Page 46 of Goodnight, Sinners

Cooper gave her a skeptical look. “Pretty sure I could easily infiltrate that flimsy door.”

His gaze went past her to land on a steel double reinforced door with shatter proof windows and a code reader.

He was already pulling his phone from his pocket before Shaun could suggest he call Jozef. The conversation was brief and Shaun could finally continue without her contingent of bodyguards.

As she and Elisa traversed the hallway, Elisa spoke about the incident. “You seem like a very independent person; these restrictions must be hard on you.”

Shaun thought about it and then smiled. “Not really. Jozef wants to keep me safe, but he also wants me to be happy. I wouldn’t be here if I was truly restricted.”

Elisa stared at her. “But you have to make decisions based on what he wants, don’t you?”

Shaun laughed. “I think you just described marriage. It goes both ways, he has to keep me in mind when making decisions too.”

“That probably explains why I’m not married.” Elisa’s tone was dry. “Well, I’m glad you’ve found someone worth the sacrifice of your independence. I wish you a very happy and long marriage.”

Elisa pushed the door open to an empty surgery and waved Shaun in. As Shaun looked around the room, half her mind was on what the other woman had said. She had found someone worth sacrificing for, someone who she could be happy with, and she wasn’t willing to let that go.

Shaun grinned to herself, her back to the other woman. She thought maybe she was finally ready to take the plunge.

Chapter Twenty-One

Dasha sat on the hospital bed, her back straight as a poker, her face clear of expression as the attending doctor lifted her arm, put his hand against her elbow and pushed, then rotated the arm at the shoulder. He did the motion several times.

“On a scale of one to ten, how much discomfort are you feeling?”

Dasha glared at the man. What a fool. He hadn’t given her any basis of comparison. What was a one? A pinch, or a slap? Then a ten must be a severed limb.

“One,” she told him, her gaze steady on the wall past his shoulder.

The doctor grunted. “There’s no point in hiding your pain, Mrs. Evanoff. I can prescribe something to help if you’ll allow me.”

Condescending man! Would he say the same if it had been her husband sitting there? Or another man? No, he would not. He would allow them to bear their pain with dignity.

Dasha regretted that she was forced to come to the hospital for her treatment. She would have preferred Krystoff’s personal physician, but the man, along with most of their former employees, had scattered when news of Krystoff’s death reached them.

Leeza hadn’t even made it to Poland before Dasha insisted she pull the car over. Disgusted, Leeza had let her mother leave. Her daughter’s parting words still stung. “If you go back to Prague or pursue any kind of vendetta against Jozef and Shaun, then consider us done. I don’t want to hear from you again.”

But Dasha knew she’d made the right decision, for both of their sakes. Leeza didn’t need her mother shattering what little remained of her life, and Dasha didn’t need an over-concerned child hovering over her.

She hoped she would see Leeza again… and Saskia. But some things were more important.

“Okay, I think we’re finished here.”

The doctor finished re-bandaging her arm.

“You’ll need to come back for another session.” He pulled up his schedule on the computer in his office. “Does Thursday 10:00 AM next week work?”

Dasha inclined her head in agreement and took his card with the appointment written on it. She’d seen him twice since the accident and was gaining confidence in the use of her arm each time.

She was certain that Jozef would search for her, but she doubted he would concentrate many efforts in Prague. He would expect her to run as far and as fast as she could go, knowing he would be gunning for her.

What he didn’t know was that she’d lost everything, and a woman with nothing left to lose had only one course of action left. Vengeance. She wanted to right the wrongs and avenge her husband before she joined him. She wasn’t afraid of death, and her motivation to take down the new Koba regime was strong.

She would bide her time until conditions were right, and then she would do what Krystoff could not do. What she herself had been unable to do when she’d held a knife to a five-year-old boy’s throat. She would take out the mute mobster and his house-wrecking girlfriend.

Dasha slid off the table and picked up her purse, slinging it across her good shoulder. Each day she regained more and more strength in her injured arm. In order to aid in her efforts, she lifted weights daily, ignoring the agony that ripped through her body.

She stepped out the door and damn near walked into the last person she expected.

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