Page 18 of Her Sensual Protector

Here she was again, in another hotel lobby about to meet another man who would hopefully have information about her father. She stood in front of the hotel gift shop, pretending to admire whatever it was they were selling. Her mind was so oblivious, she didn’t even know what she was looking at.

“That’s a nice watch, isn’t it?” A man asked her. “Who would you buy it for?”

“My stepfather. I try to always get him something from every country I visit. But I would like something that is made here, instead of something that he could buy in the US.”

“You are a good daughter. I believe our car is waiting.”

Daisy turned to look at the man. They were of a similar height and she could look directly into his kind and intelligent eyes.

She smiled. “You’re right, we don’t want to be late for our plane.”

Yay, I remembered my lines!

“No, we don’t.”

He indicated they were going back to the valet area, where the door was open, and he escorted her to the waiting limousine. She raised her eyebrow.

“This has a privacy screen,” he quietly answered her unasked question.

She nodded.

The valet opened the door for her, and the driver opened the door for Rayi on the other side of the vehicle. After they were settled, the limousine began to move at a sedate pace. It was nice to not have to worry for her life for a change.

“How do you know my stepfather?” Daisy asked.

“I did a few humanitarian stories that interrelated with Tajikistan, and I needed corroboration. Your stepfather ended up pointing me in the right direction.”

Daisy nodded, she could see Alistair doing that.

“So, do you have any information for me regarding Ethan Squires? Anything at all about what he might have been doing either here or in Pakistan?” It had finally occurred to her that the Haqqani Network spanned both nations and he could have just as easily enraged the Network on either side of the border.

He looked at her sadly.

“What? Tell me. What?”

“In Pakistan, one of the madrassas that he visited and inoculated children, was where Siraj Haqqani’s nephew attended. It was lucky he wasn’t killed while he was still over in that country.”

“I know that. I’m also thinking it was either Dr. Williams or a member of his staff who tipped off Siraj that it was my father who did the inoculation. It’s the only thing that made sense, since they wouldn’t be sure which doctor did it.”

Rayi nodded. “You’re right, but before that happened, a member of the Taliban, who didn’t want additional international trouble, told your father to immediately leave for the United States.”

Daisy felt like her head was going to explode. Did her father have a death wish, why in the hell didn’t he go home? What the hell had he been thinking? Fine, he did his normal shit, he ignored all common sense, risked his life, and put the life of Dr. Williams and the rest of his team in jeopardy.

Nothing changes.

“Why did the Haqqani Network wait until he was in Afghanistan to kidnap him?” Daisy asked.

“According to my sources, the one good thing Williams did was to give your father a running chance. He sent him over to Afghanistan before laying the blame at his feet.”

“Yeah, like that was a nice thing since the Haqqanis have a hold over both countries.”

Rayi nodded in agreement.

“Since Williams has a way to contact the Haqqani Network, I need to talk to him and see if I can get ahold of the same person. See if there is a way I can get a meet with Siraj.”

“That’s suicide.”

“There has to be something he wants more than my father’s death. We can get money.”