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STEFAN Prakenskii paced up and down the small cell He knew exactly how many steps he could take before he leapt to catch the bars and do pull-ups--a dozendown for push-ups There was no getting used to the smell of the prison, or the slime on the walls or the way the showers didn't work and the need for constant vigilance to stay alive, but he didn't ; he had endured much worse

He was a patient man, but once he had determined it was useless for him to remain in the cell, that his mission was a complete bust, he wanted out It was a waste of tireed a erous and irritating, hisdecent in the prison

Swearing under his breath, Stefan took froraph of the woman his cell mate obsessed over She stood on a beach, the ocean waves rising behind her, a little turbulent and obviously windy, but there were no land She was undoubtedly beautiful with her long black hair blowing in the wind Dressed in jeans and a tee she still ant and sexy at the same time If he were a man as interested in relationships, no doubt he would understand his cell mate's fixation with her And the idiot was totally obsessed with her There were hundreds of photographs taken over a period of years of just this one woman pinned all over the walls

It didn't seeent a , in the end it seereatest of cri down And this particular woman was no exception Stefan planned to use her to take down Jean-Claude La Roux's international empire if that hat it took

He glanced down at the picture in his hand She looked pensive--no, sad What had put that look on her face? Surely a wo away for askin peeked out between her tee and her jeans teht feel just hoarm and soft she truly was

No doubt Jean-Claude was a ood looks attractive, if you liked oozing charht find that edge of danger exciting as well Wos as men could be by beauty

"What the hell are you doing with that?" Glaring at Stefan, trying to intimidate someone impossible to intiraph from the hands of his cell mate "You have no idea who I am"

Deliberately Stefan showed his teeth and then spit on the floor of the cell "That refrain is getting old, Rolex" He infused total conteiven him

A man like Jean-Claude, the head of a vast cri him It was an affront the man couldn't accept In the twoto collect information, he'd had to defend his life on several occasions--a tribute to La Roux's authority even there in the prison Jean-Claude hated Stefan, and one word fro to curry favor by atteet rid of Stefan, the thorn in his side

There was no doubt that La Roux was every bit as powerful in prison as he was out of it On the surface, sentencing hiood The French prison system wasn't considered a place to coddle prisoners, but even withfroed to appear wealthy and powerful Every other prisoner gave hioaded La Roux at every opportunity, and not one of the men paid to teach Stefan a lesson, or kill him, had succeeded

There was no doubt in Stefan's iven an hour alone with Jean-Claude, if he was free to interrogate hiovernuards watching day and night and the government all too aware of their prisoner, he didn't have a chance to extract what he needed from the man That left only one possibility Jean-Claude La Roux had to escape He sighed He'd told his handler that sa many times over the last two months