Page 106 of Elusive Promise

"I was trying to think of a way to save him, the way he saved me. I couldn't come up with anything."

His heart tore at the guilt in her eyes. Parisa could be fearless and ruthless, but she also had the biggest heart of anyone he knew.

"I know I shouldn't care, but I do," she said.

He gave her another tight hug. "It's okay to care."

"It's not. Neil started the Brothers of the Earth. He said it was just going to be a peaceful, political activist group with idealistic students in it. But it took on a life of its own. When he tried to stop it, they threatened to kill him and his family. He said he couldn't leave Bezikstan because Elizabeth's mother was ill. But he sent Ben away for college, so he wouldn't get swept up in it."

"That makes sense. What happened today?"

"Two men came to Neil's office. They told Neil that Isaac had Elizabeth. Neil believed them. That's why he didn't fight the vest. He was trading his life for hers. I told him Isaac and Sara were in custody, that Elizabeth was all right, but I don't know if that's true. I was trying to give him a reason to live, until I realized it wasn't going to be his choice. The bomb was going to detonate, and we didn't have enough time to defuse it."

"We'll find Elizabeth. He said there was only this bomb, right?"

She nodded. "Everything else is happening in Bezikstan. There's going to be a coup. It's imminent. The diamond financed a lot of weapons."

He blew out a breath. "I'm not saying that's good, but…"

She met his gaze. "I know. It's at least more of a fair fight between the rebels and the government versus innocent lives being taken at random."

"Parisa?" Damon yelled, interrupting their conversation as he came out onto the roof with two other agents.

"I'm all right," she said.

Jared was reluctant to let her go, but he sensed Damon needed reassurance that his good friend was alive.

Parisa and Damon exchanged a heartfelt hug, while the agents made their way across the roof, presumably looking for evidence and clues.

"You scared the hell out of me," Damon told her.

"I'm sorry. Everything was happening so fast, I didn't know what to do. Is anyone else hurt?"

"No. Because of you, the courtyard was evacuated before he took his dive."

"He said he was going to stand there for a minute, let everyone see him, so they could get away."

Damon shook his head in bewilderment. "I have to admit, I never considered Neil was involved in any of this. I just thought he was being a protective father."

"He was. He didn't know that Ben had even met Sara until after Jasmine was kidnapped. Then he realized that the group had used Ben to get into the consulate. The diamond is financing weapons to overthrow the Bezikstan government. That's the big plan. But apparently Isaac got greedy. He decided to take Jasmine as a hostage, so he could get more money, so he could run his own schemes."

"He won't be running anything," Damon said. "Isaac is in surgery now. His condition is critical. Hopefully, he doesn't die before we get more information out of him."

"He better not. That's the main reason I kept him alive," Jared muttered.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Damon told Jared.

"I guess you guys have gotten acquainted." Parisa's questioning gaze moved from Damon to him.

"We have," he said. "Damon drove like a maniac to get us here in time."

She smiled. "Any excuse to drive fast, right, Damon?"

Agent Wolfe shrugged. "It was all for you, Parisa. You should have left this building, though. You took a huge risk."

"I know. I wanted to save him. But it was too late. It was too close to noon." She started, her gaze swinging to his. "Jared, you missed your plane."

"This was more important."

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