Page 152 of Deadly Betrayal
A scream leapt into her throat, a scream sheswallowed back down. Giving away their position now would meantheir death.
Oh Allah, she prayed.Pleaseprotect us.
The dark shape approached the bed and flippedthe cover and bedsheets over, before opening the closet and peeringinside. Azita followed each of the intruder’s light steps withrising terror. This person—was it male or female?—was looking forsomething,someone. When the person stepped into a beam ofmoonlight, Azita got the impression of narrow shoulders and leanhips and legs. A woman, most likely, dressed in tight-fitting darkclothing, knives strapped to her thighs, and guns holstered beneatheach arm. There were curious nylon bands with steel buckles aroundher waist and upper thighs. Azita had never seen anything like it.Who was this woman, and what did she want?
Laila whined, a small sound that carriedthroughout the room. The hair on Azita’s neck and arms rose as purefear poured through her veins. Hands on her hips, the figure turnedtoward the bed. Azita flung her arm out and cradled Laila againsther side, using her own body to shield the girl.
“Lailajan,” the woman said in heavilyaccented Dari. Azita felt Laila turn her head and her jaw fallopen. She quickly put her hand over Laila’s mouth to silence her.The voice sounded vaguely familiar, although she couldn’t place it.The woman was obviously a foreigner. Had Azita spoken to herbefore? Perhaps in English?
“Azizam, there are bad men out in thehall, men who want to hurt you. Kaden sent me to get you.”
Kaden? Azita’s confusion grew. He’d told herto stay put, yet he’d sent a strange woman to get Laila? She wentover the woman’s words in her mind. The stranger had not mentionedAzita. Did she not know Azita was here? Kaden knew, and he wouldnot take Laila away from her, not when the girl was so frightened.And why hadn’t the woman come in through the door?
Fear, an inky blanket, weighed on her,slowing her mind. She could hardly think, much less make sense ofeverything. What was she to do? Azita was a doctor with no fightingskills. She’d been taught to save, not to kill. But she would.
To protect Laila, she’d kill with her barehands. Which was what it might come down to. She should have keptthe gun Kaden had entrusted to her at Tariq’s camp. Should havekept it despite the horror she’d felt holding the deadly metalthing in her hands. Guns were anathema to everything she believed,yet, right now, she’d give anything to have one.
The woman moved toward the bed. Azita shiftedcloser to the wall and her foot connected with something.
Her medical bag.
Mentally, she inventoried its contents. Thescalpel was sharp; the round-tipped scissors, not so much. A hailof gunfire and shouting in the living room immobilized her. Thepounding of blood in her ears nearly overwhelmed the chaos in theother room. Laila clutched her hand and pressed her slight bodyagainst Azita’s. She was trembling, her shoulders shaking as shemuffled her moans against Azita’s arm.
In the distance, Kaden was giving orders. Sostrong and capable. Could he get them out of this situation?Surely, it would take a miracle. Khan Tariq’s men were bombardingtheir way into the suite, and a strange heavily armed woman whoclaimed to be a friend, but was most certainly an enemy, stood onlya few feet away.
Under the edge of the coverlet, Azita saw thewoman crouch to look under the bed. Azita suddenly remembered whatelse was in her medical bag: a needle and syringe. Did she haveanything that could subdue the woman if injected? Azita wracked herbrain.
Above all the noise, she heard another voice,shouting in Dari. “Don’t trust the—” It was Khalid. Was he tryingto warn her? She rejected the idea. How would he even know therewas someone in the room? A pain pierced her chest. If he was indeedwarning her, there could only be one explanation: Khalid had knownof Khan Tariq’s plan to attack them and send someone after Laila.Maybe that had been the true purpose of his “walk.” He’d led KhanTariq straight to them.
The woman rose and placed her ear against thedoor. Azita used the reprieve to hook her feet around the bag.Twisting slightly, she bent her knees and managed to bring itwithin reach of her hand. Perspiration dripped into her eyes.Blinking rapidly to clear the burn, she started to unzip the bag.At the first rasp of metal on metal, she stopped. She would have towait for some cover noise.
A moment later, in a terrifying answer to herprayers, there was a loud crash in the living room followed by aburst of automatic weapons fire. Ignoring the screams and thevisions in her mind of Kaden and Jake injured, needing her help,she finished unzipping the bag. Blindly, she located the syringe, acapped needle already affixed to the end. Next to it lay a vial ofmorphine sulfate used to control labor pains in her patients or asan analgesic for cesarean deliveries.
Palming the vial, she inserted the needle andfilled the syringe halfway. In the dark, it was difficult to judgethe dosage. She hoped it was enough to subdue the intruder withoutkilling her. But if it did… so be it. Azita could live with knowingshe’d killed to protect her daughter.
Kicking the bag out of the way, Azita heldthe syringe in her hand, poised to strike.
The woman walked toward the bed, but didn’tsettle in one place. “Lailajan, we must go. The bad men arein the sitting room now. You don’t want to die here, do you?”
Laila whimpered, and Azita wished she couldhug the girl.
Suddenly, Laila was ripped from under thebed. Azita barely had time to clasp her free hand around the girl’sankle before she disappeared completely. As it stood, the strangerwas so strong, she dragged them both out into the open. Azitapulled on Laila’s foot, while the woman yanked on her arm in amacabre tug-of-war. Laila twisted and tried to jerk her armfree.
Azita knew she would not win this battle.Letting go of Laila’s foot, she lunged at the woman, hitting her inthe arm. The needle penetrated the biceps deeply and Azita shovedthe plunger down all the way.
“What the bloody hell did you do? What didyou give me?” the woman hissed in English.
Recognition zinged through Azita. Stunned,she dropped the syringe and stared into the woman’s eyes, searchingher face, comparing it to her memory of the woman she’d met at theclinic two years before. “You!”
“Yes. Lovely to see you again, Doctor.” A gunappeared in the woman’s hand. She pointed it at Azita. “I came forthe girl. Stay out of my way, and I will let you live.”
Azita couldn’t believe her ears. What didthis woman want with Laila? “Why are you doing this?” The longerAzita stalled, the better the chance she and Laila had of escaping.The morphine would take effect soon. But then what? A veritable warwas being fought only a few feet away. Her gaze swung to thewindow. Was that how the woman had planned to leave with Laila?
Putting a hand to her forehead, the womanswayed. She stumbled into the wall. “What did you inject me with,you bitch?”
Azita kept careful watch on the woman, whilemotioning to Laila to get back under the bed. Although the hidingspot had been easily discovered, the mattress would provide thegirl a modicum of protection should the fighting reach them. Thewoman moaned and fell to the floor at the foot of the bed. Her eyeswere wide. Frightened. “Kill you… ruined every…” She tried to raiseher weapon, to point it at Azita. Her hand shook and the guntumbled to the floor, falling silently on the carpet.
Azita didn’t waste a second in snatching itup. After covering the woman with the edge of the coverlet, sheraced to the window, hoping to see a balcony. If it connected toanother room, she could get Laila out that way. Leaning over, shescanned up and down, left and right. Nothing. Nothing but a ropethat hung from the roof two floors above. Great sobs constrictedher chest and shook her shoulders. She’d conquered one enemy onlyto be forced to face a roomful of them.
