There was just one problem with that scenario. Only one thing standing in his way.
If that was really the case—if Kaamisha Dawari truly was the cold-blooded terrorist as their intel suggested—then why did his gut fill with a heavy feeling of dread every time he pictured her lying dead and bloody in that alley?
“We’ve got thirty minutes until we land.” He shot Logan a look. “I’d say that’s enough time to get some more answers.”
Starting with her connection to their dead CIA asset.
He pushed himself up and out of his seat. Bending down, he avoided smacking his head on the inner curve of the jet’s low ceiling as he made his way out into the aisle.
“I’ll wake the others.” Logan started to stand.
But Van put out a hand and gave his teammate a quick shake of his head. “It’s okay. Might be better if I talk to her alone. Less intimidating than having the five of us hovering over her all at once.”
“Worth a shot.” The other man settled back into his seat with a lackadaisical shrug. “You need backup, just holler.”
“I got this.”
A man on a mission, he covered the distance between his seat and Kam’s in a matter of seconds. He passed by a slumped and snoring Lucky on his way.
As he sat in the empty seat to her right, he found her awake and staring out over the endless sea of white, fluffy clouds.
“Why did you kill Farzad Akimi?” he asked, not bothering to beat around the bush.
Moving slowly, Kam turned her weary gaze toward him.She looked even more beautiful in the light of day, but her eyes revealed a tiredness that existed on a deeper-than-the-surface level. One in which he could easily relate.
“I met Mr. Akimi one time.” Her accented voice came out soft and slightly rough, as if she’d recently been sleeping. “It was the day he died, but I swear to you, I wasnotthe one who killed him.”
“But you admit that you were there.”
A heaviness visually fell over her as she gave a slow dip of her delicately sculpted chin. “I was. Only because he called the day before, compelling me to meet him.”
“How did you two know each other?”
“We didn’t.” Strands of her long, dark hair framed her face in a haphazard way. “I had never spoken to the man before he called. Even then, all he would say was that he’d been working undercover for the United States government. A CIA asset, I believe is what he called himself. He said I was being set up for the strike on your team and that someone out there wanted all of us dead.”
“Who went with you to meet Akimi?”
“No one.” Another shake of her pretty head. “I went alone.”
Van huffed out a breath. “You in the habit of meeting with strange men by yourself?”
Her fiery gaze met his once more. “He said he knew the name of the person who was truly responsible for my mother’s death. Mr. Akimi told me that man was the one who set up the attack on your team.”
“And you believed him?”
“What other choice did I have but to believe?” She searched his eyes as if they held the answer to her question. “I knew it was quite possible he was lying, but he sounded very sincere in his words. And he knew things. About me…my mother. You.” Kam shifted in her seat to fully face him. “He swore to me that he had proof of his claims, but he said that I must come alone or he wouldn’t be able to help me.”
“Why didn’t he just tell you the name of the guy calling the shots when he had you on the phone?”
“Believe me, I tried. But Mr. Akimi said it was too risky. Normally, I would have considered him to be paranoid if it wasn’t for the fact that I?—”
The jet dropped slightly, the unexpected jostling causing Kam to wrap her fingers around the arm of her chair in a white-knuckled grip. A few seconds later, the plane shook again, and it became clear to him that the mysterious woman found the sensation highly unsettling.
“Just a pocket of turbulence.” The pilot’s deep voice sounded from the speakers above their heads. “We should be cleared out of it within the next couple of minutes.”
Ignoring the announcement, Van kept his focus on Kam and what she’d been about to say.
“Except what?” he prompted her to continue the forgotten thought. “You would have thought Akimi was being paranoid except for the fact that you…”
