Chapter 51
State Hospital #18
Moscow, Russia
-
In that moment he forgot everything.
Faison. Alex. The basement prison. The hell he'd been through.
None of it mattered just then. Because he had her back in his arms.
The familiar jasmine scent of her perfume. The long, thin braids that swirled beyond the base of her neck. The way her thick, full lips felt on his.
"Sandi…" His lips rose into a smile and his hands moved to cup her face. He wanted to say her name over and over, realising only now, that she was in his arms, how much he had missed her.
He loved her so much.
He laughed. "Hey…don't cry."
She smiled, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand. "I can't help it."
"You're going to make me cry."
"As if anything could."
He kissed her again, oblivious to the two nurses that walked down the hall and stared at them.
He winced when she squeezed him.
A new expression lined her face. Concern. "Robert, you're hurt!"
"No." He shook his head. "I'm fine. I was shot but I'm fine now."
Sandrine's eyes narrowed, her hands unbuttoning his shirt in the middle of the corridor. "You were shot? You didn't tell me you were shot when we talked on the phone!" Her hands kept undoing his shirt, searching for the wound. Wanting to judge for herself whether or not he was fine.
Robert took her hands in his and stopped her. "Sandi…stop it! I'm fine!" Looking at her bruised face made him realize he should have asked the same question. He freed his hand from hers, his fingers tracing the purple bruise that ran along the side of her face. "What happened to you?"
"You are changing the subject!"
Robert chuckled, "I told you I was shot, sweetheart, now tell me what happened to you."
Sandrine frowned. "Tu m'as dit rien! You have so much to tell me…"
"What happened?" he pressed.
"Jan Holstrom," she said slowly, her eyes soaking him in.
Robert's hands moved from her face and landed on her shoulders, shocked at the answer. "Jan Holstrom did that to you? How?"
"It is a long story, Robert," she replied. "Not now." She pointed to the door of the room, next to the chair he had slept on. "How is Alex?"
Robert glanced guiltily at the clock in the hallway, aware now that he had slept several hours. His back was stiff and sore, but worse than that was the sick feeling of what could have happened had Faison found them both while he was asleep.
"She was asleep last time I checked," he mumbled.
"Is she alright?"
Robert frowned. "I'm not so sure." He wanted to enter the room to check on her. "Come," he took Sandrine's hand in his and led her inside, shocked at the restraints that were fastened to Alex's wrists and ankles, tying her to the bed. "What the hell…"
Sandrine looked up at him. "What is it?"
He moved to the bed, fingering with the restraints on her wrists while she slept. Anger flooded him. "I want to know what happened...why they decided to restrain her."
He ran out of the room, looking for a doctor. Sandrine was about to follow him but Robert told her to stay behind. The guilt of falling asleep nagged even deeper now and Robert ignored the steady throb of his bullet wound.
He found the young doctor who had examined her when they first arrived.
"What happened to her?"
The Russian glowered, pointing to a bandage on his forehead. "What happened to me, you are asking, yes? She becomes violent. Throwing metal at me!"
Robert shook his head in disbelief. "No way…I don't believe you. And if she did, then why? Why did she react like that?" He suddenly remembered the violent nightmares she had in the basement cell and wondered whether Alex had attacked the doctor unaware of what she was doing.
"She can tell you why when she is awake," the doctor answered cynically, walking away from him.
"Hey!" Robert caught hold of the doctor's arm. "In the meantime, take the damn restraints off her!"
The doctor brushed him off with a bitter laugh. "No. They are best for her and for my staff."
Robert restrained himself from wiping the smug look off the young man's face. "You have no idea what she's been through! You are not going to chain her to a damn hospital bed!"
The doctor's smile faded. "Do not threaten me. Or I will do the same to you."
"Fine," Robert seethed, raising his hands. "For now." He wouldn't press the issue. More trouble was the last thing they needed. Instead, he turned his back to the doctor and walked away.
Sandrine was still in the room with Alex.
"Is she still asleep?" Robert asked.
"Yes." Sandrine nodded, staring at Alex. "She looks so much like her sister…it is almost unreal." Sandrine turned her head to meet his eyes. "What now, Robert?"
Robert didn't answer, feeling the fatigue seep back into his bones. It was a good question.
Faison was still at large. Alex needed protection.
Those had to be his first two priorities.
"Did you say you were here with Sean as well?" he asked wearily.
"Yes."
"Sean Donely?"
Sandrine smiled. "Yes. That Sean. He is stubborn and arrogant and difficult. I can see now why you two were best friends."
There was so much he wanted to ask. So much that Robert didn't know where to begin.
'Not now,' he told himself. There wasn't time now.
"If Sean and Anna get here they'll keep Alex safe."
"All of us will…" Sandrine started.
"No," Robert cut her off. "Not me. I can't be here when they come."
"Robert?" Sandrine narrowed her brows. "C'est fou! I know you are afraid but you have to face them. It is over now. You cannot hide any more!"
"Look…" How could he explain to her that he couldn't face Anna? Not yet. Not like this.
'How can I explain to Anna that I stayed away from her all these years to protect her from Faison, and that it was all for nothing…that, after everything, he's still out there?'
"Faison is still a threat," he explained to Sandrine. "He broke the deal and now I have a job to finish. A job that Anna will hinder if she finds out that I'm alive."
Anger flushed her face. "You're mad, Robert! Anna is not the only one who will stop you. I won't let you go after him alone either!"
Robert closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. He was so incredibly tired. He didn't have the energy for this argument. For any argument.
"Robert," Sandrine went on, her voice softening. "I don't want to lose you. If I had never met your daughter I would say, yes! Yes, come back to Africa with me and never look back again." She paused. "But now I have met your ex-wife and your daughter. Everything has changed now. I want you to choose me, Robert. With no secrets and no lies anymore. I want you to choose me because you want me, not because Anna thinks you are dead."
Robert felt flushed. He was hurting Sandrine, just as he had hurt Anna and Robin.
"I can't Sandi…"
Sandrine didn't let him finish. "It has to end, Robert. If you have to get Faison then let me and Anna and Sean help you."
"Sandi, I'm not ready!"
It was the truth. The simple, honest truth.
Would he ever be ready? Was it even possible to go back in time and make things right again?
Sandrine looked at him with sad eyes. "If not now Robert, then when?"
"When Faison is dead," he answered. It would give him the time he needed to sort things out. Time to make sense of everything. To find a way, when he wasn't wounded and bone weary, to explain to his family why he'd abandoned them.
"Robin needs you," Sandrine whispered. "There are things you don't know."
"I will face them," Robert said softly. "Sean and Anna and Robin. But not today. Not like this."
Sandrine pointed to Alex. "What about her? Does she not know who you are?"
"Alex won't say anything."
"What?" Sandrine looked at him in disbelief. "Of course she will tell her sister that her husband is alive! She has no reason to keep your secret."
Robert hesitated. Sandrine was right. Alex had no reason to keep his secret. Her loyalties undoubtedly lay with her sister.
Yet Alex had given him her word, and if she was as much like Anna as he suspected, his instincts told him she'd honour it.
"She's not going to say anything."
Sandrine rolled her eyes. "Right."
Robert put a hand on her shoulder. "I need you to get Anna and Sean to come here, to this hospital to keep Alex safe and to get her out of here."
"What about you?"
Thoughts raced through his mind, making a tired attempt at formulating a plan. "I'll find a hotel, and I'll meet you there, while you wait for them."
Sandrine grabbed his hand. "No…I don't trust you not to go after Faison while I wait."
Robert frowned. "I'm not a fool, Sandi, I know I'm in no shape to go after him like this."
"No, you are not," she firmly agreed. "If I contact Sean and Anna, and Alex's husband then we both wait for them to come here. And when they do I will take you to a doctor."
"Haven't you heard anything I said…I can't…" Robert stared in protest.
"We wait," Sandrine decided. "We wait together and watch until they come here, then we make our way out."
"It's too risky."
Sandrine held on to his hand. "I don't care. I won't let you do this alone."
Robert sighed. What had happened to his demure, obedient partner? Only a short time with his ex-wife and already Anna's pig-headedness had rubbed off on Sandrine. "Fine," he conceded. "Just do whatever it takes to get them here."
Moscow, Russia
-
"I don't feel right doing this," Anna mumbled, as she pressed the metal into the lock, feeling for its hinges and pressure points. Luckily they were staying at an older hotel. One that still used traditional keys and locks as opposed to the magnetic key cards now favoured by most hotel chains.
Sean scanned the hallway, keeping an eye out for anyone who might walk by and see what she was doing.
"If she's not conning us she should have nothing to hide."
Anna frowned, as her fingers toiled with the metal pin. "Just because I have nothing to hide, doesn't mean I'd want the two of you digging through my things."
"Remind yourself that she's making us waste precious time with her disappearing act," Sean told her. "If that'll ease your conscience."
Anna said nothing, still fumbling with the metal.
"Are we losing our touch?" Sean quipped.
He'd barely asked the question, when Anna removed the metal pin from the lock and clasped the doorknob with her hand, turning it and opening the door.
She smirked triumphantly. "Did you say something?"
"Nope." Sean chuckled. "Nothing at all."
While Anna hesitated, Sean went straight to Sandrine's suitcase, opening zippers and slipping his hands into the narrow compartments, hoping to find something that might help explain the enigma that was Sandrine Mutanga.
Anna brushed a strand of hair behind her face as she bent down by the bedside table, finding nothing there but a few hairclips and a bracelet, next to an unopened container of medication from the pharmacy at the Parisian hospital that had admitted Sandrine. There was no paper. Nothing that bore any writing or information.
"Well?" Anna turned to Sean, who was making his way deeper into the suitcase, fingering through anything that had a pocket.
"Does the hotel offer safe deposit boxes?"
Anna shrugged. "I don't know. What difference does it make? If they do they won't give us access to Sandrine's."
She moved to the bathroom, turning on the lights only to find nothing more suspicious than a jasmine-scented bottle of perfume standing on the sink, next to a glass that held a toothbrush and toothpaste. Anna opened the mirror and found a small mother-of-pearl container in the cabinet behind it. Inside it was a modest sampling of make-up.
Mascara, lipstick, foundation and powder. Nothing more.
Everything in the room suggested the efficient, no-frills lifestyle of a well-trained field agent. Belongings that gave away nothing about the person that owned them. Belongings that could be packed up and moved in less than ten minutes time.
Anna went back into the bedroom, to see Sean tossing out clothes from the small black suitcase. Clothes that made Anna aware that one of the few things separating her belongings from Sandrine's was the younger agent's love of colour. Her suits and blouses were red and green and yellow. Deep, bold colours that contrasted starkly to Anna's black, grey and white outfits.
"Anything?" she asked Sean.
"Yeah." He said, pulling out a small tin of Parisian amandines. "I now know she likes almond cookies."
Anna frowned. "Her disappearance makes me nervous but we have to stick to our plan. Alex doesn't have much time."
Sean stood up, throwing a green blazer back into the suitcase. "What if Sandrine is setting up a trap for us?"
Anna bit her lip, not wanting to think of that possibility. "It doesn't matter, Sean. We're Alex's only chance."
"We can't help her if we're dead."
"You've always said you trust my instincts. My gut feeling is telling me Sandrine is not playing us."
"I do trust your instincts but…"
The ringing of Anna's cell phone interrupted him before he had a chance to finish.
Anna pulled it out and flipped it open.
"That had better be our MIA partner, with one hell of an explan…"
"Shh…" Anna held a finger to her lips, meeting Sean's stare.
Her eyes widened when she heard the voice on the other end. "Sandrine?"
State Hospital #18
-
Robert stood next to the bed and cupped his hand over hers, brushing against the restraints that held them in place. "Sorry, sweetheart, that I couldn't do anything about these. As soon as Anna gets here, I know she'll raise hell with the doc who decided to put them on." He couldn't help a grin. "She might even threaten to give him a bigger bruise than you did, if he doesn't agree."
Alex was still in a sound, drugged sleep and she didn't budge in response to his voice.
Looking at her now took him back in time, to a lifetime ago, to early mornings when he had woken up before Anna, and purposely stayed quiet so he could watch her sleep.
"You look so much like her…"
He ran his fingers over her hands, observing the IV that ran into her arm; freshly and cleanly bandaged to cover the ghastly tattoo underneath.
"Maybe Sandi's right, maybe I am crazy to believe you'll keep your word, but I think you will."
Sandrine burst through the door, her dark skin looking ashen.
"Well?" Robert asked, "Did you get a hold of them?"
"Yes," Sandrine nodded. "I spoke to Anna. I told her to come here as soon as possible. That Alex is here."
"And?"
Sandrine paused, catching her breath. "She's furious with me. She didn't believe me. She thinks I'm playing games with them."
"You disappeared on them, didn't you?"
"Yes," Sandrine admitted. "Because I couldn't tell them it was you who called."
"You can't blame them then."
"I know."
"Angry or not, do you think they're going to come?"
"Yes," Sandrine nodded. "I think they will. I think I gave them enough information to convince them of that much."
Robert exhaled in relief. "Good. How long do you think it'll take them to get here?"
Sandrine shrugged. "Twenty minutes maybe? If they come right away."
Robert brushed a strand of hair from Alex face, taking a last look at her. "I hope you overcome whatever that bastard did to you," he mumbled. "'Cause god knows he's not worth ruining your life for. I should know." He bent down to kiss her forehead. "And hopefully we can meet again. In better circumstances."
Sandrine observed him in silence, wondering if he would have been as tender if Alexandra Marick wasn't a dead ringer for his ex-wife.
Moscow
-
"Sandrine called to say she's with Alex?" Dimitri Marick stared at her in disbelief. "Here in Moscow?"
"We don't know whether she's telling the truth," Sean cut in, hoping to spare Anna another barrage of verbal outrage from the Count. After Sandrine's bizarre phone call, they had gone to Dimitri with the news, as Anna had insisted, and now they stood in his hotel room, facing two pairs of incredulous Marick eyes. One black, the other grey.
"She could be setting us up," Sean told him.
Dimitri gave him an skeptical look. "Why would this woman, who's been working with you for weeks, set you up? To what? Lure you to a hospital of all places?"
"Why are you arguing?" Andrei interrupted. "Let's go to this hospital!"
Dimitri ignored him turned back to back to Anna. "What exactly did Sandrine tell you?"
"That a woman by the name of Linda Smith was checked into state hospital #18…."
"Linda Smith?" Dimitri's look grew increasingly puzzled
"An alias," Anna explained. "Sandrine's partner, Roger Saunders, gave it to Alex to protect her from Faison."
"I don't get it."
"Sandrine said her partner escaped from Alexei Estate," Anna continued. "With Alex."
"And now she's in a hospital? Why? Is she hurt?" Agitation lined his face.
"Look, I don't know," Anna said, exasperated. "We called the hospital, and there is a woman by the name of Linda Smith checked in. Other than telling us she's not critical, they wouldn't give us any details on her condition."
"You're saying Sandrine's missing partner contacted her and she went off to see him and found Alex?"
Anna ran a hand across her forehead, knowing that having it spelled out didn't result in it making any more sense. "Essentially. Yes, that's what we're trying to say."
"Why the hell wouldn't she share that with you before running off to see him on her own?"
"That's the question, isn't it?" Sean added. "Why she would make up some story about a sick brother, and high tail it out of the hotel without letting us know? Why the damn secrecy?"
"Okay…" Dimitri wavered, trying to absorb the information. "I don't care about her reasons, or why she doesn't trust you enough to be honest with you," Dimitri announced, oblivious to Sean's dirty look. "I want to get to that hospital. Now!"
"Me too," Andrei told them.
Both men grabbed their jackets and Anna turned to Sean, knowing that, ambush or not, all they could do now was follow them.
State Hospital #18
-
Robert stared at the huge hallway clock and gave Sandrine a nudge into the staircase.
"They should be here any minute," he warned her. "Get in before they spot you."
In a hallway filled with Caucasians, Sandrine's dark skin and long braids stood out like a sore thumb. Robert had found a white lab coat in a linen closet. That, coupled with his thick beard, made him nearly unrecognizable. He was certain that even if Sean and Anna did catch a glimpse of him standing at the end of the hallway, they wouldn't give him a second glance.
Standing here, next to the staircase was the only way he could keep an eye on Alex's room until they arrived.
As soon as he spotted them and knew that Alex was safe, he would head down the staircase with Sandrine and flee the hospital.
'Will I?' he asked himself, unable to keep from staring at the clock. It was more than thirty minutes since Sandrine had called Anna.
His teeth chattered nervously, adrenaline again surging over his fatigue, leaving him in a restless, worn-out state of wakefulness.
In mere minutes, Anna and Sean would emerge from the elevator at the other end of the hallway.
'You're going to be so close, luv,' he thought, his heart pounding with anticipation. 'Am I kidding myself to think I can walk away from you again?'
A pinging noise at the end of the hallway announced that the elevator doors were about to open.
And then he saw them.
His heart stood still.
Five people walked out.
Sean was first, his right arm inside his jacket.
'Armed and ready,' Robert thought. 'I see you haven't changed, old buddy.'
Then there was the young Russian doctor, leading them to Alex's room. Followed by two men he didn't recognize. One was tall and well dressed; with hair so dark it was almost black. Another younger man followed him. He was uncommonly short, with a thick mop of wavy brown hair.
'Alex's husband and son,' he decided, still staring as they headed into the room.
Anna was the last person he saw.
She wasn't close enough for him to see her clearly. Yet he knew he would have recognized her even if the distance between them had been twice as long.
It was the way she carried herself. That familiar, confident stride that he would have recognized amidst a crowd of hundreds.
Then she turned around to examine her surroundings.
Her eyes scanned the hallway and stared straight in his direction.
Robert froze, unable to move.
Anna was looking right at him.
Sandrine knocked against the glass window of the door leading to the staircase. He turned and saw her mouth his name, her hand gesturing for him to come inside.
His vision went back to Anna and he watched her scan the hallway in the other direction. Like Sean, she had one of her hands on the holster carrying her gun.
And then, once she was finished with her visual inspection she was gone. Out of sight.
"Anna…"
He didn't realize he'd said her name aloud until he heard Sandrine opening the door.
"Robert!" she looked at him, distressed. "They're here aren't they? We have to go!"
It had been an illusion. Anna didn't see him. She hadn't locked her eyes with his.
Of course not. It wasn't possible. He stood too far away.
Even so, he was still frozen in his spot. Immobile.
"Robert!" This time Sandrine grabbed his hand, pulling him into the staircase. "Are you coming?"
He nodded weakly.
Sandrine looked at him, her eyes full of understanding. "Robert, we don't have to go if you don't want to," she said softly. "We can stay here and go into Alex's room. We can end this today. Right now."
Robert gasped for air, feeling his senses come back to life.
Alex was safe.
For now.
Sandrine was wrong. The only way to truly end it was to kill Faison.
Robert shook his head, turning away from the hallway and forcing his legs to move down the stairs.
"Not today," he said, taking her hand gratefully, knowing that if Sandrine wasn't here wouldn't have had the will to leave Anna.
Again.
