Three Fates

were strewn everywhere. Her suitcases had been slit to pieces, the bed overturned, and all the drawers dumped. Her jewelry case had its contents spilled out and its lining ripped free.
    The desk in the sitting area had been ransacked as well. And the laptop that had sat on it was gone.
    “Bloody hell,” Malachi stated. All he could think was the bitch had beaten him to it.
    Fury dark on his face, he whirled around. And one look at Tia had him biting back the rest of the oaths. She was white as a sheet, her eyes already going glassy with shock.
    She doesn’t deserve this, he thought. And he had no doubt it was his hunting her down that had brought this on her.
    “You need to sit down.”
    “What?”
    “Sit.” Brisk now, he took her by the arm and pulled her to a chair, dumped her in it. “We’ll call security. Can you tell if anything’s missing?”
    “My computer.” She tried to catch her breath, found it blocked. Fearing an asthma attack, she dug in her briefcase for her inhaler. “My laptop’s gone.”
    He frowned at her while she sucked on the inhaler. “What was on it?”
    She waved a hand as she drew in medication. “My work,” she managed between gulps. “New book. E-mail, accounts—banking.” She rooted through her bag again for pills. “I’ve got a disk copy of the book in here.” But it was a prescription bottle she pulled out.
    Malachi nipped it out of her hand. “What’s this?” He read the label, and his frown deepened. “We’ll just hold off on this for now. You’re not going to be hysterical.”
    “I’m not?”
    “You’re not.”
    She felt the telltale tickle at the back of her throat that presaged a panic attack. “I think you’re wrong.”
    “Stop that, you’ll hyperventilate or some such thing.” Straining for patience, he crouched in front of her. “Look at me now, breathe slowly. Just breathe slowly.”
    “Can’t.”
    “Yes, you can. You’re not hurt, are you? Got a mess on your hands is all.”
    “Someone broke into my room.”
    “That’s right, but that’s done. You gobbling down tranquilizers isn’t going to change it. What about your passport, any valuables. Important papers.”
    Because he made her think instead of react, the constriction on her chest loosened. She shook her head. “I have my passport with me all the time. I don’t travel with anything really valuable. But my laptop—”
    “You’ll buy another, won’t you?”
    Put that way, she could only nod. “Yes.”
    He got up to close the door. “Do you want to call security?”
    “Yes, of course. The police.”
    “Take a minute to be sure. You’re in a foreign country. A police report’ll generate a lot of red tape, take a lot of time and trouble. And there’d be publicity, I’d imagine.”
    “But . . . someone broke into my room.”
    “Maybe you should go through your things.” He kept his voice calm and practical as he thought it the best way to handle her. It was the way his own mother handled temper fits, and what was hysteria but a kind of temper?
    “Make sure exactly what was taken.” He glanced around, then toed a little white machine with his foot. “What’s this?”
    “Air purifier.” When he picked it up, set it on the desk, she got shakily to her feet. “I can’t understand why anyone would do all this for a laptop computer.”
    “Maybe they were hoping for more.” He wandered to the door of the bathroom, glanced in.
    He’d already decided the Finns deserved some sort of grand prize for the luxury of their baths. Hers, being that her room was plusher, was more spacious than his, but his didn’t lack for details.
    The heated floor tiles, the jet tub, the glory of the six-headed shower and towels thick and big as blankets. On her long tiled counter he saw a half dozen pill bottles, most of which proved to be some sort of vitamin or herbal remedy. There was an electric toothbrush, a travel candle, a tube of antibacterial cream. Packets of something called N-ER-G and more packets of something called D-Stress. He counted eight bottles of mineral water.
    “You’re a bit of a case, aren’t you, darling?”
    She ran a hand over her face. “Traveling’s stressful, it’s hard on the system. I have allergies.”
    “Do you now? Why don’t I help you set this place back to rights, then you can take one of your pills and get some sleep.”
    “I couldn’t possibly sleep. I need to call hotel security.”
    “All right.” It was no skin off his nose,