AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She’d known this would happen. She’d expected it. Planned for it.
She thought about the pain in her ankle. Use the pain to mask the fear.
She pressed her weight on her right foot. Pain shot through her leg. She took a deep breath and did as instructed, turning to face two white men, probably in their thirties. One pointed a pistol at her chest. “Rafiq will be pissed if you shoot me.”
“Mason will be pissed if I don’t.”
The second man stepped up and demanded she remove the heavy coat. Once it was on the floor, she rested her hands on her hairclip while he waved a metal detector wand up and down her body. It emitted an electronic buzz at the boot, and he demanded she remove it.
She sat on a fake rock to undo the Velcro straps. When he discovered all the tools and blades hidden in the boot, he demanded she remove the ankle stabilizer too.
After he stripped her of her weapons and gadgets, he forced her to walk barefoot into the next room, an unfinished space where she came face-to-face with both Gardners and a clean-shaven Makram Rafiq.
Chapter Sixty-Five
“Where is Kira?” Diana demanded.
She had to play this game carefully. More than anything, she needed to buy time. She couldn’t give Rafiq even a hint of what he wanted until she had eyes on Kira, safe and sound. And she knew exactly what he wanted, so she could draw out the confrontation. She’d figured it out last night as she watched happy customers leave with bulging bags from Historie.
The perfect gift.
But Rafiq was after the gift that kept on giving. The ultimate score.
And he’d never trust the Gardners with that information. They’d cut him out faster than they’d betrayed Diana and Kira. That was why Rafiq had demanded to follow Diana to the US. He knew she’d become a fugitive before she ever returned to Jordan, and he needed to get the information from her firsthand.
“How did she get here?” Dennis asked, glaring at one of the henchmen. “You said she was in the hospital and the whore would grab her.”
Before the man could answer, she said, “I caught a ride with Mason. I want to talk to Kira.”
“Who’s Kira?” Mason asked.
“I know you’re slow, Mason, but you’re overplaying it.”
Mason took a step toward her. “Cunt. I’ll—”
“I also know what Rafiq wants from me. No Kira. No coordinates.”
Rafiq cocked his head. “In Jordan, you never let on that you recognized me.” His voice was curious. Even respectful.
“I’m not a fool.” She smiled and nodded toward Mason. “Not like present company.”
Rafiq laughed. “No. That you aren’t. You know what I want?”
“Yes. Fahd told me.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgment. “And of course, that is what I wanted from the start. Someone my old friend Fahd would trust.”
That gave her a jolt. “You knew Fahd?”
He held her gaze, his eyes probing. “Of course. I knew them all.”
Her eyes stung with tears as she connected the dots. “You knew…his friend. The one who went missing years ago.”
Rafiq dipped his head. Yes. He knew him. And Fahd’s friend’s fate, which everyone had guessed at, was also clear. Yet another man who’d died to protect the secret Diana now carried.
It wasn’t dying for an object. It was dying for a cause.
“You killed him.”
