Cate’s lips twitched at Draco’s demonstration. “Is that right?”
Draco shook his head. “No. That was her point. If you want to get the girls, you treat them with a lighter touch.” Again, he rested his hand gently against the small of her back. “Let her know she’s free to move away if she doesn’t want your touch. Give her the choice, and she might choose you. If she doesn’t, she likely wasn’t interested to begin with. Thus, the escort versus the baboon.”
“What was that move you just made?” Crusher asked. “I’d like to try that sometime.”
“The escort?” Draco asked.
“No, the chest-pounding baboon one,” Crusher said, his serious expression splitting into a grin.
Cate laughed, the events of the evening lightening the weight in her chest. Draco had always been able to make her laugh. When she’d been at her lowest, or when stress had left her feeling ragged at the end of a trying day, he’d been able to cheer her up with one of his crazy stories about growing up.
Crusher moved toward the restaurant door and held it wide.
Marta gave Cate a nod and a slight smile, indicating she should go first and that they had her back.
Cate gave the doctor a grateful smile. Marta had been her lifeline after Cate had been trapped in Teuling’s factory for a week without contact with family, friends or anyone who spoke English. The scientist had promised to get her out of there and that she wouldn’t leave Cate behind.
When the men had made their move to infiltrate the factory, they’d come for Marta. Draco had come for Cate.
The restaurant sat a few blocks off the Limmat River in Zurich. Light shone from the windows into the darkening sky. The group of four was met at the door by a man wearing a crisp white shirt and black tie. He led them to a room in the back where a long table had been set for the men and women of the combined team that had handled the crisis in Vienna. They were there to celebrate their successful collaboration and the return of the two women who’d been kidnapped.
“About time you showed up.” Ace Hammer, the leader of the Brotherhood Protectors International, stood as the four latecomers entered. “We were about to send a search party.”
“I thought Crusher sent word of our delay,” Draco said.
“I did,” Crusher said. “He’s giving us a hard time.”
Hammer grinned, and then his smile disappeared. “I’m glad you’re all here and, from what Crusher said, unharmed.” His brow knitted as he studied Cate. “Are you okay?”
Cate nodded. “I am now.”
“Cate,” Devon Marsh hurried around the end of the table and enveloped his daughter in a hug. “I’m beginning to think we need to cocoon you in bubble wrap.” He set her at arm’s length, his gaze canvassing her face and sweeping over her as he’d done so many times when she’d been a child and had crashed her bicycle or fallen out of a tree. “Are you really okay? You’re not hurt?”
Cate’s lips twisted. “I’m really okay, Dad.”
He stared at her, his eyes dangerously glassy. The man who’d stood toe-to-toe with foreign leaders, never backing down, looked ready to shatter into a million pieces. “You’re not okay, Catherine. Kidnapped two weeks ago, almost kidnapped again, and in a car crash?” He shook his head. “You’re not okay, and neither am I. You’re coming home with me on the next flight to the States.”
“No, Daddy,” she said softly. “I have a job to do. I think what happened tonight relates to it. I can’t let it go. Someone I care about could have her life ruined if I don’t figure out this mess.”
For a long moment, he held her gaze. He cupped her cheeks in his hands, his fingers trembling against her skin. “I’m so afraid for you, Cate. You’re all the family I have.”
“And you’re all I have.” Cate wrapped her hands around his and lowered their arms to their sides. “I’m not going anywhere. I have to do this. Before, it was for a friend. Now, they’ve made it personal. You, of all people, should understand.”
Finally, he nodded, tipped her head to press a kiss to her forehead like he’d done all her childhood. “I do. You wouldn’t be my daughter if you tucked tail and ran. But let me have my moment of fatherly concern before you go forge your own path.”
Cate hugged him tightly, having come so close to never seeing him again. Then she straightened and looked at the people gathered around the table. “Did Dmytro make it?”
“Just,” a gruff voice with a distinctive Ukrainian accent said behind them.
She’d spoken to Dmytro before they’d left the headquarters building of the Brotherhood Protectors International—before she’d been whisked away alone in a car, and before the crash that had freed her.
“I have come bearing information.” Dmytro held up a satchel. “Do you want it now, or do we eat first?”
Hammer waved a hand toward the table. “Please, have a seat. Let’s get you all something to drink and order food before we dive in.”
“Thank you.” Cate sank into the chair Draco held for her, her legs still wobbling from the wild evening. She ordered a glass of wine and quickly settled on Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, thinly sliced veal in a creamy white-wine sauce.
Her father smiled. “I almost ordered that for you. I know it’s your favorite when in Zurich.”