Page 162 of Rescuing You

He expected expletives. Or at least an angry retort.

But the hidden man inside only chuckled. “I did not miss you at the airport,” Shehab said. “That was my young friend. I shouldn’t have trusted him with the job.”

Shouts below. A few scattered gunshots.

“Hard to get good help these days,” Michael said.

“Indeed.”

This was the cultured voice he’d heard at the compound.

This was the man he’d almost killed in Diyarbakir.

The man who’d looked at eleven-year-old Leila with hunger. And now planned to force her to marry him.

Over Michael’s dead body. Which, of course, Shehab would be happy to bring about.

Below and in his ear, he heard his team calling to each other.

Clear.

Clear.

Clear down here.

“It’s all falling apart.” Michael kept up the conversational tone. There was no reason to rush now. It was just a matter of time before he and the team got Shehab to surrender. Surrender and give up all his secrets. Or commit suicide, which Michael wouldn’t put past him. But the team would move in. While Michael distracted him, one of them would find a way to disarm him.

“The women are safe. You’re on your own. How many of your people have I killed in the last week? I’ve lost count.” Though he said the words casually, the images flashed through his mind. Enemies falling onto the desert floor.

At the van.

On the boat deck.

For every moment Michael remembered, did Shehab see a face? A friend?

Did he care?

He didn’t have a snappy comeback, which made Michael think that, despite the terrorist’s penchant for violence, he had at least had a little regard for the men who followed him.

Tension stretched between them.

A bullet ricocheted off the wall beside Michael’s head, inches away.

“Close,” Michael said. “But even if you shoot me, you’re not getting out of this. I’ve got my whole team here. And of course, if you look to the port side—that’s your right, if you’re facing me—you’ll see the coast guard. Pretty sure you can’t defeat us all.”

“I don’t have to defeat you all,” the terrorist said. “Only you.”

Ah. This was personal for Shehab.

Well, it was personal for Michael too.

As much as he’d like to make the man bleed, to hurt him for what he’d done to Leila⁠—

He could still hear her ruined voice. There was only one thing that could’ve caused that.

How close had she come to death?

How afraid must she have been?