Page 25 of France Face-Off
Alex gave a tight smile. “No, it’s quite good. I’m just not all that hungry, and I need to get back to my room for a few minutes before the afternoon session begins.”
“I need to go to my room as well. I’ll walk with you.”
That was not how Alex saw her lunchtime escape to Daniel’s room happening. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the man who made her heart skip beats making his way to the banquet hall doors. He glanced her way and gave a small, almost imperceptible nod.
Natalya walked with Alex all the way to the elevator.
Daniel hung back, letting them enter the elevator without him. Alex thought to punch the seventh floor. Instead, she entered three, the real number that she’d been assigned. As the elevator rose, she pulled her keycard from her wallet.
“Oh,” Natalya said, “we’re on the same floor.”
Alex swallowed a groan as the door opened.
Natalya waited for Alex to emerge and didn’t make a move until Alex turned in the direction of her room. They walked side by side. “Have you always been an interpreter?” Natalya asked.
“For the most part,” she said. “You?”
“Not always. I’ve dabbled in business, but the corporate world was not for me. I’m happy doing what I do. I have more control over the work I take on.”
Alex stopped in front of her door. “It was nice talking to you. I have a few things I need to do before I go back to the summit.”
“Me, too. I’ll see you there.”
Alex waited for Natalya to move past her. When the woman didn’t, she waved her keycard over the door lock. She pushed the door in just enough to get through it and then turned and closed the door between her and Natalya.
The broken window was a glaring reminder of the evening before. Her pulse picked up. She stared around the room, half-expecting the man in black with the mask to show up again. She checked the room to make sure there was nobody else inside and then went back to the door and looked through the peephole.
Apparently, Natalya had moved away from the door. She waited another three minutes before she pushed the door open and peered out into the hallway. It was empty.
Alex left the room and headed for the closest stairwell. As she pushed through the door, she looked back over her shoulder. The floor was still empty. She hurried through, let the door close behind her and then climbed the stairs to the fifth floor. When she opened the door to the stairwell, she heard another door clatter below. Alex muttered a curse beneath her breath. Hopefully, it wasn’t Natalya following her. She walked quickly to Daniel’s door and knocked three times softly. The door opened immediately, and she dove in.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “Is somebody following you?”
“I’m not sure,” she said.
He leaned into the peephole, stared for a moment and then straightened. “Did you see who it was?”
“No,” Alex said, “but I had an interesting lunch with your girlfriend.”
“What girlfriend? Oh, you mean Natalya.”
“Yes, she invited me to sit with her and then grilled me.”
His lips twitched. “Did she find out any more than I have found out about you?”
“She didn’t get much further.”
“She’s an interesting woman,” Daniel said.
“She is,” Alex agreed. And kind of creepy, she thought but didn’t add.
Daniel’s brow dipped. “Was she following you?”
“I don’t know…maybe. I told her I was going up to my room after lunch to do a few things before I went back to the summit. She said she also had to go back to her room. And then she got into the elevator with me. I punched the button for the third floor, and she said, ‘Oh, we’re on the same floor.’” Alex grimaced. “When I got out and went to my room, she followed me. It wasn’t until I went inside my room and closed the door that I finally got rid of her. I waited a few minutes, then left the room and came up here. At the fifth-floor stairwell door, I thought I heard somebody open a door below me. I could just be imagining things.” But her gut told her she wasn’t.
Daniel frowned. “Why would Natalya follow you?”
“Good question,” Alex said.
