Moments after she hit Send, the phone’s distinctive three-tone ring shot through her again. Harres. He must have more info.
Her flailing hand dropped it twice before she could answer. Then she almost dropped it again.
It wasn’t Harres. It was a distorted voice that scraped her every nerve raw. Her informant’s.
She hadn’t dreamed he’d get back to her that fast. But it wasn’t that that shocked her mute. It was what he’d said.
“Hello, Dr. Talia Jasmine Burke.”
She squeezed her eyes. So their precautions hadn’t worked. She didn’t know how, but her cover was blown.
“Don’t worry, doctor. I still want to do business with you. You’re now in an even better situation to do the most damage. Harres is doing all he can to stay on your good side, to exploit you, so I hope you aren’t falling for his charm and forgetting your original goal to redeem your brother.” At her gasp, the distorted voice gave a macabre chuckle. “Yes, I know everything. That’s why I went after you in the first place. Because I wanted someone with a cause, and because you are a woman. It suits me to have the Aal Shalaan’s downfall be at the hands of someone who has a vendetta against them, and who better than a woman to bring all those mighty men to ruin.
“And now, I’ll tell you who the mastermind behind the conspiracy is. Yusuf Aal Waaked, prince of the neighboring emirate of Ossaylan.”
Talia at last found her voice. “But why expose him and risk having the Aal Shalaans stop the conspiracy in its tracks once they learn who they have to fight and where they need to look for their missing jewels?”
“Oh, there’s nothing the Aal Shalaans can do with his identity. My exposure will actually guard against him changing his mind. It will guarantee he’ll see this through to the end.”
Suddenly there was a long silence then the voice became uglier, scarier. “You idiot! You’ll use the info to help Harres, won’t you? He has gotten to you. I should have known, with a woman in the legendary playboy prince’s clutches for so long. He must have you willing to sell your soul for him by now. But I’ll prove to you that he and his family don’t deserve your help, but your vengeance.”
The line went dead.
She didn’t know how long she’d stayed there, staring into space, shaking with agitation.
At last she roused herself. She had to call Harres, give him the new info. No matter what her informant said, she was sure Harres would do something with it, maybe solve this whole mess.
As she began to dial his number, two masked men burst into the room from the French doors that opened to a patio leading to the gardens. The gun in the first’s hand made sure she didn’t attempt a scream or a struggle.
“We won’t harm you,” the armed man said, “if you don’t try to expose us. We just want you to come with us. There’s something our master wants to show you.”
They took her from the French doors, swept her around the palace through the extensive grounds.
They entered through another open French door into a room. It was empty. Before she could say anything, she heard Harres’s voice.
Her heart fired with hope, then dread crashed right on its heels. What if he walked in here, and they panicked, shot him?
But then she realized he wasn’t moving. He was in an adjoining room, talking to someone. On the phone.
“…and how many women have you seen me take and discard? You think this American means more than any of them? The others at least were pleasant pastimes I remember with some goodwill. She, on the other hand, almost cost me my life. Can you even imagine the distaste I suffered as I catered to her for so long, struggled to save her miserable life, to get her to trust me and spill her secrets, and to change her mind about exposing them? Do you realize how enraged I was when I found out she knew practically nothing? But I had to continue to play along. I knew she could still renew her mission and secure the rest of the promised info.”
He was silent for a moment, then he drawled, his voice pitiless, “Why do you think I gave her the trivial incentive of setting her brother free? She trusts me with her life now, will do anything to get me my coveted intel. I went so far as to proclaim my love, would have even offered to marry her if necessary.”
He was silent for a moment more as the person on the other line interrupted him. Then Harres gave an ugly laugh, a sound she’d never thought could issue from him. “I might have afforded a measure of chivalry and human compassion in other circumstances. But anyone is expendable in my quest to fulfill my duty to protect this kingdom. So if she’s useless to me on that front, do you really think I care if she lives or dies?”
Twelve
“Did you hear enough, ya ghabeyah?”
Ghabeyah. Stupid.
She’d been far beyond that.
She was beyond devastated.
The nightmarish voice continued. “That’s what your prince says when he’s having a private conversation with his crown prince, who’s taking him to task over you. That’s the ugly truth of his feelings. Still want to run to him with the information? Or will you now finally take the revenge you’re owed?”
Talia stared at the phone on the bed. Who’d turned it on? How had she made it back to this room?
Her eyes panned around, unseeing. She was alone.
Her escorts must have led her back, turned on the phone’s speaker. Their master, her informant, was pulling at the hook embedded inside her, shredding her insides.
Then at some point, the mutilation stopped. And silence decimated what was left intact of her.
She found herself on her side on the bed, a discarded body paralyzed with pain too huge to register yet. Her eyes were open and bone-dry. Harres’s words revolved like a serrated wheel inside her skull, mashing her brain to tinier fragments.
He didn’t mean it. Whimpers of denial spun in a countering direction. There’s an explanation. He was placating Amjad, his odious brother, to get him off his back, off my case. Or something. It must have killed him to say those things. He’ll explain why he did. He loves me. I won’t believe otherwise…
“Talia.”
Harres. Here? Or in her feverish hopes?
She jerked up. He was here. Looking down at her.
Please, my love, take it back, explain it away. Just look at me with love in your eyes and it will all go away.
But for the first time since she’d laid eyes on him, his were empty.
No. Give me something.
He gave her nothing, his face as expressionless as his voice. “Sorry to interrupt your rest, but my private jet is ready.”