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Chapter Ten
Abby ignored the accusation and allowed her mind to wander back to that night. The last night of her life as Josephine.
Guests hung out in the ornate gardens at the back of Khalid’s mansion. A sculptured fountain of a leaping Arabian oryx dominated the landscaped shrubbery. Winding pathways sprinkled in fairy lights added to the ambiance. Champagne flowed, and waiters maneuvered through the crowd.
Joey’s black dress clung to her damp body as she escaped down a pathway, finding a quiet bench nestled under some palms. A small breeze whispered across her brow as she admired the view below. The golf course running across the bottom of the garden rolled out with palm trees flanking the green on either side. The tinkling of a nearby stream calmed her nerves. Not sure how long she sat there, Joey got up to leave.
“Josephine.” Khalid stepped out of the shadows.
“You knew I was here?”
“I myself was escaping the crow
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Abby stared blankly ahead. Dry-eyed and trembling.Jesus. Max had a suspicion of what would come next. She needed a break. He needed a goddamn break. He’d wanted the truth, and here it was in all its ugly glory. Abby was no longer considered a target. She was reclassified as a vulnerable witness. Technically the term was an intimidated witness.This wasn’t an interrogation, it never truly was. It was now an interview. The suppressed anger rolling off the rest of the team matched his own. Khalid was a monster, and they’d seen his handiwork. Experienced it firsthand, but to hear it pour out of Abby’s mouth drove the depravity home.Max knelt beside her. “Abby, let’s take a break.” He reached out and touched her clasped hands.She jerked. “Don’t touch me. Don’t you dare, you have no right.”“How about I make you some tea.”She smirked cynically. “Now I&
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Max struggled to keep his eyes open. Four in the morning and his team had finally settled. Abby was told to sleep in her living room with a team member present, until she was cleared. Slater sat on Abby’s other couch on watch duty. Her apartment needed a thorough search and they’d take their time. After crashing in the guest room, Donnie would lead the search when he woke. Both Max and Johnny took turns with guard duty from across the way.Instead of resting, Abby curled up and quietly sobbed. Max rubbed his forehead tiredly. The soft weeping drifting through the speakers drove him up the goddamn walls, and Slater looked to be in the same boat. Max felt like a son of a bitch for forcing her to tell them about her ordeal. Abby had likely never shared the full story with anyone, and now she’d told it to a room of strangers.Khalid would pay. Nausea threatened every time he thought of what that evil bastard did to her.Did Abby know of the surveil
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Levi Bakal’s bakery seemed as dull as dishwater. Fair enough, he’d just bought the place, but it was clearly in disrepair and would not be in use in the foreseeable future. It was the first time Abby had seen the actual bakery, and she was shocked at how much Levi needed to do before it was functional. The crumbling wallpaper revealed water damage on the far wall. The place smelled musty and looked filthy. Kitchen equipment in the back would need replacing. What was Levi thinking? Abby tried to ignore the brawny dolt sticking to her like glue. Oh, she’d prettied up all right. She felt foxy and fine in her fitted plum blazer thrown over a white blouse with black tailored pants. Her stilettos were a little high—but hey, give a girl pretty shoes and she can w
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Abby sat quietly on the drive home, probably mad at him. Hell. He was furious at himself. Max Andersen had lost his shit in the field for the first time in his long career. He glared at Abby’s profile and felt better blaming it all on her; she pushed all his freaking buttons. Never mind pushed, she hammered away like she was banging away at an old typewriter, that was his brain. Yeah, this was so her fault. Next time, Slater could trail alongside her like a freaking lapdog.“Thank you,” Abby said.Max felt flummoxed. “What?”
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Later that afternoon, Max got some shut-eye and had just awoken and was doing push-ups alongside the bed when Donnie poked his head in. “Yo, Batman, as nice as it is to ogle your ripped, bare-naked chest before dinner, I have some news.” Max gave Donnie a rude sign as he bounced up and grabbed a shirt. “A man takes one small nap in twenty-four hours and this is what he gets? What do you have?” “Omar Salib,” Donnie answered with a grin. “What about him?” “He’s landing in Johannesburg early tomorrow morning. He has a connecting flight to Mogadishu later in the afternoon.” “Great. What’s his ETA?” “0600 hours.” “Excellent. Let’s roll out the welcoming mat.” *** This was her cleaning day. Thanks to a combination of anxiety and claustrophobia, Abby took spring cleaning to the next level, deciding to scrub and organize all the kitchen cabinets at eight in the morning. Abby stacked the last of the pans and hefted them
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The rest of the week passed by uneventfully. If they didn’t go to blondie’s birthday barbecue, it might raise suspicions. Lizzy was Abby’s closest friend. Abby would naturally go about her routine, at least until they had a handle on the threat. She was their only link.Eleven in the morning and the sun was already baking hot. Max dressed casually in faded jeans and a white T-shirt. While waiting for Abby to emerge from her bedroom, he ambled down the passage and paused at her studio. The woman was talented. A new canvas featuring a charging African elephant sat on the easel. The rough sketch already captured the movement and power of the giant mammal. Throughout the busy week, Abby had still made time for her art. Sandals clicked as Abby walked towards him.“What do you think?”Abby’s deep blue dress blew his socks off, complementing her warm chocolate hair and tanned skin. She’d paired it with tan sandals and a matchin
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He knew he was losing his shit and he didn’t give a flying fuck. Cool as ice Max was now a raving lunatic. Her reaction wasn’t what he expected; she looked at him as if he was daft before shrugging. “You men are all like amped-up rabbits bouncing all over the place; I can’t talk to you while you’re like this. Where are we going?”Max glared at her as options raced through his head. He trusted his profiling. If he gave Evans the benefit of the doubt, it could get them all killed.&ldqu
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“I left out some details of the physical damage done to me that night and the challenges I’d face.” He’d thought long and hard about that; it was a miracle that she could function at all, yet here she was holding down a job and trying to live a healthy life. Brave. At least that’s what he’d thought until she snuck a phone call on a damn burner… “The clinic in Dubai took evidence photos, did a rape kit, started me on antivirals and gave me the morning-after pill.” Max’s stomach always churned with anger when he saw what men on this earth were capable of. He’d come across many atrocities on women during his SF days. Villages raped and pillaged, women mutilated and left to die. They’d rescued girls along the way, but the dead look in their eyes would haunt Max for the rest of his days. She forged on in a robotic voice. “A security officer stayed by my side the whole time. She held my hand and told me everything would be okay. Her name was Noleen; she was
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