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As though his cousin’s presence was all it had taken, the roaches were coming out of the woodwork. Suspected militants and terrorist organizers were roaming the streets and discussing in public in small groups what should only be discussed behind closed doors and in secure bunkers.
But even more, Azir was braver, more confident and more secure now in acquiring the funds that had been frozen more than twenty years before.
As dinner was finished and Tariq cleared away the dishes and prepared coffee behind a screen at the small kitchenette Abram had had installed, he leaned back in his chair and watched as Paige wandered back to the fire.
She was nervous. Not frightened, and definitely not really wary, but she was nervous, her senses hyped and adrenaline coursing through her body.
She was trying to ignore both of them and to ignore the declaration he had made earlier.
He almost grinned as he considered the night ahead. He had no intentions of taking her yet, not yet. There were a few matters that had to be taken care of first, and precautions established to ensure their safety before he and Tariq took her together.
The hunger for it was beginning to build in him though, and he could see it building in Tariq. They’d shared enough women, seduced enough to know each other’s responses as well as their woman’s.
“Azir and Jafar have made plans to take a ride in the morning,” Tariq told him as he carried the coffee back to the table. “They believe you and I will be too distracted to know that they’ve left. ” Tariq nodded to Paige.
“Do you know where they’re going?” Abram lifted the cup to his lips as he murmured the question.
Tariq gave a quick shake of his head. “The equipment in Jafar’s room is just as good as ours, but I wasn’t close enough to the door to hear everything being said. ”
“You know who to contact. ” Abram dropped his voice as he spoke. The room was equipped with audio detection scramblers but he didn’t like taking chances. “If there’s a way to follow them, then he can figure it out. ”
Abram frowned thoughtfully. Azir and Jafar had been bitter enemies until the months before Ayid and Aman had attempted to murder Khalid and Abram. Now, less than three months after the deaths of his youngest sons, Azir was conspiring with his nephew. The nephew whose father Azir had murdered more than twenty years ago.
“He definitely kidnapped her just to distract you,” Tariq stated as he nodded to Paige. “If we’re trying to protect her then we’re not following him. And he knows you’d never leave her here alone. ”
“I wouldn’t trust her safety to just one of us either,” he said quietly. “Not this close. ”
That was the catch. They were a team, and they had been working efficiently together for several years. But now, with Paige here, it would be impossible for Abram to be confident that either of them could protect her alone if Azir conspired against them.
If his cruelty extended to having Paige taken and circumcised as Ayid had had his manservant’s wife circumcised several years before. Or if the authorities arrived to have her—or all three of them—arrested for depraved or indecent sexual acts.
Azir wasn’t above either of those, or any other number of extreme acts to keep Abram from leaving Saudi Arabia.
“He doesn’t know we have help. At least in following him,” Tariq murmured as he leaned closer.
Eyes in the sky were what they had. A little help from their friendly neighborhood CIA asset. In the event of an extreme emergency, that asset could get them out of the fortress and to an extraction point, but it wouldn’t be easy. It would compromise positions and covers and that was something no one wanted to do unless they simply had no other choice.
If Azir moved in a direction that would compromise Paige’s safety, or her life, then he would call them in, and it was that simple.
If he had time.
Abram glanced at her again, the fiery red-gold of her hair as it spilled around her shoulders, the relaxed position of her body indicating she was at the least, dozing.
As the day had worn on, Paige had become worn out. The drug used on her, the confrontation and abuse inflicted by Azir, and the stress of the day had culminated into complete exhaustion.
“Azir timed this personally,” Tariq stated as he followed Abram’s look. “And the perfect weapon to strike against you. How did he know?”
Tariq watched Abram, seeing the normally hardened expression as it softened almost imperceptibly. For the first time in far too many years, he was watching a woman affect Abram, and that scared the hell out of him. Because now just wasn’t the time for this.
“Who the hell knows how he found out. ” Abram breathed out roughly. “But he did, and now we have to deal with it. ”
“Do you have a pt her” Tariq asked, nodding toward Paige as her head slipped deeper into the cushion behind her.
“Keep her safe and alive,” Abram stated roughly as he turned back to his coffee and sipped at the brew. His expression remained savagely intense. “Stay one step ahead of Azir where she’s concerned and make certain he doesn’t get the jump on us. Until we can get her out without compromising our contacts, then we have no other choice. ”
“And if we can’t?” Tariq had a feeling he knew the answer to that question.
“If we can’t then all bets are off. ” The look Abram turned on him was more than savage now, it was primal, murderous.
