Cali dressed in the casual jeans and drip-dry shirt of a tourist, slipped her feet into sandals and tied her hair in a jaunty ponytail. She didn’t feel jaunty.
It was over a week since Andrew had kissed her—done more than kiss her.
He hadn’t spoken to her since.
Not that she’d tried to speak to him. No, it was better that they not trust each other. They were on opposite sides. Andrew wanted to save David and she’d vowed to kill him. She wouldn’t break her vow for an impossibly sexy angel. Life was about survival, not indulgence.
Desire would fade. She would cease waking up aching.
What she needed was to finish with David, but for that, he needed to make a wish and currently he was too distracted to do so. Miriam was complicating everyone’s lives.
Her plan today was to convince Miriam to leave. Then Cali could take out David.
It was barely dawn, but if Miriam followed her usual custom, she’d be sitting outside watching the sunrise. David kept the restored castle locked, so Miriam sat on bare rock on the next highest ground and watched the day come alive.
“Good morning.” She greeted Cali cheerfully and nodded toward the castle. “Come to look at the latest wonder of the world? The locals say a djinni restored it overnight.”
“Do they?” Cali had counted on Miriam’s friendliness to strike up a conversation, but it still disconcerted her. A woman who had seen as many horrors as the doctor ought to be less friend-of-all-the-world.
“They’re probably all in the secret.” Miriam laughed. “Enjoying the surge in visitor numbers. I suspect David—he’s the man who owns the castle and the nearby house—still has workmen inside finishing the interior renovations. He keeps the castle doors locked so tight.”
“Have you seen any workmen?” Cali sat on another rock and frowned at the castle. With the rising sun striking it and drawing warm colors from the stone, its restoration looked to be one of her better projects. The rock that had nearly killed David still lay by the entrance.
“No, no workmen.” Miriam leaned forward, sharing a secret. “I’m putting my money on a secret tunnel, either from the village or the beach. A smugglers’ tunnel.”
“Do you think David Saqr built it?” Cali asked.
The laughter fled Miriam’s face. She hooked a knee up on her rock seat and laced her fingers around it. “Are you a journalist?”
“No. Nor an ex-girlfriend. I’ve just heard stories.”
“About arms-running and death-dealing.” Miriam didn’t make it a question. She sighed. “I remember him when he was a boy. He was a hero to me.”
Cali stared. Andrew had denied Miriam ever had a case of hero worship on David. It seemed even an angel could be wrong.
“We grew up in the same town. I played with his sister Fatima. When I was eleven there was an earthquake…both our families died. David found me. He dug me out of the rubble and carried me to the hospital. I went to America, to my uncle, and David…”
“He went to hell,” Cali supplied.
Miriam’s generous mouth compressed. “David was seventeen, alone and determined to survive. I remember his and Fatima’s dad. Mr. Saqr was kind and honorable, a gentle man. David could be, too.” She waved her hands, searching for words, then clapped her hands softly together. “Disasters change people. I work in crisis situations. I’m a doctor. I’ve seen incredible heroism and devastating betrayal. The best and worst of what people can be. The loss of his family made David determined never to be vulnerable again. But the truth is we’re all vulnerable, all of the time. It is truly ‘God willing.’ I need David to understand it’s okay to care.”
“Why?”
Miriam blinked, as though she’d forgotten Cali’s presence. Reminded, she hesitated. “I owe him my life.”
“Hmm. But it’s his choice whether to live with love or death. He’s made himself strong in a violent world. He’s chosen.”
“He chose wrong!”
Cali laughed. “He wouldn’t agree with you. He likes his money and power.”
“There are more important things in life.” Miriam was affronted. “And why do you care about David?”
“I don’t. Miriam, this isn’t your world. You’re not going to save David. All you’ll do is drown with him. Go back to your life and forget him.”
Miriam’s eyes narrowed. “He told you to say that.”
“What?” Cali jerked, startled.
“I wondered why you were being friendly. You’re not a local. David told you to get me to leave. He probably flew you in. He doesn’t want me around waking his conscience.”
“What conscience?”
“I’m not leaving.” Miriam stood. She dusted off the seat of her jeans. “David needs saving and I’m the one to do it.”
“You have to leave.”
“I remember David as a boy. I remember his family and the man he should have grown to be. I remember his parents’ pride in him. I’m not leaving till they can be proud of him again.”
She stalked off.
“Damn.”
“She loves him,” Andrew said.
“Oh, so you’re lurking.” Cali was proud she hadn’t jumped at his sudden appearance. Now she hoped he didn’t notice her racing heart. “How can she love David? He’s horrible.”
“Is he?” Andrew stood beside her, back in his army fatigues. He looked tired and needed a shave. “The local people respect him. They trust him.”
“All that proves is he’s smart enough not to dirty his own backyard. And why are you looking like something the cat dragged in? David hasn’t done anything all week.”
“I have other charges. They’ve been busy.” He smiled slightly. “Three rescues, one car accident prevention, two untangling misunderstandings and five challenges to reach beyond themselves. But you’re right, I should have shaved and tidied up. I wanted to see you.”
“I thought you were angry with me.” She despised the vulnerability in her voice. She looked away, concentrating on Miriam’s vanishing figure.
“I was,” Andrew said.
Her gaze flew to his.
“You wouldn’t trust me. You panicked and tried to reduce our loving to a transaction. I was offended. It took me a while to realize I’d failed the same challenge I often set my charges. Trust must be earned. It’s not you who failed, but me. When you responded to me, desire ruled me as surely as it takes a teenage boy. I pushed too far, too fast.”
“I wanted you,” she pointed out.
“Do you still?”
“Here and now?”
Heat flared in his eyes before he veiled them. “Don’t tempt me. I’d like the chance to earn your trust. We make a pair, Cali. You’ve embraced hate and I’ve refused all emotion. I still care, but the shell of weariness is growing thicker, harder. You break through it. We need one another. I want to woo you.”
His tone and the promise of his words sent a shiver through her. Dawn was over, the day bright. She could smell the fresh green grass, see the dew sparkle.
Abruptly, her world tilted.
Andrew reached out to her and she flinched away.
“David’s picked up my bottle. He’s going to make a second wish.”
David breathed deeply. It had to end. So far Miriam had respected the boundaries of his closed bedroom door, but she was invading the rest of his life. She was changing the meals his chef cooked, taking over and making the food his mother had served. Everywhere he looked, Miriam reminded him of what he’d turned his back on. She laughed, she listened to people, she cared.
His hands tightened on the red glass of the djinni bottle.
Miriam had burst back inside twenty minutes ago, interrupting his early-morning coffee and the quiet time in which he caught up on emails and overnight business. A far-flung business required constant attendance.
“So now you send a woman to convince me to leave,” Miriam had shouted at him.
It unsettled him, never knowing what to expect. But when she described the woman and he recognized the djinni, his heart froze.
Miriam was his one weakness. He should have ordered her to leave. Not that she’d have listened. But he could have arranged her removal. He regretted his weakness now, his inability to treat Miriam as just another woman, a person to be used or ignored.
Now the djinni had recognized his Achilles’ heel and—
He shook his head, abruptly ashamed of the panic that clouded his thinking. Emotions were dangerous. He knew that.
If the woman had told Miriam to leave, she couldn’t be the djinni. Unless the djinni was clearing away innocent bystanders?
David understood the limitation of collateral damage. Let the djinni concentrate on destroying him. He’d fight her.
“It’s good advice, Miri. You need to leave. Go back to your own life.”
She folded her arms. “You gave me that life. Once and for all, David, I’m not leaving till your honor is restored. Until I’m sure your father would be proud of you.” Her severe expression relaxed. “You want me gone? Show me the good in you.”
He frowned. There was no good in him, only ruthlessness and satisfied ambition. He was powerful and wealthy.
But if he couldn’t show Miriam the good in him, he could scare her away with the worst of him and his work. She had to be brought to accept his damnation.
“I believe in you, David,” she said softly.
“Then you’re a fool.”
He strode out of the room and took the steps to his room two at a time. He retrieved the djinni bottle from his private safe and took out the stopper.
“Djinni. Bringer of Death,” he called.
“My name’s Cali.” She wore jeans and a casual shirt with her long hair tied back. She could have posed as a model in any high-class magazine. Despite her casual clothes, she brought a sense of swirling fabric and impetuous sensuality. Neither impressed him much, as he was intent on practical, committed Miriam.
“You spoke with Miriam this morning.”
“Yes, o master, I did.”
His mouth tightened at her mockery. “She said you wanted her to leave. So do I. What’s between us—why ever it is you want to kill me—I don’t hide behind human shields.”
“Do you wish for me to remove her?”
“I could arrange for that myself.” He looked away from Cali, out the window at the sea. “I want Miriam to choose to leave herself. Then she won’t return.”
“So why summon me?”
“I have security experts visiting tomorrow. I was going to put them off while Miriam’s here, but now I’ve decided she needs to see my work.”
“I think Miriam’s seen more than enough death and destruction,” Cali said. “She is a doctor.”
“I’m not talking about death, just the capacity for destruction that I deal in. I want Miri to see it tomorrow. I want you to set up a weapons fair. Make the demonstrations brutal.”
She looked at him oddly. “I tried to kill you a few days ago. Now you’re ordering me to play with weapons. Aren’t you scared?”
“Everything in life is a risk.” He felt as dismissive and detached as the words implied. He glanced at the djinni. “Would you rather I cowered in a corner and begged for mercy?”
She smiled, startling him with her beauty.
“I take it that’s a yes.” Despite himself, he wanted to return her smile. An honest enemy was perhaps more to be trusted than a friend. “Why should I be scared? You said I have a guardian angel.”
Her smile died. Her gaze flickered beyond him to the window looking out to the castle.
“Is he that scary?” This time David did smile.
Cali didn’t smile back.
“He’s terrifying,” she said flatly and vanished. A moment later she reappeared. “I’ll start the weapons show at eleven o’clock. Have everyone inside.”
“Do angels trump djinn?” he asked the space where she’d been.
For a fraction of an instant he thought he felt a hand clasp his shoulder. He thought he heard a man say, “Love terrifies some people.”
But he wasn’t crazy enough to believe that voice. It wasn’t as if he was running scared from Miri. No, he was scared
for
her.
His life was too dangerous for a woman to share it.
The security experts were from the United States, Israel and Egypt. It wasn’t the first time David had hosted an oddly assorted group. Visit any weapons fair and you soon noticed the never-mentioned truth: enemy soldiers had more in common with one another than with civilians. Violence, and the containment of it, crossed boundaries.
Miriam disapproved. She’d seen the price lists.
“Do you know what that sort of money would buy? Prosthetics, vaccinations, clean water, sanitation, hope.”
“I deal in death, Miri.”
She glared at him and stormed away.
So at least one thing was going right
. His guests were also enjoying themselves.
He’d taken Cali at her word and opened the castle. If she didn’t endanger innocents, then the only traps for the unwary that the restoration of the ruin would hold would be keyed to him. He stayed outside and let his guests and the avid locals explore.
“It’ll make a great hotel” was the American security expert’s assessment. He cocked an eyebrow. “Bit of a change of pace for you?”
David just smiled. The grapevine that covered the pergola where they sat was only partly in leaf. The new growth unfolded slowly after winter. The dappled shade hid the nuances of expression, but he knew the American watched him carefully. Predators kept an eye on one another, and security was big business and ruthlessly competitive.
“Coffee, Gary?” David filled the other man’s cup and refilled his own. Miriam’s stood half-full and abandoned on a corner of the table. He ought to be pleased that she’d stalked off. Next time she might leave completely.
“The British have a saying, ‘every man’s home is his castle.’” Gary found the jug of milk and poured generously.
David looked away. Milk in coffee turned his stomach. The flavor ought to be respected, not masked.
Three teaspoons of sugar followed the milk and a spoon stirred vigorously.
“First time I’ve met a man who actually owned a castle.”
“Stone endures,” David said. “Buy land in a country as long inhabited as Syria and you’re bound to find traces of earlier habitation.”
“Yeah. Still.”
Suspicion.
David understood it. Caution and understanding other men kept you alive. He shrugged. “Restoring the castle was a whim.” No way would he tell the hardheaded American that a djinni had done the work.
“I thought it might be a gift for your partner? Miriam?”
The coffee tasted bitter in David’s mouth. So that was what the man had been leading up to—Miriam’s presence. He’d forgotten that the others would be alert to changes in his behavior, and no woman had ever before been resident in his home.
“I wouldn’t accuse Miriam of being my partner. She is an old friend of the family and disapproves of me.”
“Ah.”
Which proved Gary had seen Miriam stalk off. Never mind. She’d be gone soon.
“The show begins at eleven,” David said smoothly. “We’ll be viewing from the living room.”
“Bombproof glass?” Gary was amused.
“Yes.” That punctured the man’s superiority.
For all its views and exposed position, David had built his home to withstand attack.
“Well, then, I’d best prepare myself.” The American drained his milky coffee and straightened to his full height. “I appreciate the chance to see the Sting in action. I thought this meeting would be a talkfest.” He ambled into the house without waiting for an answer.
David signaled to Eli, who stepped out of the shadows. “Call in Joshua and Hassan and anyone else roaming the castle. Are the grounds secure?”
Eli’s hand rose reflexively to his earpiece as he nodded.
“Good.”
David collected the cups and carried the tray in. Anna met him halfway, protesting that he undermined his dignity playing waiter.
He relinquished the tray to her. “I want you, and everyone, to stay safe inside till Eli says it’s safe.”
“Tcha.”
Clearly, she disapproved of a weapons display on her doorstep, but whether because she objected to the violence or the curtailment of her freedom, David wasn’t sure. Her solid aging figure trotted away.
“Stay in the kitchen,” he called. The security team would keep her there through whatever display Cali put on.
He checked his watch. Fifteen minutes.
In the distance, Eli was herding Joshua and Hassan and two small boys who should have been at school. The boys were sent off at a run, casting back quick glances of fear.
Trust Eli to put the fear of hell into men, let alone the junior variety. Although Miriam hadn’t hesitated to confront him and demand David’s presence. The woman didn’t have the sense of a goose. There were times when fear was the right response.
So it was up to him to scare her and disappoint her and drive her away. If Cali gave a good demonstration of the weapons, Miri would be gone in a couple of hours.
David opened the door to the sunroom with a vicious jerk. They would all watch the weapons display from behind the bombproof, bulletproof glass. And Cali had his permission to blow the world to hell if it scared Miri out of his life and back to safety.
He’d survive the loneliness.