Page 15 of Savage Beauty

“Saying ‘woman’ in a derogatory manner is unacceptable.”

I probably should have expected a woman like Sloane would take offense at that offhand comment. “Didn’t mean anything by it. Don’t be sensitive.”

“I am not sensitive.”

I blow out my disagreement with that statement in one loud huff. “Just give me a minute. I don’t have the date memorized.”

“Do you keep a diary?”

“Sure do.” Her glare has me grinning. “No, Watson. I don’t keep a diary.” Me and a diary. That’s a good one. “Checking our project log.” It takes a second for me to synch through the VPN. Since I’m outside the US, I need to enter a code that changes every five seconds.

“There. I’m in.” I go back through the notations. Bingo. “Someone broke into her house at approximately two a.m. on July eleventh.”

“That’s two weeks after Anton Solonov took me.” She chews on a fingernail. Her eyes are open, but there’s a glazed effect over her dark brown eyes and minuscule pupils, as if she’s not seeing anything at all. “I was still trapped in a boat at that point. They wouldn’t let me out of the hold. I thought I would die. Why go after Sage?”

“We have a couple of working theories. But we could never interrogate anyone to confirm anything.” Her steady gaze through the window has me pushing up out of the chair and checking the view to see exactly what she’s staring at. My knees pop, and the familiar ache flares. I dig out an Advil pack from my pants pocket. “One theory is that they thought she knew something about what you were working on.”

“She knows nothing.”

“We’re aware. But whoever took you might not be.” Her lips purse as if she’s giving this idea consideration. “We also considered that she’s the only person who would search for you.”

“That’s not true. Dr. Kallio would search for me. Or William. For that matter, any number of my colleagues would search for me.”

“Who’s William?”

“William Salo. He was my boss. He took a new job in Switzerland, and they hired Dr. Kallio.”

“According to your employee file, you resigned.”

“But that’s ridiculous. I didn’t resign. I already told Sage. And you. Why aren’t you listening?”

“There’s an email file on your employee server.”

“I didn’t send an email.”

“Someone did. From your account.”

“I haven’t had access to my email since that psychopath drugged me and locked me on a boat.”

“So, you didn’t do it, but someone did. They probably did it so your colleagues wouldn’t wonder what happened to you. You know, your boss, Dr. Kallio, she’s the one Sage talked to first when you didn’t return her calls. She’s the one who told her you emailed your resignation and said you’d fallen in love and were going to leave to go sailing around the world.”

She removes her finger from her mouth and studies it. I suspect she just chewed a piece of her nail off.

“Admittedly, many companies keep a limited amount of information on employees, but there was no notation of concern from your supervisor.”

“Dr. Kallio wouldn’t make a negative notation in my employee file. I do twice the work of any other researcher.” She still has that faraway look in her eye, looking in the general direction of the window, and it feels like she’s talking to herself, not to me. “I need to get my laptop. I can access the server. See what’s going on.”

“That sounds like a remarkably stupid idea.” Yeah, now she sees me.

“I’m not stupid. I am highly intelligent.”

That’s not the response I was expecting, but I’ll give it to her. She’s refreshingly straightforward. “You realize that if it wasn’t for Arrow taking on this project, you’d be trapped in Cambodia taking blood samples indefinitely. You get that, right?” A little thank you might be nice.

“They were getting ready to move me.”

“To where? How do you know?”

“I heard a man speaking. He spoke in Russian, but I understood some words. I think that’s what he was saying. That I was to finish with the blood samples, and I’d be moved. He assured whoever he was talking to that I was okay. I thought they might put me on another boat. That’s why I took the pill without knowing what it was. Even though Knox said he’d be back, I couldn’t wait.”

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