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It was galling to see how deeply they’d betray their country for wealth they couldn’t possibly spend in this lifetime. Not on things they would actually use.
A home. A car. A decent set of kitchen knives. These were necessities and luxuries, and both men had more than they’d ever need. But still, they had to have more. As if owning all the best kitchen knives in the world could fill the hole where their soul should be.
“We’ll give you Kira if you kill Jamal.” The offer came from Mason, of course. He was the most soulless of them all. A man who’d never known want or strife. So he sought blood sport.
“Fuck you. I won’t stoop to your level.”
Rafiq gave Mason a nasty smile. “Yes, child boss man. It’s time you got blood on your hands. Instead of paying others to do your dirty work, you kill him.”
Mason’s face changed as he took in Rafiq’s words. First, he was shocked. Then he was…gleeful.
He was going to do it.
He was excited by the prospect.
There was no way Diana would walk out of here alive, but that was especially true if she witnessed the heir apparent murdering Jamal in cold blood.
Rafiq pulled a knife from the sheath at his waist and offered it to Mason.
“No.” Diana’s voice was firm even as she sobbed. “Don’t do this, Mason. There’s no going back.”
“He tried to kill you,” Rafiq said.
She shrugged. “He failed.”
“He knew I wanted you alive. He betrayed me.”
She would tell him to do the deed himself, then, but knew better than to bait a man who lacked humanity. This wasn’t a game. Jamal was a person.
As was she.
And Kira.
And still, she watched as Mason Gardner stepped forward with Rafiq’s knife in his hand. The boy had been beaten. His face was battered and swollen.
His head lolled to the side, and she watched in horror as Mason grabbed him by the hair and raised his head. With a quick slash of the knife, Jamal’s neck opened up, and blood spurted on Mason’s face.
Jamal’s angry gaze fixed on Diana as life faded from his eyes.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chris and Rand were fully decked out in their combat gear as they moved in on the construction site, Freya whispering instructions in their ears.
“Diana said the layout of the museum is the same as the slot canyon in Jordan. The first rescue attempt.”
Chris closed his eyes and remembered the intersecting canyons. He knew the fastest route to the center.
Rand made quick work of the chain-link fence, and they were through in the blink of an eye. They darted from tree to tree, their camouflage gear blending perfectly with the deciduous forest that surrounded the property.
The construction site was littered with temporary structures. Odds were, Kira had been stashed in one of the trailer offices. Chris left Rand to search for Kira, and headed for the museum, where Diana was deep in conversation with the Four of Diamonds.
Diana couldn’t hold back her anguish and tears. No one mattered to these men. Not the boy who’d been forced into this world with violence and abuse.
She dropped to her knees and touched Jamal’s face. She didn’t like him. Hell, she’d loathed him from the moment he’d tried to rape her. But she would never forget that he was once a child with a brother and sister. A boy who deserved so much better than the world had given him.
Mason pulled her back from the body, and the henchmen dragged Jamal’s corpse out of the room, taking him back to wherever he’d been held before she arrived. She hoped to hell Kira wasn’t in the same place.
Her tears vanished as she remembered her goal.
