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“As for the other, you are right. I did not speak up when the majors implied a man would not have let his guard down with Tcholek. I should have. I should have told them I would have done the same with a man I had worked with so closely.” A tinge of color touched his cheekbones. “That I did not speak in her defense is a shame I bear.”
He breathed deeply. “Then she interrogated the remaining would-be assassin and tricked two names out of him no one else had been able to obtain.” Admiration colored his words. “You should have heard her. A man could not have done what she did.”
“So what are you going to do about this latest accusation of impropriety?” Alec asked. “I can talk to the king, tell him the truth about Lieutenant Mateja and me, and explain that I—”
“No.” Captain Zale shook his head firmly. “I will handle it. She is my officer. My responsibility. I will handle it.” He turned to go, but Alec called him back.
“Captain, wait a minute, please.” When the other man turned around, Alec found himself torn. Despite the original accusation, despite the confrontation, Captain Zale had turned out to be a fairly decent guy. How to say what he felt he had to say?
Straight out, he told himself firmly. That’s the only way. “I have to ask,” he said frankly. “Tahra—my administrative assistant—you have a date with her tonight, right?”
“I had a date with her, yes.” Captain Zale’s face gave nothing away except the fact that he now believed his date was in jeopardy after he’d used his personal connection with Tahra to gain admittance to this restricted area. “When she authorized security to let me in, I let her think I came to see her.”
“Tahra’s very trusting,” Alec told him. “Did your date with her have anything to do with me? What I mean is,” he rushed to add, “if you only asked her out to pump her for information about me, please don’t. She doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment, and I don’t want her hurt.”
If anything, the captain’s face turned even more wooden. “That was not why I... She is very sweet. A man would have to look far and wide to find someone like her.”
He didn’t say anything more, but Alec read between the lines and was satisfied. “Then on your way out, why don’t you make sure your date for tonight is still on. She was really looking forward to it. I’ll give you five minutes’ privacy. If you can’t convince Tahra of your sincerity in five minutes, you’re not the man I take you for, Captain.”
* * *
Alec waited for Captain Zale to leave before he picked up the phone and dialed a number he already knew by heart. “Hi,” he said when Angelina answered. “How’s everything going? Making progress?” He wouldn’t normally call to check so soon—he didn’t hover—but he had an urgent need to hear Angelina’s voice. To know she was safe.
“Progress,” she confirmed with a hint of excitement in her tone. “Yes. I had not realized I had so many memories of Caterina. Perhaps because I did not want to let myself remember them. But I already have ten pages, with many more to go.”
“Great,” Alec said. “Don’t skip over anything. Not even the smallest detail. My sister’s got a knack for figuring things out, sometimes based on the tiniest clue. Kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with nothing to go on but the shape of the pieces. But the more she has to work with, the better off we are.”
“I understand.”
Alec hesitated. Then figured, What the hell, and asked, “Tell me something.”
“Yes?”
“It’s been bugging me for days, ever since McKinnon and I first learned Caterina might be alive. As soon as I heard there was a hit out on her, as soon as I heard how high the price tag was, I figured she either knows something or has some kind of evidence. Evidence Vishenko is afraid she’ll take to the authorities. Which means wherever she is now, at some point she was with Vishenko.”
At first, Angelina didn’t respond. But then she answered Alec’s unspoken question. “She would not stay with a man like Vishenko. Not by choice. Yes, she wanted more out of life than she could have here in Zakhar. And yes, she believed modeling was the way to achieve these things. But she believed in hard work. Believed in achieving success by her own efforts. She was a good girl on the brink of becoming a good woman. She would not sleep with a man for what it would get her—that is what you are thinking? That Caterina would choose the easy way?”
Alec was sorry he’d brought it up. But now that he had... “Are you sure, Angel?” he asked softly, knowing the question would hurt no matter the answer.
