left side of his face.” She looked at him with eyes full of compassion that almost did him in. “That’s not all. She was wearing a bracelet that looked very much like the one you said Tara had inherited from your mother.”
It was like he’d been sucker punched.
“I’m sorry, Emir.”
He didn’t want her apology. He didn’t want to look at the sympathy in her eyes. He wanted to take her into his arms and make her stop talking, make her stop causing him to face possibilities that threatened everything he believed.
“There were two,” he murmured. “I thought the second was destroyed in the accident. In fact, until now, I’d forgotten about it.” He looked away. When he turned back to face her, he was more determined than ever to make the men who had taken Tara pay. “The woman you spoke to...”
She nodded. “Had what I think is the second bracelet. When I noticed the similarity, I asked her where she got it. She said their visitor had dropped it, and by the time she found it, he was gone. I’m almost positive it’s a match.” She stopped, concern on her face.
Emir’s right hand was clenched in a fist. “Ed’s face on the left side was burned pretty badly. He said he struggled to open Mother’s door—to get her out.”
“My informant was pretty sure it was a burn scar. She said she’d seen plenty in the village from the cooking pots and such.”
“The woman heard him talking to himself as he was preparing to leave. She said that she would always remember the words, for they were spoken with hatred. She said he was muttering that he would make the sheikka pay.”
“Make her pay? What had Tara done to him?”
“Was it Tara he was referring to?”
Shock rolled through him at what she might be implying. It made no sense. “Who else would he mean?”
She shrugged. “You said he tried to get your mother free from the vehicle. Why not your father? Why didn’t he mention him? Attempt to save him?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m not sure. I...”
“Kate...” He could hear his heart beat in anticipation of what she might say next. He wanted to put his hand over her mouth and not allow her to say the words he sensed would change everything he thought he knew.
“Did Ed act strangely around your mother? I mean, before the accident?”
“I...no, he was close to my father. My mother and he were formal with each other any time I saw them. An employee and a friend, he never crossed that line...”
“Never?”
“No.” He shook his head. “But I remember Mother saying she didn’t like him. She asked Father to fire him. That was just before the accident. Damn. She said he was taking liberties and by that I thought she meant treating Father as a friend...”
“When instead could it have been that Ed was making advances on her? Could he have been in love, lust, whatever, with your mother—and she knew or possibly only suspected?”
Kate’s blue eyes were troubled and yet full of passion. He couldn’t help but touch her cheek and press his lips to hers, in a desperate attempt to alleviate some of his pain. She sank into his kiss, her tongue meeting his, her breast soft, her nipple hard against his palm. He wanted her as much as he wanted all the pain of this new discovery to go away.
He let her go.
She gave him a slow seductive smile and then swung right back into business. “I don’t think we can afford to discount this. If we know who Tara’s kidnappers are, what motivates them, going in...”
“We have a better chance against them,” he finished. “If this is true, what has he been doing all these years? He hasn’t been in our employ since the accident.” Emir frowned. “We paid him out a compensation package.” His fist clenched. “How could he have hidden it...?” But he knew how criminals such as this might act. He just couldn’t imagine that someone he had known and trusted...
“Biding his time,” Kate replied. “And, I suspect, slowly losing his mind.”
Emir raked his fingers through his hair. “Then you’re saying that Tara’s dealing with a madman?”
“Possibly,” she said quietly.
And both of them knew they’d just hit worst-case scenario.
* * *
DESPITE THE FACT that it was still daylight, Tara was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. But she was too afraid to sleep. It was the only reason she could think that he had been able to come up to her, to surprise her without her realizing he was there.
His thick, dark hair was curly and too long, but it framed a face that might have been handsome, had he not been either so thin or so twisted. The intent in his eyes took away from any potential beauty in his face. His mouth curved in a self-satisfied smile that sent a chill down her spine and had her shifting away from him.
“It’s been a long time,” he said softly.
Tara blinked, as if that would clear her vision, as if that might change the reality of the man before her. “Why? Why have you done this?”
“Why? You dare to ask that as if you didn’t know—you, with your life of privilege. I will be glad to end it when it comes to that.”
“But what about the money?”
“What about the money, my foolish little princess, looking down at all of us, thumbing your nose at...”
“You taught me the rules of American football. You—” She broke off, unable to say any more. When he was so near, she tensed to the point she forgot to breath. She took a breath. He seemed to realize in this moment that she was not her mother. It was as though his reality shifted from one moment to the next.
“You were easier to deceive than your brothers, but you all came around.”
She stared into a face that was barely familiar, into eyes that were filled with hate, and at a man that it was now clear she had never known. She willed herself to not shrink back, to not show weakness, for in her gut she knew he wanted that as much as he wanted the money.
He reached for her as she twisted away, but it was impossible to escape. The rope that held her only allowed her to move so far.
His knuckle ran down the side of her face. “You never wanted me, did you, despite everything? It was always him.” He looked at her as he dropped back on his heels and stood. “I can keep you forever. He will never find you and I will bleed him dry.” He ran a thumb along the ridge of her collarbone. His touch was chilling despite the fact that two layers of cotton fabric lay between him and her.
“My brothers...”
He looked at her with angry, confused eyes.
“You call your sons, brothers?”
Tara’s sleep-deprived brain didn’t have an immediate comeback. She fought not to shrink back as the horror returned and her brain made sense of what he had said. Again, he thought that she was her mother. He’d slipped back into his mad delusion where she became her mother. A chill ran down her spine and she forced herself to look at him.
“He’ll never agree,” she said, not giving names, meaning her brothers and especially Emir, and leaving it open to his interpretation.
“Then you, my dear, must die. Not now,” he said as she looked at him with all the panic she was feeling. “I, of course, will shed tears. But there’s really no other way.”
She shivered as the chill of the day and the thought of the inevitable night combined with thoughts of her potential destiny, and all of it settled harsh and heavy in her heart.