“—and yet you slept in that comfortable bed amongfriends, eating hot meals, having a modicum of freedom, whileyour assistanthas been isolated, deprived of food and water, interrogated for endless hours …” He gave her a cockeyed nod. “And I’m supposed to believe you care about anyone but yourself?”
“Allah have mercy, are you so thick?”
He smirked.
And she could tell he was deliberately working to get under her skin. He had done that the first time they had sparred in her private apartment in Roud. “You do not need my word.”
His eyebrow lifted, amused. Or confused. Maybe both. It was hard to focus whenhewas so wholly focused on her.
“You know the captain is dangerous—I saw it in your eyes.” She eyed the cut lip and reddened spot on his jaw. “Are those from him?” She stretched her neck and pulled at the collar of her blouse, revealing the cigarette burns. “This is what he gave me once.” She stabbed her finger on the table. “Whether I speak it or not, your heart knows these people must leave here before it’s too late. The longer he is gone, the faster their fate comes.”
He sighed and leaned back against the glass she knew to be one-way. “Let me get this straight—you have given us exactly nothing and I’m just supposed to let everyone walk away?” He bobbed his head. “Oh wait, you have given us a lot of lies. You’ve been very good at those.”
Desperation choked her.
“And now you want our help …?”
She saw his point. Felt the pain of the ruse and its repercussions. “I do—but not for me. For the others.” She wanted to strangle this arrogant, gorgeous man. “Please.”
“Why’d you do it?” he asked with a nod. “Sell them for sex?”
Now she must return the favor of silence.
He sniffed. “Madam, cooperation is a two-way street.”
There was nothing for it. Kasra would either die here or at Taweel’s hands, especially now that the captain knew her location. But she did have one thing the Americans wanted. “If you get the others to the north side of the city,” she said, finally braving his eyes again, “I will give you the name of the man Taweel answers to.”
CHAPTERSIX
CIA Safehouse, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
Two raps rattledthe glass at his back as he considered her.
“No.” It had been too easy. No way she’d give up this easy with so much at stake.
More raps on the glass.
“What else do you want?” she asked, eyes blazing. “I will give you whatever you want, only let them go.”
Desperation. No, this wasn’t how the madam worked.
Or maybe itwashow she worked. Playing men. She knew how to get her way. “You could hand us any name and your friends are free.”
“I could,” she said, her one hazel eye sparking with defiance. “But you would still have me as your prisoner and could beat me to your heart’s content.”
Inwardly, Range winced. Was that what she thought they’d do?
The door to the interview room flung open. Pike glowered at him. “A word.” He stepped back.
And all over the madam’s face was the glee of triumph.
“Shackles,” Range grunted to Landry, who stood beyond the chief.
Though he scowled, he produced them from a nearby storage room.
Taking too much pleasure in her irritation at the metal cuffs, he clamped one into the floor hook and the other end around her wrists.
Her hand, cool and delicate, caught his wrist. “I swear to you, I only ask for the others. Please. I am no harm to you.”
