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Max sat up straight and spoke earnestly. “Sebastian, please believe me. My intent is not to intimidate or manipulate you. It is merely to reinforce your belief that I knew your mother.”
The wheels turned in Bash’s head. When he was old enough to understand, his mother told him that she had run away from home after her parents insisted that she get an abortion. They didn’t approve of his father, whose family they believed was dangerous. Bash’s mother had never told his father that she was pregnant because she was afraid of his family. When she realized she had no alternatives, she caught a train and disappeared. Her hometown, friends, family, and past were all a mystery to him.
“How do you know my mother?” he asked cautiously.
“Bash!” Morgan clutched his arm and pointed. “There are three men in dark suits entering the park, coming from the direction of the parking lot. They don’t look like happy kind of guys, either.”
Fontana stood up. “We must leave.”
“I thought you said no one knew where you were,” Bash barked.
“They don’t. I did call my wife this morning to tell her I would be gone for a few more days, but I used a burner phone. It appears I’ve been tracked.”
“How can you be tracked by a burner phone?” Morgan asked.
“I have a stash of burners in my office at home. I bought them myself. My wife is the only one who has access to the numbers in case of an emergency. A tracker could have been placed on them,” he said.
“Your wife?” Bash questioned. “What about your pilot?”
“I watched the pilot get on a private 727 headed to Cairo not ten minutes after we landed. That’s his home base, so I highly doubt it was him,” Fontana confirmed. “Fatima was the only one who had access to the burners. It’s disappointing but not necessarily surprising. A marriage of convenience. Now, I need to figure out who she’s working with. But we do need to leave before they recognize us. I hope you had an escape route planned,” he said to Bash, then reached in his pocket, turned off his cell, and threw it in a trash can.
“Why should we take you with us?” Bash asked.
“Because I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I’m the only one who can provide the answers,” he said confidently. “So, what’s it going to be, Sebastian?”
Bash made a split-second decision, hoping he wouldn’t regret it. “As long as you don’t mind riding on back, we’ve got you covered,” Bash said.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Taking Morgan’s hand, Bash directed the group through the kitchen door and out into the back alley.
“Where’s your car?” Max asked, looking perplexed when faced with an empty alley.
“Behind the dumpster,” Morgan said. “Wait here.”
A couple of minutes later, Morgan and Bash eased their motorcycles out and stopped in front of Max.
“This explains what you meant when you said I’d be riding on the back,” Max said with a grin. “This will be a first.”
“I don’t have a helmet for you, so if you fall off and break your neck, that’s on you,” Bash said.
“Don’t wreck,” Max grimaced, climbing on behind Bash.
The alley had one way out and intersected with the only road exiting the outdoor mall. Morgan led the way. If they had to go off-road, she would be more likely to find the best path. Glancing in her rearview mirror, she chuckled at the sight of the two men, virtual strangers, Max clinging to Bash’s waist. She worried that the extra weight might be too much for Bash to control, but there was no alternative.
When she stopped at the street at the end of the alley, Bash pulled up alongside her.
“Morgan,” Bash said through her helmet radio. “Casually glance to your far right toward the entrance of the shopping center. We’ve got company.”
Slightly turning her head, using her peripheral vision, she spotted the black SUV Bash was referring to parked on the side of the main road just outside the mall entrance.
“Turkey feathers!”
“Yeah. That wasn’t the expression that came to mind, but let’s go with it. Regardless, we need a new plan. I don’t think we’ll be able to slip by with Fontana on the back. He’ll be recognized immediately.”
“You can let me off here, and I’ll call a taxi,” she overheard Max tell Bash.
“I’m not letting you out of my fucking sight until I know what your connection is to my mother!” Bash shouted.
