the fright rising inside her. But there was an instinctual response that was difficult to control. She heard her heartbeat pounding in her ears, felt a pain beneath her sternum as the fright built. She bit her lip.
"And if you should receive multiple stings without treatment, well, who knows how badly you'll suffer?"
As delicately as a ballet dancer the creature ventured forth on its eight legs until it stood in the valley between Soraya's breasts. She fought back the urge to scream.
Oliver Liss sat on a narrow bench in the weight room of his health club. His chest and arms were shiny with sweat. A towel was draped around his neck. He was on his third set of fifteen biceps reps when the redhead walked in. She was tall, with square shoulders, an upright bearing, and an epic rack. He'd seen her here a number of times before. One hundred dollars to the manager, and now he knew her name was Abby Sumner, she was thirty-four, divorced, and childless. She was one of the endless fleet of lawyers toiling for the Justice Department. He had already speculated that her long hours had resulted in her divorce, but it was this same extended work schedule that attracted him. Less time for her to get in his way once the affair started. He had no doubt that it would start, no doubt at all. It was simply a matter of when.
Liss finished his reps, put the dumbbells back in their slots, then toweled off while he made his recon assessment. Abby had gone straight for the bench press and, having selected weights, slid under the bar. That was Liss's cue. He rose and, strolling over to the bench press, looked down at her with his actor's megawatt smile and said, "Do you need a spotter?"
Abby Sumner looked up at him with large blue eyes. Then she returned his smile.
"Thank you. I could use one; I've just gone up in weights."
"It's a little unusual to see a woman bench-pressing, unless she's in training."
Abby Sumner's smile remained in place. "I do a lot of heavy lifting at work."
Liss laughed softly. She lifted the weights off the rests and began her reps, while he held his hands a bit beneath the bar in case she faltered. "It sounds like I wouldn't want to get in your way."
"No," she said. "You wouldn't."
She appeared to be having little or no difficulty with the higher weight. Liss's difficulty lay in keeping his eyes off her breasts.
"Don't arch your back," he said.
She pulled her spine back down to the bench. "I always do that when I increase weight. Thanks."
She finished her first set of eight reps, and he helped her guide the bar back onto the rests. While she took a short breather, he said, "My name's Oliver and I'd love to take you to dinner sometime."
"That would be interesting." Abby looked up at him. "Unfortunately, I don't mix business with pleasure."
Responding to his quizzical expression, she slid out from under the bar and stood up. She really was an impressive woman, Liss thought. She glanced over to the juice bar, where a clean-cut man was drinking one of those phosphorescent-green glasses of wheatgrass juice. The man drained his glass, set it down, and began to saunter toward them.
Abby brought her gym bag up onto the bench and, reaching into it, brought out several folded sheets of paper, which she handed to Liss.
"Oliver Liss, my name is Abigail Sumner. This judicial order from the attorney general of the United States authorizes me and Jeffrey Klein" - here she indicated the wheatgrass drinker, who was now standing beside her - "to take you into custody pending an investigation into allegations made against you while you were president of Black River."
Liss gaped at her. "This is nonsense. I was investigated and absolved."
"New allegations have come to light."
"What allegations?"
She nodded at the papers she had given him. "You'll find the list enumerated in the attorney general's order."
He opened the order but couldn't seem to focus on the letters. He shoved the papers back to her. "This must be some kind of mistake. I'm not going anywhere with you."
Klein produced a pair of manacles.
"Please, Mr. Liss," Abby said, "don't make this more difficult on yourself."
Liss turned this way and that, as if contemplating escape or a last-minute reprieve from Jonathan, his guardian angel. Where was he? Why hadn't he warned Liss of this new investigation?
Colonel Boris Karpov returned to Moscow with a heart