Chapter 25
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa
-
Rather than the two men Clive Sampson had promised him, Robert found a woman in his office instead.
Sandrine.
"Were you going to leave without saying good-bye?"
Robert averted her eyes and sat down at his desk. The ceiling fan was still broken and the air in his office was thick enough to drink.
"I asked you a question," she pressed.
Robert frowned. Her presence threw him further off balance than he already was. Sandrine always said what she felt. It was one of the many things he loved about her. But right now, he wasn't ready for her frankness.
He still remembered the first day Sandrine had told him she loved him. He'd chided her then, saying it wasn't possible, that she couldn't love him after only one night together.
"Of course it is possible," she had corrected him. "I know what my heart feels. I loved you long before tonight. Tonight I only love you more. Tonight I want you to know."
Her unflinching honesty often caught him off guard. Like now.
"I'm sorry, but I can't discuss this with you right now," was all he said.
"Is your daughter alright?" Sandrine asked, her concern genuine.
Robert nodded, saying nothing.
"It's Anna, isn't it?"
He answered her with silence.
"Let me go with you…" she pleaded. "I can help you."
This time he did raise his head to meet her gaze, noticing her eyes were moist and hurt. He also saw something else in them. Something he rarely saw: uncertainty.
"This is something I have to do myself. I don't want you involved in this." He took off his jacket, feeling his shirt cling to his skin in the heat. Sandrine wouldn't understand that she was the future, that she had no place in his past. They were two mutually exclusive worlds now.
"You're going to kill him. You're going to kill Cesar Faison and give Anna her freedom, " she said. It wasn't a question.
Robert nodded. "Yes. That's all I'm going to do."
"No," she said softly, her thick lips beginning to quiver. "That's not all. If you kill him then you have everything back again. Anna and your daughter. You will have your old life back."
Robert said nothing, hating that he could feel what she felt. That god-awful sense of loss.
"What happens then, Robert?" She was crying now, not bothering to wipe away the generous drops that ran down her cheeks.
"I don't know," he whispered. He felt his own eyes moisten. "I'm sorry, Sandi. I wish I could tell you…but I don't know."
"Do you love me?" she asked.
Robert took her in his arms, burying his face in hers. "You know I do."
"Then you will come back."
Robert's mind drifted to the ring in his desk drawer, just as the jasmine scent of her perfume made its way into his nostrils, teasing his senses.
"I want to, Sandi…but I can't promise you."
She moved her lips onto his. Wet, moist, salty.
"You will come back," she whispered, wrapping her long arms around him. "I know you will."
Alexei Estate, 100 miles north of Moscow, Russia
-
"That's right. You can come back to us now. I know you want to."
The voice was deep and hypnotic. As though it could will her eyes to open, even if they weren't ready yet to leave the darkness where everything fused together.
The bridge, the white vans, the needle that shot up into her arm.
"Sasha, you have someone else's memories. You're not well. You're so confused, darling."
"Mum, please don't let him near me."
The man approached her. First he was in the room with the whitewashed walls. Then he approached her inside the white van. Everything merged into one. Wales. Paris. Faison. Charlotte.
"Anna, please don't make us hurt you."
Nothing made sense. She was so confused. Afraid.
"The drugs take everything away from me…I don't know who I am anymore."
"You never gave me many options, Anna."
"Mum, please…"
"No…no. Please…don't."
"I won't hurt you, Anna. You're safe."
She heard it again, the gentle, low voice, and then, finally, she heard her own voice in the mix.
"Don't..."
"It's alright. You're fine. Waking up is always the most confusing part."
Alex slowly raised her eyelids to see a face attached to the voice. A man with a thick, white beard and blue-green eyes hiding behind a pair of old-fashioned glasses.
'Santa Claus', she thought in dazed disbelief. He reminded her of Santa Claus.
"That's it. Good girl."
She saw that he was about to examine her pupils, but she reached out to push his hand away.
"Who are you?" she demanded. It was meant to sound threatening but in reality Alex doubted her words were even coherent.
Her eyelids were heavy and Alex let them close, vaguely remembering the needle, while the physician in her wondered what drug she could have been injected with.
"My name is Doctor Thorpe. But you may call me Henry," she heard him say.
He had an English accent when he spoke. Oxford English. The man spoke the same way a university professor might lecture. Clipped, proper and erudite.
It was an accent that brought back a memory of Brynn Wydd and Alex shivered underneath the wool blanket that covered her.
"Where am I?"
"You're in Russia," he informed her. "I'm afraid that's all I've been instructed to tell you."
Russia.
Alex tossed off the blanket, trying to sit up, even as the room started to spin around her.
"No…that's not possible." Her voice couldn't have been very loud. She could barely hear the words she spoke. Panic gripped her. Russia wasn't possible. The man had to be lying.
"It's true. You were unconscious for approximately twelve hours. You've been here for less than an hour."
Sean Donely. The tracking device. They couldn't have taken her to Russia. It was too far away.
"Do you remember what happened? How you came here?" he asked her.
Alex remembered the bridge, the vans and the needle. Images of Cesar Faison. They all came back to her with frightening clarity, making her shudder.
"I know you've had retrograde amnesia for a long time. Because of that Mr. Faison wanted me to examine you and make sure you suffered no ill effects from the sedative. He was quite concerned."
Retrograde amnesia?
Alex gave him a puzzled look, when suddenly, she remembered something else.
She was Anna.
She looked at her clothes and saw Anna's clothes. The dark blouse and stylish denim jeans. Alex moved a shaky hand to her hair, feeling its unfamiliar, layered cut when she touched it.
She wasn't Anna. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that this man believed she was.
What if she told them she wasn't? Would Faison let her go?
Or would he use her as a bargaining chip to get to Anna? Or worse...would he decide he had no use for her and kill her?
What about his promise to help Leah?
Alex had a hard time getting air into her lungs. In her panic, she was starting to hyperventilate.
"So, if you don't mind…I'd like to have a look at you, as well as take a blood sample."
The man was friendly and patient and he seemed to genuinely care for her well-being. Maybe he could be an ally. A friend.
Alex reached out to grasp the fabric of his chequered shirt. "Please…will you help me?" she whispered. "I'm not here of my own free will…I was kidnapped."
The old man who looked like Santa Claus and spoke like an Oxford professor gave her a kindly smile, not unlike that of a parent acknowledging a child's discovery. Humouring it. "I know you were kidnapped, Anna."
"Then you'll help me get away from here…" She felt a sliver of relief. This man was a doctor. An English doctor. Of course this man wasn't going to sit by and watch while Cesar Faison kept her prisoner.
"I'm sorry, but I can't help you, Anna."
"Please, Henry…" she pleaded, disturbed at the nonchalance of his refusal. "If it's money you want, I can make sure you get it. I swear to you…"
The man's green-blue eyes lit up in amusement. "Unfortunately for you, my services are already employed by various organizations in Moscow. They pay me rather well. Believe me when I say they wouldn't appreciate me helping you out."
"If you need protection, I can make sure you get it. Whatever you want…I'll arrange it for you."
Dr. Thorpe gave her a gentle push back onto the pillow, gesturing that the time for games was over. "If you don't mind. I'd like to examine you now."
"Please." She was begging now. "You're a doctor…help me get away from here!"
"Anna," he chided her gently. "Stop wasting your breath and my time with silly requests." He sighed. "I'm not going to help you, my dear. Not now, not ever." He didn't sound unkind. He still sounded like a parent, admonishing his child for wanting another candy, when in fact, all that sugar wasn't good for her.
Alex pushed herself off the bed. "Who are you?"
The man pulled a syringe out of his black, medical bag. "I told you. My name is Henry. That's all you need to know. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to take a blood sample for Mr. Faison."
Sitting made her feel light-headed. "I do mind."
The old man smiled. "I thought you might say that."
"You're English."
"I am, yes. Abingdon. A little town in…"
"Oxfordshire," Alex finished for him, grateful that at least her mind was starting to clear, the haze lifting. Then she bit her tongue. Would Anna have known that?
"That's right. Oxfordshire. Not a terribly interesting town, I might add." Henry Thorpe smiled. "Mr. Faison mentioned that you would try and interrogate me."
"I'm trying to understand why you won't help me."
"You think I owe you something because we were born in the same country?"
"Please…I'm begging you."
"Don't ask me again, Anna."
Alex stood up next to him, fighting the light-headedness that made the room spin again. She stood face to face with him, surprised to find he wasn't particularly tall. "Everyone has a price. What's yours?"
The old man shook his head with a touch of disdain. "Even if I wanted to, and I most certainly don't, what makes you think I can help you?"
"There has to be something you can do!"
He put both hands on her shoulders, trying unsuccessfully to get her to sit back down. "The drug hasn't completely worn off yet. Lie down and give it a few more minutes."
"So you can inject me with something else? I don't think so." Like she did on the bridge, Alex spoke the words with a bravado she didn't feel.
"Listen," Henry Thorpe sighed with growing impatience. "We can make this easy or we can make it difficult."
"Difficult works for me."
He shook his head, disappointed. "All I want, Anna, is a blood sample to make Mr. Faison happy. It takes two seconds of your compliance. If you don't I have to call in a guard, to help me subdue you and possibly sedate you again. Is that really what you want?"
Alex considered what he was saying.
"It would be in your best interest to save the little energy you have fighting him," he said softly, eyeing the bedroom's closed door. "Instead of wasting it on me."
Sinking back into the bed, Alex held out her arm. "Fine…do what you have to do."
Her fatigue made her want to close her eyes again, in spite of the needle's sting in her arm. Alex fought the urge and made herself examine her surroundings.
The room she was in was large and dark. It had a rustic smell that betrayed its obvious age, much like the rooms at Vadsel did. It was old, centuries old perhaps. The walls were lined with dark wood panels and Alex had an urge to turn on the night-table lamp to see better. She did notice two large, elaborate oil paintings hanging on the walls.
Judging from the thick curtains in front of her, there had to be at least one window in the room. Alex wished the curtains weren't drawn shut so she could catch a glimpse of the landscape outside.
The bed she was lying in was as elaborate as the paintings and the curtains. It was an enormous, four-poster bed with intricate, religious carvings etched into its oak frame. Alex didn't know much about antiques, in spite of the fact that Vadsel was full of them. Yet even she could discern that both the bed and the paintings in this room would likely fetch a small fortune at any European auction house.
The only other furniture in the room was a dark, antique dresser and mirror, both of which were framed by two exquisite, hand-carved chairs.
Everything about the room was old and regal. It reminded Alex of rooms she had seen on school trips to castles belonging to British royalty. It was a strange opulence she didn't particularly care for. A needless grandeur that could suffocate its occupant.
"There. That wasn't so difficult, was it?"
Alex felt the old man pull the needle out of her arm. "As long as you'll leave me alone now." Soliciting for his help was obviously pointless. Now she just wanted him gone.
"It's a deal. I don't think you've suffered lingering effects from the sedative. Just open your eyes for me."
Alex did as he asked, knowing he was checking whether her pupils were dilated.
"Do you feel sick?" he asked her casually.
"No."
He smiled. "If you did, you wouldn't tell me anyway. Not that I really care, but if you get sick on me in a few days, Mr. Faison won't be pleased with me."
"And I really care about that." The only place she felt sore was on her hip. Alex moved a hand to the spot where Sean had inserted the tracking device. Her pants clung to the spot, stained with the dried blood.
Faison had to have discovered the chip and removed it.
A fresh surge of panic ran up her spine. 'Oh God…they have no idea where he took me.'
"Good-bye, Anna," she heard the old man say, before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
Alex jumped up after him, trying to catch door before it slammed shut, only to find it was looked from outside. "Bastard," she cursed, pounding against it.
The effort dizzied her and Alex sank down to the ground, feeling the tears well up in her eyes.
'Anna wouldn't sit here and cry,' she thought, unable to bring her panic under control. Her breathing was erratic again.
She was alone. In Russia. With the man who had tried to kill her sister.
Alex couldn't stop the tears. The only time she'd ever felt this helpless was when she was at Brynn Wydd with her mother.
'Anna wouldn't panic…' a voice reminded her. Except her terror was louder than the voice.
And she wasn't Anna.
On the cold, wooden floor, Alex buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
Sitting Room, Alexei Estate
-
Faison paced the old oak room, taking a drag on his cigar.
"What's taking him so long?" he asked Jan for the second time in the last fifteen minutes.
Jan couldn't be bothered to repeat his earlier response. "Why don't you go inside and ask him?" he said instead.
"Seeing me might frighten her when she comes to," he replied, still pacing.
Jan yawned, focusing his gaze on the painting that hung on the wall.
The painting was beautiful. It made Jan smile.
Tsar Nicholas to whom to estate once belonged, was known in the art world for his inferior taste. Jan had low expectations for the artwork here. But this painting was a sudden revelation that maybe he'd been wrong. It was a simple portrait of a Russian princess, but its lines and colours were far too intricate and vibrant for the average portrait painter, even one commissioned to the Tsar's family.
'Could it be?' Jan thought excitedly, searching for the signature. 'A genuine Kiprensky?'
"It is a Kiprensky," Faison mumbled aloud, without looking at Jan or the painting. "If that's what you're wondering."
Jan's smile deepened. Orest Kiprensky was one of the greatest painters of Imperial Russia. The last time Jan had the privilege of gazing at one his works was at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, a few months ago.
"I acquired it last month," Faison continued. "It was one of several paintings I bought to replace some of the eyesores that were hanging on the walls. Anna has a keen eye for art. I didn't want to disappoint her when she came here."
Jan looked at it in awe, his fingers itching to touch the canvas, while his eyes hungrily stared at every tiny, perfect detail. Jan never missed a single detail in a great work of art. He could stare at a painting for hours at a time, soaking in its every intricacy. And each time he did, he wished that he too could have been blessed with the gift of creation rather than that of calculation.
The English doctor interrupted Jan's wishful thinking when he entered the room.
"Well?" Faison asked him. "How is she?"
"She's fine. Absolutely fine. There appear to be no ill effects from the sedative whatsoever."
Jan saw the relief on Faison's face.
"Good. I'm glad," he told the doctor. "You can let Yuri know to bill me for your services and I will call you tomorrow to see the results of the blood test."
The old doctor put on a tweed hat. "I'll be awaiting your call, Mr. Faison."
"It's alright to see her then?" Faison asked Thorpe as he was about to make his way out.
"Yes. Most definitely."
Faison turned to Jan. "Would you please walk Dr. Thorpe out to the gates, past security."
"Of course, sir." Jan feigned a smile for the old man. "Please, follow me."
Cesar Faison followed them into the hallway, waiting until they were out of sight, before taking the elaborate, spiral staircase that led to the bedroom where she was.
He paused and caught his breath before entering the numerical code needed to open the door.
He was unarmed. Alone.
If she wanted to, Anna could easily try to fight him. Although she was physically no match for his size and strength, he didn't doubt that she would offer him a challenge.
Yet when he entered the room she wasn't ready to pounce on him. Instead she was kneeling on the floor, next to the door, her eyes red and rimmed with tears.
Silently, he knelt down next to her, using his free hand to brush a strand of hair away from her face.
"It's alright, my love…I won't hurt you."
St. Michel Hospital, Paris, France
-
Stretchers lined the busy hospital corridor. An old man coughed as if he were about to expel his lungs and a young woman moaned, clutching her stomach.
"Sean, what is it that you have to tell me?" Anna asked him for the second time, oblivious to the sick people around her.
"Can we go somewhere more quiet?" Sean asked her. Were it anyone but him, Anna would have thought he was stalling. She noticed his suit was wrinkled and dirty and that one of its sleeves was torn near the edge.
"There's a cafeteria downstairs," she offered.
"Alright."
Once there, Anna walked to a quiet table next to the wall, as isolated as possible in the cavernous room. "Will you finally tell me what's going on?"
"Will you have a seat?"
Anna sat down. The fact that he wouldn't meet her eyes troubled her. "Sean…is everything okay with Tiffany?"
Sean took a seat across from her, forcing himself to look at her. Forcing himself to form the words he didn't seem to want to say. "Yesterday, when I went to your apartment, I found a letter there. From Faison."
Now it was Anna who wouldn't meet his gaze. "I see."
"You've been in contact with him, haven't you?"
Anna tightened her lips. "Since when do you open my mail?"
"Answer me, please."
"He's been contacting me. Not the other way around. I have no idea where Faison is."
"In the letter he said he wanted to meet with you. In exchange for 'helping Leah.'"
"What?" Anna's anger was replaced with shock.
"I wanted to show you the letter when you got back from the hospital, but you were out cold."
"When does he want to meet with me?" Anna demanded.
"He did. Last night, at nine o'clock."
"When I was fast asleep…" Anna let the words sink in. Faison was within her grasp. He did have something to do with Leah's illness, just as she had suspected. He did have a possible cure. Everything had slipped through her fingers again. She wanted to kick herself as her mind raced, making it nearly impossible to hear what Sean said next.
"Alex was there when I opened the letter," he told her.
Anna forced her thoughts back to the present. "So Alex...knows…about Faison."
Sean nodded. "Yes. Alex also told me that Leah's condition was serious. Possibly…" He paused. "Possibly…fatal."
"Sean, what are you saying?"
"She thought that if Faison was offering some sort of help, we had no choice but to take it."
"So did you try and wake me?"
Sean rested his elbows on the table, rubbing his temple, indifferent to the family that sat down a few chairs down from them. Oblivious to everything but Anna's reactions. "Of course we tried to wake you! But we couldn't."
"Are you saying I missed my chance to help my daughter?" Anna looked at him angrily. "My chance to finally kill that bastard?"
Sean closed his eyes. "Alex suggested that... she could meet with him instead of you."
Anna looked at him incredulously. "That's insane." She almost laughed out loud at the absurdity of what he was suggesting. "Of course you told her that was crazy."
"I did. We all did. But she convinced us otherwise."
"She what?"
"She convinced us it was the only way to give Leah a fighting chance."
Anna couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Sean…tell me you didn't buy it? I mean…god, Sean. We don't even look that much alike. Her hair…her accent…if Faison's been following me he'd know the difference in a second."
"She went to a hair salon, she borrowed some of your clothes…believe me, Anna, she was your mirror image last night. Even Robin was shocked at how much she looked like you."
'Robin too?' Anna shook her head in disbelief. "No…Sean. You wouldn't do that. Tell me didn't let my sister meet with Faison..."
"Alex met him at the Pont D'Arcole at nine o'clock last night. We put an AT chip on her, and, in addition to me and O'Toole, we had seven men backing her up."
"Dan O'Toole was in on this?"
"I needed back-up and we couldn't go through official channels."
"No, of course not, because no law enforcement agency in their right mind would let you go through with something insane like this!" Anna remembered Sean's expression when she first saw him in the waiting room upstairs. He was pale and his hands were ice cold. He looked as though he had just lost his best friend.
"Sean…what happened when Alex got to the bridge?" she demanded, terrified of the answer now.
"We tracked her…we did everything we could to make sure we kept control of the situation. But…"
Anna dug her fingernails into her palm. "But what, Sean?"
"Faison came in with two vans. He pulled Alex into one of them."
Anna's eyes widened in disbelief.
"He discovered the alpha tracking chip and made us believe she was in the wrong van."
"But you knew that could happen, right? You had the other van covered, didn't you?"
"We had one man car it but…" Sean's voice was starting to give out. "There…there was a vehicle switch, and we…we lost the van."
"Oh God," a groan escaped Anna's lips. "No."
"Anna, I'm sorry."
Anna felt the colour drain from her face. "Faison has my sister. That monster…"
She stood up, wrapping an arm around herself, the thought making her physically ill. "Damn you, Sean! How could you let her do that?"
"Anna, it was a mistake, I know but…"
She didn't give him a chance to finish. "A mistake? Alex is a doctor, Sean…a healer! She doesn't belong in the world of Cesar Faison." Anna banged an angry fist onto the table. "How dare you let her fight my battles for me!"
"We thought we could protect her…"
"With what? An goddamn alpha tracking chip?" she asked bitterly. "You know that's precisely Faison's game. Gadgets, electronics." She wiped an angry tear from her face, "Damn you, Sean…you knew he had to have an AT scanner! What the hell were you thinking?"
For the first time since she saw him come into the waiting room, Anna caught a trace of anger in his expression too.
"I didn't know what to think when I saw that note!" he shot back. "All I could think was why in God's name didn't you tell anyone that Faison made contact with you?"
Anna's anger mounted. "Tell you? So you could get yourself killed going after him? Like Robert?"
"Is that what you think will happen if you ask someone for help?"
Anna glared at him. "Faison is my battle to fight. Not yours, not Robert's, not Leah's or Robin's…and most certainly not Alex's!"
"That's not how it works, sweetheart."
"Oh yes it is." She turned on her heels and started walking away.
"Anna…wait!" Sean jumped up after her. The family that sat next to them stopped their conversation to stare at them.
Anna didn't make the slightest effort to slow down.
Sean grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to stop. "Anna, I know you hate me right now. But we have to be on the same side in this…for Alex's sake."
"Let go of me!" Anna couldn't shake the blind anger she felt towards Sean.
"Sweetheart, I'm sorry…I'll say it a hundred times if it'll make a difference. I'm so damn sorry that it even entered my mind to go along with Alex's crazy idea. I can't remember a time in my life when I've regretted something this much." He lowered his eyes. He was beyond tired. "If I could take your sister's place, I would…in an instant. If I could turn back time, I would! But I can't! It happened and now I need your help to get Faison."
The words had no impact on Anna.
"I said let go of me..."
"Damn it, Anna!" he yelled, not releasing his grip. It was in that grip that she suddenly reminded him of the headstrong young woman he'd first met over two decades ago. Anna had the ability to frustrate him like no one else this world. And yet it was also what made her real. What made him love and admire her.
"I know you hate me right now…but I said I need your help to find Alex! This isn't about me any more, it's about her!"
"Oh now, all of a sudden, it's about her," Anna shot back. "Of course it didn't occur to you to put my sister first when Alex suggested using herself as bait, did it?"
Sean cringed at the sting of her words. "That's not fair, Anna…"
"Fair?" she demanded, fighting back tears. "Is there anything fair about any of this?"
"Sean? Mom? What's going on?"
Sean Donely was the first to see Robin approaching, her expression frightened. He released his grip on Anna.
"Is Alex okay?"
Anna wiped away a tear. "No…no, she's not."
"Sean?" Robin looked at him, uncomprehending. "Is she hurt?"
"Faison managed to get away with her. We don't know where she is right now."
Anna felt her knees go weak, and she pulled out a chair. "I can't believe all of you were involved in this." She eyed Sean accusingly. "You and Dan." Her glance moved to Robin. "And you… you all let my sister walk into that trap. And for what? For nothing. The supposed help that Faison offered is nowhere."
Robin shook her head, upset and close to tears too. "No, Mom…you're wrong. It wasn't for nothing. It's why David wanted to stop Leah's drug regimen, because we received a vial containing a serum…"
Anna gave her a puzzled look. "A serum?"
"David ran some lab tests with Leah's blood. We think it's a cure. For Leah."
"I don't understand…"
"If Faison gave this virus to my sister," Robin added, her expression sombre. "He did it knowing he had the cure on hand. To blackmail you."
Intensive Care Unit
-
David Hayward closed his eyes for just a moment; unaware that they had snapped shut on him involuntarily, when suddenly he felt a man's hand on his shoulder.
It made him jerk out of his light sleep.
"What…?"
Instead of Dr. Kazemi or Sean, it was another familiar face that blocked his line of vision.
Dimitri Marick.
"Dimitri?"
"David." When Dimitri said his name it sounded more like an acknowledgement of David's presence, rather than a greeting.
David knew only a handful of men that could enter a room and literally turn heads. Dimitri Marick was one of them. It was a mystifying gift according to David, because Dimitri possessed no one extraordinary trait that set him apart from any other man.
The Count was at least ten years his senior, probably more, David guessed. He wasn't particularly tall, or muscular or even handsome. The suit he wore today would have looked ordinary on anyone else. Yet on Dimitri Marick its dark blue colour had a timeless elegance. Confidence. Elegance. Charisma. All the things that couldn't be bought, or learned, Dimitri Marick possessed in abundance, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Even the ice-cold aloofness of Alex Devane would have had a hard time resisting that, David thought as he observed him.
With his three-day beard and dishevelled clothes, David felt surprisingly small next to Dimitri Marick.
Dimitri's expression showed no pleasure in seeing him, reminding David that Dimitri Marick didn't like him.
Although the Count had shown David a fair amount of gratitude for his part in helping him recover from his illness, Dimitri was also fiercely loyal to his wife and Alex was unlikely to have told Dimitri a single favourable thing about David Hayward.
"I'm surprised to see you here. How is your daughter?" he asked David, with what sounded like genuine concern.
"Leah is going to be fine," he answered.
"Her condition has improved then?"
David shook his head. "Not yet. But it will."
Dimitri paused, unsure of what to make of his cryptic answer. "That's good news…I'm very relieved for you."
"Thank you…she's my only child." A sheepish smile escaped David's lips. "It's strange, I only just met her and there isn't anything I wouldn't do for her. Leah, she's…" He fished for the word. "Everything. She means everything to me."
Dimitri's expression softened. "You're a father now. It's normal…I know."
"You have a son too…I forget. He lives in the States doesn't he?"
Dimitri smiled. "Anton. Yes, he does. However, I also have another son now."
David's eyes widened. "Is Alex…?"
"No…" Dimitri's aristocratic features spread into a smile. "No, she's not. We adopted a boy from Romania last year. I suppose Anna hasn't told you?"
"We, uh…we haven't spoken much."
Dimitri said nothing and David wondered how well the Count knew Anna. David knew that Anna kept in touch with Alex, but he had no idea whether or not that included any sort of friendship with Dimitri.
'God, there's so much I don't know about you anymore…' he thought regretfully.
"I've come to see, Alex," Dimitri said, interrupting David's thoughts. "I haven't had any luck getting a hold of her at Anna's apartment or on her mobile, so I figured she might be here at the hospital."
David remembered Sean's glum expression as he came to see Anna and it sent a chill up his spine. In all his worry for Leah, he hadn't stopped to think that maybe something had gone wrong with the set-up to trap Cesar Faison.
'But if something had gone wrong we wouldn't have the serum,' David realized. That was a reassuring thought.
"I haven't seen her here," was all he told Dimitri.
"She's not at the hospital?"
"I…I think maybe you ought to speak to Anna."
"Why? Does she know where my wife is?"
David felt a sudden, urgent need to know what happened on that bridge. "She, uh…she may."
Dimitri gave him a puzzled look. "Is Anna with your daughter?"
"No. She left with Sean Donely. I think they were headed for the cafeteria downstairs."
"Fine. I'll find them."
David jumped out of the waiting room chair he was sitting in. If things hadn't gone well on the bridge, there was no telling how Dimitri would react.
"Wait. I'll go with you."