Chapter 24 #2
Abdul Halim laughed.
She would pay for her crimes against him, most certainly. He would have immense fun extracting his price. All in good time, of course.
He withdrew the knife and sat up and she scrambled away, huddling against the door. She reached for the handle, though they were going around eighty, but he did not fear she would escape. The doors were controlled by the driver, and he wasn’t about to let her open it.
Her eyes flashed hotly as she glared at him. He nearly laughed. She wasn’t ready to die, no matter what she said. She would fight him to the end. He loved it when they fought. And when they realized it didn’t matter, and they were going to die anyway…
Too delicious.
Kev slapped Iceman’s hand away as he ripped open Kev’s tuxedo shirt and pressed his fingers to the bullet wound oozing blood like a motherfucker.
“He’s got her,” Kev said. “Have to save her.”
Matt hovered over him. There was Hawk and Billy too, their faces looming overhead. Brandy and Flash wouldn’t be far away. Nor would Knight Rider or Whisky.
But he didn’t care about any of them. He only cared about Lucky. Al Ahmad had her. He’d taken her, and Kev had sworn he would die before he let that happen.
He’d lied.
“You still might,” Iceman snapped, and Kev realized he’d been babbling.
He had to get it together, had to stop fucking falling apart and concentrate so he could go rescue his woman.
He closed his eyes and winced as Iceman used a new experimental plunger device packed with tiny sterile sponges to fill the bullet hole and stop the bleeding.
“We’re going after her just as soon as we’ve got you patched up,” Matt said.
“Going with you.”
“Yeah, I know it.”
“What the fuck did you guys do?” Kev managed after a few moments of sucking in his breath and working past the pain. The sponges worked fast to stop the bleeding, but pain was another story.
“Wasn’t us. They had another bomb tucked away. Someone detonated it, probably by accident since it happened when it did. Hawk used the opportunity to take out the suicide bomber.”
Hawk was as cool as ever. “He was surprised by the explosion and let go of the detonator on his device. I dropped him before he could remember it.”
“Thank God,” Kev said. And someone had shot him in the ensuing panic.
He could still hear Lucky screaming. The sound of her terror had sunk into his bones.
He’d tried to get up, but he couldn’t. He’d watched her and Al Ahmad disappear out the door.
He’d been crawling toward it when Iceman got to him.
And then he’d tried to make Iceman go after her, but his teammate wouldn’t listen.
“The women and children are terrified,” Matt continued. “But no one is hurt.”
“You know which one is Al Ahmad yet?” Kev asked.
“Working on it. Knight Rider and Whisky are reuniting the husbands with the wives. Whoever is missing has to be him.”
“Jesus,” Kev said as Iceman taped the wound. “Hurts like a motherfucker.”
“Yeah, crybaby, it does,” Matt said. Then he squeezed Kev’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be fine, yeah? We’ll get your girl, mon ami.”
Kev closed his eyes again and concentrated on overcoming the pain. If Matt was lapsing into Cajun, then things weren’t quite as rosy as he wanted them to seem. If Kev knew anything about his team CO, he knew that much.
Iceman gave him a shot of painkiller, and then they were helping him up.
Kev stood and swayed for a second before he got his head on straight and the room stopped spinning.
He started for the door, but several pairs of hands stopped him.
He spun on them—or he tried. It wasn’t a spin so much as a stumble.
“What are we waiting for? We got to go.”
“There’s nothing we can do until we hear from him.” Matt’s voice again, soft and firm. “She’s not wearing a tracking device, and there’s no where to go. We have to wait for intel.”
Kev shoved at their hands. “Fuck that. We’re going.”
“There’s no where to go, Big Mac. Stand down.”
Kev blinked at them all, his brain working hard to process what they were saying to him. Lucky was with that madman, and they had no idea where he would take her. Or even if he would keep her alive.
His knees gave out again and he sank onto the tiles. Goddamn. He’d done it again. He’d failed to protect someone he loved, and he was going to lose her…
“Abdul Halim bin Khalid al-Faizan!” It was Knight Rider. He skidded to a halt, waving his hands excitedly. “He’s a fucking defense contractor. He sells guns to the Qu’rimi army, for fuck’s sake.”
Iceman and Billy pulled Kev upright and steadied him. “You hear that, Big Mac. We got a name. We’re going after the bastard.”
Lucky huddled against the door, dividing her gaze between the city rolling by and Al Ahmad.
She didn’t trust that he wouldn’t kill her right away, though part of her was banking on his sick fascination with torture.
She’d escaped once before, and he would want to make her pay.
Especially now that HOT had interfered with his plans.
She didn’t know what had happened back there at the school, but the fact there was an explosion and the suicide bomber lay dead—not blown apart—told her that the explosion hadn’t been his doing and that someone in HOT—Jack, probably—had dropped him before he could detonate.
Her heart felt as if someone had pierced it with a hot needle when she remembered what else had happened. The team attacked and the gunman watching Kev had shot him. She could still hear the explosion, still feel the concussion of the gun. And she could hear Kev’s body dropping onto the tile.
She wanted to put her hands to her head and squeeze the sound out of it, but she couldn’t.
She had to think. Had to stay focused and use whatever opportunity she got to stop this evil man.
She didn’t care if she had to sacrifice herself to do it.
Because why would she want to live in a world without the man she loved?
Kev was dead and she was too. But not without taking this bastard with her.
The guys weren’t coming for her. She wasn’t wearing a tracking device, and there was no way they could find her.
Maybe they’d figure out who Al Ahmad was, but she couldn’t count on that because she didn’t know what the situation was back at the school.
If HOT hadn’t set the explosion, someone else had—which meant they could have killed the men who’d been taken from the room.
It would take a long time to identify the bodies, and the woman and girl with Al Ahmad wouldn’t know he wasn’t among them for days.
By the time the team figured that out, it would be too late.
Her captor seemed agitated. He’d made several calls, but not all of them appeared to connect.
His terse demands for information were met with various answers he didn’t seem to appreciate.
She hoped that something was going very wrong for him.
Perhaps the king was being uncooperative after all, or perhaps he’d been rescued at the last moment.
The car slowed and turned into a parking garage. When it came to a stop after navigating several levels, Lucky jerked at the door, but it didn’t open. And then it did, and she tumbled out and hit the concrete. The driver stood over her with a gun pointed at her heart.
Al Ahmad walked around the car and kicked her. His booted foot connected with her hip, and she winced as pain exploded in her body. But she refused to make a sound. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, not this time.
A hot breeze blew through the garage, ruffling Al Ahmad’s robes and the keffiyeh on his head. “Get up, woman. We’re going on a journey.”
Lucky pushed herself to her feet, though her hip ached and she’d scraped her hands falling onto the concrete.
Her hijab had come loose when he’d grabbed her earlier.
She’d tried to fix it but apparently not too successfully since it whipped violently in the wind.
A moment later, it tore free and blew across the empty garage.
Her hair whipped into her face and she dragged it back so she could see the man she needed to kill.
The driver grabbed her arm and shoved her toward a stairwell. She went up first, stumbling and trying to keep her feet beneath her. The wind grew stronger as she got to the top. That’s when she realized they were on a roof and a helicopter sat on a pad, rotors spinning.
Her heart sank as the driver shoved her forward. The helicopter door swung open as they ducked beneath the rotor. The man picked her up and tossed her into the craft, and then he and Al Ahmad got inside and slammed the door.
The helicopter lifted off the pad and rose into the night-darkened sky.
Below them, the city sparkled bright. Lucky’s eyes filled with tears as she gazed at the lights.
She’d been happy for a few hours in Baq.
She’d been in love and she’d been hopeful for the future, even while she’d been terrified it wouldn’t work out.
Well, she’d been right to be terrified, hadn’t she? Kev was dead and she was alone. And Al Ahmad wasn’t finished with her yet.