004

Kai's Point of View.

I experienced her pain immediately asGuards led her back into the room. There was fire in her, I had to admit. Invited to fill her place for all except the almost unbreakable spirit, any other person would have bowed to the inevitable, yielded, resigned to her lot—not Katherine. She was different, and that made her dangerous.

Lex stood at my side, his usual serenely unreadable countenance troubled, yet palpable in his hesitancy. He hadn't been coy about his reservations about my decision of putting her upstairs.

She's getting out of hand, boss, he said, under his breath, careful. “If she escapes—”

“She won’t,” I cut him off sharply, my tone slicing through his words. “You’re underestimating me, Lex. Or worse, overestimating her.”

Lex nodded, though his eyes betrayed his unease. But it didn’t matter. I didn't feel like sitting down and explaining myself or my choices—not to Lex, not to anyone.

“Double the guards outside her room,” I ordered. “Install cameras in every corner of her quarters. I'd like to know everything—what time she gets out of bed, what she eats, how long she gazes at the walls.

He paused before responding. “Understood, boss.”

I pivoted on my heel and turned and walked off, the memory of Katherine's previous scream still ringing in my head. It wasn't fear, per se in her voice—it was something else. Determination, maybe.

On my way back to the office I poured a glass of whiskey and sat down in the chair. My desk was filed with files, however, none of them contained what I needed.

Who the hell was she?

When my men found her, she’d been unconscious in one of my warehouses. Only no ID, no cell phone, no apparent reason for their visit. Just lying there, like she'd fallen from the sky. Now, conveniently, she asserted she didn't have any memory of the route she took there.

The doctors claimed it was true, but that did not mean I believed her. Memory loss or not, she was a liability. She was either just a coincidental perturbation, at the wrong place at the right time, or a deliberately concealed sleeper and watcher of me.

Either way, she couldn’t be ignored.

“Boss,” Lex’s voice crackled through the intercom. “Cameras are installed, and we’ve doubled the guards.”

Right, I replied and guzzled down the whiskey. “Keep me updated.”

The intercom cut out, and I just sat staring. Still, quiet, her voice still in my head.

The next morning, I couldn’t resist reviewing the footage from her room. Katherine hadn’t tried anything overnight, but her restlessness was evident. She paced around as a cage animal, her eyes shut on the window.

“What’s on your mind, Katherine?” I murmured.

A knock at the door pulled my attention. Lex entered, his expression grim but focused.

“The Italians took the bait,” he reported. “They’re panicking, scrambling to clean up after the raid. It’ll take them weeks to recover.”

“Good,” I said absently. The Italians were annoying, but not my biggest worry.

“Anything else?”

Migration has already begun coming from the Russians, he reported, his tone even grimmer. “They’re sniffing around, asking questions about the warehouse incident.”

Of course, they were. The Russians never missed a thing. If Katherine was connected to them in any way, I’d find out soon enough.

“Keep them busy,” I instructed. Give them just a little food that makes them inquisitive but not a reason to take them seriously. And make sure our men stay alert. No surprises.”

Lex nodded and walked away, leaving me by myself. I turned back to the screen while watching Katherine clamber about the edge of the bed with her elbows on her knees and head in her hands. She looked... defeated.

The sight shouldn’t have affected me, but it did.

A few hours later, I stood outside her door. Without a second thought, I stepped inside.

She sprang from the bed with a start, eyes shining with a mixture of amazement and quiet inquisitiveness. For a split second, we just looked at each other, the atmosphere of the room heavy and almost unbearable.

“You’re not very good at escaping, I said, breaking the silence.

Her jaw tightened and then she crossed her arms across her chest. “Maybe next time I’ll get lucky.”

I almost smiled. Almost. “Luck won’t help you, Katherine. Not here.”

Her gaze didn’t waver, defiance burning in her eyes.

I stepped closer, deliberately closing the distance between us. “Do you know why you’re still alive?”

She did not jump startle or flinch but I witnessed the flash of terror pass down the lines of her face. Because you are too arrogant to admit you don't know everything.

A low chuckle escaped me. “You think you know me, don’t you? You think you know me because we've spoken to each other a couple of times before. Let me give you some advice, Katherine. Arrogance doesn’t keep a man alive in my world. Strategy does.”

“What's your plan for me," she answered, her voice severe.

I got as close as I could to her, virtually touching her, in order to observe the tiny particles of gold in her dark brown eyes. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Neither of us, however, moved, the space between us filled with the sound of tension. Then I straightened, stepping back toward the door.

“Enjoy your accommodations while they last,” I said. “They could change at any moment.”

I just left her there, her stubbornness and uncertainty episode intertwined. She was a riddle, and I never refused the challenge of a mystery.

Katherine would either be my undoing or my greatest victory. One way or another, I intended to win.

—