She laughed. “I knew it. Much better choice than Lisa.”
“But you know that we could take care of this in another way. I’m prepared to be very generous if you want to go the ransom route.”
“Tempting. However, regrettably, though my present arrangement is fantastic monetarily, it has a downside. I was forced to ask my new partners to fund my advance preparations. Now they’ve told me that if I don’t fulfill my obligations, they will be displeased enough to take a contract out on me. I don’t intend to have to give up the splendid life I’ve planned in order to go into hiding.”
“And I have no intention of backing myself into a corner for any woman. What are you asking me to do?”
“What you’re so good at doing. What your dear mother was so afraid you’d do. What else?”
“Exactly what I assumed. You want someone killed in a way that would not be able to be detected. Who’s the target?”
“You haven’t found that out yet? I thought you might have stumbled across it. You did find out about the American Hospital in Dubai from Said Ben Kemal.”
“Who?”
“That’s enough information for now. I have to be sure that she’s enough to keep you under control. So you’ll come here and we’ll have a few discussions and renew our acquaintance.”
“Come where?”
“Dubai. You’ll be picked up at the airport and brought to me.” She chuckled. “And to Jane MacGuire. She should be better by that time. If I’m feeling generous, I might let you have a welcome present as a deposit before you actually give me what I want. I’m sure you’ve missed her while you’ve been flying around trying to find Santara.”
“And you.”
“That goes without saying. I knew you’d realize I was behind it almost from the beginning. We do know each other so well. Good night, Caleb. You’ll have my phone number now. Let me know when you arrive.” She hung up.
Keep cool. Keep calm. Now that the need for pretense was over, the rage was beginning to drown out everything else. Rage and fear. Teresa always knew how to push the right buttons and she’d found one in Jane.
And she would push it and push it until it was broken or she had what she wanted. She would have no compunction about breaking Jane. She was totally without any sense of right and wrong. The perfect sociopath, he’d discovered during their time together. Whatever served to advance an agenda was what she did with speed and consummate skill.
But she couldn’t be permitted to trample over Jane.
Control. It had always been the battle that had defined their struggle for power.
Teresa had started it, and he would finish it.
He got to his feet and strode up the hill to his tent. He changed, threw clothes into a bag, and exited the tent.
“I’m going with you.” Lisa was standing a few yards away. She was dressed in black pants and shirt and had her backpack. “You’ve heard, haven’t you? I saw you talking on the phone down there.” Her lips were tight. “You’re not going to leave me again, Seth.”
“The hell I’m not.” He didn’t need this right now. “I’m going to have enough problems. If you want to help Jane, you’ll stay here, out of my way.”
“Jane’s alive?” she asked shakily.
He wasn’t going to lie. “I don’t have proof. I think it’s true.”
“Then we’ll go get her.”
“It’s not going to be that easy.”
“You have to trade something? I knew that was going to happen. What?”
“I’ve no idea yet. Whatever it is, it’s going to be difficult, or she wouldn’t want me.”
“She? Teresa?”
He nodded. “As she put it, ‘the gloves are off.’”
“She said she’d hurt Jane?”
“Yes. But I won’t let that happen.”
She shook her head. “We won’t let that happen. I’m going with you.”
“No.” He had to reason with her. She was as scared about Jane as he was right now. “Look, if you come and we’re captured, Teresa will have two weapons she can use against me. That’s what you said you didn’t want.”
“I wouldn’t be captured.” She met his eyes. “You showed me how to keep that from happening. I won’t let them use me against you. All I’d have to do is kill them.”
“All you’d have to do,” he repeated. “Simplistic. You made a promise.”
“It didn’t include stuff like this.” She took at step closer, her eyes pleading. “I wouldn’t do it unless I had to. You’re going to Dubai? I wouldn’t even have to be with you. For heaven’s sake, some women there run around in robes and veils. No one would even know who I was. I wouldn’t get in your way. I’d just be there to do what you needed me to do.”
“It’s not a good idea, Lisa.”
“Then make it a good idea.” She suddenly wasn’t pleading any longer. “When that bastard Santara was torturing me, I held out. I kept my word. But I swore nothing like that was ever going to happen to me or anyone I cared about again. I want to do whatever you want, but I won’t let them hurt you or Jane.” She stared him in the eye. “So I’m going to Dubai whether you like or not, Seth. You’re going to find me something of value to do that will help Jane and hopefully cause Santara to have a fatal accident. Make it work, dammit.”
He stared at her in frustration and something else, which might have been pride.
He shrugged. “Whatever. Listen, you’ll do what I say. No arguments. Not ever.” He went past her down the hill. “And I’ll make it work.”
JUMAIRA, DUBAI
“You really have to wake up now, Jane. I’ve let you sleep as long as I can because I needed you fit and ready. But we’re running out of time.” It was a woman’s voice, smooth, deep, and musical. “And I really don’t want to use Santara’s methods on you. So do open your eyes.”
Easier said than done, Jane thought groggily. Her head felt stuffed with cotton.
Santara …
It was all rushing back to her. She wanted to push it away and go back to the darkness.
Santara …
There was no going back.
Force it. Face it.
She slowly opened her lids.
“There we are.” The woman sitting in the peacock blue brocade chair opposite the couch where Jane was lying was smiling at her. “I knew you must be a smart woman. Caleb doesn’t tolerate stupidity for very long.” She handed her a delicate china cup. “Coffee. Very strong. Do you need me to help you hold it?”
“No.” Though her hand was shaking, every instinct was telling her she mustn’t show that weakness. “I’m fine.” She took a sip. Hot. Black. Bracing. She took another sip, her gaze fixed on the woman who must be Teresa Romano. She was dressed in a long black skirt and fringed overshirt that managed to make her look both exotic and flawlessly elegant. She was far more beautiful than in that photo Caleb had shown her. Glowing skin, glittering blue eyes, long lashes, and her blond hair, coiled in a chignon, was a faultless frame for those perfect features.
“You’re not fine, you know.” Teresa Romano was smiling at her. “You’re in a terrible predicament, if you’ll remember. But if you cooperate, you may come out of it alive. It appears you can be valuable to me. I suppose you’ve guessed I’m Teresa Romano?”
Keep her talking. Keep drinking the coffee. Stronger. She had to get stronger. “Yes. And you’re the one who put me in this predicament. You must be desperate. You couldn’t get hold of Lisa, so you grabbed me instead?”
Teresa’s smile lost a little of its wattage. “‘Desperate’? I’m never desperate. Poor choice of words. As it happens, I’m much happier with you than I was with Lisa. All she could offer was to reach out to Caleb’s protectiveness. You’ll appeal to more basic appetites, and we both know how basic Caleb can be.”