Chapter 1
R oyce Harrington stepped out of the airport in Helsinki, his duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He looked around, wondering at the circumstances that had brought him here. When a shout came from his left, he watched as Rick, an old friend, separated himself from the crowd, and lifted a hand in greeting. Royce responded in kind and then quickly walked toward Rick.
“Hey,” Rick greeted him, giving him a big bro-hug. “My God, it’s good to see you, man.”
Royce stepped back, eyed Rick, and shook his head. “You look way better than you deserve to be, considering you got attacked, almost died, but still survived.”
“I’m not only looking way better than I deserve to,” Rick noted, with a smile, “but I am doing way better than I deserve to, and I plan to keep that advantage.”
“Of course you do.” Royce studied his old friend. “And this is one hell of a request you’ve brought me in for.”
“It is, indeed,” he murmured. “Actually Terk’s wife, Celia, had the intel on your sister’s work and so knew about you. Therefore, as soon as your name came up, I recognized who they were talking about. Naturally I volunteered to come along,” he explained, followed by a big laugh.
“Sure you would.” Royce gave him a headshake. “So, what is this about? We’re supposed to go rescue a kidnapped woman?”
“Yep, we sure are. Yet, in this case, there’s a little more to it.”
He groaned. “Sure, there is. If there weren’t, you wouldn’t need me.”
“Now that is self-confidence, and I like that,” Rick replied, flashing his friend a big grin.
“What’s this I hear about your being a father now?”
“Yep, married and a father,” he stated proudly. “My wife is an incredible healer, and we have twins. And her twin sister also had twins,” he added, with a laugh. “I don’t know if you heard this, but Terk and Celia have twins as well.”
At that, Royce frowned at him. “I did not know all that. Honestly it sounds as if the government blowup was the best thing to ever happen to you guys on Terk’s team,” he suggested, staring at him.
“If you’d said that not so long ago, I probably would have beaten your brains into the pavement,” Rick shared, “but now I can honestly say that I’m doing great, but I have to give credit where credit is due. If our own government hadn’t tried to dismantle our team on a permanent basis,” he detailed, with an eyeroll, “I wouldn’t have found Cara, and I wouldn’t have this new life.” Rick shrugged and gave a big sigh. “Having gone private with Terk, I see everything is completely different.”
“You really think this is a long-term solution?”
“It is for us,” he declared. “Are you still trying to keep your intuition hidden?”
Royce glared at him. “You know what it’s like out there. If people find out”—he raised both hands in the air—“you of all people can understand that anything can happen.”
“I do know that,” Rick agreed. “Believe me that I do. I guess that’s why I’m just checking to see if you’re still utilizing your abilities.”
“Yeah? So, you tell me. Is there any way not to?”
Rick chuckled. “We never found a way. As soon as we lost them in the attack, even temporarily,” he clarified, sobering instantly, “I felt deaf, dumb, and blind. It is not a state I recommend.”
“It’s not happened to me, but I suspect that—at some point in time in this lovely world that we live in—it’s quite possible.”
“It might be. Sorry if it does.” Rick shook his head vehemently. “In my case, I was blessed that Terk knew healers who could help us. In fact the whole team is healed and greatly because of Cara and Clary and Terk,” he shared. “Plus everybody that we brought into the fold has gotten married and has added to the big family our team represents.” Rick laughed. “Everyone is or was pregnant. So watch out, if that’s not the future you want for yourself.”
“Now that just blows me away.”
“None of us thought that pregnancies would be the end result of the craziness that our world had become, but we’re not arguing against it.”
“Everybody? Really? All the guys on your team?”
“Yes, all of us. Calum got back together with his wife. You remember Mariana and Calum Jr. That kid has some pretty impressive powers of his own already. Damon and Tasha finally got their crap together,” he shared, with a laugh. “Even Brody was smitten, and he is with Clary.”
At that, Royce stared and asked, “Brody, that cantankerous bastard Brody? Are you kidding me? Somebody fell in love with him?”
Rick snorted. “Yeah, he’s my brother-in-law now,” he shared in between the laughter. “How’s that for a twist?”
“Actually I can see that on many levels,” he noted. “You two were always close.”
“We’ve all been close,” he clarified. “That hasn’t changed, and I’m really glad that it’s turned out this way. As a matter of fact, the team has grown tighter. Then, with Terk pulling us all out of the fire and setting up the company—although he’s overwhelmed with the process—he’s done one hell of a job bringing in people to give him a hand. We’ve got an incredibly different life than we had just a couple years ago.”
“You’re happy?” Royce asked his friend.
“Very happy,” he replied, nodding. Then he motioned Royce to move along. “Now let’s go. I’ve got a vehicle over there, waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me or waiting for us?”
“Us,” Rick confirmed.
As they hopped into the truck, Royce looked around inquisitively. “This missing woman, is she here?”
“Our latest intel says she was brought in here last night,” Rick noted. “However, that can change minute by minute. Plus a few more things about this case might make life a little difficult for us.”
When he explained about the diplomatic immunity, Royce groaned. “That just pisses me off. There was a case not very long ago of a diplomat’s wife running over a teen in the street, just a regular old village street. Her husband got her out of the country right away, and she never did face any repercussions for killing that innocent seventeen-year-old kid.”
“That sucks,” Rick grumbled, looking over at him. “I think I heard about that.”
“Yeah. There’s been all kinds of efforts to bring her to justice, but every time it’s been blocked by bureaucratic BS of one kind or another. Thus she doesn’t have to face the reality of her actions.”
“Nobody else would get away scot-free.”
“Exactly. Anybody else would have been crucified. Even if it was an accident, she still needs to take some responsibility. There’s still a penalty involved. Anyway, tell me more about the woman in our case.”
“Here’s a couple files.” And, with that, Rick reached beside his seat and pulled two folders from there and held them up. “One is what we have on her, and the other file has what we have on him.” He handed Royce the two folders.
“You have a much thicker file on him,” he noted, opening the fat folder. “Why does that not surprise me?”
“Let me give you a few of the salient details while we drive,” Rick began, pulling out of the parking spot. “Bottom line is that his fourth wife has just passed away, and he’s supposedly holding hostage this young woman, the sister of his last wife. I’m not sure that hostage is quite the right word for it, but he’s keeping her prisoner.”
“And you know this how?”
“She somehow got word to MI6. No one knows how yet. She hasn’t been able to get free, as the diplomat watches her all the time. She wants to get away from him before she ends up like her sister.”
“As in dead?” Royce asked, turning to Rick.
“Or as wife number five first, then potentially dead.”
“Yet the deceased sister had money?”
“The family business,” Rick confirmed, carefully watching the road ahead. “This diplomat travels with an entourage, so he’s not easy to get at, and he leaves anytime he wants to. He might run out of luck and run out of countries that will allow him to stay hidden, but that’s not the case right now.”
“Do we think that the missing sister is still here? Is there any current evidence of that?”
“He has a private plane, which supposedly came in last night. According to the intel, he came in alone, meaning with his usual entourage but not her.”
At that, Royce frowned at him, and Rick nodded. “I know. Which means in theory, she’s not here.”
“You don’t believe that though, do you?”
“According to what MI6 was told in a hurried phone call, the diplomat never leaves her alone. She hasn’t been away from him or his brother or some guard since his latest wife died.”
“How did she die?”
“Supposedly a heart attack.” He made an air quote, before grabbing the wheel again.
“Of course. And I’m guessing there was no autopsy.”
“No, of course not.”
“Does heart failure run in the family?”
Nodding, Rick replied, “Yeah, and that made it harder to get anybody to give a crap.”
“Lovely. What about the wife’s family? Which is also Heather’s family, right?”
“Heather is the only one left, which is why the two of them have so much money. Now Heather’s net worth is significant to many and potentially why she is quite likely to end up being wife number five, whether she wants to be or not. Faheed is that kind of person.”
“Well, crap,” Royce murmured. “That’s not a good way to go through life, is it?”
“No, it sure isn’t, and yet we know it happens a lot. Hannah’s and Heather’s family started a big whiskey brand, many decades ago. When the parents passed six years ago, the business went to the sisters.”
“So, did this diplomat get a controlling interest?”
“That I don’t have any details on, at least not yet,” Rick noted. “In theory, the missing sister should have the company now, on paper at least, and the deceased wife,… she also had a large life insurance policy.”
“Of course she did,” Royce replied, with irony.
Rick smiled over at him. “I feel as if I’m hearing that same old tired note of This again , really? ”
“It’s an opportunistic grab, isn’t it? Somebody wants something, and they don’t care what they have to do to get it. They just reach out and take it.”
Rick nodded. “It does seem to be that way,” he said in a resigned tone. “Even though we do help dozens and dozens of people on an annual basis, the world just never seems to run out of assholes.”
Royce laughed. “I hear you there,” he muttered, feeling more in control. “Let’s hope that we can take this particular asshole out of the game.” His words were followed by an odd silence. Royce frowned. “So, what is it you aren’t telling me?”
Rick sighed. “It depends on how much you hate governments, but this is a job that we’re doing for MI6.”
“Hang on a minute. Are you getting paid by two parties for this job?”
“No, MI6 brought it to our attention first. We would have helped Heather directly, if we’d heard from her first, but we didn’t. MI6 brought it to our attention, after the death of the diplomat’s fourth wife.”
“So, we’re information hunting for MI6 at the same time as rescuing Heather.”
“Yeah, but MI6 is focused on us getting a nice clean case against our murdering diplomat.”
“Which will never go to court,” he interrupted, “because you know Iran will bury it, or else Faheed will just disappear quietly into the night because he caused too much trouble.”
“You and I both know that. My main concern, and MI6’s too, I suspect, is Heather’s safety. But, if she has any information to give on this Faheed,… then MI6 also wants her alive and testifying.”
“Is that a condition of her release?” he asked, looking over at him.
“No, I don’t believe that it is, and it certainly isn’t a mandatory part of our rescue,” Rick stated. “We want to take this Faheed guy off the streets, for sure. Yet we want to save her at the same time.”
“Got it.”
“You’ll see a picture of her in the other file.”
Royce opened the file that he had yet to study, and there was a picture of a young woman. Intelligent looking, but more than that was there. She had a sparkling grin on her face, as if the world was something she was more than ready to take on, while living her life to the fullest. “Interesting,” he murmured.
“What’s interesting?” Rick asked, as he quickly changed lanes and took a turn at a corner.
Royce looked up at the area they were traveling through, then returned his gaze to the file. “Something’s almost familiar about her.”
“I don’t know about familiar, but we’ve all, from the time we’ve seen that photo, sensed something.”
“Sensed?” he repeated. “Oh boy, here we go again.”
“Yep. It could just be that she might have a highly developed ability. Have you ever seen her before?”
“I don’t think so, but I definitely sense something about her energy.”
“And that’s your thing,” Rick declared. “You can see energy off photographs, can’t you?”
“We can see energy off anything, as you can see the energy off this truck,” Royce clarified, turning to face his friend. “So, that’s not unusual. But seeing something that’s worthwhile off a photo,… something we can use to our advantage? Now that’s a whole different story.”
“Oh, I agree with you there,” Rick replied, chuckling.
Royce smiled at his buddy. “It’s really good to see you, Rick. You do know you could have called at any point in time, like when you and your team needed help.”
“I could have, but, between getting our asses kicked, trying to recover and to protect ourselves, finding the woman of my dreams, getting married, getting her pregnant,” he explained, with an eyeroll and a flashing grin, “it’s been kind of crazy. Then having twins?… Well, my life has been a little bit complicated.”
“Jesus,” Royce muttered under his breath. “So, you guys managed to accomplish all that in a fraction of the time anybody else ever does.”
“When it came down to it,” he said, with a smirk, “we really didn’t have time to do anything but move—and move fast.”
Royce nodded. “I’m glad it turned out okay for you. So few of us are out there, very few like us. You have got to be one lucky bastard.”
“Exactly. Unfortunately that is part of the problem. Since very few of us are out there, and, when you consider that this Heather might very well be another person with abilities, you can bet that Terk will be very protective and very proactive about trying to save her.”
“That’s fine. He can be as proactive as he wants. We’re still up against a diplomat who can jump countries in a heartbeat and apparently even get into a country like Finland without trouble.”
“Yes, and that just makes it a bigger challenge.”
“I thought the initial request mentioned something about Iceland?”
“It did because that’s where they were at the time, but they’ve already changed locations. So now here we are in Finland.”
“How long is that likely to be for?”
“I can’t tell you,” Rick admitted, trying for a neutral tone, but he clearly had something on his mind. “If Faheed thinks we’re onto him, he’ll be gone in a second.”
“The better question is, will he take her back to Iran? If he did decide on that, it would make our process even more complicated.… Finland for us would be a walk in the park comparatively.”
“I’m not sure why he chose Finland. Iceland either for that matter. It seems to be random, but we need to figure out whether he’s here on a diplomatic mission or has something else on his mind. So far we don’t think he’s into human trafficking, but my current theory is the usual criminal activities, involving guns, drugs, killers-for-hire.”
“His schedule doesn’t help much,” Royce pointed out. “Just the basics are listed. It says that he’s meeting with people to strengthen ties, fostering good relationships through conferences and peace visits .”
“Of course,” Rick quipped. “Meanwhile, Iran has absolutely no idea that they have this murdering wild card running around, or, if they do know, they’re protecting him.”
“If they do know, they’ll do their best to take him out because he’ll cause them no end of headaches.” Royce stared out at the countryside, disappearing rapidly beside him. “You can’t have somebody like Faheed running around the globe, giving your country a bad name, particularly if you’re doing it under the guise of the home country allowing it.”
“And that was definitely our take on it, but, so far, nobody has stepped up and done anything about pulling him back. So basically Jonas is looking for some evidence, anything that he can use against this Faheed guy.”
“Remind me again why Jonas and MI6 are involved?”
“Because wife number four was English, as is Heather. Plus the wife, Hannah, died in England.”
“ Great ,” he muttered. “So, Faheed slipped through their fingers at that point, right?”
“They disappeared through diplomatic immunity channels within twenty-four hours of Hannah’s death. Nobody even realized he was there or that there was an issue. Faheed tried to say he was separated from his wife at the time, had no idea what happened, was locked up in meetings, blah-blah-blah . He also made it look as if he was devastated because he was hoping to reconcile with his wife, but then added something to the effect of Hey, it just wasn’t to be, and somebody decided otherwise . Yet he arranged for a cremation, and the remains were taken back to his country.”
“Right. Not that they would do us any good at this point. And whether he still has them is questionable, but who knows? He may have just tossed her ashes into the ocean.”
“You do seem to understand how this works,” Rick noted, acknowledging Royce’s long career of dealing with similar assholes.
“When you get a bad seed with money and a free pass to travel the world without any restrictions, doing whatever he damn well pleases, that makes it easy to do what he wants to do and to feel as if the world owes him. Yet, if he already has money, why the hell is he killing his wives for more?”
“Do these assholes ever have enough money?” Rick asked him snidely.
“ Right ,” he agreed, “Greed is alive and well. I have yet to meet any rich person who had enough.”
*
Heather Rothchild paced the small suite, her tarot cards clutched in her hands. Just like the last one, this was a high-class, elegant space. She wouldn’t even be surprised if silk sheets were on the bed, but she couldn’t have cared less. All she wanted was to escape this gilded cage to the freedom of the world she used to know, a world that she hadn’t had the chance to enjoy in a very long time, not since coming to visit her sister months ago. Not for the first time in this hellhole had she wished she had taken her sister’s advice and run while she had the chance. However, Heather wouldn’t leave Hannah alone, but Heather had been completely misguided in thinking that she could help her sister escape too.
Instead her sister was dead, and Heather was the one captive. Her hand instinctively rested against her heart. The tarot cards vibrated in her hand. The loss was… crippling. The fear was… almost as crippling.
Her sister had been happily married—although how that was possible, Heather didn’t know. When asked, her sister would just smile and say it had seemed to be a good idea at the time. Precisely when marrying that monster could possibly have seemed to be a good idea, Heather surely didn’t know. And yet her sister had never spoken a word against her husband. Maybe because they were constantly being watched, constantly monitored, and anybody saying anything untoward would get their punishment. And, of course, all explanations were twisted to make it sound as if it was all about keeping the women safe.
The ugly reality had kept them both in line.
Heather wasn’t into revenge, but she sure had a burning anger to see Faheed pay for her sister’s death—if he had been involved. He swore passionately to her that he had absolutely nothing to do with it, but Heather didn’t believe him. He had seemed grief-stricken at Hannah’s death, but Heather just assumed he was a very good actor. After all, he had treated her sister like a china doll and had kept her a prisoner for five years, the entire time that they were married. Her sister had told her that she was totally okay with that. Very much the fragile type, Hannah had never been the kind of person capable of handling life in the real world.
Whether that was an image Hannah had deliberately cultivated or not, Heather didn’t know, but having grown up with her sister, she knew that it hadn’t been that way forever. Only as her sister became an adult did Hannah seem much less capable of living in the world around her. Certainly Faheed had understood and had protected her from everything. The trouble was, Heather was too damn suspicious and pretty damn certain that he had been involved in her sister’s death.
Not to mention the fact that he refused to let Heather leave, telling her that, when the time was right, he would, how he couldn’t afford the bad publicity after her sister’s death. That didn’t make any sense to her, but he would not give her another explanation. So, until he changed his mind, Heather had no choice. He also mentioned how it was too dangerous, but, as far as she was concerned, the danger was sitting right there, with her. Wherever Faheed was, trouble seemed to follow.
Heather knew better than to seek help from Faheed’s adult children, three sons and one daughter from his first wife. Those offspring were not terribly impressed with their father marrying Hannah, many years younger than their father. So they stayed out of Faheed’s personal life, probably as long as the adult children’s own fortunes weren’t affected—or maybe they’d learned to not cross that line. Hannah had been depressed over her lack of children, but, after much questioning by Heather, Hannah had finally confessed that Faheed wouldn’t tolerate a pregnancy.
When a knock came at her door, she quickly slipped her boxed tarot cards into her pocket. She deliberately had a small set, tucked away in its original packaging, so she could keep them on her person at all times. “Come in.” She’d already learned that arguing and going against Faheed’s wishes didn’t turn out well for her. And that went for any attempts to avoid answering. Not that he would ever hit her, but she could easily be locked in her room for days.
When the door opened, Saheed—brother to Faheed—walked in, his usual smug smile on his face.
“There you are,” he greeted her in a bright, cheerful voice.
She glared at him. “Where else would I be?” she snapped. “You escorted me here, doing your brother’s bidding, as always.”
He just gave her that same genial smile that he always did when she got snappy. “A little tired and stressed from traveling, I see,” he replied, with that same smarmy tone that made her skin crawl.
“No,” she corrected him. “Tired and stressed because I want to leave. I want to go home. I don’t want to be here.” She chewed on the last part and rolled her eyes. “Then you already know that.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I know,” he said, with a wave of his hand, completely ignoring her demands. “Dinner is more or less ready, and we thought maybe you would wish to eat with us.”
“And if I say no?” she asked, with a wry smile.
“Then, of course, we’ll have a meal sent in for you,” he replied, his fake smile brightening in anticipation. “I’m sure you’re feeling peaked after all the traveling and could use a few days to rest.”
She stared at him, wondering how he could live with himself. He didn’t sound fake, and it bugged the hell out of her that people out there so enjoyed others’ suffering. “No, I’ll come. I want to get out.”
He nodded. “I figured you would.” His smile turned into a triumphant grin, as if he knew which direction she would choose to go. “You’ll make Faheed very happy.”
She glared at him. “How come you keep traveling with Faheed, instead of going off and doing your own work? Or rather living your own life, instead of being attached to his?”
“It is my honor to be his assistant ,” Saheed stated, his shoulders stiffening at the criticism. “That’s what you call me, isn’t it? Of course I do have an official title and all that, but I understand that you’re not feeling very kind toward us at the moment. Until you recognize that we haven’t had anything to do with your sister’s death, that probably won’t change. So, I’ll be here for a while I guess.”
She didn’t say anything, but he stepped back from the doorway and motioned for her to walk out. She did so immediately, grateful for the chance to at least get out and see a little something about where they were. “You didn’t even tell me what country we are in this time.”
“We’re in Finland,” he said, with a bright smile. “Probably for a couple days but I’m not too sure yet.”
She nodded and didn’t say anything to that. She had never been to Finland and wouldn’t it be nice to think she could spend some time here, but, in this situation, not likely. She dreamed of being free whenever she got to go on a trip. This captivity she would definitely not have chosen. Yet it would be forced on her, no matter what she did. Chafing at the prison, she followed her ever-present helper down to a hotel lobby, then into a private dining room on the other end.
Faheed hopped up with a delighted smile. “I’m so glad you decided to join us. I was afraid that you weren’t feeling well enough.”
“I’m fine,” she declared, using the strong tone she always tried to adopt when speaking with him. “I’m not my sister. I keep telling you that.”
“No, no, of course, forgive me,” he muttered, with that same fake genial smile.
She sighed, then took the seat being held out for her and sat down. It was just the three of them, and that was not right. Normally his secretary was here as well. “Where’s Ana?” Heather asked curiously.
“She’s resting,” he shared, with a casual wave. “She might need to go back home a little earlier than I do. We have a fair bit of work to be done, and I need to make that decision tonight.”
Heather didn’t say anything and just nodded slowly. Ana at least understood the situation Heather was in, though didn’t understand why Heather was fighting it. But then her sister Hannah never really did. Her sister seemed to have been much happier in the gilded cage than Heather was.
Dinner was served without her being offered a choice, something else that Faheed did on a regular basis. She had some chilled soup, followed by salmon and vegetables. She ate well, knowing that, depending on the whims of both Faheed and Saheed, she could be sequestered in her room with only sandwiches at any point, should she not please Faheed. Tonight she ate without complaint, not wanting to take a chance of pissing him off, not while they were in a country where she might get away from him.
If there was any chance of that happening, she wanted to ensure she had her strength up.
“Good,” Faheed said, as he noted her appetite. “The change of location seems to have been good for you.”
She nodded. “I’m feeling decent now,” she muttered, as she looked around with interest. “I’ve never been to Finland before.” Huge windows overlooked the city, but seeing it from the inside wasn’t the same as walking the streets and inhaling the very essence of the city. “Any chance of going out for sightseeing or maybe a quick tour?”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Faheed replied, with a sad look in her direction. “I have many appointments to attend while here. I doubt there will be time for sightseeing.”
She sighed and nodded. “Of course not. Why would you want to do anything that would make me happy?” she muttered, and her tone rang like flint on stone. She quickly finished off her meal and sat back, then looked over at Saheed and announced, “I would like to return to my room.”
He glanced at Faheed for confirmation.
“Of course,” Faheed agreed. “After eating all that, I’m sure you need a digestive nap.”
There was the usual jab at the amount she had eaten, which was very typical of him too. Faheed had controlled her sister’s food fanatically to ensure she didn’t get fat. In Heather’s case, she was almost too thin. Therefore, eating was something she often took advantage of when there was a chance because, as soon as she got stressed, she dropped weight very, very quickly. Then it was hard for her to put it back on again. As usual, Saheed was there to pull out her chair the minute she made any attempt to stand up, a move she found most disingenuous.
And, with that, she rose and followed Saheed from the dining area and back to her hotel room. He opened the door for her, ushering her in with that same smarmy smile. “Have a good night.” Then he quickly locked the door behind her.
She stared at the door in frustration. You would think that there would be a way for her to lock her own door and keep them out, but sadly there wasn’t. Not that she’d ever had a problem with either of them coming in during the night, but that wasn’t something she even wanted to start thinking about. That would be enough to make her cringe and stop sleeping.
Once again, she thought about Hannah, who had blossomed in this cloistered atmosphere. She’d often laughed at Heather and told her that there was a lot to be said for it and didn’t seem to mind her restrictive lifestyle. Besides, she genuinely loved Faheed. Heather often wondered about that too, but then love blossomed in the darndest places. Heather’s reaction to Faheed had been totally different.
Faheed had gotten it into his mind that he was now responsible for Heather. The problem with that was that she didn’t want him to be responsible for anything of hers. She was a legal adult in the eyes of the rest of the world, but, he and those in his home country felt women weren’t smart enough to do much. So, as long as Faheed was around, Heather worried that he would be working hard to overtake control of her company.
“Sorry, sis,” she whispered into her room. “I didn’t think everything would change so quickly.”
And yet, from Faheed’s point of view, he was just doing his duty, as brother-in-law to Heather. She snorted at that because the brotherly duty had everything to do with greed and controlling Heather’s company. She felt he was still trying to figure out how to get it away from her. She understood that her father’s will was unbreakable and that her position as majority owner of the company was secure. Upon her sister’s death, Hannah’s shares went to Heather, and there was nothing Faheed could do about it, or at least Heather hoped he could do nothing about it, except maybe try to make it look as if she were incompetent.
That was a very real possibility, an angle for Faheed to tweak, and something she often worried about. While she had been staying with her sister, Heather ran the business via emails and calls and online meetings. That was hampered once Hannah died. Still, Heather had managed to get out one message to her manager, telling him to notify the proper authorities how she was being held against her will. At least she hoped it got to him. If so, hopefully he had passed it onward. Yet here she was, wondering if anybody had even gotten the message. Not for the first time she wondered if Faheed had gotten a hold of her manager and had made some deal with him.
Faheed was all about making deals, and she could totally see him doing just that. He was all about feathering his own nest and making his world turn the way he wanted it to, so Heather wasn’t surprised. However, the thought of losing her family’s company was enough to make her vomit right now. It just wasn’t fair. She’d put in so much time, effort, and work to make it what it was today that it didn’t seem possible that somebody else could just step in and take it from her.
However, this world functioned on strength, and those who had power took what they wanted, and it didn’t matter who or what stood in the way. In her current kidnapped status, she didn’t know how to stop Faheed from stealing her company from her. Alone, in the privacy of her room, she pulled out her tarot cards and sat down to read them.
She’d been reading tarot cards all her life. It had been a way to separate herself from her parents, who both had been very domineering as she grew up. They’d been absolutely horrified to find her with tarot cards, to the point that they were frightened of her. While it bothered Heather, it had also given her a certain sense of power that she could do something or was doing something that upset them to that extent.
At the time, it was typical teenage crap to her, but, as soon as she’d started working with the deck, she found that she had an affinity for it. An affinity, almost a calling, really, and she was too accurate in her predictions. Her sister used to ask her all kinds of questions, and Heather had answered them through the tarot, and they always ended up being right. When her sister had asked her about marrying Faheed, Heather didn’t need the tarot cards to tell her to run as far and as fast as she could, but her words had fallen on deaf ears.
As far as her sister was concerned, Hannah had absolutely no need to worry, and Heather hadn’t been able to convince Hannah otherwise. To Heather’s dismay, the tarot hadn’t lied. She had argued with Hannah about the results because her sister was willfully ignoring the messages from the beyond, or whatever it was. Blinded by love, Hannah had discounted all the evidence suggesting that marrying Faheed would be a terrible mistake. Instead, she had adjusted her filters, tuning out anything she didn’t want to hear.
The word of the tarot made sense to Heather, but it didn’t make sense to her sister, at least not when it came to Faheed.
Whether listening to her psyche, other people, the universe, or God, Heather had any number of answers for the way the results came out, but she liked to think of it all as just being intuition .
Pulling from the tarot deck, she chose one card for her future, asking if she was to stay where she was, and, when she flipped it over, her heart froze.
It was that card, the one that she always hated, not because what the card implied always came to pass but because it could potentially sometimes be true. As she stared at it, this was the same card she had pulled over her sister’s future. Heather looked around, almost in panic, wondering how the hell she was supposed to get out of this nightmare.
That card, that card staring her in the face, was the Death card.