Page 97 of Close Pursuit

Katie was looking back and forth between the two of them in confusion. “You’ve met?” she asked.

Alex answered reluctantly, “You might say that.”

“He’s the fucker who stabbed me!” her brother exclaimed.

Katie whirled on him, wincing as she did so. “Youstabbedmy brother?”

“Obviously, I didn’t know who he was. He was following us on that four-wheeler in Zaghastan. I jumped him and he pulled a knife on me. So, yeah, I stabbed him.”

Her jaw dropped and burgeoning outrage sparked in her bright blue eyes.

He added quickly, “In my own defense, I did treat his wound and save his life.”

“But you stabbed him!”

“He attacked me. We were in the middle of a war zone and people were trying to kill us. He came at me with a knife and I fought back. I’m not going to apologize for that.”

“Get out,” she snapped.

Okay, he probably deserved that. But he was worried about her. She had a concussion of her own to deal with?—

“Out. Now!” She was getting agitated, which couldn’t be good for her head.

He threw up his hands and backed out of the room. But he went no further than the nurse’s station a few steps away. He begged a bottle of over-the-counter pain meds and downed a handful of painkillers dry.

How in the hell was he going to make this right? He really hadn’t borne any ill will toward her brother. It had been just business. War was violent and bloody. Kill or be killed. He’d actually shown extraordinary mercy in not killing Ian. By rights, she ought to be thanking him. But she wouldn’t see it that way. He might have done the right thing, but he wasn’t going to get any credit for it.

Life really sucked, sometimes.

In the meantime, he was heading down to the parking garage to see if he could figure out who’d attacked her and if it had been a message to him.

Katie moved to her brother’s side in concern. “What happened to you?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing. That bastard, Koronov, rough you up? I’ll be happy to kill him for you.”

“I was mugged. Mild concussion and a few bumps. Nothing worse than you louts did to me as a kid.”

“We never meant to hurt you. But you insisted on tagging along all the damned time and getting in the way.”

She smiled crookedly at her big brother. “Yeah, I know. I was a pest.”

“Cute pest.”

“So, why are you in this joint, big brother?”

“Your boyfriend stabbed me. Damn near killed me, too.”

Katie frowned. Alex had nearly killed Ian? She didn’t know the details of his training, but she’d heard bits and pieces of quiet conversation between her brothers now and then. And they all thought Ian was one serious badass.

“Did Alex catch you by surprise?” she asked confused.

“Yeah. Ambushed me. And when I pulled a knife, he nailed me.”

“Where’d you get poked?”

“Right here.” He pointed to a spot just below his ribs on the left side of his stomach. So, he’d been facing Alex when he got stabbed. Ian had a chance to defend himself then, and Alex had still gotten the drop on her brother? Whoa.

She knew Alex’s father had trained the crap out of him, but she’d had no idea just how lethally he was trained until this very second.

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