realized as he saw the lights of the airport half a mile ahead, about the same time he saw the flashing lights on top of the police car heading straight towards them.
The question was, would the two of them reach the plane and be able to take off, or would the police car get to them before that happened?
Dair made a quick assessment of the situation, and decided it was going to be quicker for them to drive through the fence surrounding the perimeter of the private airport, than to attempt to outdrive the police car by heading for the official entrance.
He took out his mobile phone and punched in a number. “Get the engine up to speed and the wheels rolling, Lijah,” he barked out before just as quickly ending the call. “Time to hang on again, Kat,” he warned grimly as he turned the steering-wheel sharply to the right, his boot down hard on the accelerator as he drove over the uneven grass and straight towards the chain-link fence.
Dair glanced back at the road once they were through the fence, just in time to see the police car come to a screeching halt, the driver no doubt wondering whether to try and follow them through the gap in the fence or stick with his original plan of going to the main entrance.
His momentary hesitation worked to Dair’s advantage, and he turned his full attention back to the small jet now taxiing its way towards the runway. “Take off your seat belt, Kat, and when I stop the vehicle, be ready to run,” he instructed grimly, his boot once again to the floor on the accelerator.
Kat had lived an indulged and protected life as the daughter of Dimitri Markovic and sister of Gregori Markovic, and her life had been equally as pampered as the wife of Sergei Orlov and daughter-in-law to Ivan.
Tonight, with Dair Grayson, breaking out of the clinic, the insane drive through the darkness of the forest, avoiding the police by driving through a fence, and the two of them now driving towards a jet that was already moving, was the most thrilling and exciting time she’d ever had in her life.
She didn’t hesitate as she unfastened her seat belt and prepared to run.
Chapter 4
Kat was aware of the sirens wailing behind them even as they hurtled towards the jet as it increased its speed, her heart leaping into her mouth as she realized just how fast it was moving.
Surely there was no way Dair could stop the SUV, they could both run to the plane, climb aboard and close the door, all before the jet had taken off?
One worried glance at Dair’s grimly determined face, his booted foot hard on the accelerator, hands tightly gripping the wheel, and her doubts all evaporated as if they had never been; if anyone could succeed in doing all those things then she knew Dair could.
Which in no way made the next few minutes any less terrifying as Dair actually managed to push his booted foot harder on the accelerator and drive in front of the moving plane, before just as quickly pressing his foot hard on the brake.
“Out. Now,” he yelled as he threw his car door open before the SUV had even come to a full stop, coming round to grab Kat’s arm as she did the same, abandoning the vehicle, engine still on, as he pulled Kat along beside him and ran towards the jet.
As they approached the plane it veered slightly to the left, allowing Kat to see that the steps were down leading into the cabin. Dair didn’t hesitate as he lifted her up by her waist and threw her inside, before following her quickly and closing and locking the door behind him.
“Wheels up now, Lijah!” he shouted to the pilot through the open door to the cockpit. He leaned back against the door, eyes closed, standing just feet away from where Kay still lay on the floor where she had landed,
his chest barely moving as he breathed steadily in and out.
The same couldn’t be said for Kat as she tried to stand up, first onto her knees, and then staggering to her feet as she heard the scream of the jet’s engines as it took off, the adrenaline still pumping wildly through her veins, chest heaving as she attempted to catch her breath.
“You’re out of condition,” Dair didn’t even open his eyes as he offered the mild criticism.
Kat tilted her head to one side as she heard a strange sound.
A ‘strange sound’ she finally recognized as being her own happy laughter. Maybe it had sounded so alien to her because she couldn’t remember the last time she had been happy, let alone found anything funny enough to laugh at.
“I really don’t want to have to slap your face because you’re hysterical.” Dair’s eyes remained closed.
“I’m not hysterical, Dair, I’m just—I’m so grateful to you for rescuing me!” A sob caught in the back of her throat as she hurtled across the distance that separated them, her arms going around his neck as she threw herself against him and kissed him on the lips. Hard. “Thank you, Dair!” She kissed him again, her hands cupping each side of his face as he stared down at her in obvious shock, even as his arms moved slowly about her waist. “Thank you! Thank you so much, Dair!” She punctuated the words of gratitude with successive kisses.
Dair had frozen as the first forceful kiss landed on his lips. A freeze that had melted with each successive kiss, until now, looking down into Kat’s beautiful, glowing dark eyes, equally glowing cheeks, and highly kissable lips, he just wanted to kiss her back. More than kiss her. At this moment he just wanted to strip Kat naked, take her to the floor, and have her beneath him as he buried his cock to the hilt inside her heat.
Adrenaline rush, Dair, he instantly mocked himself. The need to fuck. Happens every time after the heat of a battle won.
Besides which, he wasn’t about to take advantage of this situation. Even with Kat. Especially with Kat. Her marriage to Sergei was obviously over—any wife who tried to stab her husband with a piece of flatware obviously didn’t love him!—but if there was going to be any fucking done between the two of them then they would establish some ground rules first. And right now there were still too many questions unanswered for Dair’s liking.
Shadow Alpha Page 4