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although the drugs weren’t completely out of her system, they had certainly worn off enough for Kat to realize that she had to continue to act as if she were drugged, otherwise both Sergei, on his visit this morning, or Nurse Palmer, would start to become suspicious.
    Unfortunately the meds had also worn off enough for Kat to realize she would have been wiser to continue taking them. Because without them she was able to remember all the horror that had preceded her being brought here.
    It had broken her heart to lie to Gregori, on the two occasions Sergei had allowed her to talk to her brother on the telephone. But if she hadn’t lied to him, Sergei had assured her that her brother would come to New York, asking questions and making trouble. And when he did the Orlovs would have no alternative but to kill him. Gregori was the only person Kat had left in this world, and she loved him; she would not be responsible for his death.
    With the drugs no longer numbing her, she also realized that unless she did what Sergei and Ivan demanded of her, she would almost certainly die in this exclusive and secluded prison. So far she had managed to resist the daily pressure from Sergei, but she had no idea how much longer she was going to be able to hold out against him; keeping up the pretense of being drugged during his visit this morning had taken all of her strength, when what she really wanted to do was lunge for his throat.
    Once she gave in to Sergei’s demands her fate would be sealed, and she would never be able to escape him again.
    And if she didn’t give in then she would possibly be the cause of her brother’s death, as well as many other members of the Markovic family.
    Damned if she did, and damned if she didn’t.
    And the man from yesterday morning? The man she had thought she half recognized?
    Another hallucination, brought on by the drugs. The proof of that was in the way she had even imagined him as looking like—
    Kat drew her breath in sharply as the lights went out.
    Follow by the thought ‘he was real’!
    Stupid, Kat. Of course he wasn’t real. No one, least of all him, is coming to save you from this nightmare.
    But there was no denying that the lights had gone off, the darkness outside the window showing her that the lights in the garden were out too, same for the rest of the building. Did that mean that the alarms were off too, or were they on a different electricity circuit than the lights?
    Was it worth her trying to break one of the windows, perhaps by throwing a chair through it, and just walking out of here?
    To go where?
    The lights may be out, but there were still guards patrolling the grounds outside, night as well as day; Kat had seen them.
    There was also a guard on the main gates, which meant she wouldn’t be able to escape that way, nor could she climb the high walls surrounding the property without the help of a ladder or rope, neither of which she had. And if she did get outside the grounds, she had no idea where she was. Or what she was going to do for money.
    Besides which, what was the point of her attempting to leave here? Sergei would only find her again. And when he did—
    Oh stop making excuses, Kat , she finally remonstrated with herself disgustedly, and just get off your scrawny ass and do something to help yourself.
    Maybe if she could walk out of here, she would be able to just disappear? The Orlovs would question Gregori, of course, but when he had no idea where she was either, they would be forced to accept that he hadn’t been involved in her escape. It was—
    She turned quickly as she heard a noise behind her. “Who’s there?” she demanded sharply as she saw a dark shape moving towards her in the darkness. “Don’t come any closer,” she warned as that shadow continued to move forward. “I have a gun and—”
    “I’m the one with the gun,” a gravelly voice assured softly. “And if we don’t get out of here soon I may just have to use it! Stop fighting me,