by AC Arthur
“Were you standing near your friend when she was shot? Did you see who shot her?”
Zera blinked again and as if she just realized he was there, her gaze found Dane’s.
The nurse said something about x-rays and needing to get her out of those clothes and the man frowned.
“I will be right outside,” he told her.
Dane did not move when the man passed him and walked through the open door. The nurse looked at Dane and was about to say something but Zera spoke.
“You came,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean for you…I mean, I didn’t tell you to.”
“There’s a lot of things you didn’t tell me, Zera,” Dane said.
She turned to look at the nurse. “Can you leave us alone? I mean, don’t you have to go somewhere to schedule the x-rays or whatever you insist on doing to me?”
The nurse continued to stare at Dane. When Zera spoke again, this time her voice slightly elevated, repeating her request, the nurse jumped and tore her gaze away from him.
“Oui. Oui. Je reviens tout de suite,” the nurse said.
The nurse moved away from the bed, announcing that she would be right back before walking past Dane slowly until she was out the door. Dane immediately moved behind the nurse and closed the door.
“What happened?” he asked when they were alone.
She took a deep breath and exhaled. “We were at a club having drinks and someone started shooting.”
That was a lie, or at least it wasn’t the total truth. Dane was sure of it.
“Just a random shooting,” he continued.
He considered crossing the room to stand closer to her. To touch her and assure himself that she was not physically wounded. He did not move.
“Was anyone besides your friend shot?” he asked.
Zera started to shake her head, and then she shrugged. “I don’t know. I was only concerned about Ines.”
“Did they catch the shooter?”
For an instant her eyes grew wider, hopeful. But that look was quickly dashed as she stared down at her hands and sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Did you see the shooter?”
She hesitated before shaking her head.
“Did you know the shooter, Special Agent Kennedy? Maybe he was someone you were investigating who didn’t want to be found,” he said and waited for her response.
Zera lifted her head very slowly. She looked at him through narrowed eyes and moved her arms to drag her fingers through her tangled hair.
“How did you find out?” she asked. “Because if there’s someone out there that knows, that could explain why I was chased through the streets last week.”
Dane watched as she talked. She didn’t look upset, not at the fact that he’d found out her secret. But she did look irritated at the thought that other people, besides him, knew who she really was.
“That’s when you came to me, wasn’t it? The night someone chased you on the streets? You think they knew who you were? Did you speak to them with your natural accent, or did you lose it the way you just did with that cop? The way you did at Emmet’s party?”
“You don’t understand,” she started to say.
He interrupted. “Explain it to me. All of it.”
Zera jumped down from the bed. She lifted the blood soaked shirt up and over her head, dropping it into the tall trash can in the corner. On the bed beside where she’d been sitting was a paper blue robe folded into a square. She picked it up, unfolded it and put her arms through the holes on the side. She stripped off her pants and shoes, then walked over to the small sink in the corner and washed her hands and face. She pulled towels from the box on the wall and turned back to face him. Her arms hung at her sides, then she folded them across her chest, the blue gown crackling with her every motion.
“I was with the FBI and now I’m not. I left,” she said with a huff. “I left because my cousin was kidnapped and I needed to find her. My family needs me to find her.”
“So you left your job in law enforcement to what, work on your own? That doesn’t make sense, Zera. Why wouldn’t you stay at work and use the resources you most likely had at your disposal? And why come here and start sleeping with Emmet? How did that help in your supposed investigation?”
“I,” she started to say, but stopped. “I don’t expect you to understand my reasons. I don’t expect anyone too. But that is the truth. I took a leave of absence because I knew that looking for Hiari was out of the FBI’s jurisdiction.”
“And yet here you are.” Dane shook his head. “And Emmet?” He brought it up again, not because he was jealous. He was not. But because he needed all these pieces that had been floating around in his mind to finally fit.
She squared her shoulders. “Emmet was a means to an end. I needed to get close to him to get closer to the people I suspected of taking Hiari. I didn’t speak naturally in front of him because I didn’t want him to know where I came from, or to have any reason to ask.”
“Is that why you slept with him? So you could get information from him?” Dane asked but he wasn’t certain he was going to believe what she had to say. He couldn’t believe anything she said anymore. That bothered him way more than Dane wanted it to.
“I did not sleep with Emmet Parks,” Zera stated evenly. “I know you don’t believe me, but there it is. Emmet was impotent. His doctor said it was more of a mental issue than a physical one, but either way, he couldn’t get it up. Ever. So instead,” she paused and took another deep breath. “He liked to watch me pleasure myself. That got him off.”
Dane clenched his teeth. His fists balled at his sides and he wanted to hit something. The thought of her…in front of Emmet, or anyone for that matter…just picturing it in his mind. He shook his head.
“You let me believe differently. He introduced you as his woman. You didn’t try to stop me to tell me.” And Dane realized now that he really wished she had done just that.
“I had a job to do,” she said. “I never meant to lie to you or to—”
“Stop,” Dane told her and held his hand up just in case his command wasn’t enough. “I don’t need to hear anymore. Look, I’m sorry about your friend being shot. But I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Dane,” she said.
He shook his head and continued, “I’ve paid for the hotel room until next Tuesday. Stay until then if you want to. I’m leaving tomorrow.”
She crossed the room and stopped in front of him. “I did not sleep with Emmet. The time we spent together was probably the best time of my adult life. If I thought there was a way I could have told you and still gotten the information I needed, I would have done it.”
“Fine!” Dane yelled. “It’s all fine now. It happened. It’s done. I’m leaving.”
He felt like he’d just said that, but that he needed to say it again, and again, to prove that he was actually doing it.
“Dane,” she whispered and reached up to touch his arm.
Dane pulled away. “Look, I’ve had enough of lies and deceit with the façade of good intentions behind them. I’m not going through it again. If you say you have a job to do, then by all means, do it, Zera. This affair, this last affair, is over.”
Dane moved quickly then, moving to the door and wrenching it open. He walked through it fast and pushed past the two officers who were standing right outside the room. One called out to him and Dane counted himself lucky that his walking away didn’t end with him being shot in the back. He stalked out of the hospital and through the parking lot, not letting go of the breath he’d been holding since walking away from her, until he was in his car, his forehead resting on the steering wheel.
What was he supposed to do now?
Zera’s chest hurt, but as the technician explained after her x-rays were complete, there were no cracked ribs or other injuries that could be seen on the scan. To be fair, her shoulder blades hurt as well. The doctor who examined her said there was a violent bruise that would cause her pain for the next few days
or until all the bruising went away. But that overall she’d been lucky not to sustain any gunshot wounds.
He was right about that, even though Zera was almost willing to admit the pain she was feeling right now might be comparable to being shot. It was ridiculous and yet, she’d known from the moment she’d seen him at the museum that this was going to happen. Four years ago she’d been well on her way to falling in love with Dane. His leaving had actually saved her from a fate that she wouldn’t have known how to deal with. Now, Zera still had no idea what to do with all these feelings that were jumbled in her chest causing the ball of pain. Especially now that Dane had left once again.
She had no idea how to analyze what was happening. How had Dane found out who she really was? And why had he looked so angry, and just as hurt, by that news? They were having an affair. Zera knew that. Just because she knew she had more feelings for Dane than an affair would allow, didn’t mean she couldn’t understand the rules. And Dane’s rules hadn’t change. At least he’d never mentioned them changing. So maybe it was just anger that she’d seen in his eyes and the way he’d stood stiffly as if moving may have somehow worsened the situation.
What did any of it matter now? Dane was gone, or he would be in the morning. He’d said she could stay at the hotel until next week and that’s what Zera had decided to do. She definitely could not go back to her apartment. She would call Ines’s grandmother after she’d had a chance to see Ines, so that she could report the entire situation accurately. Or at least as accurately as would be allowed under the circumstances. She had just stepped off the elevator and turned down the hallway toward the numbered rooms where Ines had been taken after her surgery, when a hand grabbed her arm tightly, pulling her inside of a small room.
Zera yanked her arm free and spun around instantly, fists clenched and drawn, prepared to fight. She’d lost her gun and her knife in the chaos at the club, but she still had significant hand-to-hand combat from her training at The Academy.
“I told you to get someplace safe,” Necole LeAmbette said after she’d closed the door.
Zera let her arms fall to her side and stood up straight. She took a quick breath and shook her head. “I did,” she replied.
Necole tilted her head and raised one beautifully arched brow. “I can’t tell.”
Necole was born in Nigeria, but moved to London with her parents when she was three years old. She was also married to a French policeman. When Aasir first told Zera about the kidnapping and gave her Debare Adebayo’s name as a possible suspect, he’d quickly realized that Zera planned to go after Debare on her own. And since neither of them were in a position to go off investigating international crimes, Aasir linked Zera to Necole, an Interpol agent. But after their first meeting that took place just a few weeks after Zera arrived in Paris, Necole had made it perfectly clear that the case belonged to her and the joint task force which had been put in place by four of the countries plagued by kidnappings involving Foreign Terrorist Organizations. In short, she’d told Zera to go back to her job in the States. Zera hadn’t listened because she knew that Necole’s task force could only collect information, it was still up to the separate countries to apprehend and prosecute the offenders. And, as Zera had just reminded Aasir, those countries weren’t doing anything.
“Aasir told me you had not left,” Necole continued.
She wore a black pantsuit, her platform-heeled pumps adding another four inches to her normal five foot eleven stature. Her hair was long and wavy, make-up perfectly done. She did not look like an Interpol agent, but more like a movie star.
“I told him that was unwise. Then you called me,” Necole said.
“They came after me,” Zera interrupted. “I had to call you because I’m not authorized to make any arrests. I had a license plate that I was going to give to you so that you could run it.”
“That was not necessary,” Necole said. “Abram Goraya and Evgeni Dyogtin, two of the three men you injured at The Grande tonight. They are former spies from the Belyakov bratva working their way up in the organization. Abram was positioned at your apartment last week. Edouard Dubois was the one who chased you at the museum. He’s an associate on loan from another organization, but Misha is growing weary of him, especially since he lost you on the street and Evgeni was forced to pick up our trail at the garage.”
Zera tried not to be amazed and irritated at the same time. Not only did Necole know all the players that Zera had just learned about in the last five months, but she also knew where they were as if she’d been watching them, while they watched Zera.
“Why were they chasing me?” she asked.
Necole leaned against a cart and crossed one ankle over the other.
“You have something they’re threatened by. Either that or Emmet told you something they want to know. I haven’t figured out which one yet, since you blatantly disregarded my directive to leave the country. As soon as our intelligence picked up your name from our surveillance, I knew we had to get eyes on you too.”
Zera ignored the obvious ire in Necole’s voice. Zera didn’t work for Interpol. As a matter of fact, she wasn’t technically working for anyone at this point. Therefore, Necole had no authority over her.
“I stayed as a visitor to this city. There was no reason for you to make me leave.”
Necole shook her head. “You were sleeping with Emmet Parks who was in charge of the African Region of the Belyakov bratva’s empire. That’s not something I would call a romantic love affair. I knew what you were doing all along.”
“And you let me do all the legwork, so you can now come in and take over,” Zera spat. “Not a chance.”
She attempted to walk past but Necole grabbed her by the arm.
“You will walk away now, Zera. Or I’ll call your Director and tell him what you’ve been up to. I’d hate to ruin what could become a brilliant career. But you really need to walk away now. Go back to your job, explain that you had some type of work relapse or something. Sit in that office and find the intelligence they need to put more criminals away in the United States. But do not think about this case again. Misha Belyakov and the empire his father built and nurtured for more than fifty years, is out of your league,” Necole told her.
Again, Zera pulled her arm away. “Don’t touch me again,” Zera stated through clenched teeth. “And I’m not leaving Paris until I find out where Hiari is. You want me gone, find my cousin!”
“You know I can’t do that. I gather intelligence and convene with the task force. We do not plan rescue missions,” Necole told her.
“But I do,” Zera said. “That’s what I’ve been doing all these years and I’m not going to stop until I have her back.”
Zera walked out of the room then. Her squared shoulders and defiant steps dared the Interpol agent to grab her again or try and stop her in any way. Even though somewhere in the back of her mind, Zera knew that if she actually punched Necole in the face, she would not only end her chances of finding Hiari herself, but she’d also end her chances of ever working in the FBI again. Because Necole would no doubt press charges. And that was a shame because Zera generally liked Necole and everything the woman stood for. She’d told Zera that she was working on the kidnappings across their native country, from the inside. Necole was aware that the money given to fund rescue efforts and to stop the organizations that the combined governments knew were responsible for these horrific acts, was being mishandled. Partially because those in power could do what they wanted and go unchecked and the other part was because nobody cared about the young African girls.
Nobody cared about Hiari, who had planned to become a doctor.
Zera shook her head and took a deep, steadying breath as she approached the door to Ines’s room. When she thought she was calm as she could get, Zera entered the room and walked to the bed taking the hand of her friend. The friend Zera had almost gotten killed on her rogue mission.
Chapter 12
Three was Dane’s limit.
H
e never drank too much outside the privacy of his home. It wasn’t a good look, not that he cared what other people thought of him. Dane cared much more about not losing control in public and possibly hurting himself or someone else.
So when he finished the last of his rum and Coke, Dane pushed the highball glass across the bar and signaled to the bartender for his check. He turned slightly on the stool and looked toward the doorway. He hadn’t planned to sit down at the bar at the San Régis for the last forty-five minutes but he wasn’t yet ready to go upstairs to that huge suite alone. Not after spending the past five days in the hotel room at the Novotel with Zera.
After years of basically being by himself, Dane did not want to be alone.
Now, he’d settled for the drink to keep him company.
And he’d had way too many, because now he was clearly seeing things.
Suri and a woman had just stood from a table and were now walking toward the door. Dane blinked quickly to clear his vision, but when he looked again Suri definitely had her arm around the woman’s waist and the woman had her arm around Suri’s shoulder. That wouldn’t have normally caught Dane’s attention, but when Suri’s hand slid down to cup the woman’s ass, he’d thought maybe he was hallucinating. That thought was completely squashed as now, the woman turned, taking Suri’s face in her hands as she leaned in and kissed her. With tongue.
The kiss ended and the woman left. Suri turned and looked directly at Dane as if she’d known he’d been watching and she’d wanted to put on a show just for him. She gave him a huge smile and began walking toward him.
Dane signaled the bartender and ordered another drink.
“Hey cousin!” Suri said as she climbed onto the stool beside Dane.
“Hi, Suri,” he replied.
The moment his drink was delivered Dane took a deep swallow.
“Whoa there,” Suri said and reached out to touch his elbow. “Having a rough day?”