“She escaped.” Michal’s gaze latched onto Carlos’s. “That is all that matters.”
He threw up his hands again. “You are under a spell,” he shouted. “She is using you and you are too blind to see it.”
Michal set his empty glass aside and pushed to his feet. His shoulder throbbed in response. It was a damn good thing the bullet had gone straight through, missing anything important, including bone. There had been lots of blood and there would be plenty of pain, but nothing worse.
“You make many serious accusations,” Michal said quietly, his tone laced with a lethal quality for good measure. “Do you have evidence to support this assertion? And what is it she would hope to gain by using me or setting me up? She has asked for nothing.”
Carlos looked too smug. Michal’s instincts pushed through the haze of alcohol and stood at attention.
“We both know that she betrayed you before.”
Michal didn’t bother commenting. It was as Carlos said. But that was the past, this was now.
“I have been watching her closely.”
Tension slid through Michal. Carlos was no fool. But Michal did not like the idea of him watching her. “And what have you observed?”
“Nothing. She remembers nothing of the past, she does nothing.” He splayed his hands in confusion. “Nothing.”
“What is your point, Carlos?” Michal warned, his patience at an end.
“My contacts in the village tell me that there has been CIA activity.” Carlos cocked his head and said the rest with far too much pleasure. “It started about the same time she arrived.”
A new kind of tension wormed its way into Michal’s already rigid muscles at that news. “What activities have your contacts reported?”
“Only that a man-an American-has been asking questions, hanging around, watching, pretending to be a tourist.”
“This man,” Michal prodded, “what does he look like?”
Carlos shrugged. “The description is vague. Dark hair. Tall. Lean.”
Michal filed the description for later use. “But you have no direct link between Amira and the CIA or this man you believe to be CIA?”
Fury erupted in Carlos’s eyes once more. “What will it take to convince you? You are not thinking straight? Raoul is dead! You were almost killed. If you do not get rid of her, she will be the death of us all!”
Michal advanced on him then, going toe to toe, eye to eye so there would be no misunderstanding. “This discussion is over. If-” he continued when Carlos would have argued “-you broach this subject again, I will consider it an outright act of insubordination.”
Deep, dark red rose from Carlos’s neck all the way to his forehead, but, to his credit, he remained silent.
“You will keep me informed as to any further CIA activities in Marseilles,” he added in case there was any question. “Unless, of course, you no longer wish to pursue this working relationship. Am I clear?”
The standoff lasted all of ten seconds.
“You have made yourself crystal clear.”
Carlos walked out of the room as if all was understood, but Michal had the distinct feeling this battle had only just begun. He hoped for Carlos’s sake he was wrong. His gut told him that the issue went far deeper than Ami’s presence.
Whatever the case, if the man forced his hand, it would not bode well for him.
AMI GINGERLY DRIED her body. Every reach, every bend, was agonizing. When she’d swabbed herself dry as best she could, she wiped the foggy mirror with the towel and studied her reflection. Most of the swelling had gone down in her cheek, but the bruise was an ugly shade of yellowish purple.
Varying shades of purple and green dotted her arms and sides. The worst of which was where the jerk had kicked her in the ribs, fracturing one, making even a deep breath uncomfortable. At least she could hear again. The proximity of the gun blasts had all but deafened her.
Ami closed her eyes and braced herself against the basin. The events of the past thirty-six hours shook her to the very core of her being. She was certain she had never known such brutality. She flinched at the memory of that gun barrel aimed directly at her face. It was insane. Michal had given that man his freedom and he’d used it to try to kill her.
Michal had explained that the group the man represented hated Americans in particular. To die while attempting to rid the earth of one made him a hero.
Ami shivered. This was crazy. She wasn’t indifferent to the happenings in the world. She watched CNN from time to time. But seeing it flash across a news screen and living the actual events were two entirely different things.
How could people live this way?
She had seen Michal murder a man with her own eyes. She’d witnessed his cunning when they had traveled to Libya. There was no doubt in her mind that he could be incredibly ruthless when he chose to be.
But he had saved her life.
He’d stepped in front of that bullet with no consideration whatsoever of his own survival.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he had released the man in part to appease her.
And it had almost cost him his life.
She shuddered when the pictures flashed one after the other through her mind. Blood…there had been so much blood. She’d seen blood before. She was a nurse, for God’s sake! But this had been Michal’s blood. An inch or two lower and slightly to the right and he wouldn’t have survived.
No amount of training or experience as a nurse had prepared her for that moment. Even the remote possibility of his dying had been more than she could bear.
How could she hope to follow through with Tanner’s plan?
Her hand went to her stomach and she pressed it there, trying to quiet the anguish twisting inside her. He was her child’s father…the man she loved in spite of all she knew about him.
Hurt tore through her. There was no way to win. No matter what she did, someone would lose. If she refused to follow Tanner’s orders she would never see her son again. God only knew what would become of him. Foster homes…adoption. She couldn’t be certain Robert would take care of him once he’d moved on to another relationship.
If she did as Tanner told her, she was effectively thrusting a knife into Michal’s back.
Either way she was probably going to die.
Hot, salty tears rolled down her cheeks, but she made no sound. Her throat had closed with hurt. She didn’t want to die. Michal dying was an even more devastating thought. But the most horrible part of all was never seeing her baby again. She closed her eyes and summoned the memory of his sweet baby scent and his chubby arms and legs.
What she would give to hold him just one last time.
“Let me help you.”
Ami’s head came up and her breath left her at the sound of Michal’s voice. Instinctively she covered her nude body with the towel she’d abandoned on the basin.
“I didn’t hear you come in,” she said, embarrassment flushing her skin.
“You were deep in thought,” he agreed. He touched her and slowly tugged the towel away. She shivered. He’d seen her nude before…but she felt somehow vulnerable this time. The pained look on his face as he surveyed her various bruises made her heart contract.
“Is the pain tolerable?” he asked softly as he picked up the wrap for her ribs.
She nodded, too uncertain of her voice to speak.
“I’ll take care of this.” He reached around her, his body brushing hers, and wound the bandage around her torso.
Her respiration grew rapid as his long, strong fingers moved over her skin. She watched him in the mirror, her heart fluttering wildly in her chest. He was so beautiful. She knew with every fiber of her being that Nicholas would look so very much like him.
For one long moment she could hardly restrain the urge to tell him about his son. To share that blessed gift with the man who had somehow broken down her every defense with the same ease and boldness that he had saved her life.