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Chapter Nine
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Before I begin, I’ll need a cup of tea.” Abby made a move to get up and Max’s solid form caged her in. How fast did the guy move?
“Sit. Down.”
“Relax, Flash Gordon, it’s just tea.”
“You think this is a joke?”
Abby spoke slowly. “It’s been a long day. I’m tired and thirsty. If not tea, would you get me a bottle of wat
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Abby ignored the accusation and allowed her mind to wander back to that night. The last night of her life as Josephine.Guests hung out in the ornate gardens at the back of Khalid’s mansion. A sculptured fountain of a leaping Arabian oryx dominated the landscaped shrubbery. Winding pathways sprinkled in fairy lights added to the ambiance. Champagne flowed, and waiters maneuvered through the crowd.Joey’s black dress clung to her damp body as she escaped down a pathway, finding a quiet bench nestled under some palms. A small breeze whispered across her brow as she admired the view below. The golf course running across the bottom of the garden rolled out with palm trees flanking the green on either side. The tinkling of a nearby stream calmed her nerves. Not sure how long she sat there, Joey got up to leave.“Josephine.” Khalid stepped out of the shadows.“You knew I was here?”“I myself was escaping the crow
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Abby stared blankly ahead. Dry-eyed and trembling.Jesus. Max had a suspicion of what would come next. She needed a break. He needed a goddamn break. He’d wanted the truth, and here it was in all its ugly glory. Abby was no longer considered a target. She was reclassified as a vulnerable witness. Technically the term was an intimidated witness.This wasn’t an interrogation, it never truly was. It was now an interview. The suppressed anger rolling off the rest of the team matched his own. Khalid was a monster, and they’d seen his handiwork. Experienced it firsthand, but to hear it pour out of Abby’s mouth drove the depravity home.Max knelt beside her. “Abby, let’s take a break.” He reached out and touched her clasped hands.She jerked. “Don’t touch me. Don’t you dare, you have no right.”“How about I make you some tea.”She smirked cynically. “Now I&
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Max struggled to keep his eyes open. Four in the morning and his team had finally settled. Abby was told to sleep in her living room with a team member present, until she was cleared. Slater sat on Abby’s other couch on watch duty. Her apartment needed a thorough search and they’d take their time. After crashing in the guest room, Donnie would lead the search when he woke. Both Max and Johnny took turns with guard duty from across the way.Instead of resting, Abby curled up and quietly sobbed. Max rubbed his forehead tiredly. The soft weeping drifting through the speakers drove him up the goddamn walls, and Slater looked to be in the same boat. Max felt like a son of a bitch for forcing her to tell them about her ordeal. Abby had likely never shared the full story with anyone, and now she’d told it to a room of strangers.Khalid would pay. Nausea threatened every time he thought of what that evil bastard did to her.Did Abby know of the surveil
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Levi Bakal’s bakery seemed as dull as dishwater. Fair enough, he’d just bought the place, but it was clearly in disrepair and would not be in use in the foreseeable future. It was the first time Abby had seen the actual bakery, and she was shocked at how much Levi needed to do before it was functional. The crumbling wallpaper revealed water damage on the far wall. The place smelled musty and looked filthy. Kitchen equipment in the back would need replacing. What was Levi thinking? Abby tried to ignore the brawny dolt sticking to her like glue. Oh, she’d prettied up all right. She felt foxy and fine in her fitted plum blazer thrown over a white blouse with black tailored pants. Her stilettos were a little high—but hey, give a girl pretty shoes and she can w
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Abby sat quietly on the drive home, probably mad at him. Hell. He was furious at himself. Max Andersen had lost his shit in the field for the first time in his long career. He glared at Abby’s profile and felt better blaming it all on her; she pushed all his freaking buttons. Never mind pushed, she hammered away like she was banging away at an old typewriter, that was his brain. Yeah, this was so her fault. Next time, Slater could trail alongside her like a freaking lapdog.“Thank you,” Abby said.Max felt flummoxed. “What?”
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Later that afternoon, Max got some shut-eye and had just awoken and was doing push-ups alongside the bed when Donnie poked his head in. “Yo, Batman, as nice as it is to ogle your ripped, bare-naked chest before dinner, I have some news.” Max gave Donnie a rude sign as he bounced up and grabbed a shirt. “A man takes one small nap in twenty-four hours and this is what he gets? What do you have?” “Omar Salib,” Donnie answered with a grin. “What about him?” “He’s landing in Johannesburg early tomorrow morning. He has a connecting flight to Mogadishu later in the afternoon.” “Great. What’s his ETA?” “0600 hours.” “Excellent. Let’s roll out the welcoming mat.” *** This was her cleaning day. Thanks to a combination of anxiety and claustrophobia, Abby took spring cleaning to the next level, deciding to scrub and organize all the kitchen cabinets at eight in the morning. Abby stacked the last of the pans and hefted them
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He knew he was losing his shit and he didn’t give a flying fuck. Cool as ice Max was now a raving lunatic. Her reaction wasn’t what he expected; she looked at him as if he was daft before shrugging. “You men are all like amped-up rabbits bouncing all over the place; I can’t talk to you while you’re like this. Where are we going?”Max glared at her as options raced through his head. He trusted his profiling. If he gave Evans the benefit of the doubt, it could get them all killed.&ldqu
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Utah.Four months later.Max pulled into the drive. It was good to be home. He’d sold a generous acreage of his land in Colorado and decided to purchase the luxury log cabin in the mountains near the Snowbasin Ski Resort in Salt Lake City. Utah was a safe place to raise kids where they could comfortably live off the grid. Close enough to the city yet tucked away in their own slice of paradise. Abby loved the snow, trying out snowboarding and then skiing. As spring weather set in, she’d taken Gabriel on a couple of hikes in the Wasatch Mountains. Max couldn’t wait to join in.The recent three-month deployment he’d just flown in from, meant that he’d spent little time with them since settling down to family life. Max thought back on their journey after leaving the clinic in Namibia all those months ago. After arriving in Djibouti, a bunch of suits met them on the tarmac. Max refused to be separated, s
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Johannesburg. Four weeks later. That damn dog wouldn’t be able to fight its way out of a paper packet, never mind protect his Lizzy. Johnny watched her mom’s little rat dog take a shit on the sidewalk, before his blonde beauty bent over with a poop bag to sweep up the steaming parcel. Johnny paused to take in the spectacular view that was Lizzy’s incredible ass. Perky butt cheeks shaped beautifully by faded skinny jeans. Her retro outfit included a Michael Jackson “Thriller” T-shirt, silver sneakers, fire-engine lipstick and a bandana holding back curls. Where was she taking the ankle biter? There were no parks nearby plus she carried a bright red handbag. Not the wisest choice on the streets of Jo’burg, yet she wandered down the street like she was strolling through Central Park. Granted, it was a suburban area, but it wasn’t safe. Lizzy dropped the bag of rat droppings into a neighbor’s garbage can, then wiped her hands with a wet wipe. Her p
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Abby woke to two very different male snores. One loud and raspy and the other sounding like a squeaky puppy. Max lay stretched out on the chair, balancing a snoring Gabe like a football in his lap. The comical pair had her giggling, a sound she promptly regretted as a pain lanced through her chest.Max was by her side in a flash, tucking Gabe under his arm and stroking her hair. “Easy now, baby. Shallow breaths, you’ll be okay.”Abby breathed through the pain before grasping his strong hand in hers. Max laid a sleeping Gabe by her side.
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Windhoek, Namibia.By American standards, the German-run health facility was up to code. By African standards it was the Ritz Carlton. The floors were clean, walls freshly painted, it was well stocked and seemed organized. None of that alleviated the tension running through Max. They were still situated in fucking Africa, where he was relying on foreign medical staff he knew jack shit about to perform surgery on Abigail. Two hours had gone by and still no word. The nursing staff were giving Max a wide berth after he’d hounded them for the past hour.
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The only makeshift weapon in the austere room was a clay bowl situated on the bedside table. Abby lunged for it, as Roman pounced onto the mattress. Grabbing the lip of the bowl, Abby smashed it into the side of his head, causing him to collapse as the ornament exploded.Roman moaned as Abby scrambled off the bed. Due to her injuries, she moved far slower than she’d have liked, as though she were wading through quicksand. She crawled to the door, the swaying room and the hammering music added to the disorientation. She had to get to Gabe.“You fucking bitch.”
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The landing was rough. Fourteen miles per hour winds rocked the aircraft. A Cape windstorm descended on the city, and fifty mph gusts were predicted within the hour. Thanks to Mandla’s contacts, they’d secured a private landing strip on a wine farm near Sir Lowry’s Pass—thirteen clicks out. With lights and speed on their side, they were looking at a nine-minute drive. Khalid’s jet had landed at Stellenbosch Airfield twenty-eight minutes before them but had a longer commute of twenty-one kilometers. Praying that Khalid hit traffic, Max’s team raced for Somerset West.Mandla gave Max the stink eye. “N
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The helicopter landed just north of Johannesburg at Lanseria Airport. Max leapt onto the runway, followed by Donnie, Slater, and Anton. Go-bags were provided as they raced to a private aircraft, fueled and ready for takeoff. Mandla Nkosi and Johnny greeted Max at the bottom of the stairs. Johnny dude-hugged him before breaking the news. “Khalid hired additional help. We didn’t get there in time. Our drone saw five men entering Noleen’s safe house. They’re holding them hostage until Khalid arrives.”Mandla grabbed Max’s bag. “My six-man team got there as quickly as they could but we were too late.”
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Fifteen minutes after takeoff, Abby had to delay Khalid and his four guerrillas. There were too many of them to take on herself, especially with a limited knowledge of self-defense. If she guessed correctly, the flight was only eighty to a hundred minutes of flying time. You can do this, girl. Take what you know about aircrafts and formulate a plan. A history of extensive flight safety training might just give her an edge. Two of the four guards were buckled in their seats. One man in the lavatory while Roman stood near the cockpit. Khalid tapped away on his laptop, seated towards the front of the aircraft on the plush seats facing the cabin. The cold bastard behaved like an ordinary businessman on a work trip. The guard seated opposite Khalid was buck
