Wrath's Storm: A Masters' Admiralty Novel by Mari Carr (desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

“Why would my stalker be in Krakow?” Annalise demanded.

“Jakob.” Walt took a step closer to the other man and placed a comforting arm on his shoulder. “There are two of us now. We won’t take unnecessary risks and we’ll stay in well-populated, busy areas. We’ll keep her safe. Together.”

“Please,” Annalise said softly. “It’s been so many years since…”

Jakob sighed. Her quiet plea partnered with Walt’s reassurances had won the argument.

“You will stay close to us,” Jakob said. “At all times.”

Walt was honored to have earned Jakob’s trust. He suspected that when it came to Annalise’s safety, the Ritter trusted no one.

Annalise’s huge smile after his capitulation apparently overshadowed Jakob’s concerns as he returned her happy grin with one of his own.

It changed Jakob’s entire appearance…and Walt suddenly noticed exactly how attractive Annalise’s bodyguard was. He was starting to understand the appeal.

Of course, because it was Jakob, the smile was short-lived and within seconds, he’d schooled his features once more, his intense, determined countenance firmly in place again.

“Where should we go first?” Annalise asked, as Jakob stepped to the curb and raised his hand, waving down a taxi.

Walt rubbed his hands together in glee. “I was hoping you would ask that. How would the two of you feel about a visit to the Pharmacy Museum?”

Annalise laughed and shook her head, even though Walt didn’t doubt for a moment he was going to get his way. She was so happy about her brief respite from the terror of the past few years, she’d happily follow him anywhere. “You’re joking, right? I mean we’re in Krakow and that’s your first choice of tourist attraction?”

A taxi pulled up to the curb. Walt slid across the backseat first, Annalise next, and Jakob following last. It was a tight fit. Walt had a feeling he and Jakob would be flanking Annalise during every step of today’s adventure.

“Gdzie?” the taxi driver asked.

While Walt didn’t speak much Polish—okay, he spoke no Polish—it wasn’t hard to figure out what the man was asking. “Old Town. Pharmacy Museum,” he said, hoping the man spoke enough English to understand him.

The driver nodded to let them know he understood. “Tak,” he replied.

Walt grinned. Now he knew one word of Polish. Yes.

“Dziękuję Ci,” Annalise said.

Walt raised his eyebrows, impressed.

“Don’t get excited,” Annalise said in response. “I can speak enough to find us a restroom or order a cup of coffee. After that, we’re in trouble.”

Walt and Annalise both glanced over at Jakob, who grinned ruefully. “I only know curse words.” There was a long pause, and Walt thought he was done, but then, Jakob added, “My friends from school and I taught ourselves how to say fuck, dick, and shit in twenty different languages.”

Walt laughed. “Useful skill. Considering it appears we’re up shit…” He paused, staring pointedly at Jakob.

“Gówno,” Jakob supplied without hesitation.

“Up gówno creek without a paddle,” Walt finished.

The cab driver eyed them in the rearview mirror.

“You have such an interesting way of speaking,” Annalise said, amused by Walt’s joke.

“Oh, that right there is the Southern boy in me.”

Neither Jakob nor Annalise seemed to have a clue what that meant, but they both chuckled, shaking their heads as he accentuated his South Carolina drawl for their benefit.

It felt good to make her and Jakob smile. Until this afternoon, he didn’t realize exactly how somber they’d been back in Frankfurt. His mama always liked to say that sometimes you didn’t realize how unhappy a person was until you saw them truly happy. That was certainly true for Annalise and Jakob.

The trip to Old Town was relatively short distance-wise, though it was made longer by the traffic on the city streets.

When the driver pulled the taxi to the curb, Jakob paid the man and they left the car.

Old Town was crowded at this time of day. Walt had no trouble distinguishing the locals from the tourists, though he figured that was true of most large cities. He recalled his family’s first trip to New York City when he was ten. He and his brothers had walked around with their heads thrown back, staring in amazement at the gigantic skyscrapers, while his mother snapped no fewer than a thousand pictures of basically everything.

Once they were on the sidewalk, Annalise glanced up at the museum and sighed. “It exists. I was hoping you were joking.”

Walt winked at her as he placed his hand on her lower back, propelling her toward the entrance. Jakob followed, and Walt could feel the weight of the other man’s eyes where Walt was touching her.

His grip on Annalise was intentional, a “piss or get off the pot” challenge to Jakob. What he hadn’t expected was for Annalise to shift incrementally closer to him. Or for her to smell so good. Or for his body to react quite so strongly.

Walt did some mental math and realized he hadn’t had sex in over seven years. Most people, with the exception of his brothers, would probably find his lack of sexual experience shocking. After all, he was in his thirties with a healthy sex drive. The problem was his work ethic was much stronger.

He’d graduated top of his class at medical school, then joined AMEDD—U.S. Army Medical Department—as a commissioned officer. The armed services had been desperate for doctors at the time, so he’d been able to join for just two years, while having some of the other requirements waived. He’d spent most of those two years stationed overseas, and that time had taught him more about what being a doctor really meant than all his years of medical school and residency.

After leaving the military, he’d joined Doctors Without Borders, traveling to some of the most dangerous places in the world, where he typically worked sixteen- to eighteen-hour days. Then he’d taken over the clinic in Libya, planning to be there for a few years before moving on to somewhere else.

Time for sex was something he simply didn’t have. Not when there were wounds to bandage, burns to soothe, broken