recognized that Ben had found a very special woman, someone worth that risk. An American woman whose determination and spirit equaled most men Darin had known. He could not blame his cousin for falling for Jamie. She was everything a man would desire in a life partner, beautiful and full of passion. Ben and Jamie’s commitment and love for each other was obvious in every look they exchanged, a painful reminder of what Darin had once had—and lost—and one of the reasons why he needed to leave their home. The other reason cried, “Papa! Papa!” as she rushed into the room and grabbed Ben around the legs, her light brown hair flowing over her tiny shoulders.
Ben picked up two-and-a-half-year-old Lena and lifted her high above his head, much to the little girl’s delight. “You are full of energy today, yáahil.” He brought her into his arms and kissed her cheek. “I thought you were making xúbuz with your mother and Alima.”
Lena wrinkled her upturned nose. “I don’t like bread. I want cookies.” She sent Darin a vibrant smile, much like her mother’s, then pointed to his chin. “Scratchies all gone, Dawin?” she asked, as always mispronouncing his name, something Darin found endearing.
Ignoring the deep ache radiating from his heart, he rubbed his clean-shaven jaw and favored her with a smile. “Yes, little one. All gone down the drain.” He’d removed the goatee that morning to make himself less recognizable to Birkenfeld. He had also cut his hair to the top of his collar and now wore a gold loop in each ear. Hopefully enough of a change to disguise himself somewhat, which brought about a reminder of something he had almost forgotten.
Darin tucked his hair behind his ears and set the black baseball cap low on his forehead. He then picked up the bag and said, “I am ready.”
Lena leveled her dark eyes on him. “Where ya goin’, Dawin?”
He walked to her and ran a fingertip over her soft cheek. “To a place with many bright lights.” And a man who needed to be tracked down and punished.
She leaned over and touched his jaw as if fascinated with the absence of whiskers. “I wanna go.”
Darin took her hand and kissed her palm. “Not this time, little one.”
As Darin, Ben and Lena headed through the great room, Jamie met them at the front door. “Leaving again, Darin?”
“For a time.”
Jamie raked a hand through her blond hair and patted her distended abdomen. “I hope you’ll be back in the next few days for the baby’s birth. It’s really something to see big tough Ben here in nervous father mode. I swear, I thought he was going to pass out when Lena—”
Ben halted her words with a kiss, then wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “I was quite calm during Lena’s birth.”
Jamie grinned and Lena giggled. “If you say so, honey.”
True affection passed between father, mother and child, evidenced by shared smiles, Lena’s head resting against Ben’s chest, Jamie’s arm around Ben’s waist.
Needing to escape, Darin walked onto the porch, thankful to discover the sedan had arrived to take him to the airstrip. Seeing this closely bound family was almost too much for him to bear, although he would never reveal that to anyone.
Before entering the car, he turned to wave goodbye, and little Lena with her father’s eyes and her mother’s smile, blew him a kiss.
Memories of what might have been crowded Darin’s mind, save for one cruel bastard who had taken three lives—Ben’s father, Darin’s fiancée and their unborn child. A man much like Dr. Roman Birkenfeld. Both had no regard for the sanctity of life and the rare gift of love.
Darin vowed to hunt down Birkenfeld even if it proved to be his last act on earth. But in the process, Sheikh Darin ibn Shakir would not allow himself to feel his own pain. Not if he wanted to succeed.
Not much went on in the off-the-strip Silver Ace Lounge on Mondays. The absolute height of boredom, a familiar concept for Fiona Powers. Hotel management student by day, bartender by night, the same-old, same-old since she’d moved to Vegas from Idaho five years before. But no one had said life would be easy for a struggling small-town gal with big-time dreams.
Fiona slapped a rag over the counter where some drunk had missed his big mouth, pouring his boilermaker all over himself and the bar. Fiona had tried to cut him off after two rounds, but scrawny, balding Benny Jack, the other barkeep, had kept on serving the guy as if he’d been doling out fruit juice. Thankfully, the inebriate had left an hour ago after Fiona had called him a cab, as well as some unflattering names under her breath.
“Slow night, huh, Fee-Fee?”
Fiona turned and leaned back against the bar, elbows braced on the counter, preparing to repeat the same admonishments to Benny Jack. “For the thousandth time, Fee-Fee is the name someone would give a poodle, and I assure you I am not a poodle even if my hair is curly. I do not sit up on my hind legs and beg, nor do I leave puddles on the sidewalk. But if I were a canine, I would take great pleasure in planting my pointy little teeth in the middle of your butt. Better still, I would probably go directly for the nethers and give them a good shake.”
Benny grinned, displaying his lack of teeth. “Didn’t know you were into that kinky stuff, Red.”
Red. The second-worst nickname Fiona had encountered. Obviously Benny was determined to cut his life short tonight. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Maybe some cave on the other side of the continent?”
Benny hooked his thumbs in his suspenders. “Yep. I got a date.”
Great. Benny, the toothless, thin man had a date and Fiona was stuck tending regulars in a dive. “Just some advice, Benny. When you pick her up, don’t drag her by the hair to your car.”
Benny grinned again before turning toward the exit. “By the way, a new guy’s coming in to relieve you in a while.”
“What new guy?” Fiona said but received no response since Benny had already left out the back door to commence with his courting ritual that probably involved a back-seat roll with some big-haired broad.
And here she was, faced with a new guy no one had bothered to tell her about, not even Jimmy, the bar’s owner. Oh well, at least she might get home early to do some studying. If the latest employee knew how to tend bar. Otherwise, she’d have to train him, and hopefully that didn’t require newspaper on the floor. Jimmy had a tendency to hire knuckle-scraping morons—case in point, Benny Jack.
Fiona turned back to survey the limited occupants—two middle-aged guys in polyester pants shooting pool and bull, and one elderly man reading the paper and smoking a fat cigar that smelled about as delightful as stagnant sewage.
She leaned over the bar, propped her cheek on her palm and sighed. Yeah, just another night in nonparadise. But what could she expect when she chose to work in a place that served as stomping grounds for locals with the mean age of sixty? At least the tips were good, but for once she wished someone more interesting would come in.
The front door opened, and she expected another of life’s little disappointments to enter in the form of an octogenarian. What she got was the surprise of her life.
He seemed to emerge from the smoky haze like some otherworldly presence who had recently landed from Planet Machismo where the all-male aliens survived on testosterone alone. He wore black,
