Page 34 of Chasing the Past

She pulled back a little and searched his features.

Eli cupped her face. A tiny sob escaped, and she leaned into his hand craving the strength that was there.

He murmured her name and lowered his head. The moment his lips touched hers, she was lost. Omar had never kissed her, but she wasn’t surprised. He followed the Muslim faith, but he’d never shown any form of affection which had her wondering if he really cared about her even though he told her they were engaged. Was he marrying her out of some obligation?

The sweet kiss ended, and Eli tugged her closer. She never wanted to leave his arms. Here she felt safe.

A sound interrupted the moment jarring her back to the present. It was Eli’s cell phone.

He let her go, his attention on her face as he pulled the phone from his pocket.

Asal turned away and tried to get control of herself.

“It’s Gavin.” He answered the call and put it on speaker. “What’s happening there?”

The lengthy silence had Asal turning.

“My team is still going through the security cameras. It appears the killer entered through a back door. The cameras caught him before he entered the stairwell. He wore a disguise. We won’t be able to get a facial recognition read off him. We’re trying to trace his path and see if maybe he discarded the disguise, and we can see his face.”

Eli ran a hand through his hair, his attention on Asal. Despite the bad news, she touched her finger to her lips remembering their kiss. It had been tender. Special.

“So, we aren’t any closer to knowing what’s happening or what’s coming than we were before.”

Asal could hear the frustration in Eli.

“No. We’ve searched the place. There’s no sign of the items she described belonging to Sashi.”

Eli’s brow furrowed. “Did the perp have it with him?”

“Not that we could tell. But he was wearing a heavy jacket so maybe he hid them there.” Voices could be heard in the background. “I’ve got to go, brother. I’ll check in with you soon.”

Eli ended the call.

“What do we do, Eli?” Asal asked. “How can we stop what’s planned? Stop Omar.”

As she looked into his handsome face, the truth became clear. Without the answers they needed, there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop what was planned.

Chapter Fifteen

“I’d better let the team know what’s happened.” Eli scrolled through the numbers until he reached JTs.

JT answered after the first ring. “Did you make it back okay?”

"We did, but I have some disturbing news." Eli told him about what Gavin had said.

“That’s a definite setback. Let’s hope the CIA can decode the drive.”

“Let’s hope. It looks like the storm is getting closer.”

“Should be here in another hour or so. There’s some good news. Will’s people were able to obtain some fingerprints at the house and trace DNA. He’s searching the databases for a match to the prints now. The DNA may take longer since there wasn’t much of a sample.”

“Well, that’s something anyway.” But only if there was a match.

“How’s Asal? This has to be hard on her, learning she has a sister and that she’s dead on the same day.”

Eli reached for Asal’s hand. “She’s going to be okay.” But she appeared exhausted. Eli wondered how much more she could take.

“Keep an eye on things there,” JT told him. “Declan’s still digging into the ownership of the building in Kunduz that exploded. Hopefully, it will prove beneficial to the case.”

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