“If you continue to push,” her tone was uncharacteristically harsh and cold, “it will happen again, and all of this work I’ve done will have been wasted.”
All the workshe’ddone?
I frowned. “I need to know who I am.”
Blackness closed around me. My stomach pitched and rolled, and every inch of my body was cold.
A sound cracked in the darkness. What was that? A gunshot?
I fell out of my pirouette, my gaze scanning the audience in front of me as a woman screamed. The memory rushed along like it was playing at double-speed. I was on the floor, a dying man’s eyes locked onto mine and his blood staining my costume.
I came out of the memory as abruptly as I’d plunged into it, and the sensation had me doubled-over on the couch, the book-lined shelves of the library all around me.
“That is just the beginning,” Dr. Vorbusch snarled. “Do you want to go to the parking garage next?”
“No,” I gasped. I was still trying to recover from seeing the man’s lifeless body, the pained expression fixed on his face. I couldn’t handle anything else right now.
What had she done to me?
She said it with absolute command. “Mr. Juric and I both want you to leave it alone.”
“Who?” I asked, instantly wishing I could take it back. I stood too quickly from my seat and my vision faded, my legs woozy. “I think you should leave.”
When I blinked, the doctor was no longer in her chair. She stood in the doorway, and I lay across the couch, my head heavy and aching. The shadows cast by the window were long, signifying it was late afternoon.
“What the hell just happened?” I demanded.
She simply smiled.
My blood ran cold and my heart raced with panic, and I reached for the only safety I had. “Plavko!”
“There’s no need for that,” Dr. Vorbusch said.
He appeared out of thin air, as if he’d been just outside the door the whole time.
“Get her out of here,” I ordered. “I don’t want to see her again.”
He grabbed her roughly by the elbow, but she shook off his hold as if to say,I’ll go. But not before she hurled her final statement at me. “Good luck, Laurel. You’re going to need it.”
The doctor’s threat affected me long after I’d had her thrown out. I sat on the couch, my throbbing head in my hands, wondering what I was going to do. Ryan had hired this woman. Whatever she’d done to me, it was probably on his orders.
“She is gone.”
I yelped with surprise at Plavko’s deep voice. I hadn’t heard his return, and once again, I was struck by how such a tall, broad man could move with lethal silence.
“Thank you,” I replied.
He lingered in the doorway, unsure if he were welcome to come in. I nodded, and when he stepped inside, I got my first real look at him.
His massive height was overwhelming, but his face... it wasn’t as intimidating as I remembered. His eyes weren’t asfurious in the fading afternoon light. It was stunning to realize he was actually quite handsome, and I had the weird feeling that he’d spent much of his life trying to keep that a secret.
Ryan had said he paid Plavko to blend in, but this man today? He was striking.
My silent bodyguard’s expression changed like he wanted to say something but didn’t know if he should.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I did not like that doctor. You were right to send her away.”
