Free Somewhere I'll Find You by Linda Swain

taking it pretty calmly.  Most people would be in hysterics by now.
    “Are you al l right ?” She was silently pleased to see that her hands were steady as she swiftly poured him a brandy.  He protected you with his body, Paige thought.  And didn’t think twice about it.   Perhaps she had misjudged him.  She shook the thoughts away and focused on his pale, tense face.  “Did you find anything?”
    “Perhaps you should go change.”  He moved to the fire, staring into the snapping flames, one arm braced along the mantle.
    “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
    Without turning his head, Michael simply nodded in the direction of the long, sweeping staircase.  “I think it would be best if you got out of those damp clothes.”
    As she turned to leave, Paige chanced one more look in his direction.  He was standing before the fire, shoulder s rigid, his expression hidden in the shadows.  It didn’t take a psychic to see that he was furious, and no amount of shadow could hide the fact from her.
    * * * *
    A warm shower had worked miracles on stopping the chill that had seeped right to her bones.  But the gnawing concern about the man in her living room was something that no amount of soap and water was going to wash away.  Wrapped in a towel , she grabbed her cell f rom her dresser, punching in the numbers to Miles’ private line.  When she heard his familiar voice , Paige got straight to the point.
    “All right, do you want to tell me who Michael Sinclair is – and don’t tell me that he’s just a friend of a friend.  What did you think he was going to do, seduce me into agreeing to this little assignment of yours?”
    There was a long pause.  One long enough to leave Paige seething with anger .  “Miles?  I asked you a question, ” she snapped.  “And I’d appreciate an honest answer to it – now .”
    Silently, Miles cursed the muddied waters.  He had never been quite certain of Sinclair’ s claim of a ‘dream girl’, always suspecting that there was more to it than what his friend had divulged.  Torn between duty and friendship, Miles wasn’t sure that a long stint in Siberia wouldn’t be more preferable than the situation he now faced.  “Are you all right?” he asked as he watched rain streak down his hotel windows.
    “No, I’m not all right.” She answered tersely.  “I have a man downstairs with only a recommendation from Serena and a claim that he knows Carver.  I’ve been shot at . . . and I have no idea why or by whom , and it’s not something that I wish to report to the police, is it ?”
    “No,” he answered firmly, wondering how bad Siberia could really be.  Careful , Miles, let’s not tip anyone’s hand quite yet.   “I’m not going to deny that he and I go back a long, long way.  But Paige, he has absolutely nothing to do with what we discussed.  In fact, although I hate to admit it, he’s considered in some corners to be a loose cannon.”
    She stretched out on her bed, her scowl deepening.  “Would you care to explain that?”
    “If you think about it, you already know half the answer.  If he know s both Carver and myself . . . ” Miles counted to ten, waiting in silence for Paige to add the numbers together .   Sinclair couldn’t have shown up at a better time, however, if she’s being shot at …
    “Well?” she said impatiently.  “Are you going to finish or do I have to drag it out of you?”
    “A few years back,” Miles began, “ he had an assignment that took him straight into the midst of the Royal family . Some radicals, trying to make a point, attempted to kidnap some cousins of the Queen ’ s.  In the aftermath, four people were killed.  All of them were teenagers. ”
    Feeling an odd lurch in her stomach, she rose anxiously to her feet and paced about as she mentally sorted through the evening ’ s events. 
    “Paige?”  Miles’ voice echoed his concern over the cell.  “Are you still there?”
    “I’m here,