On the Line (Special Ops) (4 page)

She refocused on the man in front of her and smiled warmly. “Well it is very nice to meet someone who has followed my career,” she hoped those were the right words. Just because he remembered her championship days did not mean he was following her career.

“My boss is a fan,” he smiled.

“Do I know your boss?”

He shook his head. “I do not believe you have met. Ammon is a very reclusive man.”

“Oh,” she said knowing that she sounded puzzled. If this Ammon guy was so reclusive then how was he following her career? The movies and anything televised she could understand, but the competitions were not televised. She mentally shrugged off her questions. It didn’t matter really.

He chuckled. “He has seen you dance. He is a very powerful man. He saw you for the first competition you took part in. He was in Morocco and stumbled upon the dancing while you were on stage. You captivated him with your beauty.”

She wasn’t sure what to say so she said nothing. She did do the math in her head. The first competition her parents allowed her to go to Morocco with Suspira for was when she was sixteen years old. She had come in third place that year, which Suspira told her was a huge accomplishment because she had gone up against the best belly dancers in the world. She went back the following year and came in second. It wasn’t until her third year, when she was nineteen years old, that she won first place and title.

“He has received recordings of your routines in the shows. He sent me to make them.”

“I didn’t realize they allowed cameras in the competition.”

“He is a very powerful man,” he reminded her.

“I see. And who are you?”

“I am Panhsj. I am not important. I am only he who does Ammon’s bidding.”

“Well you shouldn’t sell yourself short,” she said. “I am sure he wouldn’t get along without your service.” Like most bosses the man probably didn’t do much of anything for himself.

“I do much for him, but it is he who saved my life. I owe him everything. I will do anything for him.” He nodded. “I shall let you finish what you are doing. I am not in town much longer myself and I must make preparations to return to Egypt.”

“T
irooh wa tigi bis salaama!”

“
Shukrn.
You speak Egyptian Arabic,” he smiled like the Cheshire cat.

“I speak Moroccan Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic as well, but since you said you were from Egypt I assumed you preferred the Egyptian.” She hoped she hadn’t assumed wrong. She tried to use the correct Arabic for the region, but she was much more familiar with the Arabic spoken in Morocco since she spent the most time in that country during her travels.

“I speak the Moroccan as well,” he smiled. “You are very smart. You shall please,” he said. She looked at him trying to decipher what he meant. His English had been very good, but maybe not perfect. “
T
m
req ssalama,
Ceridwen.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she let out a slight nervous laugh. Why was he wishing her a peaceful trip? He did nothing more than smile at her before walking away. She watched him for a little while before shaking her head and going back to her work. She had two days left to revisit all the small details because Friday would be too crazy busy to have to worry about if she forgot something or not. She would have to get the room setup. She would have to make sure the sound system was ready. She would have to make sure the makeshift dressing rooms were stocked with whatever the ladies might need, yet have forgotten to bring with them. Usually somebody had extras of something and they could share, but Ariana still liked to be prepared for the just in case. Years of being back in those dressing rooms changing and prepping had taught her that even the most prepared person could forget something, or have something break and the backup break too. Dancers were usually helpful to each other. She had thought it wouldn’t be the case because competition could be fierce; dancers typically wanted to win, to have their dancing recognized for the greatness of it, so it would make sense if they were less likely to help the completion. That wasn’t the case at all. Even with her first international competition, where she was already well prepared, one of the older women back stage had taken the time to help her get her wardrobe situated in a way that would not cause her embarrassment later. She knew how to dress herself, but the costume was different, she would say, than what she was used to and there were some issues with the hook and eye feature of the top rather than the buttons she preferred. Thanks to the ladies she had enough pins placed in spots that would assure those slipping hooks and eyes would not cause her top to fall off during her routine.

“What makes you different?” Suspira had asked her once. Ariana didn’t understand the question so Suspira asked her again, this time she stipulated that she wanted to know what made her dancing different. Ariana smiled brightly and said, “because I don’t want to win.” Suspira had gasped, as if that was the wrong answer, but it was truth. She just loved to dance. She didn’t want to get out there and dance with winning as her goal. She wanted to go out there, feel the music and let her body interpret the poetic beauty of it, putting the musical heaven into a visual display that was beautiful and heartfelt. Ariana saw the same qualities in Zahara. If Zahara had started dancing when she was five Ariana would bet she would have been the next six time American champion for the Belly Dance Universe competitions.

“Hey, I am here to help.” Zahara nearly skipped into the room.

“I was just thinking about you,” Ariana smiled. “What are you doing here? I thought you had to work today.”

“I went; I worked; I finished early. Now I am here to help. Put me to work belly dance goddess,” she bowed her head in respect and Ariana laughed hard.

“Well I could use a little help keeping my sanity,” she admitted. “I want to make sure this is as perfect as it can be.”

“It will be.” She patted her shoulder. “Let’s talk constellational setup.”

“What?”

“We can set up the room the way the heavens are set up and you’ll have great angular views no matter where the guests are sitting.”

“I knew I needed you for a reason,” she said. “You’re the only person I know who would think of that. I was thinking the standard round tables in the usual setting, but your plan could work.” Maybe she should take Zahara’s advice on more than just the seating arrangements. Maybe she really should get in touch with Preston. Of course she would have to arrange a meeting so she didn’t appear to be desperate to see him. It would have to look purely accidental, that way if things didn’t look promising she could walk away with her head held high and he wouldn’t know how much she really wanted to see him again. It would have to wait until after the show. She had to get through this first, but maybe in a few weeks she could just happen to be in Austin, not too far from his offices. Right; how was she going to manage that? No, if she wanted to arrange an accidental meeting she was going to have to come up with something better than that. After the show, she told herself. After the show she would come up with a plan that would work.

Chapter Four

P
reston awoke literally
with his hands shackled to a stone wall. He remembered arriving in Egypt. He remembered meeting with his contact, getting a few weapons and heading out towards the Temple under the guise of being a tourist. And as he started to regain clarity he remembered finding the package, what he thought was the package anyway. Identical twins, she had said, but instead of Jules it was Victoria and she shot him with that darn Taser. Great, he went to rescue the hostage and became the hostage himself. What he didn’t know was the reason for her betrayal—she had set him up.

 
He knew there really was a twin because he had done his research. She hadn’t lied about her sister. She hadn’t lied about her sister’s last known location. Were they both in on it together, or was Jules just a pawn in some demented woman’s game. Right now the why portion of the situation really didn’t matter. What he needed to do was focus on how he was going to get out of this mess. After he got out of it he could figure out who he was going to have to make pay for this. Victoria couldn’t have been working alone. She had to be doing this with somebody or for somebody. He didn’t know the woman. He didn’t have any history with her. As far as he knew he didn’t have any history with any of her associates either—and even if he did it couldn’t be a history that would make a rich socialite do this to him. Or could it?

“Forget the why,” he mumbled. “Focus on getting out of here.” The guys wouldn’t miss him right off, not until he missed check in. Since they all knew the drill they all knew there were times when check in wasn’t possible. He was stuck here for probably two days without anybody even thinking to look for him. Two days left too much room for something to turn deadly.

The locks on the door rattled. Somebody was coming to pay him a visit, he mused. What would it be this time; torture, a beating while he was shackled with his arms spread open? He was ready for it. He had endured torture before and he could do it again.

He was expecting some barbarian of a man to walk in, but all he got was a traitorous blond.

“Mr. Strauss,” Victoria walked toward him, her ill-fitting to the surroundings golden stilettos clacked against the stone floor. “I bet you’re wondering what’s going on aren’t you?” She had a hint of humor in her voice. He saw no humor to the present situation.

“You lied to me,” he said. “What’s to wonder about,” he shrugged the best he could given his position. He refused to show her any sign that she had unnerved him, that the situation had unnerved him.

“I didn’t lie—not really. My sister is in Egypt…sort of anyway. She came over for reporting, as I said. She was rescued while she was down here. A very handsome man with a lot of money and a lot of power,” she smiled. She has joined his harem, and is willing to do anything to please him.”

“And what about you; have you joined his harem too?”

She laughed. “No. But I like money. My business is going under. My father has cut me off and a girl can’t live on just a million dollars. This guy is offering me a world of wealth and all I had to do was deliver you.”

“So you sold your soul did you?”

“No,” she laughed. “I sold yours. He will be here in two weeks time. There are other things he must acquire first, but once he does you will go back to his palace where he will have his revenge. Make yourself comfortable Mr. Strauss, if you can.” She laughed as she left him alone once again.

“Women,” he mumbled. Women always seemed to keep betraying him. Of course Ariana’s betrayal wasn’t anything like this. She would have never done this to him and he knew that. But she had left him. She had sent him papers for divorce without even talking to him first. Why was he even thinking about trying to reconnect with her in the first place? Women were the same, at least that’s how he was writing them off in his book now. They may have different degrees of crazy, but they were all still crazy. Of course if he followed that logic he would have to apply it to men too. Clearly it was a man holding a grudge against him for some reason—whatever it was it was reason enough to go through the elaborate scheme of using two American women to set him up.

He laughed. Victoria may think she was going to take home the bank but he had news for her; a man willing to use two women to meet his end goal was the same kind of man who would kill them once he was done using them. Victoria and her sister were no longer his concern. If they died they just died because he wasn’t risking his neck to get them out of there. They deserved whatever hell they went through because they had created the situation for themselves. There was no way he was going to help either of them get out of Egypt…or wherever they had him held up. He would guess he was still in Egypt, but since he couldn’t see out the hip width barred window he couldn’t be sure. It was a higher window and if he were standing he would have no trouble looking out at his surroundings, but he wasn’t standing and he had no way to stand up and just take a look so he was left guessing. Being honest he would say he wasn’t sure what day it was either. There was no guarantee that they hadn’t drugged him after using the Taser to knock him out.

He looked over to the corner of the room where the toilet had been installed. At least he would be able to use the toilet if they unshackled him long enough to do it. If they took the shackles off for even a second he was going to make his break for it—provided he had the chance. Anybody who went through this much trouble to get him wouldn’t be dumb enough to take chances. He would have to formulate a contingency plan in case his plan
A
didn’t work out. With his current luck he would say the chances of plan
A
flopping were high, so that emergency backup plan was going to be crucial. Making a break for freedom wouldn’t work if somebody shut him down before he even got to the door. He figured they would have guns. He wasn’t sure what kind, but if he could get one then he could use it. He was trained with weapons and he had no problem using whatever came his way. He was the weapons expert after all. They could bring whatever they had at him. He was retired Air Force but he wouldn’t sit by and surrender to the enemy. He would fight for freedom even if he died in the process. It would seem death was what they had in mind for him anyway. He would assume the man who had orchestrated this wanted to be the one to kill him, so at least he had some time…unless somebody with a twitchy finger controlled the trigger and then he just might get killed before the bastard even arrived. He would take his chances. Freedom meant the world to him; and he planned to reclaim his.

“Hi, Jet.” Natalia gave him a devious smile. “How’s Akira?”

“Shut up,” he smirked.

“Well you are fashionably late today…again.”

Jet chuckled. He had only been “fashionably late,” as Natalia liked to call it, three times in the past two months. He would admit that was out of character for him. He was never late. Technically since they didn’t have set schedules he still wasn’t late, but he was behind his normal schedule. Normally he was in by eight in the morning and today it was closer to ten o’clock.

Akira hadn’t been very willing to let him leave the bed this morning, and she hadn’t let him get much sleep last night either. He wasn’t complaining. He wanted to pleasure her body all night long so that’s what he did. Eventually they drifted off to sleep. It was seven when he awakened. He was ready to shower and get off to work, but she had other plans. She pulled him back into bed and got him between her legs. Then, of course, they had to shower together. It made more sense to be environmentally sound and not waste water with separate showers so they showered together. That had been a mistake, as usual, because a simple shower had turned him on so much that he had to have her in there too. They had finally managed to get dressed but one kiss nearly led to being naked again until she pushed him away and told him to go to work. She had to go to her parents’ place and then she was going into the rink to skate for the day. He wished he could have gone with her, but he did have to work.

Preston hadn’t checked in on Thursday night as planned. The second check in would be today and if he didn’t check in then they were going to have to go do recon and find him. They were all used to not being able to check in at the first check in time, but
 
if anybody missed the first check in the rules had changed after Micah’s missing in action event and they all knew to check in as soon as they could, even if that was before the second check in time. Preston hadn’t done that. If he didn’t check in today they were going to have to put something together, book a flight and get to Egypt. Maybe they should take the plane; it would make for a fast in and a fast out
 
if they needed it, but at the same time if Preston were in trouble it was going to be a three man mission and there wouldn’t be anybody to stay with the jet. Julian wasn’t available. He was on his last leg before retirement and he couldn’t escape duty to help them out this time. Either Jet or Micah would have to fly which meant one of them would have to stay with the plane while the other two went off on the rescue mission. Complicating things was that they would still need to find Victoria’s sister.

“I was just thinking has anybody heard from Victoria yet? She was calling every day up until Preston’s departure.”

Natalia shook her head no. “Either she has a huge crush on the man and was just calling to hear his voice or there was a sale at Neiman Marcus.” She laughed.

“Her sister is missing.”

She shrugged. “I don’t trust her. I think she has an agenda. So I stand by my huge crush on the man for all the phone calls, or a sale has distracted her so much that she’s not thinking about the rescue mission.”

“Those are your only options?”

“No…but I don’t typically think the worst of people…”

Alex stepped out of his office, along with Micah out of his own. “Spill it,” Alex said.

“I don’t know. I can’t explain it, but there is something about her that just…rubs me the wrong way. It’s not because she’s tall, thin and beautiful either…she’s just…je ne sais quoi,” she admitted.

Micah growled. “Alex, try to raise Preston. If you can’t get him go through the files and get his contact. I don’t care what time it is there, just get me somebody.”

Since Micah had vanished on them that one time they hadn’t taken any chances. The check in times came more frequent than they had before. None of them wanted to sit back and think the worst outcome of the situation so they put revised procedures in place. Jet knew they all respected and loved Preston. None of them were willing to sit back and wait for the second check in, not if Natalia’s gut feeling painted Victoria as a potential stalker, a shopping obsessed woman or something worse.

The “I don’t know what,” part of Natalia’s statement had been the tipping point. She was an excellent judge of character and they all knew that. She had painted the last woman who tried to get Preston’s attention as a “gold digging hussy,” and she had been right. A little background check and Micah had found two ex-husbands who had gone bankrupt in their divorce—as in she cleaned them out and then divorced them and took what was left—after only three years of marriage to each man. There was no way any of them were letting Preston walk into that trap. Actually they shouldn’t have been worried because they all knew the man wasn’t even thinking of getting married, but a few minutes of fun with a woman like that could strap him with child support for the rest of his natural days. They hadn’t seen the threat, but Natalia had.

She had seen something else too, something they all suspected, but never really said anything about. She had seen how bad Carissa was for Alex. The fact that he hadn’t stopped calling her the package was a clue to them that he wasn’t happy enough in the relationship for commitment, that he was trying to keep his distance, but Natalia had noticed something more. When he came back from an event his family was throwing and he nearly locked himself in his office and wouldn’t talk to them she had been the only one he let in. She told him then, just as she had told them, Carissa wasn’t the woman for him. “A good woman,” she had said, “one who loves him would defend him to his family, not take their side and imply that he could make a bigger name for himself if he created his own company.” Alex was happy where he was. They all knew that, but for some reason his family and Carissa saw bigger dollar signs for him, something more prestigious. “What do you want, Alex?” She had asked him when he finally did return to one of their night outs. He had told her he wanted somebody who could appreciate him for who he was, what he did, and not try to change him—to not think so little of him, but to respect him. “Then wait for the right woman to come in your life who embodies all those things. Respect her, cherish her, support her, and demand the same from her. If she loves you; if she’s right for you, she’ll give you all those things without asking you if you want her to.”