CHAPTER EIGHT
“You’re certain there’s no one else you can seek assistance from?” Maya decided to take her mind off what was happening with Sherborne by checking in with Nigel, her handler. It was that or go stir-crazy with worry. “Nigel, I know coming to the States was a risk. But at this point, I don’t care if my cover is blown! I’ll do whatever is necessary to find my daughter!”
Jeffrey chose that moment to return to his office. He moved up behind her chair and set his hand on her shoulder. The warmth from his touch calmed her nerves somewhat, and she blew out a long breath.
It wasn’t fair of her to take out her frustration on Nigel.
She’d known his usefulness in this type of situation would be extremely limited. As a logistics specialist, his area of responsibility and expertise was managing all of the minute details involved in maintaining Maya and Isla’s anonymity. Travel itineraries, housing, fake passports, driver’s licenses, medical records, personal histories, and the like. He also ensured Maya received her stipend each month. Without it, she would’ve been forced to get a job, which meant leaving Isla alone or with strangers, as well as opening herself up to unwanted scrutiny.
“I’m terribly sorry, Nigel, I know you’re doing all you can.” Her handler was proof that heroes came in many forms. “If you hear anything, no matter how unimportant it may seem, please do let me know.”
She rubbed her forehead as he said, “Good luck, Maya, and I’m so sorry I can’t be of more assistance. Please, do keep your head on a swivel.”
“Thank you, Nigel, I always do.” She ended the call and tossed her phone onto the table.
Nigel had been with her from the beginning, and their sign-off was word-for-word the same one they’d been using since the day she went underground. Whether they did so because it was a rote response or because they were afraid not saying it might jinx them, she couldn’t be sure.
“Any word?” She looked up at Jeffrey.
He gave a slow shake of his head, his hand fell away, and he moved to sit behind his desk. He continued to create space between them, and, to show just how off-kilter her world had become, it hurt. A lot.
“Have you eaten anything today?” He grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. “I can send someone out to pick up some food for you.”
“I couldn’t possibly eat anything right now.” She’d been on the verge of vomiting ever since she got back to her cottage and discovered her daughter was gone. “But thank you for asking.”
“You need to—” His phone rang. He snatched it off his desk and tapped the screen. “Burke.”
Maya hopped up from her chair and moved to stand in front of his desk. She crossed her arms tightly around herself.
“Hang on. I’m going to put you on speaker so Isla’s mother can hear.” He tapped the screen again and set his phone on the center of his desktop. “Jonathan O’Halleran, meet Maya Corbett.”
“Nice to meet you, Maya. I’m sorry it had to be under these circumstances.” Jonathan’s voice was very deep and rich with sympathy.
“Thank you.”
Thankfully, he jumped right into his update.
“Hawk, he’s one of our operators, went into the house with his K9 partner. Unfortunately, there was no indication your daughter had ever been there.” Jonathan told them about the operation and the use of a specialized K9 named Remy. “Beck has already communicated with the FBI office in Kennewick, and Hawk provided them with a sketch of where they would find the ESDs in Sherborne’s house.”
“Pardon my ignorance, but what’s an ESD?” Maya’s former life had been riddled with acronyms, yet she’d never heard that particular one .
“ESDs are electronic storage devices. Thumb drives, microSD cards, that kind of stuff. Remy has been specially trained to locate them,” Jonathan said. “The FBI has a great deal of interest in what they might contain and is already on their way to Sherborne’s place to pay him a little surprise visit. There’s a high likelihood they’ll find enough evidence in that house to shut down his site and put him away for a very long time.”
“How can you be certain Isla wasn’t there before and maybe he moved her somewhere else?” Maya had made the mistake of letting herself believe they would find her little girl and this nightmare would come to an end.
“Hawk has a special … well, let’s just call it a gift. If she’d been there, he would’ve known.” Jonathan spoke with a great deal of certainty. “Sammy did find something interesting when she pulled Sherborne’s phone records, though.”
“Interesting how?” Jeffrey sat forward and propped his elbows on the desk.
“Shortly before your daughter started communicating with Sherborne, aka Samantha, he exchanged a series of phone calls with someone whose number included an international country code.” Papers shuffled in the background. “What makes them stand out is that the calls between them continued at a steady rate until the day your daughter disappeared. Then they suddenly stopped. ”
“What’s the international country code?” Jeffrey looked at Maya across the desk.
“Qadira.”
Maya gasped, and the room began to sway. Strong hands circled her arms, and she was gently settled into a chair.
“Breathe, Maya.” Jeffrey’s voice came from far away. “Dammit, breathe!” He gave her a bit of a shaking.
She sucked in a massive breath, as if coming up for air after being trapped underwater. She blinked until her vision cleared and found his face inches from hers.
“Good girl.” His eyes searched hers. He tucked her hair behind her ear and hurried over to a mini fridge in the corner. He grabbed a bottle of water, twisted the top off, and handed it to her. “Drink this.”
She took a small sip, and her face burned with embarrassment.
“Everything okay?” Jonathan’s voice boomed from the phone on the desk.
Jeffrey gave her a questioning look. She drew her shoulders back, lifted her chin, and gave him a solid nod.
“Everything’s fine.” Jeffrey grabbed the phone, rolled a chair over, and sat knee-to-knee in front of her.
She’d been running on pure adrenaline and raw, knife-edged emotion since Isla went missing. It was time for her to get her shit together and tap into the hardened agent she once was. Otherwise, she would be of no use in finding her daughter .
He gave Jonathan a brief history of his relationship with Maya, kindly skipping the part where she snuck out on him in the middle of the night like a bloody coward. He explained how she’d been forced to change her identity, only to find out she was pregnant. Then he detailed the reason why she had to go dark. Mingled within his retelling were his repeated demands for her to take drinks of water.
“You’re quite bossy.” She scowled at him but took another drink.
“We’re staying in the tri-cities until Sherborne is brought in,” Jonathan said. “Andi knows one of the agents in the Kennewick bureau office, and he’s agreed to let her sit in on Sherborne’s interview.”
“Knowing Andi, she didn’t give them much choice.” Jeffrey moved to sit behind his desk.
“There’s that, too,” Jonathan continued. “She’s the best in the business at reading people, and her reputation is well-known within the bureau. Hell, within all of the alphabet-soup agencies and military branches.”
Jeffrey gave Maya a brief explanation of Andi’s experience and expertise as a former NSA interrogations tactics specialist.
“She’d like to chat with you, if you have a minute,” Jonathan said.
“I always have time for Andi.” Jeffrey took his phone off speaker and held it to his ear .
His voice was different—gentler—whenever he spoke of Andi.
Who was she to him? A former co-worker? A friend? A lover?
Check yourself, Maya. It was none of her business.
“Hey there.” His warm smile upon addressing the mystery woman nearly took Maya’s breath away.
She’d not seen one quite like it since she’d handed him a glass of champagne in their hotel room that last night. Champagne that had contained an odorless, tasteless powder strong enough to knock him out. How in the world had she survived twelve-plus long years without seeing something so wonderful? She certainly hadn’t seen such a smile since dropping a bomb into the middle of his life a few hours ago.
“How’s the baby?” His smile softened as he swiveled his chair around and put his back to Maya. “And how’s my girl doing?”
The baby? His girl?
He chuckled gently, and his voice quieted to the point she could no longer hear him. No doubt intentional.
For the next few minutes, as Maya stared at the back of his chair, a feeling of desolation washed over her. She was a stranger stuck on the outside looking in at the life he’d built without her.
Too often, in the loneliness that crept up on her in the darkness, she would muse about what her life would be had they been able to pursue their mutual attraction outside of a fancy hotel suite. Would they have used each other up and gone their separate ways? Just two colleagues having scratched a sexual itch? Would they have fallen in love?
A completely ridiculous question. She’d fallen hard for him after their first night together. Maya had gone into their … dalliance thinking it would be a fun distraction until her work on the task force was completed and she returned to London. Never in her wildest imaginings had she thought he would root so deeply into her heart and stay there. Especially since she’d gotten quite good at shielding that particular organ.
Water under the bridge , she thought to herself.
Jeffrey held nothing but disdain for her now and was only tolerating her because of their daughter.
“I love you, too, and I’ll see you and your brother in about a month.” He spun his chair to face the desk, and after a brief glance at Maya, the remnants of his smile fell away. “Bye, Ashling.”
Maya wanted desperately to know more about the people who meant so much to him but had no right to encroach on his private life. As soon as they found Isla—and they would find her—she would take her daughter and return to their life, and Jeffrey would return to his well-ordered existence .
A terrifying thought flashed through her mind. What if he fought for custody of Isla? He was a very powerful man and could argue a life on the run was no life for a child—and, dammit, he would be right. Would he do that to Maya? Would he take her daughter away from her?
Like acid, the thought burned her insides.
“Are you going to take Isla away from me?” The words blurted from her mouth unbidden.
“Am I going to—” He shook his head in disbelief. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because you’re angry with me, rightfully so, and could easily punish me by taking her away from me.”
“You really don’t know me at all, do you?”
She opened her mouth to respond, but his phone beeped.
He looked at the screen and stood. “I’ll be right back.” Without another word, he left his office.
“Dammit, Jeffrey.” Enough was enough.
Maya shoved up from her chair and charged into the hallway. She slapped her palm against the metal door just before it clicked shut behind him and entered a dark room that smelled like … popcorn?
“Look, I know you’re upset with me, but I do not appreciate being kept in the dark.” She jammed her hands on her hips and challenged him. “If this is about our daughter, I have every right to know what’s going on! ”
Was she shouting? Absolutely, she was. Did she care that the young man with a handful of popcorn halted halfway to his mouth was staring at her like she’d lost her mind? Not. One. Bit.
Black-rimmed glasses framed his brown eyes, had a head full of wild curly hair, and wore a thick sweater. He sat in front of a wide computer console with lots of flashing buttons, surrounded by monitors of varying sizes. Some were powered down. Others had lines of code clicking across the dark blue screens. There was an impressive floor-to-ceiling array of electronics, and a steady hum of white noise was created by the computers and cooling system.
“Maya, you can’t be in here.” Jeffrey took hold of her arm.
She jerked loose of his hold. “Isla is my daughter!”
“She’s my daughter, too!” Jeffrey stepped up to her and actually raised his voice. Something she’d never witnessed before.
“I insist on being kept informed of every detail where she is concerned!” Maya leaned closer to him.
“You think I don’t know that?” Jeffrey was so close she could feel his warm breath on her lips. “My primary goal right now is to find her. I want the chance to meet her and get to know her. To be her father, dammit! ”
She sensed the computer fellow watching their back-and-forth exchange like he was at center court at Wimbledon.
He interjected, “Um, excuse me—”
They both turned and shouted, “What?”
“I have some information about Nadim Al-Mansoori.” He waggled a piece of paper in the air. “I was going to tell you, but you guys were too busy yelling at each other. This seems pretty important, so I decided to interrupt.” He gave a negligent shrug and tossed popcorn in his mouth.
The guy stood behind his desk and handed the paper to Jeffrey. He was almost as tall as Jeffrey and built like a swimmer—lean with long arms, narrow hips, and wide shoulders. He wasn’t as muscled as Jeffrey but still appeared to be in great shape.
“I’m Casey.” He wiped his hand on his jeans and extended his arm over a large computer panel. “You must be Maya.”
“I see Jeffrey’s told you who I am.” She gave his hand a quick shake and released it. She rubbed her fingers together. Apparently, Casey enjoyed butter on his popcorn.
“Well, if what I just witnessed is any indication”—he looked sideways at his boss—“he left out a few, um … details about you.”
“I told you what you needed to know,” Jeffrey grumbled as he focused on the paper. “Maya, when did you arrive in the States? ”
“Early this morning, around eight o’clock. Why?”
“CCTV cameras captured Nadim Al-Mansoori’s unscheduled arrival at the Qadira embassy compound two hours ago.” Finding out about the new King of Qadira’s surprise arrival in the States was further proof Jeffrey had sources far beyond most people in the intel community.
“Nadim is here?” She accepted the paper from him and skimmed through the information, then looked up at him. “In Washington?”
“So it would seem.” A scowl darkened Jeffrey’s features, and he tugged on his bottom lip. She remembered he did that whenever he was analyzing a situation.
“What are you thinking?” Maya had known a lot of incredibly smart people in her time, but never had she met anyone with the tactical thinking skills possessed by Jeffrey Burke.
“I’m thinking it’s a pretty damn big coincidence that he arrived here shortly after you did.” He watched for her reaction. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Oh, my God.” Her worst fears were confirmed. “Isla wasn’t taken by some random predator online—”
“She was taken by Al-Mansoori,” Jeffrey said.
The man who had vowed to his dying father that he would kill Maya now held their daughter.
“Did he have anyone with him?” She moved closer to the front of Casey’s desk .
“We’re not sure. He arrived in an official limousine with dark, tinted windows and was followed by a black passenger van. We lost sight of them after the huge embassy gate closed behind them,” Casey said. “Sammy’s way better with surveillance systems, so she’s working on pulling up the footage from the cameras inside the embassy grounds.”
“There is absolutely no way the Qadirans will agree to give you access to their surveillance system.” She made it a point to stay abreast of what was happening in the world, and anyone with access to a television or newspaper could tell you the relationship between Qadira and the United States was tenuous at best.
“We’re not asking,” Jeffrey said. The power and absolute assuredness behind that statement were unmistakable.
Qadira was on the verge of being expelled from the United States due to their suspected financial support of terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East and northern Africa. They were playing a dangerous game, because America was a sleeping giant that did not take kindly to having its military installations and personnel targeted by terrorist rockets covered with financial fingerprints that could be traced back to the Qadiran royal family.
“Sammy’s awesome and a friggin’ genius. She has skills like no one I’ve ever met. Trust me, she’ll have something for us before too long.” Sounded like Casey’s interest in his tech counterpart went beyond mere professional admiration .
“What do you think he intends to do with Isla?” Maya turned to Jeffrey, desperately trying to conceal the terror tingling just beneath the surface of her skin.
“Al-Mansoori will contact you to make an exchange—Isla for you. He knows you’ll agree. Then he’ll kill you both.”