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“No!” Elijah Hopkins roared.

Blood and bits sprayed Leila Cloud as Nottingham was shot in the head, his body hitting the rubble beside her.

“I’ll go quiet—” Elijah didn’t get to finish his sentence as Paul Unger was shot in the head. Now both bodyguards for their team were dead, killed in seconds.

Leila locked eyes with her boss. They’d worked together on and off for five years.

She knew him.

She knew him.

Yes, Elijah was angry, but for once she saw fear in his eyes.

“If you don’t tell us what we want to know we’ll start killing them, one by one. You understand?” The man holding Elijah with a gun pointed at his gut was speaking English. He didn’t spare a glance for the two dead bodies at his feet, their brain matter mingling with some of the rubble that had once been a conference room in one of fifty interchangeable empty government buildings here in Damascus.

Leila listened carefully to the man. Based on his accent as he spoke English, it was clear that Arabic was his first language, but he wasn’t from Damascus. She’d ponder this later. Now she needed to do something.

Anything.

“Why are you taking him? He’s nobody. We all are.” Leila manufactured tears as she spoke to the man. “Please, I’m begging you. We’re scared. The room just exploded. We need help.” At some point, they had set the room to blow, at least in the corners. Not enough to kill, just enough to shake them up.

She looked at the four men in front of her. The one holding Elijah clearly didn’t care about her pleas. The two on either side of him had fanatical looks. They’d clearly drunk the Kool-Aid. But the young one, the one on the far right, he was buying into her act. The kid felt bad for her. She could use him. She memorized his face as she let a tear drip down her cheek.

“You Americans are so stupid,” the leader sneered. He spit on the ground and shoved the pistol harder into Elijah’s gut. Her boss groaned in pain. Yep, Leila wasn’t the only one who could act. The leader turned and spoke in rapid Arabic to the man on his right. “Get their weapons.” He tilted his chin to the two bodies on the ground.

The man nodded, then shoved both bodies over and reached inside their suit jackets and pulled their guns out of their holsters.

“Now, search the rest of them for weapons. Take away all of their electronics,” the leader said in English. He pointed to his other man. “You help.”

It took some time, but the two men confiscated all of their laptops, and each one of them handed over their cell phones as a rifle was pointed at their heads. Then the two of them fell back in line next to their leader.

“Should we search the others?” one fanatic asked.

“They’re nobody. Sheep. Don’t bother, they won’t have anything hidden,” the leader laughed.

A heavy, short man named Robert Landry, who had been the bane of her existence, pushed past her so hard she almost lost her balance.

“If it’s money you want, I can buy and sell that man a hundred times over,” he said, pointing at Elijah. “Let me call the states and I can have a million dollars wired to whatever account you name. Then at least you can let me go.” Robert’s fawning tone wasn’t an act, he was just that much of a bottom feeder. He only cared about his own ass.

What was more pathetic, he was a cheap lowlife. Leila knew how much money he had in his accounts, down to the last dollar. A million? He could pay ten million without batting an eye.

The stupid bastard!

“What’s your name? How do I know you’re telling me the truth?” the leader asked.

“Do an internet search. My name is Robert Landry. I own Landry Oil and Chemicals.”

“I will,” the leader said, giving Landry a considering look.

Did Landry have any sense at all?

Scratch that. Of course, he didn’t. This was the man who inherited his father’s and grandfather’s company and was systematically running it into the ground. He was dumb as a bull in mating season.

“Meanwhile, Mr. Hopkins, we are going to have a long talk.” The leader shoved Elijah toward what used to be a door but was now just an empty doorframe. They had kicked it in when the explosives went off.

“Don’t do any—” Elijah started to say, then the leader pistol whipped him across the face. One of the two guards that Leila considered fanatical terrorists grabbed Elijah and shoved him upright so that he could continue to follow the leader.