by Lori Ryan
She turned now, leaning toward him so he had no choice but to look her way.
“By making my team decoys? You’re sticking them out there, but hiding me away?”
He shot her a look. “We’re not making them decoys. They’ll go out a different way. No one’s going out there in the open as a target. We’re going to keep all of you safe. I promise.”
He looked back to their surroundings, checking for anything suspicious. “Look, Eleanor, we have a job to do and we’re going to do it. Thanks to someone in your office or on your team, people knew you were coming here for what’s supposed to be a black op. I’m not about to let you travel with the team now. I’m not going to let them know when and where you’ll be.”
He looked back her way and saw her pale.
“You moved me to another room last night because my team knew what room I was supposed to sleep in?”
“Yeah,” he said, not expanding on that. He knew she wouldn’t believe one of them could be the person who was leaking her whereabouts and her mission for this trip.
She’d never want to think one of them could be guilty of betraying her on such a heinous level.
But he had to believe that. He and his team anticipated the worst before it got them killed.
And in this case, before it got her killed.
Chapter 13
Eleanor was more than happy with where things had gone during the morning’s talks. They were sitting down to eat now, which in theory wasn’t meant to be part of the negotiations, but this was as much a part of it for her as her one-on-one talks with Demir.
She needed to see more of his people and his organization.
She saw her Delta team, as she’d come to think of them, spread out around the perimeter of the large dining room they’d just entered. They hadn’t admitted to her that they were Delta but she’d checked with her boss on a last-minute call before the meeting this morning and she confirmed it.
Heath and his team were good at being present but slipping into the background when needed.
Not that Heath was ever really part of the background for her. She was aware of his presence in a way she wasn’t with the others on the team. She’d seen him shadowing her throughout the compound, always within shouting distance as they moved. He wasn’t wearing his sling today and the bandage on his arm was covered by a long-sleeved shirt. The stitches on his temple only served to make him look all the more threatening and scary.
Now, he took up a position not far from her and stood guard as she and Onur walked side-by-side.
The building they were in was the largest on the compound and could easily be considered a mansion with its size. There were large columns in many of the rooms, including this one, and beautiful tile mosaics. She was particularly fond of the carved wood doors and the courtyard with tiled fountain.
Eleanor knew from their research that the land and home had been in his family for several generations, but he’d built the rest of the buildings around this one in the last few years for his army. What had once been the family estate was now a paramilitary compound of sorts.
“Ms. Bonham, may I introduce my brother, Farid?” Onur raised a hand, drawing his younger brother over. No one could mistake the men for strangers. They both had dark looks and nearly matching eyes.
But there was something about Onur that Farid didn’t possess. Onur Demir had a smoothness to him. A refined presence and charisma that would allow him entry into circles she would guess Farid would struggle in.
Farid had a scar that ran from his temple to the corner of his mouth. He came forward and greeted her politely, bowing his head in acknowledgment rather than shaking her hand.
She nodded her head back. “It’s a pleasure.”
She and her team were introduced to the others, all leaders in Demir’s army. She was surprised to see many women at the top of his hierarchy, all of whom looked like they could give her Deltas a run for their money.
She smiled as she thought of the Deltas as hers again. She wondered what the men would think of that.
As she kept up with the conversation around her, she went through the things she wanted to cover when she and Demir were back in private talks.
One of the things she wanted to assess was how Demir viewed Christian-Muslim relations. Under the current regime, Christians were often persecuted or at the very least discriminated against. She wanted to know if he would return that persecution ten-fold to the Muslims he and his followers would share this country with, or would he allow freedom of religion for all Kazarus citizens.
So far, she hadn’t spotted any Muslims in his camp, but that didn’t mean he was intolerant of them. And she certainly hadn’t met the entirety of his followers.
It wasn’t something her government needed to know, but she wanted the information as part of her personal assessment of where the negotiation was going. It would also help her get a sense of who he was and whether he could be trusted.
For the most part, Demir was as she’d expected. He was passionate about his cause and willing to do whatever it took to defeat the current regime in Kazarus. He was enigmatic and charming, which made sense given the number of people willing to follow him.
She had the feeling, though, that he was willing to be cruel to make sure he succeeded in his cause.
And there was something else under the surface, too. Something she wasn’t able to identify. Maybe it was a sense he was holding something back. She wasn’t sure, though. She needed more time with him.
“You are quiet, Ms. Bonham,” Demir said, leaning in. “Is the food to your liking?”
Eleanor nodded, covering her mouth with her hand as she finished chewing and swallowed. The rich sauces and tender meats were aromatic and delicious. “It’s wonderful. So much so that I’m forgetting my manners and ignoring you all for the food.”
Not true. She’d been too deep in thought.
Demir smiled and lifted a bowl with torn pieces of flat bread in it, holding it out to her. “My aunt is Lebanese. You must try her Man’ouche.”
Eleanor smiled as she took the offered bread and made a note of the fact his aunt was here in the compound with him.
Eleanor glanced at Demir’s brother. “Family is important to you.”
It was a statement but he treated it as a question and responded. “It is. Family is everything.” He placed the bread bowl back on the table and turned to her, his gaze intense. “The king—to him, family is nothing more than his bloodline, that which gives him what he considers his right to claim the throne. This is wrong. It is not as it should be. Family must be above all. They are your blood, your heart, and your soul.”
Eleanor nodded, hiding the pain she felt at his words. Her family was gone. Though she still had her stepfather and his wife and children in her life, her mother was gone. Her dad was gone. She had no grandparents alive on either side.
As she ate, she found herself envying what Demir had with his family. It was unlikely she’d ever have a family of her own again. It wasn’t like she was going to find a man and fall in love. Not with the way she was so focused on her career. She just didn’t have the bandwidth for something serious.
Her thoughts flew immediately to Heath but she shoved the idea aside. He didn’t have room for a woman in his life either. That was clear.
A woman approached from Demir’s other side and spoke to his brother quietly. Eleanor saw his brother lean in to speak to Demir, but she was still surprised by Demir’s words when he turned to her.
“I am afraid I must cut today’s session short. I have something to see to that requires my urgent attention. We’ll resume in the morning.”
He wasn’t asking her if that was okay, but still, she chose to answer as though he had.
“That will work for us.” She gave a nod and smiled, though on the inside, she was wondering what had happened to cause the sudden cancellation.
It was definitely unusual for someone to interrupt talks of this nature and the move made her questio
n where the talks were going.
She saw Heath step toward her and knew he must have noticed the exchange. She gave a minuscule shake of her head as she and Demir stood. Her team knew better than to react publicly to any move by someone they were negotiating with so she knew they would take it in stride. Still, she would want their take on this when they got out of here.
Heath had moved in behind her and she turned to him. “We’ll be heading back to the hotel for the afternoon and evening. Can you please make any necessary arrangements with your team?”
He gave a nod and stepped to the side, talking into his comms.
“Mr. Demir, we’ll see you in the morning, then?”
He gave a nod and then he was gone, his brother and two of the people she knew to be close advisors of his behind him. Two members of his security staff approached.
“We’ll show you and your team out,” one of them said with no expression in his face or tone.
When they were loaded into the SUVs—this time with Heath and her leaving with the rest of the convoy since they didn’t have much choice in the matter—Heath was the first to ask.
“What the hell was that about?” He was looking at Merlin, who was driving the car.
“No idea,” Merlin said, “but I’ve sent Duff to tail him and see where he goes.”
“Any word of an attack or something we need to be aware of?” Eleanor asked, hoping if there was, that Heath’s people would know about it.
“Nothing we’ve heard anything about,” Merlin said as Heath pressed his leg closer to her and she wondered if the gesture was a subtle attempt to offer support.
She was glad he was circumspect. She appreciated that he respected the boundaries her career demanded. It was one thing if he didn’t care if his team knew, but her people didn’t need to know this was her high school boyfriend.
Eleanor looked to Beth in the third-row seat with Jangles.
Beth looked up from the tablet she’d been tapping on. “No news on our end. No one seems to know of anything that would cause him to put a halt to the talks.”
“Let’s not go spreading that rumor,” Eleanor said. “He didn’t truly put a halt to them. They’re going to continue in the morning.”
Beth flushed. “I didn’t mean…sorry,” she mumbled.
Eleanor waved off the woman’s worry. “Let’s just be careful how we talk about this. I’ll call Cheryl when we get to the hotel and see if she’s heard anything. Then we can rest before tomorrow and make sure this gets back on track in the morning.”
Heath pressed his leg to hers again and even though he was looking out the windows, scanning their surroundings, she had a feeling he’d done it on purpose.
Eleanor buried a smile. She didn’t want to admit, even to herself, how good it felt to have this man beside her again.
Chapter 14
Eleanor was glad to see Demir at the talks the following morning. Part of her had wondered if he might have decided to call this off with the way he’d run off the day before. She’d been half believing there would be a call to cancel everything and send her home.
The call hadn’t come though and she and her team were now at the compound, ready to resume talks.
“I hope everything turned out yesterday?” She started, hoping maybe she might get some clue as to why he’d skipped out so suddenly.
They still had no reports of any skirmishes with the ruling party or the Kazarus military. It was a big mystery and she didn’t like mysteries at all during a negotiation. It left her feeling off her footing and that was the worst way to be right now.
Demir gave her a superficial smile, but she could see strain at the edges of his eyes. Perhaps he was losing the support of his people? Maybe there was a split or faction forming she needed to be worried about?
“All is well, thank you.” He gestured into the room they’d used the day before. It was a small office with tall windows that lit it well and a few armchairs where she and Demir and the advisors who were sitting in on the talks would sit. Her assistant took a seat against the wall behind her, and Heath and Duff stationed themselves outside the door.
They took up talks with discussion of the military support the US government would provide.
He was looking for more than she’d offered of course, which she’d expected.
“Training won’t do us any good. Your people don’t know the region, they don’t know what we can accomplish. My men know this country, this land. They know how to fight. I need to see more weapons and technology from your government if we are to make this happen.”
Eleanor had a feeling the men standing guard outside the door would beg to differ with his statement. They fought in this region. They knew exactly what was involved.
Still, she was focused right now on keeping peaceful talks with Demir and moving things forward. When she needed to, she would argue the point with him. For now, she had other goals.
“We can discuss the support my government might be willing to provide when we’ve talked about a few other topics. We need to discuss the hostages you’re holding.”
She very carefully didn’t say she was willing to negotiate for their release. The US had made a careful distinction between negotiating with hostage takers and communicating with them. Communication was okay. Negotiation was not. Still, she wanted him to know that his action or inaction where they were concerned would affect the outcome of these talks.
He eyed her steadily, his face a blank and unreadable mask. “With the right incentive, I could be persuaded to release the US citizens.”
“France and the UK are our allies,” she reminded him.
“So you are here to speak for all three nations now?”
Eleanor didn’t let him rattle her. She smiled. “I speak for the US but I must consider the ways that any agreement we might reach here will affect all of our relationships, and that includes the relationships with our current allies. Surely you can’t expect us to throw over current allies for new ones. Were we so fickle, no one would want to align themselves with the US.”
She purposefully kept the possibility of them reaching an agreement here as just that: a possibility.
She went on. “In fact, I would think you would want to see our loyalty to those we have pledged to if you’re going to enter any kind of agreement with us.”
He smirked. “I’m not so naïve as to think you won’t also be pledging your backing to King Barrera and his so-called-president. The United States will be hedging its bets where Kazarus is concerned.”
Eleanor knew that Demir saw the president of Kazarus as nothing more than a puppet of the ruling monarchy, and he appeared to be correct in that assessment. From what their intelligence could gather, the president of Kazarus stood up and said what King Barrera wanted him to, when he wanted him to, and where he wanted him to.
Demir went on. “Your government will back both parties in Kazarus, making sure it has an ally in the event of either outcome of this war.”
“My government will put its weight behind those it believes will do the most good for it in the long term. At the moment, that’s looking like your party. We’d like to see a functioning successful democracy in place. We’d like that government to be strong enough to stand up to the terrorist groups preying on the people of your nation, taking advantage of the fact people are hungry and scared.”
She was using some of his own words they’d found in his writings to his people and the speeches he broadcast on the internet. If she was subtle about it, without outright mimicking his words, it would go a long way toward psychologically allying him with her.
“But to support your mission, to put the enormous weight of the US government squarely in your corner, I need to see that you are truly an ally. That means not holding any of our people or our allies’ people hostage for your cause. I need to see that you will be the power we hope you’ll be against terrorism in the region. That you’ll have the strength to stop arms being traded to Al Qaeda and ISIS or other groups t
hat mean us harm.”
She didn’t mention democracy again. The US people had this idyllic view of their government. They wanted to believe the government was going around the world preaching Christianity and democracy and all that. What her government cared about here was stopping the arms trade to terrorists who presented a threat to US citizens. The fact Demir was a Christian looking to put a democracy in place in Kazarus was immaterial to that end goal.
He smiled. “Let us discuss the hostages after lunch. For now, let’s talk about this military might you speak of.”
She smiled and shut him down. “If we’re going to talk about the hostages after lunch, I believe I’ll take an early lunch. My assistant and I had no time for breakfast this morning, so this works out well. We’ll go back to our hotel and return later to continue this discussion.” She stood and Beth did the same.
She didn’t care that they’d only been in the room thirty minutes. She wasn’t playing his game. She didn’t expect him to call her bluff and he didn’t.
And that was fine with her. She’d return after lunch. If he wasn’t ready to talk about the hostages then, she would end the talks for the day. She had time. She could take control of the talks and keep it.
She could and would. She had learned a long time ago not to let people walk all over her. She didn’t care if he was the head of one of the world’s largest guerrilla armies. She was only moving forward with these negotiations on her terms.
Chapter 15
“You hear Nan and Ris are planning to go private when they finish their tours this month?” Heath asked as he and Duff stood outside the room where the talks were taking place. They’d cleared the small room when Eleanor entered. There were no other exits and the room was an interior room of the palace-like building so it didn’t have any windows.
He didn’t like being posted outside, but he was coping. Barely.
Duff grunted a response.
