Smokescreen Page 26

  “Not my statue.” Her eyes were blazing. “Stolen? What really happened to it? Dobran loved it, he wouldn’t have let it be stolen, and certainly not purchased.”

  “Maybe not. I’m leaning toward agreeing with you. We have the murder of my very talented sniper to consider. As I said, something weird happened up there last night. We might not have been the only ones who were after Dobran, and that’s much more threatening than anyone’s taking your statue.”

  “Then you should have gotten all this taken care of before anyone else had a chance to go after Dobran or my statue. I told you enough times that I wanted it done.”

  “Forget the statue!” He suddenly hurled his glass across the room to crash against the wall. Then his hands were around her throat. “You listen to me,” he hissed. “You’re not stupid. I wouldn’t have gotten on your merry-go-round if I’d thought you were. Now stop acting as if you’re an imbecile. I might have saved us both by taking out Dobran last night, but it might be too late if someone is onto us and got to him first. We’ve got to think about saving our asses.”

  His grip was bruising her throat. For an instant, she was feeling panic mixed with her fury. He always liked to hurt her. She knew how brutal he could be. “Let me go, Varak. How dare you speak to me this way. Stupid? I’m the one who had you brought to me when you were only one of Botzan’s dirty mercenaries. I gave you the chance to come out of this war alive and richer than you ever dreamed.” She stared him in the eye. “I’ve protected you, hidden you. I’ve done everything for you, and I’ve only asked you to do a few small things to keep our heads above water during a difficult time.”

  “A few ‘small’ things?” His thumbs pressed harder into her neck. “Play a double game and attack when and where you told me? Help you to set up your fancy image with the U.N., so they’d choose you to run this son of a bitch of a country?” He bent his head and his tongue touched the hollow of her throat. He whispered, “And make certain that papa dearest was killed in a timely manner so that you could take over the presidency?”

  She inhaled sharply. “I did what was necessary. He wouldn’t listen to me. He wanted to negotiate peace with them. You made no objection at the time.” She went on the attack. “And as long as you continue to cooperate, I’ll protect you…provided you protect me. But I won’t let you destroy what I’m building. I’ll get you out of Maldara as soon as it’s safe. Then all you’ll have to do is arrange to move my treasure safely out of Maldara for me, and I’ll give you the share I promised.”

  “If it even exists; you’ve never let me see it.” His fingers pressed harder. “I’m beginning to doubt you, Zahra. You don’t want that to happen.”

  “Don’t be foolish. It would be dangerous to take you there. I showed you the Great Beloved Wife, didn’t I? Dobran jumped at getting it. You could see how valuable it is.” She met his eyes. “I promise that as soon as I have the treasure secure, I’ll buy you an island somewhere, and you can set up your own little kingdom.”

  “You have it all planned.” He dropped his hands from around her throat. “But it’s my decision, and an island sounds boring. I liked the life I was living before you dropped into my world. When we split that treasure, I’ll look at my options.”

  That was what she was beginning to fear. She reached up and massaged the bruised flesh of her throat. The prick had hurt her this time. “I just want to keep you safe.”

  “I’m touched, Zahra.” His lips twisted. “But you’d do better to think about keeping us both safe by helping me find out what happened at Asarti.”

  “You said you’d take care of that.” She paused. “You really think that it might be more than just a theft? That someone knew that Dobran did the DNA?” She was getting more nervous as she thought about it. “It might not be so bad. No one could trace the statue to me. I took it from the treasure.”

  “You’re back to covering your ass.”

  She made an impatient gesture. “What are you going to do?”

  “My team at Asarti who slipped in with the firemen haven’t been able to get the security videotapes of the gallery yet. They’ll go back later and try again. That might tell us something. But that’s not all. Hassan Sebak has disappeared. We need to track him down.”

  “Sebak didn’t know about you. I made it a condition that the DNA remain absolutely confidential.” She shrugged. “But, by all means, go after him. He might have stolen my statue, and all this worry might be for nothing. Besides, we have to remain safe.”

  “I notice which one you put first,” he said sarcastically. “How nice of you to give me permission. But I’ve already set it in motion.” He turned away and stripped off his shirt. “Now take off your clothes and lie down on that couch.”

  She had half expected it. Her resistance always aroused a sexual response in Varak. On occasion, she had actually used it to stir the passion hotter. But that was when she had attempted to use sex to bind them tighter together, when she’d had hopes that Varak might be someone she could control as she hadn’t been able to control Gideon. But lately she had realized that Varak would not be controlled either, and the sex was only to subdue her.

  He snapped his fingers and repeated mockingly, “Take off your clothes, Zahra.”

  Arrogant bastard. She shook her head. “I have to get back to the palace.”

  “But our agreement is that I’m never to be without amusement out here in the wilds. Have you forgotten?”

  “I send you women to amuse you all the time.”

  “But I’m bored with them. They’re whores, and nothing is new or exciting. No matter what I do to them, they just accept it.” He smiled. “While you accept nothing without a battle. I want you to scream for me.”

  For a minute, she was tempted to pit her skill against his. But it was a struggle she was never sure she could win with him. She couldn’t afford to lose when so much was at stake. “Not now.” She turned to go. “But you enjoyed Dalai the last few times you had her. Fear is also exciting for you. I brought her with me in case I needed to negotiate.” She looked at him over her shoulder. “I imagine you have no trouble making her scream?”

  He smiled. “No trouble at all. She’s like a startled doe most of the time. But you’ve trained her well, she never says no. Though I always prefer your services.”

  “She’ll have to do. Don’t damage her too badly. She’s valuable to me. And I’ll need her back by tomorrow.”

  She opened the door and motioned for Dalai to come into the house.

  The girl was already tensing as she got out of the car, Zahra noticed. She had gone pale and was looking beyond Zahra at the open door.

  Panic.

  No, Varak would have no problem making her scream.

  * * *

  Robaku

  Jill called Novak the moment she walked out of the museum.

  He didn’t answer.

  She called again.

  No answer.

  And then again.

  He answered curtly, “What do you want, Jill?”

  “I need to talk to you. Quinn just kicked me out of the museum, and I can’t just sit and do nothing. Where are you?”

  “In the village. Hajif set me up with a vacant hut to use as an office, and I’m trying to coordinate the men I sent to Asarti to gather information.”

  “Can I help?”

  “No.”

  Time to eat crow. “I realize you’re pissed off at me, and you have a right to be.”

  “Damn straight.”

  “Quinn doesn’t trust you. Not me either, but I’m working on it.” She paused. “And I knew it would only be a couple hours delay. It didn’t seem too bad. What can I do to make it right with you?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “What can I do?” she repeated.

  “The eternal question with you.” He was suddenly walking toward her out of the brush and turning off his phone. “You should have stuck with Quinn. As you said, I’m more pissed off with you than he is right now.” />
  “It wasn’t really Quinn, it was Eve. I had to balance what she—” He had put his fingers over her lips, and she looked up at him, startled.

  “Hush,” he said. “I’m trying very hard not to confuse this anger with anything more emotional or sexual. But since it’s always there, it’s a factor. Along with the fact that I find myself oddly hurt that you didn’t trust me to handle this situation. That’s very weird in itself. But it will help if you don’t make excuses or tell me you owe me anything.” He took his fingers away. “Now why did Quinn kick you out?”

  Her lips still felt warm and tingling even though his touch was gone. “He wanted her to rest.” She moistened her lips. “I was just another disturbance.”

  “Yes, you are.” His lips twisted. “So he tossed you to me?”

  “No, he wouldn’t care where I went. She’s the only thing important to him. It’s kind of nice. Warm…” She met his gaze. “It was my choice to come to you, Novak. Because I do trust you.” She added simply, “How could I do anything else after what you’ve done for me? No matter how much you want your own way, you’d never do anything to hurt me. I’ll always come to you if you’ll let me.”

  He was silent. “Oh, shit.” He took a step toward her. Then he stopped abruptly. “You leave yourself wide open, dammit. You haven’t been paying any attention to what I’ve been saying to you, have you?”

  “Sure I have.” She smiled with an effort. “Some of it sort of scared me. I’m really not the kind of person anyone would obsess about. I don’t know what I’d do with you if I didn’t believe you’d probably change your mind before all this is over.”

  “I can offer suggestions,” he said thickly. “And you must be wrong because the obsession is definitely there.” He paused. “But there’s nothing I’d do to you that should scare you.”

  “You’re back to walking wounded again?” She shook her head in exasperation. “For Pete’s sake, it’s not about sex.” Though that was patently untrue. She couldn’t get near him without this feeling of heat and electricity. She drew a deep breath. “Is it okay if we don’t talk about this? I just wanted you to know that I do trust you. And it’s important that you not shut me out of anything when everything seems to be exploding around us.”

  “Heaven forbid that you miss one single minute of any combustion coming our way,” he said dryly.

  She nodded. “Heaven forbid,” she echoed quietly. “It’s my story, my responsibility, and if I don’t tell it, then it might not get told. And I brought Eve into this, and now Quinn is involved.” She made a face. “You might say I even brought you into this, Novak.”

  “The hell you did.”

  “I came to you. Just as I’m coming to you now. You turned me down then. Don’t turn me down this time.”

  He swore under his breath. “Low blow, Jill.”

  She nodded. “Yes. But I speak fluent Egyptian and Arabic. Can’t you use me to find out what’s happening in Cairo?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Novak.”

  “Hell, yes, I’ll use you,” he said roughly. “Haven’t I done that from the beginning? Quinn’s right, we’ve got to either eliminate or delay anyone’s finding out who killed that sniper and was in the château tonight. And we need time to get a plan together. Which means we have to get our hands on those gallery videotapes. I’ll see if I can patch you into the local Cairo police from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, and you can express concern that some of the antiquities on loan to Dobran might have also been stolen. In short, lie through your teeth and work your magic.”

  She nodded, frowning thoughtfully. “I can do that. But it might be better if I contact a friend of mine, Matt Kimbro, who’s a reporter for the Cairo Messenger and also does freelance. He knows most of the players in the government and police department. I worked with him during the nine months when I was covering riots in Cairo. He’s been there for years, and he knows where all the bodies are buried.” She grimaced. “And believe me, in Cairo, that’s a hell of a lot of bodies. He owes me a favor, and I could ask him to call a few people and maybe follow up with the police and security company.” She shrugged. “Or I could do both.”

  “Yes, you could.” His lips were quirking. “And probably will.” His smile faded. “And I’m glad there’s someone who owes you a favor instead of your being obsessed with payback.”

  “I’m not obsessed, there just has to be a code, or nothing makes sense.” She was taking out her phone and checking the directory. “And in my profession, I’ve found it’s always more valuable to have someone owe me. It just didn’t turn out that way with you.”

  “And why does this Kimbro owe you?”

  “I’ll never tell.” She grinned as she started to punch in Kimbro’s number. “Because that would be breaking the code.”

  “I’ll find out, you know,” he said softly. “I can always find out whatever I need to find out. And there’s nothing I’m not going to know about you, Jill.”

  “The CIA showing all its black hat–white hat power. You have a tendency to surround and conquer.” She met his eyes. “Did it occur to you that might be why you scare me? Who wants anyone to know everything about them? I’d feel smothered. Stay out of my private life, Novak.”

  He was silent. “I don’t know if I can.” He paused. “I’ll have to see how it works out.” He turned and headed back toward the village. “When you finish setting up Kimbro, come and let me know, and I’ll give you something else to do. I wouldn’t want to waste your talents.”

  * * *

  The long facial bones…

  Not right. But so close.

  Eve could see them before her even though her eyes were still shut. She moved restlessly on the cot as she realized how close…Just like the shape of those orbital cavities…

  Too close.

  It seemed impossible that all those details could be that identical and not actually be Varak. It didn’t make sense, Eve thought frantically. Had she done something wrong? They all thought she was perfect. But she wasn’t perfect, she could make mistakes. And what if Varak was the biggest mistake of her life? She had told them the reconstruction wasn’t Varak, but the resemblance was too close. It didn’t make sense. But what had she done wrong? Why had she made that mistake? Why were those orbital cavities—

  “The brother!” Eve’s lids flew open, and she sat bolt upright on the cot. “He has to be the brother.”

  “Shh, go back to sleep,” Joe said. “Nightmare?”

  “Only the same one that I’ve been living with while I’ve been doing this reconstruction. And I can’t go back to sleep. The minute I woke up, I started to worry about the shape of his damn eyes.” She threw aside the sheet and swung her feet to the floor. “When I was first looking at the photo of Varak, I thought that the reconstruction I had made had to be him. There were so many similarities. It was only when I actually compared them that I realized that I hadn’t been working on Varak’s skull.” She was moving across the museum to her worktable. “But I got caught up in the computer verification; and then Jill was upset with what you were forcing her to do about Novak. Things kept getting in my way.” She was dropping down on her stool and looking at the reconstruction. “And I didn’t make the connection. I should have made the connection, Joe. It was stupid of me not to realize who he was.”

  “And it only took five hours of sleep to send the stupidity packing.” Joe was on his feet and strolling toward her. “Before you start working again, don’t you think you should put on some clothes?”

  “I’m not going to work,” she said absently. “I just wanted to take one more look at him. I was so scared, I’d made a mistake. There was all that darkness and anger…And the bone-structure similarities. If you compare it with the photo, you can see it.”

  “I’ll accept your word for it.” He put his hands on her shoulders as he stood behind her, gazing down at the reconstruction. “The brother? You think this was Varak’s brother? He’s never been mentioned. I don’t rem
ember his even having a brother.”

  “I didn’t know either until Jill told me about him. He had no part in Varak’s life after he was a teenager. He was Varak’s younger brother, Oscar, and, as far as I know, they hadn’t seen each other for years. He was afraid of him because he’d been bullied all his life.” She shivered as she gazed at the reconstruction. “He had good reason to be afraid. There’s nothing more cold-blooded than choosing your own brother to die in your place.” She reached out and touched the orbital bone of the left eye with her finger. “But it was a clever choice. Not only was the bone structure similar, but even the DNA would have been similar if the minutest trace was found outside of Dobran’s work. Insurance, Joe.”

  “You’re fairly certain?”

  “It’s a very good bet.” She looked up at him. “And that’s going to help us, isn’t it? We needed to find out who he was before we could claim he wasn’t Varak. He was a murder victim, Joe. There’s a chance that there might have been a witness to it. Or at least someone might have seen Varak with Oscar during the period right before his supposed death.” She was trying to think of everything Jill had told her. “Johannesburg. His brother was supposed to have gone back home to Johannesburg after he split with Nils Varak. Can we trace him that way?”

  “I’ll trace him, you’ll stay out of it.” Joe held up his hand. “Look, you’ve done what you set out to do. No one is more dangerous than you to Varak now. You’ve shot holes in the fancy scenario he rigged up with Zahra Kiyani.” He shook his head as she started to speak. “And don’t tell me it doesn’t mean anything if the courts accept the DNA over your work. It does mean something because you’re so well respected. Why do you think Novak wanted you on his team? Jill might have wanted your expertise, but Novak knew that you could influence people and change minds. You’ll stir up a hornet’s nest, and Varak will come out and try to squash you before you do damage.”