“It wasn’t the house, it was outside.” Abram was beside her, his hand grabbing hers as he pulled her toward the door. “It was too damned close though.”
“We have to get to Chalah.” She gasped as Tariq threw the door open with one hand. He carried the powerful automatic rifle in the other.
She considered it completely unfair that his gu was bigger than hers.
“She’s probably the reason they found us so fucking fast,” Tariq snarled back at her.
There was nothing of the lovers who had held her so gently, who had touched her so heatedly earlier. These were hardened warriors, and though she appreciated the need, she did not appreciate the delivery of the attitude in her direction.
“Tariq.” Abram’s voice was warning as they stepped into the darkened hallway.
Tariq turned to the left, ignoring Abram and heading for the staircase that curved down to the main floor. The opposite direction of the room Chalah had been taken to.
Without a word Paige turned to the right, breathing out a sigh of relief as she felt Abram following closely behind her as she moved quickly for Chalah’s room.
Tariq cursed furiously behind them.
Reaching the door Abram gave a hard, quick knock before pushing it open.
Darkened, silent, the room appeared deserted as Tariq pushed in ahead of Abram. Paige caught the disgruntled look Tariq shot him.
Another explosion shook the house, this one closer, the flare of light blazing white outside the tall, wide windows. Paige barely managed to hold back her cry, or at least she thought she had. It must have escaped as a small, frightened squeak that seemed to drift through the room.
She could have sworn she heard Tariq curse again. Striding past her he threw open the closet door and a heartbeat later dragged a terrified Chalah from the small, enclosed space.
“Let’s go!” Abram ordered as they moved quickly down the hall. “Tariq, has Conover contacted?”
“Nothing,” Tariq answered from behind him. “And he should have radioed.”
“They managed to get past him and his men once before when Ayid and Aman came after Kahlid and Abram,” Paige stated. “They could have managed to overtake them again.”
They, being Jafar and his men.
Jafar.
Paige glanced back at Chalah’s pale, tearstained face. Abram’s father, and Chalah’s brother. How horrible it must be to face the reality of their hatred.
“Tariq, take Paige and Chalah—”
“Oh hell no,” Paige protested. “You’re not going anyre without me.”
“No women are giving us orders,” Tariq growled as they neared the steps. “Next thing we know, children will be teaching us.”
Paige had every intention of telling him exactly what she thought of the comment when they heard the first, sharp report of a weapon.
Tariq and Abram both moved quickly, pushing Paige and Chalah against the wall. The sound of shouted orders from below had Paige’s heart racing in terror. She felt a bone-deep knowledge that Abram wouldn’t be able to handle hiding for long.
“The safe room,” Abram said, turning to Tariq. “There’s one on each floor. Activated it sends out an alarm to police, fire, and rescue, independent of the phone lines.”
“Why can’t you use the phone lines?” Paige whispered.
“I checked them,” Tariq stated. “They’re out and cell phones are jammed. The safe room sends out a call to law enforcement through cable Internet which is buried underground. If they cut the lines there, it sends out a call then as well.”
The phones were out. Paige knew after the last attack Khalid had had a special security system installed that used the backup Internet connection emergency notification.
So why hadn’t there been a response yet?
“Abram, it’s Daniel Conover.” The sound of the security consultant’s voice rang up the stairs.
“Conover,” Abram called back as he placed his body carefully in front of Paige’s.
Tariq had done the same, standing in front of Chalah protectively. “What’s going on?”
“Too much, Abram,” Daniel called back. “But not enough to give a man a sense of satisfaction.”
The safe code came back with an edge of amusement.
Abram relaxed marginally.
“I’m coming up, Abram,” Daniel announced.
Seconds later he strode to the top of the stairs, dressed in black and looking almost as dangerous as Abram and Tariq. “Police will be here any minute,” Daniel stated as he stopped at the top of the stairs, his blue eyes gleaming like hardened gems. “We caught a man armed with a piss-poor shoulder-mounted rocket launcher and a few homemade rockets. We have him in custody but he’s not talking. We’ll see what the police can do with him in a few minutes.”
The sound of sirens wailing in the distance had Abram turning to glare at the window at the far end of the hall.
The flash of lights, blue and red, flared in the distance as the sirens moved closer.
Fuck.
Abram glared at the window, aware of Paige behind him, her hand moving to grip his bicep as she whispered his name.
“I could have made him talk,” he stated quickly. “Azir sent him. I could force it out of him.”
“Yeah, well, that shit seems to be against the law here in Virginia,” Daniel grunted. “Give me a chance to help them load up our prisoner and then we’ll talk.”
About what?
Abram didn’t voice the thought. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing left to talk about if he was simply going to pack the man his agents had caught off to the local police station. “We can talk come morning,” Abram growled as he turned, catching Paige’s elbow and turning her back to the bedroom. “I have other things to do tonight.”
He was pissed, though he knew it was no one’s fault that his need to kick Jafar’s ass and shoot his own father was tearing through him.
The rage was building, and it was a rage he knew was only beginning to fester inside him.
“Abram, we’ll stop it,” Daniel assured him as Abram turned away from him.
“Will we, Daniel?” He grunted. “My brother is in the hospital near death, my lover must live in fear of being killed because she is my weakness, and my cousin, the only one willing to stand at my back has forever gained Azir’s hatred. Just as I did so long ago. Perhaps it’s time to realize there is nothing we can do in this fight. Had I not insisted on being here, where I was safe to feed my hungers, then neither Tariq nor Paige would be facing the danger that now stalks them.”
He didn’t give Daniel a chance to answer.
Turning away he headed back to the bedroom, his fingers curved around Paige’s upper arm before drawing her into the bedroom.
“Abram, I will see you later in the day,” Tariq stated as Abram paused just inside the bedroom.
He turned and stared back at his cousin, then at the young woman watching everything silently, her dark eyes glittering with tears and with pain.
“Leave Chalah alone for the night, Tariq,” he told him quietly. “Jafar wld have known where we were staying with no help from his sister.”
Tariq inclined his head in agreement, but Abram saw something in his gaze, in his expression, that warned him that in this, Tariq would have to cut his own throat before realizing the truth.
Abram closed the door, locked it securely, then turned back to Paige.
Pale, weary, yet with a strength he had always known she possessed. The strength to stare adversity in the face without losing her spirit or her courage.
God, she was the epitome of feminine strength and passion. A woman unlike any he had known before her.
He wanted to protect her. He wanted to place her in his bed and never allow her to leave it. At the same time, he wanted to stand before the world with her and proclaim her as his own. Each time that temptation rose inside him, though, memories of Lessa were there to haunt him.
“I’m sorry.” And he was, clear to the bottom of his soul he fully regretted the fact that Paige had been drawn into this hell.