“I need to know who she is.”
“Why? Everything has been handled. Coben wants to talk to you, of course, and I told him that I’d let him know when you were up for questions.”
Sven exhaled, but didn’t argue. At least when he talked to Coben, he could get some answers about who the woman was. He understood Lars’s reluctance where she was concerned, but he also remembered the feeling of her brushing his hair back and her calm strength. She hadn’t left him.
“She wasn’t hurt, was she? Did the archer shoot at her?”
“No,” Lars replied, “another worrisome detail. She blocked you from the shooter’s position, whether intentionally or accidentally, so either they didn’t shoot to avoid hitting her, or Magnus told them no collateral damage.”
“We’ll go with the second option. Magnus may be a terrorist, but he’s an honorable one.”
At that, Lars let out a laugh. “Well if that isn’t an oxymoron.”
Sven tried to gather all of his scattered thoughts. “Maybe if we find the woman, she can tell us if Erik was on the plane.”
“How would she know that? And what is it with this woman?” Lars stopped pacing and stared at him.
Sven’s pulse spiked. He couldn’t explain it himself yet. “She saved my life.”
“And again, she may just as easily have been a part of the setup,” Lars shot back. “Think, Sven. Crowd panics and whoconveniently ends up at your side? Some stranger from Alabama that nobody knows? Smells wrong to me.”
At least now he knew where she was from. Sven tried to stand but pain flared white-hot through his ribs. “We really need to figure out what this toxin is,” he hissed. “I’m not used to feeling like this when we heal so easily.”
“Agreed,” Lars said flatly. “And as far as the woman goes, I don’t trust coincidences.”
“She wasn’t part of it.” Sven’s voice was harsher than he meant and he was sick of the repeat argument. “I know it.”
Lars’s brows lifted. “Youknowit? You exchanged what, five words? You were bleeding out, Sven. You had no idea what you were doing.”
Sven knew that he didn’t have logic on his side. Just instinct. “She was there when I needed her.”
Finally Lars muttered, “Maybe to keep you alive long enough for someone else to finish the job later. Maybe you should put as much attention on Alitta, the woman who could very well be your mate.”
“She’snotmy mate.” Sven finally got to his feet and took a few steps. “I need to move around and maybe work the toxin out of my system so I can finish healing.”
The door opened and Sven’s personal doctor, Martin, walked in. “Well, look who’s on their feet already.”
“It’s going to take more than an arrow to keep me down.”
Martin folded his arms across his chest. “It almost did. Don’t downplay the fact that you almost died. I’ve doubled the team to figure out what the hell this toxin is before we have another, err, incident.”
Lars coughed in the background.
“Yeah, I know,” Sven conceded. “No more going off by myself. Listen to the head of my guard. Take precautions. I know.”
“Who was the healer that helped you?”
He looked at Martin with a frown. “The healer?”
“Yeah. The one who had already neutralized some of the toxins before you got here. In ways that I have no idea how it was done.”
“Well, that makes two of us because I have no idea.”
“You really were lucky this time, Sven.” He patted his shoulder. “And I’d like to talk to whoever was there. She has something special. And in the meantime, avoid going out in public.”
He nodded at the doctor. “I know. And next time, myguardian angel,” he stressed the words for Lars’s sake, “may not be there to watch over me.”
Martin picked up a small wash tub full of towels off the dresser. “We won’t be needing these anymore. Come down to my office when you feel up to it. I want to do another round of bloodwork to make sure everything leaves your system.”
