“Doesn’t matter. I’m not going to give you that information. I’ll have a team deployed in less than an hour. You can tell Timothy Irungu that ASF will be bringing his daughter home,” Reggie said.
The line disconnected. Julian watched as Sunny scratched the back of her neck absently. Something was wrong.
“Are we going to Uganda?” Hakeem asked, standing.
“No, we’re not,” Sunny said, her eyes locked onto Julian’s. “Glaze, keep working on getting that location. Julian, I need to talk to you outside … now.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Tubeec Hirad entered the room, shining a flashlight onto her face. Mena covered her eyes from the harsh light. She could still see the pool of Isaac’s blood spreading across the tile. His limp arm was visible from the door opening, a reminder of what could happen to her next. The gunmen hadn’t bothered to move his body or cover it out of respect. Stepping through the blood, they’d spread bloody footprints from the open area to the hallway and into her room as they watched her.
She’d been separated from Wangari and hadn’t seen her since Isaac was killed. Mena hoped her friend was okay and hadn’t been harmed. The terrorist wanted something from Wangari’s husband, something he’d refused to give Tubeec. Mena had spent the last few hours praying that Okeyo Lagat would comply with the demands, and she and Wangari would be released soon.
Tubeec walked over and squatted down in front of her, stroking a finger under her chin, lifting her face.
Mena didn’t want to provoke the terrorist leader. She’d witnessed firsthand how easily he decided that a life should end. Survival was all that mattered now, doing whatever it took to last another minute, another hour, another day until Wangari’s husband paid the ransom for their release.
Tubeec reached behind his back. Mena shivered in the stifling warm air of the room, bracing herself.
As his arm emerged, Mena’s eyes settled on the item in his hand. Stunned, she stared as he sprinkled crushed coral peonies petals onto her lap.
Sliding his hands along her bound legs, he caressed her skin underneath the hem of her trousers. The roughness of his scarred skin against her ankles sent a tremor through her body.
“Don’t worry. I’m not allowed to harm you,” Tubeec said, tightening the knots, then turned his focus toward her wrists, bound by ropes.
“Not allowed?” Mena blurted out before she could stop herself.
“That’s right. Did you think you were just an innocent victim, swept up in the kidnapping of the flower heiress?” Tubeec asked, a curve of a smile on his lips. “You were the primary target. Luckily, your relationship with the wife of Okeyo Lagat presented an opportunity for me to get something that I wanted. I wondered, though, what an art conservator could have done to make someone request my assistance.”
Mena shook her head. “I don’t know why anyone would want you to kidnap me.”
Although, that wasn’t exactly true.
But could he be that desperate to get her back? Did he have the resources to fund her abduction? She didn’t believe that was possible. It couldn’t be.
“The peonies were sent to you,” Tubeec said.
“Yes,” Mena admitted.
“And you destroyed them.”
“Yes.” When the flowers had arrived, she’d known they weren’t from Julian as her co-workers had suspected. She knew exactly who they were from, and the message on the card had confirmed her suspicions.
“My men attempted to find the person who sent the flowers, but they were purchased in cash by someone who obviously didn’t want to be identified. But I did find the card on the floor in the midst of the crushed petals. Imagine my surprise when I saw what it said,” Tubeec’s eyes grew wide.
“You have the card?” Mena asked, her breathing growing labored.
“January 13th,” Tubeec said.
Mena looked away. The reminder of the handwritten note and the subsequent text to her phone seemed like a lifetime ago. A threat that paled in comparison to the one standing before her.
“What does that date mean to you, Ms. Nix?” Tubeec asked, his voice growing cold and menacing.
Head spinning, Mena leaned back against the wall, trying to sift through the chaotic memories assaulting her mind. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about how the events of January 13th had changed her life. She wished she could erase everything she’d done that day and the months before it.
Mena gasped as Tubeec’s rough hand clamped around her throat. She struggled to breathe as he squeezed tighter.
“When I ask a question, I expect an answer immediately!” Tubeec screamed in her face.
