a shield and sped toward the kitchen door before security cued in on what was happening.
“Hey. Wait a minute.”
Kat’s eyes widened at the familiar voice at her back. Her legs wobbled as she tried to push her way past guests. She could hear Pete behind her, growing closer. Panic and a sea of bodies closed in around her, choking the air in her lungs. A strand of hair from the stupid wig whipped across her face and stung her eyes. Why wouldn’t these people move? Couldn’t they tell she needed to get out…now?
“Can I be of assistance, sir?”
Kat paused long enough to peer back through the crowd, hoping the people around her provided enough cover. And that was when she realized coming here was an even bigger mistake than she’d ever imagined.
Two men stood on the far side of the foyer, past where Pete and Antonio were muttering words she couldn’t hear. They had obviously just stepped into the lobby, their shoulders and hair covered with a smattering of snowflakes. One was hidden in shadows, but the other, the one with the buzz cut…his was a face Kat would never forget.
Terror clawed at her chest. She knew she needed to run, but she couldn’t. For a split second she was back in that tomb, fighting for her life. The man’s eyes ran over the crowd, past where she hoped she was shielded by partygoers, searching. And then suddenly those eyes stopped, darted back to her location near the kitchen door and held.
She swallowed hard, tried not to move, but knew she stood out like a beacon in the night. After all this time, after all her disguises and years of hiding, her cover was blown. All because she’d veered off her plan and stumbled into this godforsaken lobby.
She held her breath. Waited. Watched like a deer frozen in the headlights. There was still a chance, though. So long as he didn’t…
The buzz-cut man’s eyes darted across the room to zero in on Pete. Her gaze followed. Pete had rejoined his group, but he didn’t look happy anymore. He seemed troubled as he sipped his champagne and glanced around the lobby at the other partygoers.
No, no, no.
Kat looked back toward the main door and, in a fog, watched a sinister smile spread across the buzz-cut man’s face.
Shit! She never should have come here.
She pushed the kitchen door open as her adrenaline surged. Reached up and rubbed her fingers over the medallion hanging from her neck. And prayed this time no one died because of her.
CHAPTER TWO
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Peter Kauffman pulled his gaze from the crowd he’d been studying intensely half the night to glance toward his date for the evening, Dr. Maria Gotsi.
No, “date” was too broad a term. “Friend with benefits” was more appropriate, although even that implied a relationship they just didn’t have.
He tried to smile so Maria wouldn’t know what he was thinking but knew he did a half-assed job by the way she frowned back at him. “Just preoccupied.”
“You seem off tonight, Peter,” she said in that cultured Greek voice of hers.
Hell yeah, he was off. First because of this auction she’d finally talked him into, then because he was pretty sure he was losing his freakin’ mind. No way he could have seen what he thought he’d seen.
“I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.”
Maria smiled and moved closer, slipped her arm through his and rubbed her hip against him. Any other moment, that well-timed contact would have sent electricity straight to his groin, but tonight it didn’t even garner a response.
“You should be celebrating, darling,” she whispered close to his ear. “The auction was a huge success.”
An enormous success, actually. The Odyssey Gallery’s collection of Ancient Egyptian Art had netted more than six million dollars, far above what even he’d anticipated. The party in the Worthington’s ballroom swirled around him as he stood there, sipping champagne he didn’t really want, and though he should have been ecstatic, for some reason, he wasn’t.
Maria, already deep in conversation with someone at Pete’s left, laughed and tossed her dark hair back, the sound and movement dragging his attention her way. He watched with detached interest as she expertly flirted with the manager of the auction house, then moved on to someone else Pete had no interest in meeting, meticulously working her way around the room and mingling like the pro she was.
The woman had balls, he had to give her that. And she wasn’t