“Next!”
Carys jumped, looking around.The customers in front of her had already given the clerk their lunch orders and had moved down the counter.It was her turn to order.Carys wasn’t sure what she wanted, so she ordered something simple.“Just a ham and Swiss on pumpernickel,” she told the guy, not sure why she was whispering.
She checked over her shoulder at the man at the end of the line.He was trying to appear casual, but she caught him glancing at her.
“Damn it!”she whispered, moving down the counter.She paid for her sandwich, declined a soda, then took the bag handed to her.
“Bathrooms?”she asked, still whispering while trying to avoid looking at the man again.
“In the back, last door on your right,” a tired woman answered, then looked over Carys’s shoulder to the next customer.
Carys mumbled a thank you and turned down the hall.Her nerves were rattling and her heart rate picked up.If she kept this up, she was going to have a heart attack!Carys crept down the hallway.There was a door with a red bar across it that announced that alarms would sound if she went through it.Deciding that an alarm would give away her plan, she pushed through the “employees only” door and found herself in a storage room.
“Now what?”she whispered, looking around.Before she could decide, a deli employee, hauling a bag of trash, rushed through the storage area.He didn’t notice her, but Carys followed him.Just as she’d hoped, he led her to the back door of the deli, which led to the alley.No alarms went off and no one noticed her as she slipped past the guy.While the deli employee hefted the trash bag into the dumpster, Carys ran down the alley.
Should she go back to the office?Maybe she could tell Rafi, ask him for help.No, that was a bad idea.But maybe she could speak to one of the guards?He had all of those bodyguards to protect him.Surely, one of them could give her advice.Or maybe she should just go to the police?
“And tell them what?”she muttered, ignoring startled glances as she hurried down the street.But seriously, if she went to the police, they would laugh her out of the station.The only thing she could tell the police is that someonemightbe following her and someonemightbe breaking into her apartment to steal random things like potholders or a single drinking glass or her toothbrush or…whatever!
Carys’s phone rang.Again.She pulled it out of her bag and nearly burst into tears when she saw Rafi’s number on the screen.Closing her eyes, she silenced her phone.She couldn’t talk to Rafi.Not now.Not when it felt as if her whole world was…what?Being stolen from her bit by bit?
A tear trailed down her cheek and she wiped it away.She was done crying!It was time to figure out what the hell was going on!The only problem was…how!
Chapter 30
Rafi braced his weight on his fisted hands, frowning at the bodyguard.“Are you telling me that a five foot, four inch woman in high heeled leather boots, who has no training at evasion, and a tote bag that probably weighs twenty pounds, managed to give a tactically trained bodyguard the slip?A bodyguard who was literally trained to surveil and protect?”
The guard shuffled is feet uncomfortably, staring at the carpet.“Yes, sir,” he muttered.
“So, the woman who might be carrying my baby, my heir, is out on the street, entirely unprotected?”His voice had dropped to a hiss as his terror over Carys’s safety threatened to consume him.
“I’m sorry, sir.She went into a bathroom at the deli and I made the decision not to follow her.She’d already made me in line.I didn’t want to look like a creep by following her to the bathroom.That would have definitely spooked her and I was trying not to do that.”
“I think you failed!”Rafi whispered, fury in every syllable.“Get out!”
The man turned and nearly ran from the office.Rafi turned to Amir who also looked uncomfortable.
“We’re tracking her phone now, sir.We’ll have her location in just a…!”
“I’ve got her,” another guard called out, bursting into the office.“She’s heading back to her apartment.I lost her when she went into the subway, but I’m certain she’s heading home.”
Before Rafi could issue new orders, Laith walked into his office.“What the hell is going on?My security team is frantic about someone escaping.”He looked at Amir, then at Rafi.“Who is in danger?”
“Carys,” Rafi groaned.
His twin brother rolled his eyes.“You lost heragain?I thought you found her and she was okay this morning.”
“I did.She was!”Rafi snapped, throwing his hands into the air with exasperation.He rubbed a frustrated hand over his face, then blinked at his brother.“What are you doing here?I thought we were meeting for dinner tonight?”
Before Laith could respond, a small, terrified voice came from the doorway.“Laith, am I losing my mind?”
Rafi turned and found a very pretty brunette, looking from Rafi to Laith, then back again.She looked pale and confused.
“What’s…?”she whispered.
Laith immediately stepped forward, taking the woman’s hands.“Andi, don’t freak out,” he said in a low, urgent voice.“I told you that I have a brother,” he continued, squeezing her hands.“I just forgot to mention that we were twins.”
The pretty woman kept glancing between Laith and Rafi, so both men stood very still.After thirty-three years as identical twins, they understood how disconcerting their similarities could be.
