Nomar reaches for me, but I beat my fists against his chest. He does nothing to stop my blows. I want to scream. To tell him he broke his promise. But anguish steals my words.
“We’ll get him back,” Nomar says. “I won’t stop until Mateen is safe. I don’t care how many people I have to kill. What I have to do. On my life, I’ll bring Mateen back to you.”
I cannot trust him. I cannot trustanyone. My son is gone, and I fear I will never see him again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Nomar
Suffering has a sound.As does despair. I should know. I’ve seen enough of both to last me a lifetime. Lisette’s wail is so much worse. I let her hit me. It’s the least I deserve. But soon, she sways on her feet, and I wrap my arms around her. She doesn’t fight anymore. Doesn’t say a word. I don’t even think she knows I’m here.
We failed, and now that murdering asshole’s brother has Mateen.
I ease her down onto the bed. “I need to get Griff back. Find out what happened.”
She’s too far gone to hear me. Lost to her grief. To the panic threatening to pull me down too. But I go into the bathroom, fill a cup with water, and set it on the nightstand for her. Lisette pulls a pillow to her chest, her sobs fading more and more with each passing minute.
Griff’s phone goes to voicemail. Where thehellis he? I pick up Lisette’s mobile and find Laurent’s number. But he doesn’t answer either. Fuck. I’m about to dial Ford when Austin’s name flashes across the screen.
“About damn time. They got to Mateen.”
“I know.” His voice carries a deathly calm, which in my experience means he’s about to blow a gasket. “Zephyr’s pulling camera footage from around the observatory. She’ll send it to your phone in a few minutes.”
“Who the fuck is Zephyr?”
“Focus, Garcia. She’s one of mine, and she can hack into anything. She and Wren together…they could take down the world if they wanted to.” A horn blares over the line. “The gas pedal is on the right!” he shouts. “There were five of them. They grabbed Mateen and another boy, along with his mother. Zephyr’s working on an ID for the woman and the kid now.”
Fucking hell. If it wasn’t bad enough he had Mateen, now he’s takenmorehostages? And then I realize who those others have to be. I lower my voice, my gaze locked on Lisette. She’s still curled on her side on the bed, her shoulders shaking every few seconds. “Amelie and Philippe Dumont. I’d bet my life on it. What about the father? Laurent?”
“Shot twice. Center mass. Griff killed one and almost took down another, but it was chaos. He kept the father alive until the ambulance came. The National Police saw the dead guy and arrested him. One of my contacts is working on getting him released now.”
“Other casualties?”
“None fatal.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. A single miracle in an entire night of fuckups and catastrophes. “We can’t stay here. There’s still at least one of Raziq’s men in Toulouse. Can you get me to Afghanistan? And send someone to protect Lisette?”
“You are not leaving me behind,” Lisette says, watching me from the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest.
“There’s no way in hell I’m taking you to Afghanistan, sweetheart. You’re safer here.”
In my ear, Austin swears under his breath. “Leo’s calling. He’ll have an update on Griff. I’m pulling a team together. Or trying to. I’ll call you back.Sweetheart.”
Fuck. He hangs up, and I sink against the cushions. “Raziq has Amelie and Philippe too.”
Lisette covers her mouth with her hand. “No.Mon Dieu.This is all my fault. Faruk’s brother was—is—a zealot. If he gets Mateen to Afghanistan, I will never see him again!”
I don’t tell her he’s probably already on a plane. “I’ll get him back. I’ll get all of them back.”
“You cannot know that. My parents tried to getmeback, and look at what happened…” She shrinks against the headboard, her lower lip wobbling.
I stalk over to the bed and sit close enough, we’re practically touching. She doesn’t move away, thank God, but she watches me warily.
“Your parents didn’t have the Viper.” Fuck. Even saying the name threatens to pull me back down into the darkness I lived in for two long years. “He’s got contacts all over the country. If Austin can lend me a couple of his guys—hell, if he can’t, I’ll hire local muscle—we’ll get Mateen back. Amelie and Philippe too.”
“Who is the Viper?” she asks.
“Pretty sure you can figure that one out. What do you know about Raziq?” I can’t talk about my past with her now. She barely trusts me as it is.
