Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 101840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Dust and smoke seemed to float all around us as my hearing started returning in patches.
“Chiama l’ambulanza!” someone shouted. One of the guards.
Another guard snapped at Liyana in Qadiri, rushing to keep her from running outside to her husband. From what I could see through the open front doors, Saleem definitely hadn’t survived the blast.
Locke climbed off me and pulled me up, moving his hands over me and asking again if I was okay. His expression was so worried, it made my chest ache and my throat close up. I nodded. “’M’okay,” I tried to say, even though it didn’t sound right.
The fear in his eyes as he looked at me was stronger than any declaration. I wanted to cling to it, climb up its length and tangle myself in its vines until his affection and care were a part of me. But as my hearing returned, so did my brain.
“We need to leave,” I said again, squawking like a panicked broken record. “The authorities are coming.”
I could not be here when they arrived, and neither could Locke. I would lose my job. I would lose the ability to remain anonymous and unattached to an international incident. Locke… well, he could lose a lot more. If the authorities arrived to find his crew of guests here—including Esteban Alvarado—there was no telling what conclusions they would come to or how long they would hold him.
He was better off leaving, getting back to the States and under the protection of his high-powered attorneys, and then figuring out how to respond to official inquiries.
If he stayed, local and Italian national police would want to investigate him thoroughly, and they might make it difficult for him to leave Italy for a while.
“No, Jett.” Locke gripped my hand tightly as he pulled me toward Liyana.
Her shopping bags and flowers now lay strewn all over the filthy floor. Gravel and broken glass crunched underfoot. The woman herself was remarkably poised, standing calm amidst the destruction while the guards and drivers tried to contain the vehicle fire.
Locke reached for her. “Sheika,” he murmured respectfully. “Are you injured?”
She turned to him with mournful eyes but a determined expression. “My injuries will heal.” She pressed something into his hands. “I will see you at the next game.”
And then she turned around and stepped out of the house, where her driver spotted her and quickly ushered her toward another car further down the driveway.
I followed Locke’s eyes as he held up the small item she’d put in his hand. It was a piece of torn-out notepaper with HELV.HE written on it. The same note al-Qadiri had handed his wife during the game earlier for her to pass to his assistant.
“What does that word mean?” I asked.
“It’s the stock symbol for Helvig. You were right. It was him,” he said in a dull voice, looking from the paper to the destruction outside. “Makani and Kida. Makida.”
I tilted my head in the direction Liyana had gone and raised an eyebrow in a silent question.
He quickly shook his head and said in a low voice while staring out the door, “More likely her father. He would have been the one to arrange her escape, as well.”
“We need to go, too,” I urged, trying to pull him toward the door in the direction Liyana and her driver had gone. “Please, Locke. I’ll explain later. I need you to trust me. We can’t stay.”
He spun me around and kissed me hard, like a punishment. When he pulled away, he shook his face. “I won’t flee my own home. But you’re right. You shouldn’t be here when the authorities arrive. I can handle this myself. I need you to go.”
I’d never been so torn in my life. Stay here and try to make it right, explain to the authorities what I knew about everything—what I knew about Locke?
Or get out of here and protect him by playing stupid with my employer? Acting like I’d never been close enough to the people involved to have more information than I’d already given Rocky?
If I stayed, I’d get caught up in the investigation. They’d learn I was here. That I’d been closer to it than Rocky had thought. Not only would I lose my job, but my connection to Locke and the Paxis tournament would bring a level of scrutiny that Locke himself might not be able to escape from.
I couldn’t see any way of denying a relationship—no matter how innocent—with Locke Maris if I were here when the authorities arrived. It would be way easier to play dumb to ESP if I could say I’d never even been here. And if I could play dumb, I wouldn’t be asked to reveal anything else about the Kiel Canal, al-Qadiri, Alvarado, or any of the other suspicious topics Rocky would inevitably ask me about.