Lady of Heaven (45 page)

He watched her
as the elevator came to a halt, trying to deduce how she really felt; was she
being truthful or was she simply telling him what he wanted to hear? “But
you’re not thrilled about spending years in Egypt while I dig,” he said
quietly.

She looked at
him, a smile on her face. “I’ll be happy wherever you are. Except for your
crazy ex-girlfriend, I like Egypt.”

He wriggled his
eyebrows as they left the elevator, dodging a few people who were getting in.
“You like the hotels and the spas,” he pointed out. “You didn’t like camping
out in tents and with digs so remote, that’s exactly what we would be doing for
months on end.”

She looked at
him with an exaggerated pouty face. “Are you trying to discourage me?”

He laughed softly.
“No, love, I’m not,” he said. “I’m just trying to be realistic with you.”

She went into
more of an exaggerated pout mode. “No way, buster; I’m on to you,” she said as
they pushed open the lobby doors. “You’re trying to get rid of me so Mrs. Aziz
the call girl can join you in the wilds. I’m telling you right now that your
evil plan isn’t going to work.”

He laughed
heartily as they moved through the lobby doors but his reply was cut short when
a firm female voice suddenly interrupted their light repartee.

“And I hear my
name,” the voice said. “I am Mrs. Aziz. Hello, Fox.”

Both Fox and
Morgan turned, startled, to the source of the voice.  The woman had been
sitting on a bench right outside the door and Fox’s blood ran cold when he saw
who it was.

Alia was smiling
back at him.

January 15, 1924

            Last
night, someone broke into my room and tried to smother me.  Had it not been for
Kadin, they would have succeeded.  Perhaps it was a thief at random, for this
country abounds with them, but Kadin seemed to know who it was. He would not
tell me but I am increasingly fearful as we proceed on this quest.  Louis
continues to beg me to return to England but I cannot; not when my heart is in
Egypt.

            ~FS

CHAPTER TWENTY
SIX

After a moment’s
shock, it was Morgan who found her tongue first.  She wasn’t burdened down with
heavy suitcases like Fox was, making it easier and swifter to move. She charged
Alia and bumped up against the woman, causing her to stumble back. When Alia
grabbed the bench to steady herself, Morgan was in her face.

“Listen to me,
you crazy bitch,” she snarled. “I don’t know what your problem is or why you’re
so obsessed with my husband, but it ends here and now. Do you hear me? He
belongs to me and I swear to God that I’ll kick your ass if you come anywhere
near us ever again; got it?”

She was snarling
and vicious and Fox, very quickly, set the suitcases out of the walkway and
went to Morgan, pulling her away from Alia before it could explode into a
physical confrontation.

But as he moved,
unbeknownst to either woman, he hit the speed dial on his cell phone and put it
in his shirt pocket, hoping the person at the other end would answer the call
and understand that Fox needed help.  He needed a witness to whatever
conversation was going to take place and he wasn’t going to take any chances.

Alia, started by
Morgan’s charge, struggled to come off with some dignity. “Mrs. Henredon,” she
stood up, straightening her mussed scarf. “You must learn to control yourself.
You are coming off like a typical American.”           

That only served
to inflame Morgan more.  Fox had her around the waist or he was sure she would
have ripped Alia apart.

“What do you
want, Alia?” he asked calmly.

Alia looked at
Fox, her big green eyes soft and adoring. “Want?” she repeated. “Simply to
speak with you. I understand you’ve been doing some digging.”

Fox’s expression
was like stone. “I’m not talking to you about it. You’ll hear about it through
proper channels just like everyone else.”

Alia snorted
softly. “You speak of proper channels yet you did not go through proper
channels before you began vandalizing the Egyptian wilderness,” she shook her
head slowly, her eyes glittering fiendishly. “One well placed phone call and
you, and your museum, will be banned from Egypt permanently. Is that what you
want?”

“You can’t prove
anything.”

She looked
amused. “Is that so?” she shrugged lightly. “I have witnesses.”

Fox’s brow
furrowed impatiently. “Who? Those thugs you hired to kidnap my wife?”

Alia shrugged
nonchalantly. “The robbers didn’t get her, unfortunately. She seems to be good
at defending herself.”

“So you really
did hire them?”

“I did what I
had to.”

Fox snorted with
disbelief, with irony. “And Beni? You’ve got that bloke so beat down that he’ll
say anything because you’ve threatened him so many times. He’s afraid of you.”

Alia didn’t lose
her confidence.  “Beni will support my claim, of course.”

She pointed to
the end of the curbside area where the taxis were lined up.  There were people
milling about and gas fumes from idling engines filled the air. But there was
no mistaking Beni standing at the edge of the curb, watching the conversation. 

Beni looked
nervous and edgy, and Fox’s heart sank when he realized what had happened.  He
didn’t say what he was thinking;
he played us.  He earned our confidence and
then he played us.
  It was apparent that Beni had run to Alia with
everything he had heard or been told over the past several hours; it was the only
explanation since Alia would not have found Fox any other way. Fox felt sick;
he couldn’t even look at Morgan.

“I don’t care
who supports your claim,” Fox tried not to sound too angry or too betrayed. “It
will be your word against mine.”

“We’ll put your
wife and friends under oath,” Alia countered. “I wonder if they will lie.”

Fox began to
lose his temper. “Is this really what you want? To ruin me just because I’m not
romantically interested in you anymore?”

Alia eyed the
people who were coming in and out of the hotel, people who could overhear their
conversation. She mulled over his question.

“Perhaps we
should speak of this privately,” she said quietly. “I tried, you know, but you
would not see me.”

“I still don’t
want to see you, but here you are,” he countered, like a slap to her face.
“Whatever you have to say, you can say it here.”

Alia’s
confidence began to waver. She shook her head as if in sorrow. “You really
should have more respect for our friendship,” she said. “You came to me for
help and when I provided it, you ran off. You took advantage of my knowledge,
Fox. All I wanted to do was to continue to help you.”

Fox was losing
his patience. “We had this discussion. It was a mistake for me to have asked
you for help in the first place because it made you delusional,” he lowered his
voice. “I told you before that if you couldn’t control whatever you were
feeling for me that I would cut you off.  Consider yourself cut off.”

He whispered
something to Morgan who, eyes still blazing at Alia, turned to collect one of
the suitcases.  Alia watched as Fox reclaimed the other three as he and Morgan
prepared to move out to the curb. 

“Fox,” Alia took
a few steps towards them, her voice firm and in control. “If I were you, I
would listen to what I have to say. I understand you have a papyrus with you
and with one call to Customs I could have you arrested for smuggling artifacts
out of the country. I wonder how that would affect your career and the Bolton’s
reputation?”

Morgan froze,
her big eyes on Fox.  He looked at his wife, calculating the situation, before
turning to Alia. “It belongs to us.”

“Can you prove
it?”

“Can you prove
it doesn’t?”

Alia shrugged.
“It will not harm my reputation in the least to try,” she said. “I will look
like a crusader for Egyptian culture. But it will destroy your reputation to
fight it and you know it.”

His jaw began to
tick as his patience slipped. “All right, then,” he said with strained temper.
“I’ll ask the obvious question; what is it that you want?”

Alia smiled.
“Let us speak of this in private.”

“We’ll speak of
it now. What do you want?”

Alia’s smile
wavered. “Why are you so rude to me? What did I ever do to you that would make
you treat me so poorly?”

Morgan grunted
and rolled her eyes but Fox stopped her from saying anything.  He struggled to
remain patient. “What do you want from me?” he demanded. “Hurry up; I have a
plane to catch.”

Alia’s smile
vanished completely as she came to realize he wasn’t going to get into a deep
conversation with her. It began to feed her psychosis. “You’re going to a
funeral, I’m told,” she said coldly.

Fox nodded, not
wanting to tread on fragile ground with this line of conversation, fearful of
how Morgan would react. “Yes,” he replied. “You still haven’t told me what you
want from me.”

Alia began to
grow incensed, hurt and rejected all rolled into one.  Her gaze moved from Fox
to the small woman beside him. The woman who had everything Alia wanted.  The
mere sight of her fed Alia’s unreasonable jealousy.

“You will tell
me what you were digging for,” she lowered her voice. “Were you following the
clues on the papyrus? Were you truly looking for Isis’ tomb?”

Fox could see
she was slipping and it bolstered his confidence. “By the way, it was very
professional of you to steal the journal from my wife’s bag,” he said with
disgust. “Pretending to help us search for it was quite a performance when you
knew where it was the entire time.”

Alia cleared her
throat softly. “Nothing happened to it. It was returned safely.”

“Then you admit
you stole it.”

“I borrowed it.”

He sighed
heavily. “If I had wanted you to know everything, I would have told you. You
had no right to steal something that didn’t belong to you.”

Alia shifted on
her feet, increasingly uncomfortable. “Just tell me if you found what you were looking
for. Did you find Isis’ tomb?”

Fox shook his
head without hesitation. “I’m not telling you anything. We need to go.”

Alia’s jaw began
to tick and she stomped a foot. “Give me that papyrus. I want it.”

“Why?”

“Because it
belongs in Egypt. You have no right to it.”

“And you do?

“Give it to me
or I’ll have you arrested for stealing artifacts.”

“But I didn’t
steal it,” he countered calmly. “It belongs to my wife’s family.  I can get an
oath of affirmation from the dealer who sold it to her family that it is
legally ours. He has the sales records to confirm this. I can prove everything,
so do you really want to drag me through the dirt?”

Alia was growing
increasingly unsteady. “I should have been assisting you,” she seethed, looking
at Morgan. “We should have done this together, you and I. But instead, you
married this… this stupid American woman. Why is she better than me?”

Morgan had had
enough.  She began to roll back the sleeves of her jacket. “Sister,” she
growled, “do you really want to go there with me? I’ll take you apart piece by
piece.”

Fox found
himself calming his wife down before she flew at Alia. Hands on Morgan’s balled
fist, he looked at Alia.

“Alia, I want
you to listen very carefully to me,” he said, his voice low. “What I do and who
I do it with is none of your business. I do not have any feelings for you, nor
did I ever.  The three months we spent dating was just a fling. It didn’t mean
a thing to me.  There is no chance for you and I, now or ever.  Even if Morgan
wasn’t in the picture, there wouldn’t be a chance for me and you.  I am not
interested in you. I don’t have feelings for you. I never will.  So do what you
have to do, but Morgan and I are leaving for Cairo now to attend a funeral and
I don’t ever want to see or hear from you again. Is that clear?”

By this time,
Alia was staring at him with an ashen face.  “You’ll be sorry, Fox,” she
hissed. “I want that papyrus.”

He just stared
at her; very little about what he had said had made an impact, or so he
thought.  He finally shook his head.

“I’m not going
to have this discussion with you,” he said. “If you really want it, we’ll be in
Cairo.”

“Then I’ll get
it in Cairo before you can leave the country with it,” she snarled. “I will
make your life miserable, do you hear me? I’ll pull the authorities in on this
and I’ll ruin you!”

Fox just stared
at her.  Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.  Turning
the display towards Alia, he hit the speaker button.

“Did you get all
of that, Mrs. Moberley?” he asked.