“Do you know why the ransom money hadn’t been paid?”
“I know they went to collect it on at least three occasions but came back empty-handed. We would break camp immediately and leave the area. Men would stay behind to cover our tracks.”
“What did Ahmad think happened to the money? Or did he believe Jack wasn’t paying?”
Shabina had been secretly happy the ransom hadn’t been paid. She hadn’t realized how much she wanted to be with someone like Mama Ahmad, learning from her, sharing chores, telling stories, holding babies and looking after the children. There was always joy and laughter from the time the sun came up until it went down. She hadn’t been concerned about why her father wasn’t paying until the day she realized Salman Ahmad was worried. Then she paid attention and tried to gather information quickly.
“My father claimed to Ahmad that he’d paid the ransom three times and Ahmad hadn’t delivered. Ahmad said no one showed to give them the money. He was very uneasy, and that’s when he told his men he was releasing me.”
“You believe that Jack paid the ransom?”
“Yes.” She did believe it. “Like I said, we were told that if we were ever kidnapped, it was treated as a business. Cooperate. The ransom would be paid. There can only be one explanation. Ahmad had a traitor in his camp. Scorpion must have intercepted the ransom each time it was paid. He took the money. He had to know when and where it was being delivered, and he got there first or had his mercenaries there to intercept. The only way he could do that was if someone tipped him off.”
“That’s logical,” Rainier agreed.
“When Ahmad said he would release me, word must have been sent to Scorpion, and he and his men came and murdered everyone. It was a total massacre. No one was prepared. They didn’t have a chance.”
Just thinking about that day tore her up. She didn’t want to see the images crowding into her mind, so she slammed that door closed the way she always did the moment vivid pictures formed.
“Qadri.”Rainier breathed the name he often called her. Destiny. “I’m with you.”
That was all.I’m with you.So simple, but it was everything to her. She wasn’t alone. She never would be as long as she had Rainier.
“I can do this, Rainier,” she said, more for herself than for him. She was determined to solve the puzzle once and for all. To know the truth.
“Scorpion and his cabinethatedme. It was personal. Very, very personal. I’d never met them. I tried to stay quiet and do exactly as I was ordered, but it didn’t matter. Scorpion was determined to torture me. He didn’t need excuses. He took great pleasure in finding ways to not just physically but emotionally hurt me. I asked myself why a million times.”
Rainier kept his gaze on the road. “Baby.” There was caution in his voice. “Be sure you want the answers.”
“She didn’t look back.” The sudden lump in her throat nearly choked her.
“Who didn’t look back?”
“My mother. Her security team pushed her into the armored SUV, and they drove away. I was looking straight at her, and she didn’t even look over her shoulder at me. I took that to mean she was confident in the system, that I’d be ransomed easily. It wasjust business, and I should be calm. But that wasn’t the reason, was it?”
Rainier cursed under his breath. He brought her fingertips to his mouth and bit down gently. “I feel as if I’m always bringing bad news. I hate doing this.”
“I’mdoing this, not you. I need to face the truth, Rainier. I can’t keep hiding from it. That’s part of the reason the PTSD episodes are so severe. These are things I can’t talk about to anyone else.”
She didn’t trust anyone enough other than Rainier. She loved her parents, and she didn’t want anyone else to know anything she uncovered that would put them in a bad light.
Rainier was silent for a moment, and then he sighed. “I understand, baby. You need to talk about this, we talk about it.”
How could she not love him? His reluctance and his reasons were clear, but for her, he would do it. More than ever, she knew she was making the right decision to spend her life with him.
“Scorpion hated my mother, didn’t he? He intercepted the ransom because he was making his own demands. That was what was happening, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Rainier sounded terse. Grim. The tension inside the car grew.
“Was he making her part of the negotiations? Money and my mother to get me back? If Scorpion did that, my father would never agree. He’d surround my mother with ten million guards.” She wasn’t really asking, because how could he possibly know? Could he? She was musing aloud the way she often did when she was piecing together a puzzle.
Rainier didn’t utter a single word.
Shabina refused to be a coward any longer. She hadn’t trusted Talia Warren enough to explore her worst fears with her. Herfather had hired the therapist, and, although she’d explored going to a few others, she didn’t like repeating the story, so in the end, she’d stayed with Talia. Even though she was told often everything she said was confidential, for all she knew the therapist reported every word to her father. Her father had enough money to buy a tremendous amount of loyalty, and she’d been pretty messed up when she’d first come back. Who was she kidding? She still was. She probably always would be.
Shabina considered whether the silence from Rainier meant he knew the answer to her question. He was astute, very intelligent, and he had access to various sources of information she never would. She decided not to press him. Her mind was already coming up with answers, and she was certain she would find the truth without forcing him to reveal anything he was reluctant to say, especially if it made her parents look bad.
