Page 156 of Deadly Betrayal
The big man sighed heavily, and Khalid almostfelt sorry for him. Except that he didn’t, because the man hadAzita.
“This woman was present at the ambush.”
“Okay,” the American said. “I imagine shejumped in to help when the sniper took a shot at us.”
Khalid shook his head. “No.” He met the man’sstare, pouring as much sincerity into his gaze as he could. If theAmerican was going to be with Azita and Laila, he needed tounderstand how dangerous the British woman was. “She was thesniper. Gwen shot you.”
Khalid’s bomb dropped with the impact of anuclear payload. Kaden turned to stare at the unmoving woman on thebed. Christ. Could this get any worse?
“Oh shit,” Jake said, standing and movingaway from Gwen. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” His face had gone as white as asheet of paper.
Kaden placed a hand on Jake’s shoulder. Howwould it feel to know the woman you’d been sleeping with, the womanyou’d just slept with, had tried to kill you? “She can’t hurt younow, Jake.”
Jake whirled around. His eyes were strainedand his skin stretched taut across his face. “I’m not fuckingworried about me. Oh God. Don’t yougetit?”
“Get what?”
“It’s me. Holy fuck. It’sme.”
Kaden grabbed his friend’s shoulders andshook him. “Jake, snap out of it. It’s over.”
Jake pulled away from Kaden and stumbled tothe doorway. Kaden shot a questioning glance at Azita, who nodded,before he followed Jake into the living room. He grabbed Jake’sarm. “Tell me what’s going on. What’s got you so rattled?”
In all the years he’d known Jake, he’d neverseen the man like this. His eyes were vacant, but not like he gotwhen he was lost in a PTSD episode. No, Jake was right here. Hejust looked like he wished he wasn’t.
Turning away, Jake tripped over a body, andKaden caught his arm before he face-planted. Something wasseriously wrong. And it had nothing to do with the grisly sightthat greeted them. Everywhere Kaden looked, there were bodies,blood, and gore. The ANP had arrived and were cataloging thescene.
An older man, who seemed to be in charge,walked toward them. “Names?” he asked in English.
Anxious to finish his conversation with Jake,Kaden answered for both of them. He explained what had happened,and that Tariq’s body was in the other room along with Gwen, who’dbeen an accomplice. The man continued to ask questions until hefinally ran out.
Kaden pulled Jake aside. “Now spill.”
Jake shrugged his shirt back into place. Theywere both covered in blood, bruises, and other unidentifiablegrime. But Jake’s eyes didn’t hold their usual battle-weariness.No, he was good and pissed. “Sheusedme. She fucking usedme.”
“Who?”
Jake shot him a frustrated glare. “Gwen!Jesus. I don’t fucking believe this. All this time we were lookingfor the traitor, he was right here.I’mthe fucking traitor,Kaden. It was me. I must have told Gwen about the exchange. Godknows we partied enough. She had ample opportunity to wheedle stuffout of me. She used me for information. And then she tried tofucking kill me to cover her own ass.”
Kaden stared at his buddy, the man he’dalmost died to protect, and tried to process everything Jake wastelling him. It didn’t add up. Jake would never give out detailsabout an op, not even a babysitting mission like the one they’dthought they were going on. “Do youknowthat you told her,or you only think you did?”
“I don’t know!” He paced around in a circle,taking big breaths. “She’s trained in interrogation. Those MI6fuckers can get you to spill the beans and you won’t even realizeit. She probably asked if I wanted to meet up with her and I toldher I had to work. However she did it, she got it from me.I’mthe reason Sanchez is dead. I’m the reason you almostdied. It was my fucking fault.”
Not for a minute did Kaden believe that. Gwenmight have mined some information from him, but Jake had certainlynot volunteered it. He’d withstood a year of torture at the handsof a warlord. He’d never have revealed the time or location of theexchange. He’d never have knowingly put his team at risk. “Itwasn’t your fault.”
Jake spun on his heel and hopped over bodiesas he headed for the door. A scream coming from Laila’s roomstopped them both short. Kaden took off at a dead run, gun in hand,and covered the short distance to the bedroom in seconds. “What isit?”
Azita, Laila, and Khalid were huddled on thefloor. Gwen was nowhere to be seen. Jake raced past him and went tothe window. He looked down, then up. Kaden joined him. “Seeher?”
A rope extended from the roof to the darkstreet below. It swung wildly, but there was no sign of the MI6agent. Jake turned back into the room and slid to the carpet, hisback braced against the wall. He caught his head in his hands.“This night just keeps getting better and better.”
Kaden patted his friend on the shoulderbefore crossing the room. He sat on the edge of the bed. Lailascrambled onto his lap and Azita sat beside him. It was time tofinish this with Khalid. “Okay, since you like deals so much, I’vegot one for you. You don’t interfere with my plans to take Azitaand Laila out of the country or my plans to adopt Laila, and Iwon’t interfere with your plans to run for the presidency.”
Khalid snorted. “As if you could.”
“Believe it. I could make a lot of troublefor you. I could let everyone know about all the land you’ve boughtup and all the mineral resources you’ve put into the hands ofwarlords. I could also expose what you’ve done to Laila, trying tosell her off to a sadistic tyrant. Without the support of the West,you won’t get elected. I’ll make you stink so bad, no one will wantto touch you even with a very long pole.”
The blood drained from Khalid’s face. Gwenhad provided Kaden with quite a workup on Khalid’s “business”activities. He’d been able to read between the lines, and heunderstood what Khalid was trying to do. His methods sucked, buthis intentions were good, if not noble. “If you want a chance atthe presidency in the next election, you won’t cross me.”
