Karolina was a distraction he couldn’t afford.That was why he had never allowed a relationship to progress.He hadn’t done a stroke of work since she left the room.His wife was tender and vulnerable, and dangerously addicted to risk.She could so easily put herself in danger…
A sudden feeling of dread swept over him.Pushing back from the desk, he left the room at speed.Anna was in the kitchen preparing food.“Have you seen my wife?”
“Last time I saw Karolina, she was heading out.”
“Out?Right.”He could only hope he was wrong about her destination.
“So, you’ve come home to Daddy,” the ambassador sneered when one of his thugs brought Karolina in front of him.She hadn’t even gotten as far as the front door of the embassy before she was stopped and taken inside.
“Your marriage didn’t last long,” the ambassador mocked.“I’ve heard of shotgun weddings and weddings that only last until the flowers begin to wilt, but yours seems to be over before it began.I do hope I’m not the cause of the problem?”
The tone of his question made her want to spit in his eye.“My marriage isn’t over.I’m here to see you.”
“To see me?That has to be a first when you’ve spent most of your life avoiding me.”
She shivered at the cruel expression on his loathsome face as her father lolled back in his chair.
“You’ve got a nerve, coming here after ruining my auction.Do you expect me to welcome you with open arms, or are you addicted to punishment like your mother seemed to be?”
“Did she have any choice?”
When her father shrugged, it took all she had to rein in her anger, but she had more sense than to further provoke a man with the butt of a gun peeping out from his waistcoat.“If you must know, I came back for my rag doll.”And to ask some questions of her contact, Carl, which the ambassador didn’t need to know.
“I’m supposed to believe you returned for thatthingyour mother was told to stitch while she was in therapy?”
Karolina’s stomach dropped.“My mother was in therapy?You never told me that.”
“Why should I?”he demanded petulantly.Her father’s fat lips pressed down.“It’s not important, anyway.I was merely humoring my staff when they began to notice she was losing her mind.She didn’t stick at the therapy.She didn’t stick at anything, that woman.”
Because of you!
If she didn’t keep her head, a lot more women would suffer, but a veil had been lifted.Her mother’s tears and hysterical rages had not been self-indulgent, as the ambassador had always said, and her mother hadn’t been neglectful, she’d been sick.Karolina had been too young to help, or to understand what was happening.The rag doll soared in significance as a symbol of hope destroyed.
“I’ve decided on your punishment,” the ambassador announced.“As you’re here, I might as well make use of you.I’m going to give you instructions on how to bleed Conor Murphy dry of every piece of information he possesses.You’ll both suffer for what you’ve cost me.But for now, go and get your wretched rag doll.”He waved her away.
She left the room to the sound of her father’s cruel laugh, but she wasn’t ready to go upstairs yet.Hurrying down to the gym where Carl, the man who’d trained her, usually hung out, she breathed a sigh of relief to see him exactly where she’d hoped he would be.“Hey, Carl.Good to see you.”
“Good to see you, princess.How’s married life?”
This was one man whose facial expression had never struck terror into Karolina.She returned Carl’s grin, surprised at how glad she was to see the one man in the embassy who had never seemed evil.Carl could be depended upon to be found working out in his spare time, though he had to be close to retiring age.That didn’t stop the genial, bald-headed man being one of the fittest individuals she’d ever encountered, and it was a relief to see he had the same warm smile and shrewd gray eyes that she remembered.“I’ve hardly had chance to find out.I came back to find my rag doll.”
“The one your mother made?She was handy with a needle, that one.”
They both fell silent, knowing there was more than one type of needle.
“Are you working tonight?”she probed carefully.
“A job at the warehouse—”
Carl looked as if he’d like to bite off his tongue.“What’s wrong Carl?”
“I’m not supposed to tell you, but the ambassador suspects your new husband of heading up a team that’s trying to take him out.”
“Then I won’t ask you any more questions,” she promised, “because that would put you in danger.”She’d learned what she needed to, and it was time to move on.Find the rag doll and get the hell out.The next auction was going to be soon, by the look of things.
“I should get on, princess.You take care now.”
“You too Carl,” she said as she headed back upstairs.
She had barely made it to the first landing when a hand was slammed across her mouth.Dragged backwards, kicking and protesting, she was practically thrown down the stairs.Grabbing hold of the iron banister saved her, but the man still pushed her on.Once she’d reached the basement, a thump in the back sent her sprawling through the open door of one of the small cells.Pulled upright again, she was bound with cable ties to the arms and legs of a small iron chair.A gag was stuffed into her mouth, and a hood pulled over her head.
