Mark swallowed, feeling as though someone had just slapped him in the back of the head. ‘Ladies, this is Mark Gaines,’ Lena introduced him. ‘He ...lays with Anatoli.’ ‘Nice to meet you,’ Jane spoke first and held a hand out towards him. Mark automatically raised his hand to shake hers but his eyes didn’t move from Hilary’s face. After Jane released his hand, he moved it towards Hilary but she merely cocked one dark eyebrow at him and looked away. Blinking in surprise, Mark’s eyes flicked to Lena,. That doesn’t mean she didn’t know the man that stood behind her. Even without the lights, she could see every detail of his face in her mind’s eye. She had been admiring how handsome he was all night. She had to stop herself from staring more then once this evening. A shiver ran through her as she felt his hands run over her bare shoulders. They were gentle and ran softly down here arms. They eventually crossed, his chest now pressing against her back, his arms wrapped around her. His hands lay. There encased in the thin protection of a cotton nightgown were her breasts. "It wasn't a dream was it?" she asked the old man. "I'm afraid not, lass. You dragged yourself in here yesterday morning, as sorry a sight as I ever hope to see," the old man replied. "I've done my best to patch you up, but you still spent a whole day and night unconscious. Mind telling me what brought you here in such a state?" He took a seat at the foot of the bed. Dan shifted in the bedding to an upright. I sensed movement behind me and ducked just as one of Loppers guys swung a pool cue at my head. It caught his buddy in the head just as I turned around and grabbed my assailant by the chin and the back of his head. I snapped his neck and took the cue from his hand as I let him sink to the floor. I snapped the tip off by smashing it on the edge of the table, then, just as Lopper came charging at me, I used it to pin him to the wall. His scream was only muted by the blood pouring from his mouth..