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She grinned when he did a doubletake.
He pushed away from the wall and shook his head. “You wanna clue me in?”
“Are you ready for our trip to Athens, darling?” she asked, using her best New England elitist accent.
His brow twisted. “How?” His eyes narrowed. “Oh, wait. You didn’t give them your real name when you worked on the set, did you?”
She shook her head. “They’ll be looking for Rania Hussein, not Julia Lordsworth.” Jasmine cocked an eyebrow. “Do you have your passport with you?”
He nodded.
“Good,” she said. “We need to purchase tickets on the next flight to Athens.” Though her words were light and flippant, her gut knotted at the thought of the copper scroll making it to Athens before her.
“Swede can make the reservations for us. That way, it looks like we came to the airport for the flight.” He held out his hand. “Your passport?”
She handed over her passport, a frown pulling her brow low. “I prefer to make my own arrangements to avoid full-body scanners.”
“Swede can do that—and we won’t have to go to a counter.” He sent a copy of her passport in a text and keyed in his request.
Minutes later, a text chirped on his phone. He smiled down at the response. “I have our boarding passes. Our plane leaves in forty minutes. They board in fifteen.”
Jasmine’s mouth pressed into a tight line. “Let’s just hope we’re not searching for a needle in a haystack of millions of people for those two bastards. I’m running out of time.”
Eli was running out of time.
Chapter 3
Ace put on his best poker face as he and Jasmine approached the security checkpoint to get into the airport. Inside, he was tense, ready to... What? Run? That was a surefire way of looking guilty or getting shot.
“Go ahead of me,” Jasmine whispered. “Like we’re not together. That way, if I don’t make it through, you will.” She slid the burner phone into his hand. “No matter what happens, you have to find that satchel. The people holding Eli will contact me with instructions regarding the exchange. If I don’t make it through now, they’ll contact you.”
She squeezed his hand. “Trust me when I tell you Eli is worth saving. He’s special.”
The intensity of Jasmine’s tone hit Ace in the gut. She loved this man so much she’d do anything to get him back. What would it feel like to have someone love him that much? He’d spent four years looking and wondering what had become of this woman, only to find that she was in love with another man.
Her desperation and the strength of her emotions for Eli made Ace jealous. At the same time, it made him all the more determined to find the scroll and make the trade to ensure the survival of the man who meant the world to her. He didn’t wish for Eli to die. Jasmine would be heartbroken. Even if she ended up with Ace, he’d only be second best or a consolation prize. He wanted to be her one and only love. Either way, if he could help her reunite with Eli, he had to do it because he loved her, even if she didn’t love him.
Ace pocketed the burner phone and showed the security guard his boarding pass and passport.
The guard looked at his passport and then at him, comparing his picture with his face. He snapped the passport closed and handed it back, tipping his head, indicating Ace could go through.
Ace moved into the fast-track aisle Swede had gotten them in on their boarding passes. He didn’t have to take off his shoes, belt or jacket to pass through the metal detector. He dropped the burner phone into a bowl, along with the change in his pocket and his watch. They went through the scanner while he walked through the metal detector without setting off any alarms.
After clearing security, he kept walking as if he wasn’t with Jasmine, stopping when he reached the corner to put on his watch. Out of the side of his eye, he could see Jasmine placing the suitcase on the conveyor belt and waiting for her turn to walk through the metal detector.
When she finally reached the detector, his breath lodged in his throat. He fully expected the alarms to go off and armed guards to rush in.
Nothing happened. She walked through, no problem. Her suitcase remained under the scanner for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, it moved through, emerging on the other side.
Ace let go of the breath he’d been holding the entire time. He walked around the corner and waited for her to catch up.
Jasmine sailed into sight, a smile stretching across her face as if she was a woman on vacation, not a thief on the run from Jordanian law enforcement agencies and maybe even their military.
They walked silently to the gate. Boarding had already begun. They blended into the mob and moved slowly to the boarding pass scanner.
Not until he and Jasmine were seated on the airplane did Ace’s tension ease. But only a little.
Jasmine reached for Ace’s hand and squeezed it. “See? No one’s looking for me.”
