Wrath's Storm: A Masters' Admiralty Novel Mari Carr (great books of all time .txt) 📖

Vadisk, whom she hadn’t really paid attention to yesterday, had retreated to stand by the door, taking up a position as guard. A position she was used to Jakob occupying.

She didn’t need protection anymore. Jakob could go back to his normal life.

Is that what would happen when Walt left? Jakob would leave too, the emotions between them unsustainable without Walt?

The idea pierced, causing her chest to ache, but there wasn’t time to think about that now. Annalise gingerly scooted to the edge of the bed and then stood. Walt put an arm around her waist, supporting her. His lips dropped to her ear.

“Is an admiral…the admiral?…showing up a good thing or a bad thing?”

That made Annalise smile, as she thought he’d intended.

“Admiral Varda.” Jakob inclined his head, his normal quiet reticence drawn around him once more. Looking at him now, there was no hint of the man who’d been planning a sex scene that included him fucking Walt’s ass while Walt licked her clit.

Annalise cleared her throat, forcing her attention back to the moment and away from what might have been. “Admiral,” she murmured, inclining her head.

Admiral Varda wore an air of command along with her long wool coat, belted at the waist. Though her hair was down, it was neatly combed, each strand in place.

“Ritter Bauer, Dr. Fischer.” She nodded to each of them in turn. “Dr. Hayden,” she said with a slight emphasis on his name.

“Uh, hello, Admiral,” Walt said uncertainly.

Nikolett’s gaze slid back to Annalise, then softened. “Please, sit down.”

Annalise hesitated, then nodded. Instead of sitting on the bed, she and Walt made their way to the suite’s small sitting area. She and Walt took the couch, while Jakob stood beside them, his hands in parade rest at his back.

Nikolett sat in one of the armchairs, unbelted her jacket, and then leaned forward, elbows on knees, hands clasped. “I won’t ask if you’re all right, since that would be a stupid question. Instead, I’ll ask what you need. A private medical facility? Crisis counseling?”

Annalise’s throat tightened and tears threatened. Her men had been planning to help her by having wild, kinky sex with and near her. It wasn’t a bad plan, but there was something about another woman offering to get her to counseling that made her feel safe and cared for in an entirely different way.

“No, but thank you,” she murmured.

“You’ll see someone? Talk to someone?” Nikolett asked, still intent and focused.

Annalise nodded. “I will.” She’d resisted doing so before now. First, because she thought she could handle it, then because the guilt she’d felt over what happened to her sister made her feel like she hadn’t deserved the help or understanding a counselor would provide. As a psychologist, she knew exactly how stupid that was, but she hadn’t been able to stop herself from feeling that way.

This time, she would get therapy.

“Actually,” Walt said. “Do you have access to an X-ray?”

Nikolett’s brow rose. “I do.”

“She either needs her upper arm X-rayed here, if you have a portable one, or we’re going to a hospital.”

“She might have a broken bone and you were having sex with her?” Nikolett’s brows rose higher, and her gaze turned accusatory as she looked from Walt to Jakob to the bed and back.

“They were comforting me, Admiral.” Annalise was suppressing a slightly insane urge to start giggling.

“Uh-huh…” Nikolett twisted to look back at Vadisk, who stared down at her, then shrugged one shoulder. “Call Nyx about the X-ray,” she said.

Vadisk retreated a few steps and then took out his phone.

“Thank you,” Walt said.

“You’re welcome, Dr. Hayden.” Nikolett scooted forward a little on her chair. She was intense, her focus, when it landed, absolute. “Now, please tell me why you’re here, and why we’re covering up a murder.”

Annalise opened her mouth, closed it, and looked at Jakob. He twisted so Nikolett couldn’t see his face, then grimaced ever so slightly. There was a key piece of “why” information they couldn’t answer—because Eric had forbidden them to.

“No lies, please.” There was a warning in Nikolett’s voice.

Annalise took a breath and looked at the other woman.

Someone knocked on the door.

Nikolett raised her gaze to the ceiling in exasperation as Jakob and Vadisk, who had finished his call, went to first check, and then welcome, room service. Food was placed on the coffee table, a coffee station set up on the sideboard, and everyone took a few minutes to get what they needed. Nikolett and Vadisk both got cups of coffee.

At Walt’s urging, Annalise took more pain pills along with a bite of her quintessentially Polish breakfast—a slice of bread topped with kielbasa and scrambled eggs.

Nikolett didn’t pressure any of them to start talking, but she also didn’t make the silence easy. Her focused regard was a sort of pressure that made her seem far bigger than her small frame. She was a presence, her authority and power quietly radiating from her.

Annalise ate until she knew what she was going to say, then set down the rest of her breakfast and wiped her fingers.

“We came to Krakow to talk to the medical examiner. I believe an unsolved murder here may be linked to other unsolved crimes from around Europe.”

Nikolett’s back straightened. “A serial killer?” She twisted to look at Vadisk. “I thought you said this was about a stalker.” She swiveled back to Annalise. “You were kidnapped by a serial killer?”

“No, I was kidnapped by a stalker. My stalker. In Frankfurt, and then Heidelberg, I had taken extreme measures to protect myself. Jakob came to Krakow because he is with me anytime I go anywhere or see anyone new.”

Nikolett eyed Jakob. “Extreme measures, indeed.”

“My coming here, breaking routine…my stalker—” Annalise stopped, forced herself to use his name. He was no longer an unnamed, shadowy threat. He was just a very sick person. Well…had been. “Axel followed me here, and took advantage of the opportunity.”

“The stalker is not linked to the serial killer?” Nikolett asked doubtfully.

“No,” Annalise said firmly.

“We had