faded green scrub outfit he wore told her he was tanned but not unusually so. If she’d been able to see his hands they would have given her a better idea of whether he worked inside or on a ranch or farm.
Should she speak at all? she wondered. If he was planning to kill her, surely he wouldn’t have awakened her first. But why bother her at all? Why was any of this happening? She gritted her teeth in frustration.
“Vern sent me,” the man gritted out.
Anger mingled with her fear. So that was it. “Why?”
He didn’t answer. She could see the rapid blinking of his eyes through the holes in the mask as he swiveled his head nervously. Finally, he reached for the IV needle taped to her arm and started to pull it out. “It’s too dangerous for me here. You and I are leaving.”
Katerina pushed his hand away, took a deep breath and screamed, “No. Help!” at the top of her lungs.
Her attacker jumped away as if he’d been shot with a Taser. At that moment she wished she had one to make it real.
He lunged to cover her mouth once more, but she evaded him by rolling to the side. “Help me!”
The physical pressure lifted. Katerina continued to shriek with primal fear, no longer articulate.
A hand touched her shoulder. Voices mingled.
When she turned her head there were two nurses at her bedside, one blond, one graying and motherly looking.
Katerina peered past them. “Where did he go?”
“Who, dear?”
“The man. He had a mask on and he—”
“You’ve been through a severe trauma,” the blond nurse interjected. “We can’t give you a stronger sedative just yet, because of your head injury, but the doctor said we could take the edge off your pain. You may be having a delayed reaction to what happened to you or to the IV meds. I’ll report it to him.”
“I am not hallucinating,” Katerina insisted hoarsely. “There was a strange man right here in this room. He threatened me.” She lost hope when she saw the nurses exchange knowing glances.
“All right. Just lie back and rest,” the motherly one said, patting Katerina’s hand. “I’m sure you’ll be released soon. In the meantime, one of us will be close by. Use your call button if you need anything.”
“You’re not even going to look for the guy, are you?”
“As I said, we’ll report your symptoms to your physician, dear.”
Meaning, they still thought she’d been hallucinating or dreaming. Was it possible? No, she concluded. A trick of her brain would not have made her cracked lip bleed again. There had been a man’s hand pressed over her mouth. And he’d intended to take her away with him.
Vern was in jail. So who had accosted her?
* * *
Max knocked before entering Katerina’s room accompanied by a nurse. He’d expected to see her in bed but had not anticipated the reaction he got. She took one look at him, fisted her sheet and gathered it up under her chin like a shield. Her skin was pale, her mouth slightly swollen and her eyes reddened and puffy as if she’d been crying.
He hesitated, raw emotion churning through him. despite outward calm “The staff says you’ve been having a rough time, Ms. Garwood. Do you remember who I am?”
“FBI. You were there when the barn exploded.”
“Right. I looked after you until the ambulance arrived. How are you feeling?” he asked gently. “Are you up to finishing our conversation?”
As he watched, Katerina tried to raise herself into a sitting position and blanched. She looked ill beyond her injuries. Max beat the nurse to her bedside and steadied her. “Easy.”
With the weight of her shoulders resting on his arm, Katerina sighed. “Sorry. I forgot myself for a second. It’s been a rough day.”
Max stepped back as the nurse raised the head of her bed slightly, and then he asked, “Better now? Or do you need a few more minutes?”
“I’ll be fine as long as I don’t try to move too quickly.” She eyed the young nurse in the background. “Would it be possible for us to talk alone?”
Max nodded. “I see no problem with that. Leave the door ajar on your way out, please,” he told the nurse. As soon as she had left he took out a small digital recorder, clicked it on and renewed his interest in the patient. “What can you tell me about the incident at the ranch this morning?”
“Me? You were there, too. I don’t know any more about it than you do. One minute I was yelling back at you and the next thing I knew I was knocked off my feet.” Her voice softened a notch. “Thanks for looking after me.”
“You’re welcome. Now think. Did you see or hear anything unusual earlier?”
Her brow furrowed. “No. I wasn’t actually there for very long. I’d just stopped by to pick up the last of my clothes and things. I told you that.”
“I understand you no longer live there.”
“No. I don’t. My father was so angry when Vern was arrested for smuggling and distributing drugs he blamed me for ruining the family reputation and threw me out.”
Max struck a pseudo-relaxed pose. “And you’re surprised by that? It was pretty risky to keep company with a lowlife like Kowalski in the first place. You must have suspected he’d eventually be caught.”
“I had no idea he was a crook.”
That he didn’t believe for a second. “You were supposed to be marrying the man. How could you possibly not have known?”
“Because he was slick and because I was naive, I guess.” Her cheeks warmed visibly and his chest constricted when he saw moisture glistening behind her lashes. But he reminded himself he had a job to do. “Look,” Katerina went on, “I’m not stupid. I actually have a pretty decent IQ. But Vern wasn’t like the other men I’d met. He said all the right things at the right times and I fell for him. How was I to know he was using my father’s horse business as a cover to distribute drugs?”
“Intuition? Didn’t Kowalski ever say or do anything that made you suspicious before he was arrested?”
“No.” She broke eye contact. “Later.”
Aha! Now they were finally making progress. “When?”
“Promise you won’t look at me like I’m a horse short of a full team?”
“Yes. Go on, Ms. Garwood.”
“When I had a scare earlier this afternoon, the nurses said I imagined everything and blamed it on my injury and pain medicine.”
Leaning closer, Max listened carefully. “Is that what you think?”
“No. Well, maybe.
