Page 39 of The Demon

As the car stops and Ali leaves his position to check the coast is clear, I lean down and whisper, “When I tell you, run like hell.”

“Where?”

She looks scared as fuck, and I nod behind us.

“There’s a hotel on the edge of the marina. You will blend in with their guests and meet me outside the ladies’ cloakroom.”

“But...”

The door opens and I glare at her with a look that tells her not to question me.

She falls silent and as I pull her roughly from the car, I turn to Ali and say gruffly, “Inform my father we have arrived. We will wait here.”

He nods and heads off at speed and as Eliza steps behind me, I gently push against her and hiss, “Run.”

I shield her from view for as long as I can and watch her blend into the shadows. The dark covering is the perfect disguise and does a good job of hiding her from prying eyes, which was my intention all along.

Once she is out of sight, I shout, “Fuck!”

My driver turns around and I say roughly, “She’s gone.”

I pretend to glance around me in agitation and he steps forward with an urgent, “We’ll search the area. She won’t go far.”

I nod. “I’ll take the water’s edge. She may be hiding on one of the boats.”

As the rest of my men head my way, I direct them in every direction but the one she went in. Then I follow her, keeping to the water’s edge, and when I’m out of sight, I take out my phone and run like hell before I make the call.

By the time I reach the hotel entrance, I know it’s now or never and as I dial the number I purposefully stored to my contacts, I dive through the entrance as the biggest explosion sets the marina alight.

* * *

My ears ringas I lie on the ground of the hotel reception with the cries and shouts of panicked people all around me. As I hoped nobody gives me a second look as they run for cover, sensing a terrorist attack.

Carefully, I stand and, dusting myself off, I head to the women’s cloakroom and spot her as soon as I turn the corner. She looks afraid and yet relieved to see me and I grip her hand hard and start walking to the door at the end as she whispers, “What’s happening?”

“I’ll tell you when we’re safe.”

As we exit through the fire door, I keep my head averted from the security cameras and, as soon as we reach the dusky night air, I pull her into a waiting car.

As soon as we slam the door behind us, the car sets off and I pull out my phone.

“It’s done.”

“Make your way to the airfield. Your flight is waiting.”

My adrenalin is running high as I count down the minutes until safety, and Eliza sobs gently beside me as she struggles to understand what’s going on.

It takes twenty minutes before we are safely seated on board and as soon as the door closes and is armed, the engines burst into life, and we are soon moving toward the runway.

Eliza turns to me and as I lift the veil from her head, I see the questions begging for answers in her expression and as the plane lifts off to freedom, I crush her lips to mine and know there is now no going back for either of us.

CHAPTER26

ELIZA

I’m in shock. What the fuck just happened?

One minute I was preparing to face my father and the next I was running for my life. The sound of the explosion rocked the entire hotel, and I was so afraid, believing that somehow Malik hadn’t made it. When he came around the corner, the relief was enormous and yet I never had time to blink, let alone ask what happened and now we are on a plane heading God knows where.

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