To her earpiece she asked, “The girl Dr. Mor, is she still in custody?” But she already knew the answer.
“She left to use the bathroom and now we can’t find her.”
“Of course, you can’t.” Agent Garza locked her jaw and shook her head.
“I’m getting a lot of heat, Agent Garza,” a different voice came over her earpiece—it was her Director, one of the men on the other side of the one-way mirror. “If they try to travel to the States, make sure they’re allowed entry. I want this monkey off my back. Am I clear, Agent?”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
Garza yanked her earpiece away from her ear one second too late as she heard the Director slam his own earpiece on a hard surface.
The Director had made his wishes more than clear. This was between Arkdone and the Winter family—the U.S. government was to stay out of it.
Chapter 82 Beautifully Breakable
Meg and Sirus had made their rounds. Arkdone flaunted his recognizable guest to every powerful person at the benefit.
Meg felt sick at some thoughts she heard in their heads as they leered their pasty eyes over the delicate red, form fitting fabric of her gown.
Not everyone in the room was corrupt, but the vast majority were. The most earnest, kindhearted people were those who worked that night as drivers, servers, bartenders and busboys.
Meg was feeling nauseous at the auras she’d touched over the past two hours. She was fighting the overwhelming urge to take a scalding hot shower with the strongest soap she could find just to scrub herself clean of their sickly colors, pungent colognes and foul breath.
Finally, Arkdone had become too busy to continue to flaunt his prize to the room leaving Meg and Sirus to slip away. They walked slowly up the opulent stairs toward one of the two balconies that overlooked the room in all its grandeur.
“Does Gideon know what we talked about earlier?” Meg asked Sirus.
“He does now.”
“What does he think?”
“He’s too pissed off to think straight.”
For some reason, those words gave Meg hope. She tried to hide the smile that desperately wanted to press her lips.
“Can I ask just one thing of you?”
“It depends on what that thing is,” Sirus answered realistically.
Meg nodded, understanding his parameters. “Would you catch me if I fall?”
“Don’t you feel well?” He reached out and held her elbow in his strong hand.
“I’m fine right now,” she smiled sadly.
“Why would you fall?” Sirus searched her worried eyes and tried to understand.
“What time is it?” She asked, trying to distract him. She’d been holding her gown’s hem up just a bit as she managed the red velvet stairs. Now that they reached the topmost step, she let go of the material so it danced like red petals at her toes. She looked at Sirus expectantly.
“It’s nearly nine.”
Meg nodded solemnly. “Then it is time.”
She offered him one last sad smile before turning toward the balcony, but stopped to look back at the worried expression on Sirus’ face.
“I will try to be as gentle as possible, but it will come at a cost,” Meg offered him a cryptic warning.
She turned back, stepped confidently toward the rail, grasped the ornate wrought iron and bowed her head.
Chapter 83 Isolated
Sloan was shaking in Cole’s arms. They had just returned from the embassy and the family was gathered around them in the living room of their home in Cairo.
“Calm down, Sloan. I told you I’d take care of everything, didn’t I?”
“Y-yes.” Sloan’s stammered. Her “yes” sounded more like a “no.”
“Evan, what happened exactly?” Margo was holding Theo’s hand. Evan couldn’t help but feel a wave of anger at his mother, knowing full well that if Danny came toddling out of his room where he was napping, she would drop everything to cater to his every need. That knowledge tightened Evan’s heart and he had to work to relax his voice so he didn’t come across as angry when he spoke to her.
“You’ll see, Mom. Everything is falling into place.”
“Evan!” Cole blurted, “You just escaped interrogation from the U.S. Government! How do you think we’re ever going to get back to the States? We just pissed-off people we were trying to turn into allies.”
“I did make allies today,” Evan’s honey eyes flashed angrily at Cole.
“What makes you say that, Evan?” Theo began. He was running his fingers through his thinning hair anxiously. “This was supposed to be a formality. Burns said they just wanted to talk to us before they granted permission for us to return home.” Theo’s eyes blinked daggers at Evan from across the room.
Evan stood abruptly from the sofa where he’d just relayed to the entire family what happened during his meeting.
“Why do you assume the worst of me?” he looked at the worried, angry faces across the room. From his pocket he yanked his phone out and pressed a series of buttons. The room watched him with distrust.
“Agent Garza,” Evan said into the phone, but glared at Margo as he spoke.