Unlike Van and his Eagle’s Nest teammates, the jerk standing before her—and apparently Secretary Webb and Vice President McDowell—were most definitely on the side of evil.
“Why am I here?” Her voice sounded rough from the pain.
It was McDowell who spoke up next. “You’re here to answer questions, Miss Dawari.” He walked slowly toward her. “Not ask them.”
“What is it you want to know?”
“Everything, of course.” The sleezy politician smiled. “Butlet’s start with Farzad Akimi. Tell me everything he told you, then we can go from there.”
“And if I don’t?”
McDowell’s gaze shifted to the man standing closest to where she’d been forced to sit. “Felix? Would you care to show our guest what happens when she refuses to cooperate?”
Felix—A.K.A. Goon Number One—marched toward her, raised his hand, and smacked the back of his knuckles across her other cheek.
Kam cried out in pain, her head whipping harshly to the side. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth from a fresh cut in her bottom lip.
A low curse came from Webb, who stood a safe distance away. “Is that really necessary?”
Wouldn’t want to risk getting blood on his fancy suit, I suppose.
“She needs to understand that I’m not going to waste my time playing her little games,” McDowell spoke so calmly that it sent a shiver down her spine. “She needs to see thatI’mthe onein charge here. Not her.”
“Sheis right here,” Kam snapped back, spitting her blood on the ground by her feet. “And I can’t tell you what I do not know.”
“So you’re saying Mr. Akimi didn’t tell you anything the day you went to see him in secret? And before you answer, you should know that I’ve had people watching you for quite some time. It’s how I know you were there that day, and how I know you spoke to him before he…expired.”
“He wasn’t a gallon of milk that had spoiled.” She shot him a glare. “He was a human being your people tortured to death.”
“Ah, yes. This is true. But that still doesn’t answer my question.”
“He told me nothing.”
With a tipof his chin, the twisted man gave the silent order for her to be struck again. This time, when Felix’s meaty fist slammed into her, the hard punch sent her and the chair she was tied to flying back.
Kam cried out when she hit the unforgiving ground with a hard thud. Blood ran from both her nose and mouth, her already swollen eye feeling as though it would explode right out of its socket.
She groaned, doing all she could to remain conscious. And when Felix grabbed the arms of the chair to unceremoniously set her back upright, she thought she was going to vomit right there on the man’s shoes.
It would serve the pathetic excuse for a man right for having hit a defenseless woman.
Images of Farzad’s beaten, cut, and broken body flashed before her just then, and Kam knew this was only the beginning of what she might possibly endure. But she had to keep going. She needed to keep them talking for as long as she possibly could.
Because Van would be coming for her very soon. She’d seen it in his eyes as he’d stood on the edge of the dock, watching angrily as she’d been forced away.
By some miracle—because what else could it be—she’d somehow fallen in love with the very man who’d wanted her dead. And in the process of that very same, unexplainable magic, Donovan Braddock had fallen in love with her, too.
Oh, he probably didn’t know it yet, but she would make sure he did before it was all said and done. That was assuming, of course, that she survived. And though nothing about her falling for him made sense, it didn’t have to.
Because it was love.
Love wasn’t neat and tidy. It didn’t always make sense. Not to the people in it or those around them to witness.
Love was messy. Complicated. And sometimes very hard. But Kam knew in her heart…she knew it to herbones…that once you found the real thing, that love became…
Everything.
“Tell me what Akimi said!” McDowell lost his cool.
