Page 116 of Close Pursuit

He smiled fondly. “Loud. Chaotic. Makes me crazy.”

Sensing that polite small talk was part of the ritual of talking to this man, she smiled back. “I have four brothers. That’s how it was at our house, too.”

“Where are you from, Miss McCloud? You don’t sound Russkie.”

“Pennsylvania.”

“How’d you get tangled up with someone like Koronov?”

“He works for a group of doctors who go to war zones around the world to treat victims. I was his nurse assistant on his last trip.”

“That his kid?”

“No, sir. We rescued this baby when her mother died delivering her.”

DeMecci crossed himself and touched his lips. “Tragic.”

The man reminded her a lot of her father. Used to being in charge. A family man and a career man. The type to have limited patience.

She leaned forward and got to the point. “I made the mistake of approaching Natasha Gudenov down the strip earlier this evening. Her people now want to kill me. Alex told me to find you and tell you he’ll give you anything you want if you’ll keep me and the baby safe until he can get here.”

“Anything I want?” DeMecci echoed.

“Those were his exact words.”

“That bastard’s got some nerve sending his girlfriend and some kid to me and asking for my protection!” DeMecci burst out.

Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap. If this were her father, she would give him a minute to calm himself before she tried to talk to him again. She busied herself taking the now warm bottle from Jumping Guy and getting Dawn out of the sling and settled in her arms, sucking at it. Besides, babies taking a bottle were pretty cute and hopefully pretty hard to resist helping.

“I want the money back. All of it,” DeMecci declared.

Katie shrugged. “He did say anything you wanted.”

DeMecci still looked too volatile for Katie’s protective motherly instincts. She added lightly, “If I were you, I’d ask for interest on the money, too.”

DeMecci snorted in surprise and studied Katie more closely. “You sure you’re his girlfriend?”

Katie snorted back. “I’m not sure of anything with that man.”

That made DeMecci laugh aloud. But then he went dead serious and leaned forward. “You do understand I’m going to have to take you somewhere and keep you there until your boy pays up.”

“Yes, sir,” she answered evenly. What the hell? This guy was going to hold her hostage, and Alex had handed her over to him?

21

Alex’s world was collapsing in on him faster than he could prop it up. And it was all because of Katie and Dawn. Never before had he had anyone else to worry about besides himself. But the two of them changed the whole damned equation.

Something—someone—mattered now. And it made him vulnerable to everyone who’d ever coveted a piece of his hide. Life as he knew it was over.

“Dude, you gotta slow down.”

Alex glanced over at Ian in the passenger seat of the rented Porsche coupe and took his foot off the accelerator. Again. He’d crept back up over a hundred miles per hour on the highway. Katie and the baby had that effect on him.

“You okay?” he asked Katie’s brother. The guy was still recovering from a serious stab sound, but had flatly refused to stay in the hospital doing nothing to protect his little sister when she was in trouble. Suddenly, Alex could relate to that. He swore under his breath.

“I’ll live,” Ian bit out. “How much longer till we’re there?”

The guy must be in severe pain. But Alex wasn’t going to coddle him. He’d demanded that Alex help him slip out of the hospital, and Alex couldn’t say no. He would’ve done the same if he were laid up and Katie was in trouble.

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