“Did Ed act strangely around your mother? I mean, before the accident?”
“I...no, he was close to my father. My mother and he were formal with each other any time I saw them. An employee and a friend, he never crossed that line...”
“Never?”
“No.” He shook his head. “But I remember Mother saying she didn’t like him. She asked Father to fire him. That was just before the accident. Damn. She said he was taking liberties and by that I thought she meant treating Father as a friend...”
“When instead could it have been that Ed was making advances on her? Could he have been in love, lust, whatever, with your mother—and she knew or possibly only suspected?”
Kate’s blue eyes were troubled and yet full of passion. He couldn’t help but touch her cheek and press his lips to hers, in a desperate attempt to alleviate some of his pain. She sank into his kiss, her tongue meeting his, her breast soft, her nipple hard against his palm. He wanted her as much as he wanted all the pain of this new discovery to go away.
He let her go.
She gave him a slow seductive smile and then swung right back into business. “I don’t think we can afford to discount this. If we know who Tara’s kidnappers are, what motivates them, going in...”
“We have a better chance against them,” he finished. “If this is true, what has he been doing all these years? He hasn’t been in our employ since the accident.” Emir frowned. “We paid him out a compensation package.” His fist clenched. “How could he have hidden it...?” But he knew how criminals such as this might act. He just couldn’t imagine that someone he had known and trusted...
“Biding his time,” Kate replied. “And, I suspect, slowly losing his mind.”
Emir raked his fingers through his hair. “Then you’re saying that Tara’s dealing with a madman?”
“Possibly,” she said quietly.
And both of them knew they’d just hit worst-case scenario.
* * *
DESPITE THE FACT that it was still daylight, Tara was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. But she was too afraid to sleep. It was the only reason she could think that he had been able to come up to her, to surprise her without her realizing he was there.
His thick, dark hair was curly and too long, but it framed a face that might have been handsome, had he not been either so thin or so twisted. The intent in his eyes took away from any potential beauty in his face. His mouth curved in a self-satisfied smile that sent a chill down her spine and had her shifting away from him.
“It’s been a long time,” he said softly.
Tara blinked, as if that would clear her vision, as if that might change the reality of the man before her. “Why? Why have you done this?”
“Why? You dare to ask that as if you didn’t know—you, with your life of privilege. I will be glad to end it when it comes to that.”
“But what about the money?”
“What about the money, my foolish little princess, looking down at all of us, thumbing your nose at...”
“You taught me the rules of American football. You—” She broke off, unable to say any more. When he was so near, she tensed to the point she forgot to breath. She took a breath. He seemed to realize in this moment that she was not her mother. It was as though his reality shifted from one moment to the next.
“You were easier to deceive than your brothers, but you all came around.”
She stared into a face that was barely familiar, into eyes that were filled with hate, and at a man that it was now clear she had never known. She willed herself to not shrink back, to not show weakness, for in her gut she knew he wanted that as much as he wanted the money.
He reached for her as she twisted away, but it was impossible to escape. The rope that held her only allowed her to move so far.
His knuckle ran down the side of her face. “You never wanted me, did you, despite everything? It was always him.” He looked at her as he dropped back on his heels and stood. “I can keep you forever. He will never find you and I will bleed him dry.” He ran a thumb along the ridge of her collarbone. His touch was chilling despite the fact that two layers of cotton fabric lay between him and her.
“My brothers...”
He looked at her with angry, confused eyes.
“You call your sons, brothers?”
Tara’s sleep-deprived brain didn’t have an immediate comeback. She fought not to shrink back as the horror returned and her brain made sense of what he had said. Again, he thought that she was her mother. He’d slipped back into his mad delusion where she became her mother. A chill ran down her spine and she forced herself to look at him.
“He’ll never agree,” she said, not giving names, meaning her brothers and especially Emir, and leaving it open to his interpretation.
“Then you, my dear, must die. Not now,” he said as she looked at him with all the panic she was feeling. “I, of course, will shed tears. But there’s really no other way.”
She shivered as the chill of the day and the thought of the inevitable night combined with thoughts of her potential destiny, and all of it settled harsh and heavy in her heart.
Tuesday, September 15, 3:00 p.m.
The village of El Dewar was long gone. The clouds had moved in and the sky was ominous-looking, and the wind was again picking up.
Twenty minutes later they’d stopped for a quick break and were just about to head back to the Jeep when a billowing cloud of sand to the northwest caught Emir’s attention. The buzz of an approaching engine followed and he met Kate’s quizzical look.
“More than likely, a dirt bike, from the sounds of it,” he said.
But it was the unmistakable sound of a gunshot and a thud of a bullet hitting metal that had them diving to the sand.
“Whoever it is, they’re targeting the Jeep,” Kate said in an undertone as if silence mattered.
There was nothing to say. Emir knew stopping had been a mistake. The dunes had provided camouflage and there’d been no one else around, or so he’d thought. But in trying to provide privacy for Kate he’d inadvertently made them vulnerable. There was nothing to do now but deal with the consequences.
They needed to somehow get back to the Jeep. Right now, it was too far away to be of any help. They’d have to use the small dune beside them for cover. Emir motioned with one arm but Kate was already moving that way, her gun in her hand, keeping as far down as possible as she moved. They didn’t return fire, for they didn’t want to alert their attacker to where they were. So far whoever it was had only fired at the Jeep. There was still a chance that whoever was shooting
