On the Line Page 6

  Her eyes traveled upward. “Alex?”

  “What are you doing here, Zahara? I thought you moved to Alaska.”

  Two more men appeared from different angles. She would guess they worked with Preston, but she hadn’t seen Preston himself. She was sure she would recognize him from the picture Ariana had shown her. “I came back about a year ago. I never heard from you while I was in Alaska so I took the hint.”

  “Your mother told me you didn’t want to hear from me again. I figured it was because Kelly and I broke up. I assume you’re going to the wedding—she’s marrying my brother.”

  “I haven’t spoken to Kelly since she broke up with you. And if my mother told you I didn’t want to see you again it’s because she knows…no matter. That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because a friend of mine was just abducted and I don’t think the cops are going to be able to do anything. I thought maybe I could get help here.”

  “I’m Micah,” the other man said. “A friend of ours is missing. We can’t help you right now.”

  “I’m sorry,” Alex said softly. “Preston is family and we have to find him.”

  “Preston…then I think we have a common goal here. My friend is Ariana, Preston’s ex-wife. They just took her.”

  “Come on back,” the other man gestured as he urged her forward. “I’m Jet,” he smiled to try to put her at ease she assumed.

  Alex came close to her, placed his hand on her back and ushered her toward a conference room. Considering how much skin was showing with her costume she wasn’t surprised at the skin on skin contact when he touched her. She was a little surprised that after all this time his touch could provoke strong sexual desires within her body. He was the one; he always had been, but unfortunately he hadn’t exactly felt the same way about her.

  “What did this guy look like?” Micah asked her as she sat down in one of the plush chairs.

  “He had dark eyes—very dark and evil eyes.” She remembered the fear that went through her when he looked at her, but she didn’t let that fear stop her. Her friend was in trouble and Zahara planned to catch up with the guy and do her best to make him put Ariana down. “He had dark hair, and I guess he had what people in the western nations would say was a distinctly Middle Eastern skin tone. To me he kind of reminded me of some of the people I saw in photos a friend sent me from his dig in Egypt.”

  “Egypt?”

  “Yeah, he’s an archeologist and he has been trying to get me to come see the stars from his dig site. He sends pictures from time to time and the guy kind of reminds me of that region. I think politically that still makes it the Middle East, but geographically I think it’s North Africa. I’m an astronomer, not a geographer, so don’t ask me to know for sure,” she said. It wasn’t her field of expertise and trying to rely on the news media to report accurately was like trying to rely on Santa Clause to bring her a new telescope for Christmas—it just wasn’t going to happen—on either account.

  “Preston’s in Egypt,” Jet said.

  “I don’t believe in coincidence,” Micah countered.

  “So you think they went after her to get to him?” Jet asked.

  They were all talking as if she were no longer sitting at the table. “That wouldn’t make sense. They have been divorced for too long with no contact with each other. Why would anybody think to go after her because of him?”

  “True,” Alex nodded.

  “Well…” the woman across the table from her interrupted the conversation. “Preston has been secretly going to some of Ariana’s dance shows.”

  “Natalia,” Micah growled.

  “It wasn’t my place to tell you before, but I thought it was important I say so now. He would always have me buy the tickets. Well technically I offered to buy them because it didn’t make any sense for him to have to pay off the guy at the front door just to see one dance. Anyway, while he is too stubborn to contact her he has gone to the last several shows with my help, and a few before he obtained my help.”

  “Could you see what the other man looked like, Zahara?”

  She shook her head no. “It was dark and he had something over his head. But I did get a clear look at the one who carried Ariana out. She wasn’t conscious. I don’t know how he managed that, but she wasn’t awake.”

  “If I give you some pictures to look at can you tell me if you see him?”

  “Yes,” she nodded. “But please hurry. I’m worried for her.”

  “We’ll do what we can,” Micah said.

  Micah and Jet left the room, obviously needing to talk outside of her presence. If these guys did all that Ariana implied Preston did then she wanted them on her side on this one. She didn’t think she had ever felt so anxious about anything in her life. This wasn’t just pre-show nerves about embarrassing herself by losing her clothes or missing a move in a group routine; this was life or death—possibly.

  “Excuse me,” Natalia said as she got up and left the room, leaving Zahara and Alex alone.

  “Maybe it was the flowers.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Ariana received flowers with a request that she wait until after her first dance routine to open the card. She waited to open it because she wanted to watch me do my routine. Maybe whoever sent her the flowers took her.”

  “We’ll have Natalia check on it, but I need you to stay calm and focused.”

  “I am calm,” she said although she wasn’t sure she was. Her heart was still racing.

  “No you’re not, Zahara. You always did that,” he pointed to her face in a circular motion.

  “What?”

  “That,” he said again. “That look where your eyes widen slightly, your lips part and that slight sheen of perspiration graces the hallow on your neck. You’re worried. I need you to keep your mind off the bad things that can happen and focus on finding her.”

  She nodded. “Scary how well you still know me,” she said. “After all this time.”

  He chuckled. “It’s not as if it has been decades. But I have missed you, Zahara. I missed what we had.”

  “Me too.”

  “When your mom told me you didn’t want to see me again.”

  “When did she tell you that?”

  “Not that long after you moved.”

  She chuckled and shook her head. Her mother was looking out for her, and her heart, because she knew how much she loved Alex. She was trying to make sure there was nobody holding her back from finding and marrying another man—preferably a doctor in Alaska, much like the one her mother had tried to push her toward before she even got her moving boxes unpacked and settled into her new home. One mention of a doctor at the facility she would be working at and her mother started planning the prelude to a wedding.

  “So does this mean we’re still friends?” He looked in her eyes. If only he knew.

  “Always,” she said. “But maybe we can deal with the time we lost later. I’m too worried about Ariana to really focus on the past.”

  He nodded. “We’re worried about Preston.”

  “Has this happened before; Preston going missing?”

  “No. He’s been in situations where he lost contact, but we always hear from him. Right now, with his ex-wife now missing too it makes us wonder…makes me wonder.”

  She nodded. “I understand.” She took a calming breath and exhaled slowly. “So Kelly is marrying your brother, huh?”

  “Yeah. Can you believe it?”

  She laughed softly. “They’re perfect for each other.”

  “Ouch.”

  “She’s a self-centered, money hungry witch and your brother, no offense to you meant, is a jerk of astronomical proportions.”

  He laughed. “None taken.”

  “You always deserved better than Kelly, Alex. I just wish you had…”

  “Had what?”

  She shrugged. Some things were better left unsaid. “Do you still watch the stars at night?”

  “Absolutely. You know I wouldn’t stop doing that. Wha
t about you?”

  “I just secured a research grant to study the unknown up there. It’s going to be great. This is huge and I’m going to be moving to a larger facility to do it. This baby is all mines too.”

  “Are you leaving Texas? I feel like I just found you again.”

  “Well, we did just find each other again,” she said. “But I’m not leaving Texas. The observation facility is in Hill Country—”

  “I live in Hill Country.”

  “I live in Round Rock,” she told him.

  He ran his finger along the belly dance cuff attached to her upper arm. “Belly dance huh?”

  She nodded. “Hmm, yeah,” she said as she tried to keep her voice from trembling. His finger against her skin felt so good. She wanted more.

  “When did you start that?”

  “I had some classes before I left. I took a few in Alaska, but not many. When I came back I went right to Ariana and joined her classes again. It’s just something I do…when I can…you know. I like it,” her voice was breathy as he kept running his finger along her arm. If he knew what that simple act was doing to her right now maybe he would stop. She didn’t want him to stop, but maybe she needed him to stop.

  “You look good, Zahara. This looks very,” he looked her over once more, “very good on you.”

  She laughed nervously. He had no idea what he was doing to her right now. “Thanks,” she finally found the words to say.

  “We should get together when all this is over and catch up. I want to hear what you have been up to over the years.”

  “I would like that,” she spoke softly because what she would really like would be to have him in the way she had always longed to have him. Of course she would rather be friends than be nothing at all to each other and it would seem that Alex still only saw her as a friend. Maybe he was dating somebody anyway. A man like Alex didn’t stay single long. He was good, and cute, and entirely sexy with a level head on his shoulders so any woman would be lucky to have him. Women were probably beating down his front door to be with him. She was contemplating if she should ask him or not when Jet and Micah came back into the room with a few manila folders. Jet pulled out a series of photos and handed them to her.

  “Take your time,” he said. “Make sure you look at them carefully and let me know if anybody jumps out at you.”

  She looked through picture after picture and while all the men had that dark hair, dark eyes, Middle Eastern look, none of them were the guy. She pulled the other folder over and looked through those with the same results. She sighed heavily as she pushed yet another folder away and then she pulled the third folder over and there he was, right there on the top of the pile. She didn’t know who the other guy was, but that one was definitely him.

  “That’s him,” she said.

  “Are you sure?” Micah asked.

  “Of course I am sure. He only looked at me as if he were ready to kill me…either that or he liked what he saw. It’s kind of hard to tell when I’m worried about the unconscious woman in his arms.”

  Alex growled low. Was she wrong to speak her mind? Maybe. Some guys didn’t like that, but she was not a wallflower when it came to standing up for herself—just when it came to getting the man she wanted apparently.

  “Who is it?” Alex’s voice was low and gravely.

  “Panhsj,” Jet said. “Ammon’s first lackey,” he nodded. “Damn,” he grumbled. “Pardon my language, ma’am.”

  “I assumed you meant dam of the three letter persuasion and not the four letter kind,” she smiled. “But if you call me ma’am again we’re going to have a problem.”

  He smiled at her and shook his head. “Nice woman,” he winked at Alex.

  “Old friend,” Alex said which reminded Zahara once again where she stood with him. A woman could dream, but that didn’t mean her dreams would ever come true.

  “Bad guy?” Zahara pointed to the picture. She was even more worried now.

  “Very. Preston killed his brother on a previous mission, many years ago, and back in his military days, not while doing the search and rescue thing. Iran,” Jet said and the others nodded as if they knew something. She didn’t know anything more than what she currently knew and that was that Ariana seemed to be in some serious trouble here.

  “Then they’ll kill her?” Zahara said. “Why else would they take her?”

  “No,” Micah shook his head. “Preston and Ariana’s marriage ended well before the mission that led to Ammon’s brother’s death. Right now the only way you would know the two were married was if you either knew them way back when, either of them talked about it with anybody, or you searched way back in the marriage public record documents. I don’t think they know or they would have gone after her years ago.”

  “Yeah, and why would anybody, if they did go through that much trouble to find out more about his life over eighteen years ago, actually go after her. He hasn’t seen her in years.” Alex added.

  “Except,” Natalia stepped into the conference room; “the fact that Preston has been secretly going to her shows. He sits in the back and watches, but he always leaves and he never goes to her. I don’t know how they would pick up on that. There are so many other dancers that he could be there for anybody. He’s there for her so maybe the look on his face when she dances…maybe that’s the giveaway.”

  It would seem maybe this Preston guy still had a thing for Ariana just as she had a thing for him too…unless he was just trying to keep up with how well, or unwell, his ex was doing. There were guys like that out there who would keep tabs for malicious reasons, but she didn’t think Preston was one of those guys.

  “Then it could be…” The pounding on the front doors stopped Jet mid sentence.

  “Cops,” Zahara said. “They’re the only people I know who knock like that. I did leave while they were talking with the security guard. They didn’t tell me I could leave. I flagged down a guy getting ready to park. He probably had a room there. If he had a room there then he went back and he told on me. They didn’t exactly give me permission to leave, but they didn’t exactly look as if they believed me much either.”

  Jet nodded. “Natalia, be real slow about making your way around the corner to the reception area. Be real slow about opening the door too.”

  She nodded. “I will go the long way. I do have to go to the bathroom you know.” She winked.

  “Alex, take her out the back way. Take her back to your place because we need to lay low from her place for now. I have to see what I can do about getting us to Egypt.”

  “I can handle that,” Zahara said.

  “No, you’re not going.”

  “Yes, I am. And if you want to be sure you get in without hassle I would suggest you let me help you. I have a friend with a dig site there and I know he’ll help us get in. I can’t guarantee the exit, but I can get us in, get us transport out to his dig and then I’ll get us transport away from there. Anything else you need you’re going to have to make other arrangements. The dig site now has guards, but they won’t be willing to give up their guns.”

  Jet nodded. “If that’s the way we have to do it, then that’s the way we have to do it. Get going you two.”

  Alex took her upper arm in his big hand and helped her up—more like mostly pulled her up because she was already springing to her feet. They swiftly left out the back and took the back stairwell down before getting in his little sports car. She hadn’t seen this car before, she figured he got it after she left or after they stopped spending a lot of time together. She couldn’t lie about the way things were. Their relationship had been on the rocks for a while. She tried to be supportive of his relationship with Kelly, but it just hurt so much and she just knew Kelly wasn’t right for him, not just because Zahara was in love with him, but because Kelly really hadn’t turned out to be the nice woman everybody thought she would be. While Zahara and Alex had still been friends there had been some distance, not a mountain and an ocean worth of distance, but some distance
. And then, despite Alex and Kelly ending things she hadn’t heard from him while she was in Alaska and she figured it was because he didn’t want to speak with her. She had emailed him her new number. She had even asked her mom to make sure he had it just in case he had lost it. She asked that after three weeks had passed since her move and he hadn’t used the number. Of course back then he and Kelly hadn’t been broken up for that long so she figured maybe he didn’t want to have to remember her and hanging with Zahara might just remind him of the friend she used to have that he decided to date.