Katerina snaps her head back, dodging his fingers by a millimeter.
She takes a swift step backward, putting distance between them. Her heart is a frantic bird trapped in her ribcage, but her eyes remain dead and professional.
"Do not touch my equipment, Mr. Merritt," she snaps, her European accent thick with icy authority. "That is a boundary you will not cross."
Cayden's hand hovers in the air for a second. He stares at her, slightly taken aback by the sheer venom in her tone.
The Katerina he knew-the woman whose ghost haunts his migraines-would have flinched and apologized. This woman is pure, arrogant steel. The fleeting sense of familiarity vanishes, replaced by irritation.
He drops his hand and sneers. "Just do your job."
He walks over to the leather recliner and sits down, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
Katerina forces her shaking hands to open the medical case. She pulls out a set of neuro-sensor patches. The smell of his cedar cologne hits her, thick and suffocating. Her stomach rolls with a phantom wave of nausea.
She steps close to him. She reaches out to place the first patch on his temple.
Her bare fingertip accidentally brushes the skin of his forehead.
Cayden's entire body goes rigid. A violent jolt of electricity shoots through his veins. His eyes snap open.
Before Katerina can pull back, his hand shoots out. His fingers wrap around her wrist like a steel vice. His grip is bruising, desperate.
"Who are you?" he breathes, his voice tight, his amber eyes wide with a sudden, raw confusion. A flash of something wild and unfamiliar-a memory he couldn't quite grasp-crossed his face.
Katerina tries to yank her arm away, but he holds fast. "Let go of me."
Cayden opens his mouth to speak, but a piercing, high-pitched alarm shatters the silence.
It's coming from the pager in Katerina's lab coat. The emergency extraction signal from Elie.
Katerina uses Cayden's momentary distraction to violently twist her wrist out of his grip. She takes two steps back, pulling the pager from her pocket.
"My critical patient in Geneva just went into cardiac arrest," she lies smoothly, her voice urgent. She throws the sensors back into the case and snaps it shut. "I have to go."
Cayden stands up, his massive frame blocking her path to the door. "You aren't leaving until I get answers."
His bodyguards step into the doorway, blocking the exit.
Katerina glares up at him. "If that patient dies because you delayed me, the International Medical Consortium will ensure you never receive medical treatment anywhere on this planet again. Move."
Cayden's jaw ticks. He is about to order his men to grab her when his private cell phone vibrates violently in his pocket.
He pulls it out. It's Simon. He answers it, his eyes never leaving Katerina's mask. "What?"
"Boss," Simon's voice is shrill, bordering on hysterical, bleeding through the phone speaker. "Julian is gone. He disappeared from the lobby."
The blood drains from Cayden's face. The mystery of the doctor evaporates instantly.
"Lock down the entire block!" Cayden roars. He shoves past Katerina, sprinting out the door, his bodyguards swarming after him.
Katerina exhales a shaky breath, sweat beading on her forehead. She doesn't waste a second.
She slips out the door and heads for the internal staff stairwell. She strips off the white lab coat, shoving it into a trash can. She pulls off the silver mask and slides a pair of oversized black sunglasses onto her face.
She takes the stairs two at a time, heading straight for the underground VIP parking garage. She needs to get to her car. She needs to get back to Leo.
