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She opened the instant message window and asked the ghost on the other end if the stuff in the syringe had been identified yet.
“Come on,” she coached under her breath when he didn’t answer right away. Her money was on sodium pentothal. Truth serum made sense after talking with Abe. Bakr wanted her alive and willing to share whatever he thought she knew.
And there was the real question: What did she know?
She’d been over the transcripts and reports. Replaying it in her head wasn’t getting her anywhere. The lack of sleep wasn’t helping. She rolled her head from side to side, wishing she could just shake loose the missing details.
Hearing Carson on the stairs, she sent another question to the ghost, this one requesting the footage of the Matheson rescue.
The ghost replied immediately, answering both questions and giving her plenty of details to sort through, which kept her in the den and out of the kitchen.
It had been truth serum in the syringe. Clearly Bakr was serious about getting some lost detail out of her head. Old school and relatively risky, but a sign of his desperation. She set the laptop aside and paced while the video buffered. The walls were closing in on her, but she knew it wasn’t the confines of the house. Her agitation had more to do with the hole in her memory.
“Hey,” Carson said softly from the doorway. “Are you okay?”
“Sure,” she answered brightly, choosing to assume he was referring to the present and not the recent past. “Why?”
“You were swearing. Well, I can’t be sure about that.”
“Probably. I can’t shake it loose. They all think I know something.” She growled. “All Iknowis that I don’t know what I’m missing.” She pushed her hands through her hair, then thrust them out in front of her. “It’s right in front of me. Except it’s not.”
“Hold on. You changed languages again. I’m only fluent in English and Southern English.”
She paused, did a double take, and laughed. “I suppose that qualifies as bilingual.” Running the risk of revealing her true emotions, she turned to face him, and gasped. Angry bruises marred his skin where the intruder had tried to choke him. “Your throat is a mess!”
“Looks worse than it feels.” He rubbed the scruff shadowing his cheeks and wouldn’t quite meet her gaze. “I won’t mind skipping a few days of shaving. You were saying?”
“We should put something on that.”
“Forget it. Tell me what you need. Preferably in English this time.”
You. For a long moment, it was the only answer she could come up with. Who would Bakr lash out at next in this deadly game of cat and mouse? “I should just set up a meet.”
Carson’s gaze found hers now, hard and unyielding. “No.”
“No?” Folding her arms across her chest, she waited for an explanation.
“Fine.” He held up his hands. “I’m just the bodyguard and they told me it was my job to accompany you wherever the case led. I’ll go with you to meet him,ifyou get approval from Ross and Nichols.”
Knowing that had less chance than a glass of ice water in hell, she leashed her ever-ready temper. “Sorry. I’m just mad at him. What I need is a look at the flash drive. But that means the FBI will see it too,” she added when he sent her a questioning look. “I’m sure Abe doesn’t want that.”
“Abe who deals black market weapons on the side?”
“Fair enough. But life’s not always that cut and dried. If I had to get over my black and white way of thinking you do too.”
“Is that a requirement to stay on the job?”
It was obvious he was teasing, but now she was curious. “Come on. You can’t be saying all the citizens of Haleswood land on either the good or bad side of the fence. Someone around here must make gray area choices.”
“There may be one or two real people around here. But no one’s dealing weapons.”
“What a relief. Besides, I’m supposed to protect the client’s interests.”
“Sorry to sound judgmental.” He held up his hands in surrender. “You know the client and you know what you’re doing.”
“I’m glad you think so.” She flopped back down on the couch. “It might require that syringe to figure out what I don’t know that I know.”
Carson laughed and that deep rumble just rippled right though her. Thank heaven he couldn’t see what he did to her. Bad enough she’d nearly given in to the urge to sneak into his bed last night.
