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Chapter Ten
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Abby 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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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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The rest of the week passed by uneventfully. If they didn’t go to blondie’s birthday barbecue, it might raise suspicions. Lizzy was Abby’s closest friend. Abby would naturally go about her routine, at least until they had a handle on the threat. She was their only link.Eleven in the morning and the sun was already baking hot. Max dressed casually in faded jeans and a white T-shirt. While waiting for Abby to emerge from her bedroom, he ambled down the passage and paused at her studio. The woman was talented. A new canvas featuring a charging African elephant sat on the easel. The rough sketch already captured the movement and power of the giant mammal. Throughout the busy week, Abby had still made time for her art. Sandals clicked as Abby walked towards him.“What do you think?”Abby’s deep blue dress blew his socks off, complementing her warm chocolate hair and tanned skin. She’d paired it with tan sandals and a matchin
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“I left out some details of the physical damage done to me that night and the challenges I’d face.” He’d thought long and hard about that; it was a miracle that she could function at all, yet here she was holding down a job and trying to live a healthy life. Brave. At least that’s what he’d thought until she snuck a phone call on a damn burner… “The clinic in Dubai took evidence photos, did a rape kit, started me on antivirals and gave me the morning-after pill.” Max’s stomach always churned with anger when he saw what men on this earth were capable of. He’d come across many atrocities on women during his SF days. Villages raped and pillaged, women mutilated and left to die. They’d rescued girls along the way, but the dead look in their eyes would haunt Max for the rest of his days. She forged on in a robotic voice. “A security officer stayed by my side the whole time. She held my hand and told me everything would be okay. Her name was Noleen; she was
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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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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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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
