Emir.
She wanted none of his kisses and yet, if she were truthful, she wanted the little she’d received and more. She looked at the map, pulling her attention from the line of his jaw, his strong yet artistic hands on the wheel—imagining how they would feel...
“I’ve located every community within a hundred miles of Kaher, as well as between that and El Dewar,” she said as she pushed her unwanted thoughts away.
“And if they’ve taken her farther?” There was a rough edge in the timbre of his voice. He looked at his instrument panel and adjusted something, she couldn’t say what. Flying in a small plane in the co-pilot seat was not something she did often and never at night.
“The desert won’t be easy,” Emir said as if another reminder would somehow ease the journey. “I don’t know how long it will take to find her. We may need to set up camp—overnight.”
It wasn’t optimism she heard so much in his voice as something else. There was something almost suggestive in the words, and a shiver ran through her. Alone in the desert with Emir, under different circumstances... She let the thought trail off. Any attraction they felt meant nothing. Danger often got emotions flaring and that led, given the opportunity, to other things. That’s all their attraction meant. She should have known better.
“It’s impossible to know,” Kate agreed, ignoring any connotation an overnight trip might have meant or if there had been any connotation at all. “Hopefully we don’t have to enter blind.” But that was the point of this trip—to get more information, to be able to enter the Sahara with something more than that Tara’s message was connected to a childhood trip. Too bad Tara had been cut off.
Emir glanced at her, his jaw tight, his eyes shadowed in the darkness, and yet she could imagine they were hot and full of passion, a different kind of passion. She believed it was more about finding his sister. None of that was her imagination. His raw emotion filled the cabin with an intensity that caused a shiver to snake down her spine.
Kate knew there was no outcome that was even conceivable to him other than success. All she could do was provide support, be part of the team that pulled Tara out. She reached instinctively for her handgun and felt some comfort at the bulk at her waist. But her hand shook slightly as she realized her feelings had changed. She was no longer there just to get Tara out. She was deluding herself if she thought there was nothing more to this, especially when being in his arms had felt so right.
A tick in Emir’s jaw was the only sign of the tension he was under. He flew the small plane with ease, as though flying over treacherous mountains through the dark that seemed to mock them was nothing. She clutched her seat belt and watched for lights, for some sort of indication of civilization, but since they’d entered the mountain range there was nothing. She knew this area of the Atlas Mountains was sparsely settled, mostly by Berber tribes, and that all were remote and distant from each other, including their destination: the village of Kaher.
Kate’s phone beeped and she looked at it, startled. “It’s a text from Zafir. He wants me to call him,” she said even as she punched in the number. They’d kept her phone and planned to drop it at Kaher as the mobile coverage was limited in the Sahara. To lighten what they carried and to limit the possibility of being tracked, they would take only a satellite phone.
The plane dipped slightly to the right as she gripped her seat belt with one hand.
“You’re on speaker,” she said.
“I didn’t know if I’d catch you—” Zafir began.
“What do you have?” Emir interrupted. “We’re close to landing.”
“I just came from the hospital. Ahmed didn’t make it.”
“Bloody—” Emir broke off as he slapped his open palm against the wheel of the plane. He reached over and took Kate’s free hand, squeezing it. His hand was large and warm, and she felt safe.
“It was tough. His family was there. His wife’s pretty torn up.”
“Make sure they have what they need,” Emir said. “Funeral arrangements...and we’ll talk monetary assistance later. Money is the last thing his wife needs to consider, ever.”
“The usual, retirement settlement, insurance...we can’t bring him back, but she’ll be very comfortable.”
Kate glanced at Emir, not realizing, or, she supposed, not having a need to know just how much support was available for the families of not only the home compound’s employees but agents, as well. She was impressed by both their compassion and their generosity.
“He said something else before he passed,” Zafir continued, breaking into her thoughts. “Ajeddig.”
“A name, but who?” Emir asked.
Kate frowned.
“It’s not much, I know,” Zafir said. “That’s it, Emir. I’ll use the satellite next time. I assume you’re ditching the cell.”
“Turning it off after this call and dumping it at Kaher,” Emir confirmed.
He looked over at Kate, who had opened the map and was running her finger over it.
“Another place name?” she muttered.
“Any luck?” Zafir chimed in as Emir looked at her with a question in his eyes.
“Nothing in Morocco by that name. So, if it’s not a place name, what is it?”
“It’s got no relevance, at least none that I can find that correlates to anything involving the case,” Zafir said. “I’m at the compound now. Got your phone in my hand. I drove in the gate just as you were taking off. That’s it, all I’ve got.”
“Thanks, man. I’ll touch base as soon as I can.”
Kate clicked off just as a strand of lights appeared below. “I thought there was no electricity?”
“In Kaher, no. There’s some solar power that’s generated and used in parts of the village...the landing strip and a few other buildings. Nothing more.”
As he arced the plane she found herself looking straight down at the ground for a few slightly disconcerting seconds and gripped the edge of the seat as if that would somehow prevent the plane from sliding into the abyss beneath them.
The plane leveled off and, as it descended, Kate could see shadowed buildings that seemed to rise from the ground. It was strange, for they weren’t skyscrapers or even remotely tall. Instead they were short and squat and crowded into a small space where the mountains ended and the desert began. As she watched, the buildings disappeared as the plane broke through the low-lying cloud cover.
“I’ve spoken to one of the leaders in the community. A man by the name of Yuften M’Hidi. He’ll meet us,” Emir said easily as if landing in the dark on the edge of a mountain range was something he did every day.
She laughed. “His parents must have been optimistic. Really? His name means ‘the chosen’?”
He smiled as he looked at her. “Firstborn son. It’s all about expectations, my dear,” he said in a bad imitation of a Southern accent. And he reached over and took her hand and squeezed it.
“Not funny,” she said with a smile. But it was a relief to have even a brief moment of levity. They both knew from experience that it did wonders to keep an agent fresh when, as they always did, a case got intense and became a marathon of tension.
The lights on the ground were now clear and the runway stretched beneath them.
“One other thing. We’ll be staying tonight at his house. He says he has extra mats for guests. Hopefully, it won’t be too grim.”
“We aren’t expecting luxury,” she replied. “If we can get some information, even better. A few hours of sleep would just be gravy,” she said with a smile.