Biting her lip, she merged onto the highway and headed north toward Baltimore. There was a small part of her that still longed for the dream of a home and family. It was never going to look like she had expected, but maybe it never would have. Certainly her home and family with Asif as a husband would have been horrible. It would have never been fulfilling in the way that she wished. Maybe what she wanted just wasn’t possible in the real world.
SPARKS CROUCHED IN the dark with his eyes closed. He couldn’t see anything anyway. In the meantime, he was attempting to use his other senses to figure out where he was. He didn’t think he’d been moved from the airport. In fact, he was almost certain that the conversation he had overheard between the guards about Asif being AWOL was the only reason they hadn’t bundled him into the cargo hold of the plane and left the country. For Sparks’s part, he was hoping the little shit stayed lost. Or maybe Bones and the others had gone through with their plan to kidnap Asif for use as leverage against Hasim and Jabar.
Jabar. The little puzzle kept his mind busy enough that he could focus on something other than the pain he was feeling. He had dislocated a shoulder before. Several times, in fact. It had never felt like it did now. The pain was immense. But at least that overrode the horrible feeling in his feet. He couldn’t see his toes and didn’t want to. In fact, he was crouching with his feet flat on the ground because it was far less painful to keep pressure on his feet. When he attempted to pick them up the throbbing sensation stole his breath away.
Jabar. He needed to keep his mind on that. What would make Hasim so unconcerned about his beloved brother’s death that he actually left the body behind like garbage?
“Hello, my friend.” Hasim’s low, lightly accented voice drifted through the darkness. There was a click, and then a pinprick of light from a lighter as Hasim lit his cheroot. The spicy scent of a Turkish cigarette made Sparks’s nose twitch. “How are you feeling?”
“Curious.” Sparks forced himself to speak in a normal, almost bored tone of voice.
“Curious?” Hasim moved. Sparks could hear him, and tried to follow the origin of the cigarette smoke to figure out where he was in the room. “Why would you be curious?”
“You left Jabar’s body behind.” Sparks gathered himself and waited. If Hasim thought he was going to take the SEAL unawares, he needed to think again. “We’ve always assumed that Jabar was the brains of the operation, you know? I just can’t imagine a reason why you would want to get rid of the smart one.”
The deliberate jab had its effect. Hasim let out a low, animalistic noise. “You know nothing!”
“I know that your operation isn’t necessary to your financial standing,” Sparks mused. “I know that you seem determined to keep up the human trafficking more because it amuses you than because it turns a profit. You know the government can’t do anything to violate your diplomatic immunity, and yet you also must realize that once the people in your organization, your investors, and your customer base are eliminated, you will be finished here.”
“You assume much,” Hasim spat. “Especially for a man who is going to be begging me to kill him before this is all over.”
“Big words,” Sparks taunted. “Especially from a man who has tortured his opponent before he fights him. What? Were you afraid to face me uninjured, with the lights on? That’s okay. I get it. Your type isn’t used to fighting your own battles anyway. You just hire it done, stand in the background, and pretend to be a man.”
JAI BOUNCED HER way past the small regional airport’s security checkpoint. She didn’t even stop. There wasn’t a man in the booth anyway. She wondered if smaller airports like this were always so unguarded, or if Hasim had something to do with the complete lack of security.
There was no having to guess which plane belonged to the Armeen al Sauds. The Gulfstream jet was sleek and looked luxurious. She could imagine that the inside was tricked out like a mansion. Perhaps there was even a harem room inside. She drove the truck directly toward the plane. There was a hangar off to the right side as she approached. She saw several men spilling out of the building as she got closer. They were obviously alarmed by her presence. Good. They should have been.
For just one moment Jaipriya had a strange whirlwind thought that if someone had told this story to her ten days ago, about a life that had spun this far out of control, she would have thought they were talking about a really bad movie. But this was all very real. She was about to try a hostage negotiation.
Parking the truck about fifty yards out, Jai took the gun that she’d found in Sparks’s glove compartment and checked the bullets just like Tasha had showed her. She had a full clip and an extra in her hip pocket. She pulled the slide—a far more difficult task than one might think—and put a bullet in the chamber. Then she put the safety back on and prepared for the biggest acting role of her life.
Asif was kicking the tailgate of the truck when she went around to get him out. From the corner of her eye she could see Hasim’s men approaching. She had to hurry. That meant Asif the idiot had to cooperate.
“Stop being an ass,” she told him. “I have a loaded gun, and your brother already got rid of Jabar, so I’m not even sure he’d give a shit if I shot you.”
Asif froze. “Jabar is dead?”
“I thought you said you knew Hasim wanted to get rid of him.” She pulled the tailgate down and yanked Asif out of the bed of the truck.
As soon as Asif came into view, the men stopped approaching. In fact, they began backing warily toward the jet as though they were afraid to crowd her and make her nervous. Good. They thought she was going to panic and shoot him. That worked to her advantage.
“Listen,” Asif said quickly. “You have to get me out of here.”
“Ha!” Jai crowed. “Not bloody likely. I’m going to trade you for my friend.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Asif told her dismissively. “You can’t do that sort of thing. You’re too weak.”
“If that’s not hypocritical, I don’t know what is,” she groused. “You just asked me to take you away from here to save your life, but I’m too weak to make an exchange? Shut up. You’re really annoying.”
She pressed the gun to his head and prepared to make her stand.
“HASIM!”
Sparks felt the knot in his gut relax just a fraction when he heard someone start pounding on a door just outside this dark little hole. Hasim groaned and cursed in Arabic before he stomped his way back to the entry point.
Then he flung open the door. “What?”
The flash of light from the outside briefly dazzled Sparks’s vision. There was a stabbing pain behind his eyes before his pupils caught up and he was able to make out anything of what was going on.
“Jaipriya Bhatia is here,” the man on the other side of the door said hurriedly. “She has a gun to Asif’s head.”
Jaipriya had a gun to Asif’s head? Sparks didn’t know whether to burst with pride or die of terror for her safety. He’d always known she had grit, but this was insane.
“So kill her!”
“She’s got her finger on the trigger. She’ll kill him.”
“And we care why?” Hasim asked grouchily.
The man cast a glance in Sparks’s direction. “Your father, sir.”
“Fuck,” Hasim muttered. “You’re right. Stay here and keep an eye on him.”
The man looked doubtful. “Is he tied?”
“No. He’s been tortured. He’s not going anywhere.” Hasim’s derisive tone said he thought the man a coward for even asking.
The guy didn’t follow his instincts, a decision that Sparks was about to take full advantage of. He waited until Hasim strode away, presumably to handle the Asif/Jaipriya situation. The other man started to enter the room, but Sparks could tell he was uncomfortable with the utter darkness. He put a foot inside, and then backed out again.
Just as he was about to shut the door, likely with the intention of watching Sparks from the outside, Sparks sprinted toward
the doorway. He ignored the screaming pain from his feet and the protest of his shoulders. That did not matter. None of it did. Either he was going to get out right now, or he was going to die in this hole.
Sparks hit the man like a freight train. He yanked the smaller Arab back into the dark room and pivoted on his feet to put himself on the outside. With one neat move he had effectively swapped places with the little man. Then he shoved him deep into the darkness and slammed the door. A quick turn of the lock, and Sparks was free. Sort of.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jaipriya really wasn’t prepared for this hostage negotiation thing. It wasn’t like she’d taken a class at university that covered such a thing. She didn’t even watch crime shows on television like some of her friends. So when she found herself staring down six guards with a gun pressed to Asif’s temple, she almost couldn’t decide what to say. Sure, the SEALs had gone over possible strategies for this moment what seemed like a thousand times. But right now she couldn’t recall a single one of those conversations.
“You took a man from my father’s house,” she told the guards. “I saw you.”
The tallest guard raised an eyebrow. Apparently he was going to be the spokesperson. “Yes?”
“Tell Hasim I want that man back. Either he trades Sparks for Asif here, or I’m going to shoot Asif in the head.” Jai watched the men closely. They didn’t like that possibility at all. She pressed her advantage. “Then Hasim can explain to his father why two of his brothers didn’t return from this trip alive. I’m pretty sure Salim ibn Armeen al Saud won’t be pleased by that trimming of his family tree.”
It was funny, but Jai could tell she’d touched on a nerve. It had to involve their father. It had to. Hasim had already watched Jabar murdered with almost no emotion. If Hasim didn’t care about Jabar, then there was no way he could care about a useless piece of fluff like Asif. The baby prince was a useless playboy. That meant Hasim needed Asif alive to make his father happy. After all, it wasn’t like Asif would want to get involved in the business the way Jabar had.
The guard cleared his throat. “If you shoot Asif, you will have nothing left to bargain with. Then you will die and this will all be pointless.”
“I’m willing to deal with those consequences,” Jai bluffed. “Are you?”
The expression on the guard’s face suggested he hadn’t expected that from her at all. Good. She liked surprising people. She’d been doing a lot of it lately.
“Let’s calm down, shall we?” Hasim strode onto the scene. His posture reeked of arrogance, and even his walk seemed slimy.
Jai gazed around. Darkness had fallen. The tarmac was lit with floodlights from the hangar. The plane sat unobtrusively in the background, and she knew that somewhere around here, the rest of Sparks’s SEAL team was hiding as they waited for the perfect moment to pounce.
Anytime, guys.
“You’ve turned out to be quite a bit of trouble, you know,” Hasim said as he withdrew a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket. He pounded them against his palm before withdrawing one. “In fact, I find that I’m not entirely sure you’re an acceptable match for my younger brother anyway.” The smile Hasim flashed Jai made her ill. “Especially since I’m no longer concerned about a connection to your father.”
“Gee,” Jai said sarcastically, “do you really believe I’m concerned about the status of my arranged marriage to Asif?” She gave the baby prince a shake and felt him tremble with fear. No doubt he thought she’d lose her mind and accidentally shoot him.
“Which brings us to the current problem.” Hasim lit his cigarette and took a drag. “As much as I would like to be rid of my annoying younger brother in much the same way your father eliminated Jabar for me, I cannot allow that to happen. So, let him go, and I will go fetch your Navy SEAL.”
“Do I look stupid to you?” Jai shot back. “Go get my Navy SEAL, and then we’ll talk exchange.”
SPARKS STUMBLED DOWN the hallway toward the sights and smells of the airplane hangar. His ruined feet were screaming in protest with each step. He had no idea where he was going. He just knew he had to keep moving.
The short hallway abruptly opened into a cavernous hangar. There were no planes inside, but there were shipping containers. Sparks gaped in surprise. The brothers had been talking about cargo in Arabic. Jaipriya had told them that there was mention of cargo and something about waiting for it to be loaded. Was this what they had really been talking about? Were they so bold now that they were shipping trafficked women on their personal plane? It seemed preposterous! Or was this about a special piece of cargo?
Sparks shook his head. He lurched toward the containers. It was agony trying to get his arms to engage a large enough range of motion to even attempt opening the containers, but he had to do it. Each one was large enough to ship a good-sized motor vehicle. He shuddered to imagine what would happen if he discovered that they were full of women.
The container door squeaked in protest as he forced it open with a groan. He left bloody handprints on the metal, but that didn’t matter. He peered inside, feeling confused. It was empty. Was the cargo already loaded? What had it been? There was no sign of what might have once been inside the container.
He moved on to the next one. There was no time to stand around gaping at an empty hunk of metal. He struggled to get the clasp situated so that it would open. Finally it popped, and the door swung back.
There was a strange noise inside. Sparks peered in and saw the light flashing off of two sets of eyes. They blinked like wild animals in a cage. Sparks held out his hands to show he was no threat. There was no telling what these women had been through.
“Ladies, if you’re ready to go home, I think that can be arranged,” Sparks said gently.
There was a sob, and then he found himself barely able to stand as two women flung themselves out of the container and right at him. He staggered, caught his balance, and then realized that he now had two innocents to try to protect on his way out of this hellhole.
“I FEEL LIKE you’re lying to me,” Jaipriya told Hasim. “We’ve been standing here for at least five minutes, and you haven’t been able to produce my Navy SEAL. Shall I assume he managed to escape?”
“You might assume he did something stupid and is now dead,” Hasim said blandly.
One of the guards trotted up and whispered something in Hasim’s ear. He turned sharply and fired off rapid instructions in Arabic. He was essentially telling his men to lock down the hangar because they had an escaping prisoner. Jaipriya didn’t think it was in her best interest to let Hasim know that she spoke Arabic.
So she raised her brows and put on a mocking expression. “Problems, Hasim?”
“No. But I grow tired of this game.” Hasim started walking toward her. “You’re going to let go of Asif. You’re going to walk away. If you don’t, I’m going to put you in the next batch of women I ship to Nepal.”
She removed the gun from Asif’s temple, pointed at Hasim, and fired. No one was more surprised than she when her bullet hit the concrete right in front of Hasim’s feet and sent shards of cement flying in every direction. Hasim cursed and jumped back in obvious shock.
“You’ll kill someone!”
She snorted. “That’s rather the idea, don’t you think?”
“Let the gun go before we kill you,” Hasim ordered. “You’re here alone. You’ll die alone. I don’t think your mother can handle two deaths in as many days, do you?”
“No.” Jai gave him a sweet smile. “You think I’m alone, because you assumed that, and it makes you arrogant and a bit lazy.”
As if by prearrangement, Sparks’s team started melting out of the shadows around the edge of the airfield. All were armed, and all walked forward with confidence in their steps and menace in their gazes.
“See?” Jai teased Hasim. “You cannot make assumptions. It can end very badly.”
Hasim did look alarmed. “There are still more of us than of you.”
“Ye
s, but you’ve got most of your men scouring the airfield for Sparks,” Jai told him. “That means you’re nearly unprotected right here.”
Romero and Bones rushed the arrogant prince. Hasim tried to run, but they grabbed him. Then his guards swarmed onto the scene, and they had to let go. Romero, Bones, and Yates were busy, but Jai knew she had to find out what Hasim was up to before he did something awful, like shoot Sparks.
Hasim was already sprinting for a doorway in the hangar. Jai followed behind, hot on his heels. She kept the gun low and aimed at the ground as she ran. She hit the door and prayed it was not locked. It wasn’t. Yanking it open, she stepped inside the dark, gaping mouth of a hallway that seemed to lead nowhere.
“STAY RIGHT HERE and don’t move,” Sparks told the two shivering, half-dressed women.
They nodded, eyes huge. Sparks rummaged on a shelf, wishing that he had some wire, some C4, and maybe an old cell phone. He loved diversionary explosives, but this was going to have to be about as basic as a bomb could get.
He found a container of bleach, a bucket, some various cleaning solutions, and a container of pellets used to soak up fuel. He upended the bleach into the bucket, shoved the container of pellets into the puddle of bleach, and then poured some cleaning solution into the pellets. The bleach was already eating away at the thin plastic container of pellets. Soon the cleaning fluid-laden pellets with their already volatile chemical makeup would mingle with the bleach, and things would take off. It wasn’t going to blow a crater into the ground, but he could certainly make all the guards report to one location and get them out of his way.
He grabbed the hands of the two women and tugged them along behind him. “Let’s go. We need to hurry, or we’re going to get a whiff of something that’ll knock us on our asses.”
He was so tired. Sparks hated to imagine what sort of surgery was in store for him with these shoulders. Not to mention his feet. He was actually afraid to sit down and look at them. It hurt so bad he damn near wanted to sob like a baby.
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