LITMIR.BIZ

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didn’t know that you left my number for the tower dump info,” she said.

      “My phone stays here,” he said, his voice husky with conflicting emotion, fear for Tara, desire for Kate. Only one of those emotions was acceptable and it seemed he could control neither. “I’ll take the satellite phone.”

      “I suppose I should have assumed that as we’re not taking your phone with us.”

      “Right. Zafir will be acting in my stead. Pretending to be me.”

      She paused as she read the message. She frowned. “The location changed slightly. Barb says the original call came from thirty miles southeast of Marrakech.” She scrolled down and then looked up.

      “We head out at first light exactly as we planned, nothing changes,” he said. “Anything else?”

      “I’d suggest we leave earlier. We could be going deep into the desert or not.” She shrugged. “It’s a crap shoot at this point and we don’t know what we might encounter. We can make up time on the highway at night, head in the general direction of that call. That way, if anything goes wrong or changes—we’re already on the road. I’d feel better about that. I’m sure you would, too.”

      Minutes passed and turned into an hour. The silence was becoming unbearable.

      Then Emir’s phone rang and he pulled it from his pocket and looked at the caller ID.

      “Faisal.”

      He was surprised, and yet oddly not, to see that it was his brother. Faisal was the only one in the family who hadn’t known about Tara. He guessed that was no longer the case.

      “Yeah,” he answered, thinking how few telephone conversations he had with Faisal except on a business level. They usually communicated by text. That fact alone told him that Faisal knew what had happened.

      “I heard about Tara, man.” There was tension and worry straining Faisal’s voice.

      Emir gripped the phone, wishing he had news, something to give his brother, hope for all of them. Faisal was close to Tara in ways neither he nor the rest of his brothers were. For Zafir and Emir, and even Talib, she had been the child they had raised. For Faisal, who was nearest in age, she was his childhood playmate and friend, and even now, as adults, they were close to each other. That was one of the key reasons why Emir didn’t trust Faisal not to go off on a mission to kill those who had taken his sister. As a result, they had delayed telling him.

      He’d meant to call in the minutes before he put together what was needed to take him and Kate safely into the desert, but Faisal had beat him to it. “How’d you find out?”

      “When were you going to tell me?”

      “Soon. I didn’t want...”

      “I had a right to know.”

      “I know and I would have...” He stopped. He’d waited too long. But what was done couldn’t be undone and justification wouldn’t change anything. “Who told you?”

      “Talib called.”

      “Talib,” he said, and his voice held little inflection as he fought a red cloud of anger. At another time he would have torn a strip off Talib for going against his wishes. But this was an emotional time for all of them. Faisal needed to be told. Emir had just wanted to ensure that the way Faisal heard wouldn’t set him off.

      “Where are you?” he asked, afraid to hear the answer, knowing that Faisal could be impulsive when it came to something this serious, especially if it involved Tara. His fist clenched and his temple pounded, and he didn’t want to hear the answer. His brother could be on a flight to Morocco for all Emir knew. That was the last thing they needed. Too many people looking and Tara could pay with her life. He turned, startled as a gentle hand touched his arm, and he was looking into blue eyes that reminded him of an azure sea. He took a step back, looked away from her mesmerizing eyes, unsure what to make of Kate’s touch, but her intent was clear. Calm down.

      “At home.” Faisal’s voice was strained. “But I’m debating if that’s smart, if...”

      Relief flooded through him that Faisal hadn’t boarded a plane and wasn’t halfway across the Atlantic on his way there. Hearing his voice...for a moment it was like Tara was in this room, like everything was right. But that wasn’t the case. She was still missing. But Faisal was cooperating, for now. “Stay there. We don’t need—”

      “Me flying over there.” Faisal cut him off. “And killing the creeps who did this and anyone else who stands in my way?” Anger and sarcasm laced his words. “Don’t worry. I’m not coming over. Not yet. I know we need calm heads to find them and get Tara back, but once that’s done...” His words trailed off.

      “We’re doing everything necessary—”

      “Stop!” Faisal warned. “I know you’re on this. Adam’s already briefed me. No worries,” he said before Emir could add anything to that. “Adam will be kicking butt if I make a move to go over there. But, man, I can’t do nothing. At least, I’m having a hard time doing it.” He laughed. A dry, humorless sound that seemed to make fun of his words more than anything else. “Can you find her? Will you be enough, you and K.J.?”

      “We have to be. We need you in Wyoming,” Emir reiterated, knowing it was a fact Faisal was well aware of and, despite what he’d said, probably the one reason he was still there. They’d acquired a number of high-profile cases over the last months and Emir only expected more. And, like Faisal, Talib was also occupied with managing their office here, at least until Tara was found. The only difference was that Talib could still be involved, if necessary, for he could be here on a minute’s notice, unlike Faisal. He knew that would be tough for Faisal to take, but it was how it had to be.

      “Yeah, I know,” he said, an edge to his voice that wasn’t normally there. “Damn. I just hope she’s not frightened.”

      Frightened. It was a word that hung thick and dark between them. They’d rather have Tara pissed than frightened, but reality danced and darted unspoken between them.

      “We’ll find her.” Emir felt like he was repeating a phrase he’d committed to in blind faith. But this couldn’t end any other way than the way he wanted it to end—with Tara, at home laughing with them and at them, as she always did.

      “You’re still at the compound?” Faisal asked.

      “Yeah,” Emir said. “But not for long. I’ll fill you in soon. Kate and I—”

      “Kate?” Despite the gravity of the situation, there was an amused edge to Faisal’s voice that made Emir feel oddly defensive.

      “K.J.,” he said, shifting to the initials that it seemed everyone else used, and yet she’d asked him to call her Kate. But it was more than that. To him, she was Kate, not K.J. He shifted the phone from his left ear to his right, as if that would change the fact that his brother had just hinted there might be something in his feelings for Kate that was more than employer and employee. Utterly ridiculous. He liked her. They were partners in this case, nothing else. “We’re heading out just before dawn. We’re trying to play it low-key, not look like we’re doing anything more than waiting.”

      “So what do you have on them?”

      “Not much. We think there might be two groups, unorganized, possibly not working together. We’ll track them to the last phone call and from there, after what Ahmed said, we think they might be heading into the Sahara.” He hesitated. What they had was so little—nothing to go on. “Zafir will handle negotiating with them going forward.” He didn’t mention the fiasco at the airport. None of that was relevant, not now, at least not to Faisal, and could only convince him that he was needed. Right now, giving him less information was for the best, as was involving less people.

      “Exactly what I would have done,” Faisal said shortly, the frustration evident in his voice.

      “Look, I’ll be in touch.” Emir hesitated

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