Page 113 of Close Pursuit

The men and the girls jumped up and the madam slid out of the booth. Katie followed her into the bowels of the high roller’s area and was surprised when the Russian pulled out a key card and unlocked an unmarked door. Katie stepped into a small room with a poker table, a big sofa, and a wet bar. Hmm. Which saw more action? The table or the couch?

“We are someplace private. Talk.”

Boy, Natasha sure didn’t mess around. Katie said equally directly, “I need to get in touch with Alex.”

“I thought you were his friend.”

“I am. But there’s been a mix-up.” Katie could practically hear Alex shouting at her not to spill the details of their situation to Natasha. “I lost my cell phone. And we both know Alex wouldn’t randomly answer his phone for a stranger. I figured he would recognize your name and pick up a call from you, though.”

Natasha pursed her blood red lips. “Why should I do this for you?”

“Because then Alex and I would owe you a favor?” Katie tried hopefully.

Natasha laughed softly. Dangerously. “Oh, I like that idea very much. I have missed Alex. So…virile…he is. So dark in his tastes.” The woman shivered deliciously.

“How dark?” Katie asked curiously. To date, Alex had seemed interested in relatively vanilla sex with her. He’d alluded to his darker passions a few times but never gotten into specifics.

Natasha’s eyebrows shot up further than before. “You’re not his girlfriend, then?”

“I’m…not sure,” Katie admitted. “He’s difficult to read.”

“Now that is truth. Here is another truth for you. I have never had another customer who terrified my girls so much.”

Katie gaped. “Did he hurt them?”

“Yes. And no. He tortured them without pain.”

“Meaning what, exactly?” she blurted.

“He liked to take his pleasure while driving a women to the edge of great pleasure herself, but then he substituted deprivation, or even some sort of punishment, instead. He drove my girls crazy.”

Huh. He’d never held back like that with her. What did it mean?

“What can you do for me if I make this phone call for you?”

“I don’t know. But Alex and I will make it up to you.”

“Fair enough.” Natasha moved around behind Katie and shocked her by cupping her rear end intimately. Did the woman have a three-way in mind with her and Alex?Holy crap. Or was that grope purely a power play to throw the naïve little American off balance?

“Do you have the number?” Katie asked, startled to hear her voice shaking slightly.

“Oh, I have his number. It’s yours I want at the moment.”

Katie did not give in to her urge to fill the ensuing silence. She knew that tactic from her father, the cop. It had worked like a charm on his perps and his kids.

“Show me the baby.”

Katie was surprised at the command, but unwrapped Dawn from her cocoon. Natasha leaned over the infant, murmuring something quiet and sweet to her in a Slavic tongue. She ran the back of her finger gently across Dawn’s cheek and then looked up at Katie. “A rare commodity, innocence. Yes?”

“Indeed.”

Natasha reached into a pocket somewhere on her slinky jumpsuit and pulled out a cell phone. She scrolled through her contact list and punched in a number. She listened for a moment and then spoke in rapid Russian. Katie vaguely heard a male answer in the same tongue. A brief argument ensued if Natasha’s angry tone of voice was any indication. Abruptly, the woman held the phone out to her.

Katie took it, startled. “Hello?” she said tentatively.

“Thank God, Katie. Are you and Dawn okay?”

“Alex!” she exclaimed. “We’re fine. I didn’t know where to go or what to do when?—“

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