Page 16 of Belgian Betrayal

If she heard him, she didn’t respond.

Fearghas entered the bathroom and closed the door between them. He’d pictured their reunion differently than how it had turned out. But then, what did he expect? She’d left him in Athens with no explanation.

He couldn’t fixate on the past. His mission was to protect Catya from whoever was trying to kill her. After turning on the water to let it warm, he unlaced his boots and toed them off. He shrugged out of his leather jacket and unbuckled the shoulder holster beneath, hanging the holster and handgun on a hook. Peeling the damp clothes from his body took a minute. By the time he stood naked, the shower water had warmed.

Beneath the spray, he couldn’t keep his thoughts from revisiting the many times he had shared a shower with Catya at his place in Athens. They’d made love in that shower, their bodies slick with suds, her back pressed against the cool tiles as he slid into her.

Fearghas’s body tightened, and his cock swelled. Would she join him in the shower now if he called out her name? Not that two people could fit in that small space.

The hot water and his even hotter thoughts warmed the chill from his skin. He squirted shampoo into his hands, inhaling the scent that was so very Catya. As he rubbed it into his hair and over his body, his got harder. He couldn’t come out of the bathroom with a massive boner. Not when he wasn’t sure of his welcome with the beautiful Russian assassin.

Fearghas rinsed the soap from his body, then adjusted the water temperature to lukewarm, letting it chill him enough to take the edge off his desire. By the time he turned off the water, he was in control of his body.

After dressing in the sweatshirt and trousers, he gathered his damp clothing and boots and emerged from the bathroom.

Heat filled the room.

“I started a fire in the stove,” she said. “You can hang your clothes on the hooks on the wall.”

After laying his boots by the stove and hooking his clothes and holster against the wall, he turned to Catya.

She stared at the laptop, a frown creasing her brow.

“What are you working on?” he asked.

She sighed. “I need to find Atkins and get that disk from him.”

“Don’t you think he’s passed the disk to whoever sent him in to retrieve it by now?”

“Since people are still after me, they must think I have it. I can only guess they don’t know Atkins has the disk. Or they don’t know which of us got away with it.”

“Can you tell the world that you don’t have it, and Atkins does?” Fearghas suggested. “It might get the heat off you.”

“As long as they’re after me, Atkins might still have it. Before Gia Rosolino died, she was adamant that I get that disk back and hand it over to someone I trust.” Catya turned toward Fearghas. “She said people could die if the information on that disk got into the wrong hands.” She shook her head. “They killed a preschool teacher to get that disk.”

“You said someone else, not Atkins, killed her?”

Catya nodded. “Atkins waited outside the back door. The man I saw leaving the townhouse was bigger, with broader shoulders than Atkins.” Her brow wrinkled. “Strangely, Atkins texted me to see if I’d gotten out okay. When I told him to give me the disk, he said he couldn’t.” She looked up into his eyes. “Why would he check to see if I’d made it out if his goal was to get the disk? It was almost as if he didn’t want me killed.”

“Or he wanted to know if you were still a loose thread that needed to be pulled,” Fearghas offered.

“Maybe.” Catya’s eyes narrowed. “Or he could have grown a conscience.”

Fearghas doubted that. “The only one who can clarify his intentions is the man himself.”

“Right.” Catya turned back to the laptop.

“Any word on Atkins’s whereabouts?” Fearghas asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing yet.”

“Let me get my team involved,” Fearghas pulled the other chair over to where Catya sat and straddled it. “We have a guy with some connections who might be able to help. I can also tap into some old contacts from my SAS days. They might have some insight.”

She stared at the monitor, her lips pressed into a tight line. “Do it. We need Atkins and answers.”

Chapter 5

Fearghas crossed to the jacket he’d hung close to the stove and rummaged in the pocket, praying his dip in the canal hadn’t destroyed the satellite and cell phones. Both items were damp. He hadn’t noticed before that the satellite phone was a marine, waterproof model. He’d purchased the most water-resistant cell phone on the market, but water-resistant and waterproof were two different features.

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