She lifted her chin and glared at him. “You need help, Mr. Tanner. Get this straight, I am not who you think I am.”
He exhaled a heavy breath. “Think what you will, but if you don’t listen to me, I doubt you’ll live through the night.”
His last statement unleashed a fresh wave of fear inside her. “I have to go.” She had to get home. To ensure Nicholas was safe. Surely this insanity hadn’t found its way to her home. She’d have to call the police. Maybe even before she left the hospital. This had gone entirely too far.
“The Israelis aren’t the only ones who will want you dead,” he added, jerking her attention back to him. “Michal Arad knows you set him up. He’ll likely want his own revenge, as well.”
A new kind of anxiety surged through her at the mention of the man in the photograph. “Stay away from me.” Ami reached for the doorknob behind her without taking her eyes off him. “Just stay away.” She didn’t want to hear any more of this. She wanted out of here.
“If you won’t do it for yourself,” Tanner said, stalling her by bracing one hand against the door. “Do it for your son. They’ll kill him just to get back at you. I have to warn you that if Arad or the Israelis get their hands on you first, there’s no way back. There will be nothing we can do to help you at that point. You have to let me help younow…before it’s too late.”
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. She wanted to rant at him, but words failed her. Instead she jerked the door open and ran from the room.
“Ami! What’s wrong?” Jane asked as they almost collided in front of the nurses’ station.
Ami ignored her. She had to get out of here. She rushed down the corridor, dodging patients and personnel until she burst into the stairwell. She didn’t stop until she was in the parking garage next to her car. She had to get to her son. Had to find Robert. He would know what to do. Her head ached and spun wildly. She braced her hands against the cold metal surface of her car until the spinning stopped. Her heart hammered beneath her sternum, making a deep breath impossible. She couldn’t think straight, but she knew what she had to do. She had to get out of here.
Her keys.
“Shit!” she hissed. She’d left her purse in the locker room. Now she’d have to go back for it. She prayed Tanner would be gone by now.
She started to turn but a strong arm snaked around her waist at the same time a hand closed over her mouth. She kicked…tried to scream, but the attempt died in her throat. The sound of metal sliding on metal echoed behind her. Her captor dragged her into a van. Voices, too low to understand. The door slamming shut. Tires squealing.
Oh, God, oh, God!she cried silently.Help me!
She had to get to her baby. A needle pierced her skin. She struggled to break away, but her strength vanished before she could take her next breath.
She had to…
Darkness dragged her down, down, down…until there was nothing else.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESTONFOWLER,CIA Deputy Director of Closed Ops, Antiterrorism Division, sat behind his government-issue desk like the heartless son of a bitch he was and denied Jack Tanner’s request.
“You know he’ll kill her,” Jack said from between clenched teeth. “There’s not even a frigging question.”
Fowler shrugged one massive shoulder. “Maybe. But I’m not sending in a retrieval team for one skinny broad whose head is already screwed up. No way. You offered her a chance, she didn’t accept. She has no one to blame but herself.”
Jack rocketed to his feet and paced the narrow space between Fowler’s desk and the two upholstered chairs in front of it. How did he get this through that thick skull? “So we’re just supposed to let her die.”
“It won’t be the first time we’ve sacrificed someone for the greater good. We all know this going in. Get a grip here, Tanner. You didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.” Fowler straightened his hundred-dollar tie. “Try to act like a professional.”
Fury flashed anew inside Jack. He didn’t want to hear this crap. He halted his pacing abruptly, flattened his palms on the too neat desk and leaned in his boss’s direction in a blatant attempt at intimidation that was doomed to failure. “I trained her myself. She’s mine. I’m not going to write her off as a calculated loss.”
A nasty grin inched across Fowler’s heavily lined features. “You always did have a thing for her, didn’t you?”
Jack shook with the rage building beneath his barely controlled exterior. But he couldn’t lose it. That would only make matters worse. He’d already given away far too much about just how personal this was to him. “We’ve already taken enough from her. She deserves to be cut some goddamn slack.”
“Sit down, Tanner,” his boss growled, all signs of amusement gone.
“I want some damn backup here,” Jack demanded.
“Sit down.”
His fists clenched for battle, but his brain recognizing his proximity to maxing Fowler’s tolerance level for grief, Tanner dropped back into his chair. This was the part he hated about this damn job. The lack of compassion in those who sat behind a desk and had long ago forgotten what it was like to be out there risking his life for his flag.
“We’re pretty sure it’s Arad who has her, right?” Fowler suggested, feigning actual interest in the case.
