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“I … uh … I think I was eighteen at the time,” I said to her. “Jack’s my brother’s best friend, and I thought … well, he didn’t really notice me at first, but I always had a tiny bit of a crush on him.”
“A tiny bit?” she questioned with an arched brow.
“Okay, maybe more than a tiny bit,” I confessed, and we both laughed.
Liliana got up and picked up a towel from the table beside her. She dried her hair with it, then dumped it on the ground. “You know what we should do?” she asked, then went ahead and answered her question. “We should have a girl’s night out. Just you and me exploring the city. Go get dressed and meet me out front. There’s a lot you have to see in this beautiful city.”
She walked away, and I admired her till she left the pool area before I got on my feet. Sighing, I picked up a towel, wrapped it around my body, and then headed into the house.
I made it to the wide, curved area leading to the stairs and saw a man come out of a corner and walk towards me. It wasn’t my first time seeing well-built and stern men around the mansion, so I didn’t pay much attention to him as he approached.
I continued towards the stairs and climbed the first one before I felt the man’s closeness behind me. The second I turned, the blow to my head came, and it knocked me out before I could take another breath.
ThenexttimeIopened my eyes, I was lying on a bed with white sheets pulled over me. I groaned from the pain at the side of my head, then sat up and rubbed my eyes.
What happened?
The last thing I remembered was walking into the mansion so I could get dressed and join Liliana for a fun night out, then someone came up behind me and knocked me out. I was still wearing my bikini under the oversized t-shirt I had on, and I wondered who had draped me in these clothes too. They felt warm but strange.
Cold fear gripped my insides as I sat up on the bed and looked around the room. It was dimly lit, but it smelled nice and felt warm.
“Who’s there?” I asked, feeling the need to understand what was happening. As I got up and padded softly around the room, my feet hurt, and it felt like I was walking on eggshells.
What about Jack?
“Who’s there?” I asked again when I heard a click on the door. My shoulders tightened, and so did every other muscle fiber in my body. I held my breath, then clenched my fists at my sides and squared my shoulders.
I was ready to defend myself with a punch if anyone came into the room and tried to attack me. I dragged in a deep breath, then took a step closer to the door as it opened.
“Good, you’re awake,” the man that stepped in said, and I noticed the holster on his waist first before I looked up at him again. He also noticed my clenched fists and how I had them raised and poised for battle.
“What are you doing?” he asked with an arched brow.
“Ready to defend myself,” I answered, then tightened my fist again. “Who are you? Why am I here? Where is Jack? What did you do to me? Why did you bring me here?”
“Relax,” he said, drawing out his words first before he raised both his hands in the air. “Jack and I work together. I saved you from the sheikh’s mansion and brought you here because Jack is injured, and we need to wrap up our business here before …”
“Jack is injured?” I interrupted, not hearing anything else he said after that phrase. “I … what happened to him?”
Tears stung the back of my eyelids instantly, and I rushed across the room to meet the man. “Please take me to him right now. What happened? I need …”
“Relax,” he said to me again, then he turned and led me out of the room to another adjoining bedroom where Jack lay. “He’s going to be fine … just a graze of the bullet in his lower abdomen, and the doc here has taken care of it. He’ll be out for some time because of the pain meds, but as soon as he wakes up, we should be on our way to Denver.”
“Wait,” I breathed out because my head was spinning.Bullet wound? Denver? Was there a shootout?“What the hell is going on?” I questioned in a loud tone and lifted my confused gaze to look at the man and the doc still bending over Jack and checking his vitals. “What … are you all in some Arabian gang or something?”
“CIA,” the man answered, then extended his hand. “Jim,” he added. “I’m Jack’s handler.”
My head swooned some more, and I nearly dropped to the ground because I felt light-headed.CIA? Handler?
“I don’t understand,” I stammered.
“And you shouldn’t,” he said. “None of this concerns you, and I have no idea why Jack would think of bringing a civilian into this, but he did. Apparently, he believed you would play a wife better than a fellow agent.”
“She does play a wife better,” Jack whispered in a shaky tone from where he lay, and my gaze bounced over to him again.
My heart did a speedy dive inside, my stomach also clenched hard with knots that threatened to suck away my peace, and I held my breath.
Jack groaned and tried to sit up. Neither of the men tried to stop him, and I didn’t rush to his side even though all I wanted to do was hurry to him, wrap my arms around him, and wait for the pain to subside.
