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“What a sick psycho,” Jessica muttered.
Saaina leaned her head back. “Daar’s business card calls him an import and export specialist. He’s a smuggler. He will move anything for a price.”
“Anything?” Robin whispered.
“You don’t want to know,” Saaina whispered back. She cleared her throat before continuing. “Daar is loyal to those he works with. I’ve heard stories…”
She shook her head and covered her face.
“That’s terrible,” Jessica said. “So all of this is to protect a smuggling ring?”
“No,” Saaina said softly. “Daar is a piece of the puzzle. It’s who he works with. They all do something specific or have an area of expertise. Daar’s is how to transport things.”
Jessica and Robin looked at each other.
“Oh, shit,” she muttered as things began to make sense.
Daar might not be the one actively selling guns, but he made sure they got where they were going. He wouldn’t hire mercenaries, but perhaps he ensured they arrived in a timely manner. The horrific possibilities are endless.
“You don’t have to say anymore.” Robin scooted over next to Saaina and pulled the other woman into a hug. “Don’t say any more.”
Robin could imagine the rest, though she didn’t want to.
How could a person be that cruel?
She would never understand Uncle Daar. They were from different worlds.
None of this would have happened if she’d gone on with her life. She could have lived apart from all this if she’d just focused on herself. Instead, she’d gotten sucked into the past and now what happened to Mom would happen to her.
Harper had saved her from Uncle Daar once. She wished he’d burst through that door, her White Knight, but this was reality. Harper wasn’t going to be able to save her this time. He was just a man.
Robin tipped her head back and squeezed her eyes shut. If only she’d stayed curled up in bed that morning. It was a nice dream.
Chapter Nineteen
Friday.FBIOffice,NewYork City, NY.
They’d lost the GPS signal.
Harper had been about to try sleeping last night when Baruti called to tell him. It didn’t help that the working theory was that Robin was somewhere probably shielded by concrete and or metal, maybe both. The only good news was that the last location they had was far enough away from any potential transit location or the water. Which meant she was most likely alive and still in the city. At least that’s what Harper was telling himself.
Right now he figured Daar was going to go in one of three ways. First and probably safest, he’d try to flee the country. Depending on how good his fakes were, there was a very real possibility he could get on a plane and fly out right under their noses. With his connections, they needed to keep an eye on all cargo planes, trains, and ships, which was more than their team could handle.
But that wasn’t like Daar.
Harper paced the office. Baruti had shoved him in here hours ago to try to get some sleep, and Harper had. Now he was wide awake.
Daar liked to see things through. He didn’t do things in half measures. It was why he’d continued to visit and tend to his little brother after all these decades. And it was why Harper couldn’t imagine Daar leaving right now with so much left undone.
The second theory that Harper didn’t want to think about was that Daar had already killed Robin and would be disposing of her body at a later date. A freezer inside a building would be difficult to transmit from.
Harper couldn’t imagine Daar killing Robin. He acted like Robin was the only other intelligent person in the family. Unlike her father, she wasn’t a burden. But she was a threat.
The third theory that seemed more likely after what they’d heard during the flight was that Daar was lying low. They all knew about the laptop. What Harper didn’t fully understand was, why did it matter? What had Charlotte Suleiman known that would be devastating to Daar? What was worth killing her over? And why did someone else want it?
Harper still thought that the most sensible thing to do was swoop in and scoop up Daar with the women. It was obvious that Saaina knew more than any of them had guessed. Harper was of the mind that Saaina could be the missing piece for them to understand everything. And she wouldn’t be a hostile participant. In fact, they could cut her a deal. Make sure she was taken care of, reunited with her dogs, and given a new life.
Someone pounded on the office door, startling Harper out of his thoughts. He yanked the door open and stared at Baruti.
