Page 106 of Rescuing You

So she said nothing.

“You still doubt me, Leila?” His words were laced with surprise—and hurt. “After everything?”

“No. Not you. I am only saying…” She swallowed and looked away, ashamed to admit what she’d been thinking. “I am afraid. Afraid they will capture me…” If Waleed captured her, he would demand to know everything she’d shared.

She wanted to be able to honestly tell him she didn’t betray her family. It would go better for her if she could. But…only by degrees. Because if Waleed caught up with her, her only relief would come in death.

“Okay then.” Michael’s words brought her back from that dark, frightening place. He licked his lips, then pressed them together until they turned white. “Wright. Michael Wright. My name is Michael Wright. Now, if they capture you, I have as much to lose as you do.”

“I did not expect… I will try to forget, Michael Davis. I am Nawra Saad Fayad.”

He didn’t look surprised at all.

“You knew?”

“Called Brock earlier. He did his homework.”

“Then why did you make me tell you?”

“I wanted you to confirm.”

“Brock is…?”

“My team leader. I was hoping he’d get us out of here, but that’s not going to work out. I’m confused, though. Our intel tells us Saad Farad Fayad—that’s your father, right?” She nodded, and he continued. “Our intel tells us he doesn’t have a brother, but you said…”

His words trailed.

He looked from her to the door separating his room from Jasmine’s and back. A moment passed, and then he said, “They’re twins?”

She had been warned never to say this.

It had been ingrained in her from childhood to never tell anybody.

But Michael already knew. If Waleed captured her, her life would be over. Why should she be loyal to the father who would give her to such a man?

Why should she be loyal to the uncle who’d had her kidnapped and imprisoned? What kind of misplaced devotion was that?

She straightened her shoulders. “His name is Hasan.”

“Hasan Farad Fayad?”

“No.” She swallowed, looked away. This was hard. It shouldn’t be, but it was.

She appreciated that Michael didn’t press, just waited, watching.

“He has always been a secret in our family, one my sister and I were warned never to tell. To do so feels like a betrayal. But I owe them nothing.” She straightened her shoulders. She could do this. She would. “My uncle is Hasan Mahmoud.”

Michael’s eyes widened. He shuttered the expression, but she’d seen the shock.

Obviously, he’d heard of Hasan. Her uncle was a terrible, terrible man. He had known bin Laden. He had worked with the leaders of the worst terrorist organization in the world.

“I don’t understand,” Michael said. “All our intelligence tells us your father is an only child. How did that slip by us? How are there no records of his existence?”

“Hasan wishes to be invisible. I don’t know how he did it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he destroyed records and perhaps threatened people who knew the truth about him.”

“As an adult, yeah, but when he was a kid? How could he possibly have orchestrated that? There’s no record of him where your father went to school or university.”

“I don’t know the whole story.” Leila had only heard whispers over the years about Hasan as a child, and none of them had been good. “In Islam, twins are considered a gift from Allah, but my grandmother said that Hasan was a curse, that he was…” She couldn’t think of the word. “I think maybe…instable?”