On the Line (Special Ops) (7 page)

He ran his finger along the belly dance cuff attached to her upper arm. “Belly dance huh?”

She nodded. “Hmm, yeah,” she said as she tried to keep her voice from trembling. His finger against her skin felt so good. She wanted more.

“When did you start that?”

“I had some classes before I left. I took a few in Alaska, but not many. When I came back I went right to Ariana and joined her classes again. It’s just something I do…when I can…you know. I like it,” her voice was breathy as he kept running his finger along her arm. If he knew what that simple act was doing to her right now maybe he would stop. She didn’t want him to stop, but maybe she needed him to stop.

“You look good, Zahara. This looks very,” he looked her over once more, “very good on you.”

She laughed nervously. He had no idea what he was doing to her right now. “Thanks,” she finally found the words to say.

“We should get together when all this is over and catch up. I want to hear what you have been up to over the years.”

“I would like that,” she spoke softly because what she would really like would be to have him in the way she had always longed to have him. Of course she would rather be friends than be nothing at all to each other and it would seem that Alex still only saw her as a friend. Maybe he was dating somebody anyway. A man like Alex didn’t stay single long. He was good, and cute, and entirely sexy with a level head on his shoulders so any woman would be lucky to have him. Women were probably beating down his front door to be with him. She was contemplating if she should ask him or not when Jet and Micah came back into the room with a few manila folders. Jet pulled out a series of photos and handed them to her.

“Take your time,” he said. “Make sure you look at them carefully and let me know if anybody jumps out at you.”

She looked through picture after picture and while all the men had that dark hair, dark eyes, Middle Eastern look, none of them were the guy. She pulled the other folder over and looked through those with the same results. She sighed heavily as she pushed yet another folder away and then she pulled the third folder over and there he was, right there on the top of the pile. She didn’t know who the other guy was, but that one was definitely him.

“That’s him,” she said.

“Are you sure?” Micah asked.

“Of course I am sure. He only looked at me as if he were ready to kill me…either that or he liked what he saw. It’s kind of hard to tell when I’m worried about the unconscious woman in his arms.”

Alex growled low. Was she wrong to speak her mind? Maybe. Some guys didn’t like that, but she was not a wallflower when it came to standing up for herself—just when it came to getting the man she wanted apparently.

“Who is it?” Alex’s voice was low and gravely.

“Panhsj,” Jet said. “Ammon’s first lackey,” he nodded. “Damn,” he grumbled. “Pardon my language, ma’am.”

“I assumed you meant dam of the three letter persuasion and not the four letter kind,” she smiled. “But if you call me ma’am again we’re going to have a problem.”

He smiled at her and shook his head. “Nice woman,” he winked at Alex.

“Old friend,” Alex said which reminded Zahara once again where she stood with him. A woman could dream, but that didn’t mean her dreams would ever come true.

“Bad guy?” Zahara pointed to the picture. She was even more worried now.

“Very. Preston killed his brother on a previous mission, many years ago, and back in his military days, not while doing the search and rescue thing. Iran,” Jet said and the others nodded as if they knew something. She didn’t know anything more than what she currently knew and that was that Ariana seemed to be in some serious trouble here.

“Then they’ll kill her?” Zahara said. “Why else would they take her?”

“No,” Micah shook his head. “Preston and Ariana’s marriage ended well before the mission that led to Ammon’s brother’s death. Right now the only way you would know the two were married was if you either knew them way back when, either of them talked about it with anybody, or you searched way back in the marriage public record documents. I don’t think they know or they would have gone after her years ago.”

“Yeah, and why would anybody, if they did go through that much trouble to find out more about his life over eighteen years ago, actually go after her. He hasn’t seen her in years.” Alex added.

“Except,” Natalia stepped into the conference room; “the fact that Preston has been secretly going to her shows. He sits in the back and watches, but he always leaves and he never goes to her. I don’t know how they would pick up on that. There are so many other dancers that he could be there for anybody. He’s there for her so maybe the look on his face when she dances…maybe that’s the giveaway.”

It would seem maybe this Preston guy still had a thing for Ariana just as she had a thing for him too…unless he was just trying to keep up with how well, or unwell, his ex was doing. There were guys like that out there who would keep tabs for malicious reasons, but she didn’t think Preston was one of those guys.

“Then it could be…” The pounding on the front doors stopped Jet mid sentence.

“Cops,” Zahara said. “They’re the only people I know who knock like that. I did leave while they were talking with the security guard. They didn’t tell me I could leave. I flagged down a guy getting ready to park. He probably had a room there. If he had a room there then he went back and he told on me. They didn’t exactly give me permission to leave, but they didn’t exactly look as if they believed me much either.”

Jet nodded. “Natalia, be real slow about making your way around the corner to the reception area. Be real slow about opening the door too.”

She nodded. “I will go the long way. I do have to go to the bathroom you know.” She winked.

“Alex, take her out the back way. Take her back to your place because we need to lay low from her place for now. I have to see what I can do about getting us to Egypt.”

“I can handle that,” Zahara said.

“No, you’re not going.”

“Yes, I am. And if you want to be sure you get in without hassle I would suggest you let me help you. I have a friend with a dig site there and I know he’ll help us get in. I can’t guarantee the exit, but I can get us in, get us transport out to his dig and then I’ll get us transport away from there. Anything else you need you’re going to have to make other arrangements. The dig site now has guards, but they won’t be willing to give up their guns.”

Jet nodded. “If that’s the way we have to do it, then that’s the way we have to do it. Get going you two.”

Alex took her upper arm in his big hand and helped her up—more like mostly pulled her up because she was already springing to her feet. They swiftly left out the back and took the back stairwell down before getting in his little sports car. She hadn’t seen this car before, she figured he got it after she left or after they stopped spending a lot of time together. She couldn’t lie about the way things were. Their relationship had been on the rocks for a while. She tried to be supportive of his relationship with Kelly, but it just hurt so much and she just knew Kelly wasn’t right for him, not just because Zahara was in love with him, but because Kelly really hadn’t turned out to be the nice woman everybody thought she would be. While Zahara and Alex had still been friends there had been some distance, not a mountain and an ocean worth of distance, but some distance. And then, despite Alex and Kelly ending things she hadn’t heard from him while she was in Alaska and she figured it was because he didn’t want to speak with her. She had emailed him her new number. She had even asked her mom to make sure he had it just in case he had lost it. She asked that after three weeks had passed since her move and he hadn’t used the number. Of course back then he and Kelly hadn’t been broken up for that long so she figured maybe he didn’t want to have to remember her and hanging with Zahara might just remind him of the friend she used to have that he decided to date.

A few years had passed since they had seen each other, but it was nothing so major that they couldn’t pick up where they left off.
 
She had only spent two years in Alaska, and had been back in Texas for a year now. Her life seemed to be moving ahead swiftly. Her career was doing just fine and she was ahead of the game—farther ahead than many people thought she would be at this stage in her life. She hadn’t expected any less because her parents were driven, successful and near genius it seemed, in their professions. Anything less from her would have been a betrayal of the way they raised her and the education they gave her.

“You know Kelly and I broke up the same year you moved to Alaska,” he stated, not asked.

“I heard…that is I knew you might. She had something on the side in California—at least that’s what I found out when I went through on my way to interview for the Alaska job—it was my third interview, but it was my first in person interview. I told her she was wrong, that she had no right to hurt you like that. She said some things that hurt me and we stopped being friends. What happened to her after that I wasn’t really sure until now. I kind of put her out of my mind and my life and I moved onward.”

He nodded. “I tried to do the same. I ended up in a couple not so great relationships, one ended badly because she cheated on me too.”

“Gosh, Alex. You just sell yourself short too often. You can do so much better than somebody who doesn’t appreciate what she has.”

He laughed. “Yeah, where were you when I needed to hear that?” He chuckled playfully as he drove to his home in Hill Country. “Anyway, the other lady, Carissa…well, that just didn’t work out too well. I thought we might make something of us, but she seemed to side with my family more on what I should want for my life. They liked her though. She’s a successful business woman so of course they liked her.”

She laughed. “Well at least you were able to move on.”

“I’m not seeing anybody, Zahara.” He turned up a long drive. She hadn’t been to his home since he bought it. She knew he had bought one because her mother had let that little detail slip over one of their phone conversations.

“You’re still pining over her?”

“No. I’m over it. Enough time has passed, for me anyway, and I’m over it. Next time I’ll be smarter about it.”

“Yeah,” she mumbled. “Next time.” Next time probably wouldn’t be with her, no matter how much she wanted it to be.

“I can’t go to Egypt in this.”

“Natalia has you covered; trust me on that. She’ll get you something to wear. The two of you aren’t the same height, but I’m sure she can either find you something in her closet or get Micah to take her by the mall to get you whatever you need before the mall closes.”

She grinned. “Thank you. I’ll have to pay her back for this. My wearing this outfit to Egypt could get me killed.”

“Anybody wants to get to you they’ll have to go through me,” he said seriously—so seriously it sounded lethal—maybe it sounded so lethal because it was a threat of finality. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. “You should remember that about me, Zahara. Nobody messes with my friends and gets away with it.”

Friends
…that’s what they were, and that’s what she should get used to being. Why couldn’t he look at her the way those other men Ariana told her about looked at her? Ariana had sworn that her beauty attracted men. Why couldn’t it attract this man? She wanted him to notice. She was wearing such a reveling costume compared to the way he had seen her before and still he didn’t notice. Maybe she just wasn’t his type.