Page 9 of Dangerous Protocol

“Follow me.” Jeffrey moved across the large space and headed up a single flight of stairs.

They walked past several closed doors along the hallway. One on the left wasn’t a typical door—it appeared to be made of steel, and there was a slight hum as you passed it.

Vacuum-sealed tech room.A lot of electronic equipment had to be kept in a cool space or it would overheat.

“In here.” Jeffrey opened the door at the end of the hall, and they stepped into what she presumed was his office. “Have a seat.” He indicated a round conference table on the other side of the room.

She set her backpack on one of the chairs, then shrugged off her coat, hung it over her forearm, and sat in the chair next to her stuff.

While Jeffrey removed his coat, she looked around his office.

His desk was neat as a pin with nothing unnecessary atop it. The walls were bare, though she knew he’d been awarded several commendations and medals while serving as a recon sniper in the United States Marine Corps. During his time in the military, he’d been given the moniker of The Ghost.

She also noticed there were no photographs on display. What had she expected? Perhaps an endearing photograph of a wife and children? She chose not to delve too deeply into why the thought of that hurt so much. She’d given up the right to have any feelings on that topic the night she’d left him without so much as a by-your-leave.

“Don’t waste your time.” He tossed his coat over the back of his desk chair. “You won’t find anything interesting.”

The man never missed a thing.

He loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt, then pulled out the chair across from her and sat. Isla’s photograph was still in his hand.

“I want you to tell me why the hell I’m just now finding out that I have a child.” His jaw rolled, and he leaned across the table and pointed at her. “And don’t eventhinkabout lying to me, Maya. I want to know everything. I think you owe me that much.”

“You’re right.” She nodded and took a deep, bracing breath and released it. “I’ll tell you what I can.”

CHAPTER FIVE

“That’s not how thisis going to go, Maya.” Jeffrey was pissed and wanted her to know it. “For twelve years,twelve years, you’ve kept this from me!” He picked up the photo and held it in front of her face. “You’ve keptherfrom me! So, no, you don’t get to keepanythingelse from me.” He slapped the photo onto the table and sat back in his chair. “You’re going to start with what happened twelve years ago,thenyou’re going to tell me why I’m just now finding out about my daughter.”

A daughter.He knew Isla was his because she looked just like his mother had at that age. It angered him to think that Maya had denied his parents their grandchild all these years and now they were both gone.

“Jeffrey, you don’t understand.”

“How about you explain it to me then.” He crossed his arms, not giving an inch.

“Yes. All right.” She set her coat aside. “Prior to being sent to America to be part of the terrorism task force, I had just completed a deep undercover operation.” They’d metworking the terrorism task force together. “An operation that ended with me killing Prince Zahir Al-Mansoori of Qadira.”

Holy shit.

“That was you, huh?” Zahir was fourth in line to the throne.

“Yes.” She nodded.

At the time, Jeffrey had been the head of the international intelligence division of the NSA. As such, he’d received a written debrief on certain aspects of their op. However, MI6 had been very careful to redact the names of all of their operatives who participated in the mission.

“What happened to make you take Zahir out?” For her to have killed a target, it had to have been very bad.

“He got a bit too … aggressive one evening, and I had no choice.” She folded her forearms on the table.

“Define aggressive.” He prepared himself for what she might say.

“He tried to rape me. Had I not been able to grab his precious jeweled dagger and stab him in the heart, he surely would have done so. Then he would have happily killed me and disposed of my body somewhere in the desert. Something I am quite certain he had done in the past to many other women.”

He found it interesting that there wasn’t even the slightest quiver in her voice as she spoke of what the princecould’ve done to her, yet she’d seemed rattled when she approached Jeffrey on the street.

“Somehow, King Khaled found out who I really was. And I’ve yet to determine who betrayed me. Only a few people at MI6 knew.” She threaded her fingers together on the table. “So, in order to save face, he demanded his son’s death be kept quiet and then targeted me for extermination.” She squeezed her fingers until her knuckles became white.

The King of Qadira couldn’t risk having the world find out someone managed to infiltrate and kill a member of one of the most powerful royal families in the Middle East. A family that made billions selling oil to almost every country on the planet. Their international customers might lose confidence in them, and their competitors would consider it a weakness to be exploited.

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