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Jerusha worked her limbs against the tape holding her to the chair. By her count, she’d been in it at least twenty-four hours, probably closer to thirty-six. There were no windows in the room, though it was well lit, but the rhythms of life wherever she was gave the time away. Regular meals, guards changing shift outside the lone entrance, most of the lights flipped off for a block of hours, presumably so she could sleep.
A thoughtful gesture, if a useless one. She’d dozed fitfully during the dark hours, but she could do that with the lights on. In between, she’d observed her surroundings, searching for weaknesses and a way out.
The door swished open and a woman entered bearing a tray of food, her hair and neck hidden under a lavender hijab. The same woman had brought food and water to Jerusha the day before and fed it to her in careful bites between Marco’s frequent visits. Jerusha hadn’t bothered to poke at the other woman. Chances were good the Alexious were paying her generously. That kind of money nearly always ensured loyalty.
But she had to call her something, so Jerusha had settled on Daisy, simply because it was the name of the first female cartoon character that had popped into her mind.
Drew was such a bad influence.
She bowed her head, hiding a smile, and peeked through her lashes at the world beyond the slowly closing door. One guard, male, broad shouldered and lean, a Mini-Uzi slung over his shoulder. As if she couldn’t figure out a way around that.
Daisy set the tray on a table and carried the basin on the adjoining one into the barebones bathroom tacked onto one side of the room. Without fail, the woman brought in fresh water before a meal and cleaned Jerusha’s face and hands, and without fail, she left the icky mess of Marco’s semen coating Jerusha’s torso and pants.
Six times yesterday, not counting the first, twice already that day. Her shoulders ached under the marks he’d bitten into her skin, not to the point of true harm, but enough to irritate her. She was beginning to see why Marco had chosen this particular brand of torture. Having his bodily fluids sticking to her in a grimy mess was demeaning, sure, but it didn’t hurt her. Eventually it might wear her down, if she was there long enough, and Marco was sure to move on to something that really did hurt. Fortunately for her, she had a former Delta Force Operator in her corner, and if all else failed, she’d rescue herself.
Because she was a Daughter and Daughters didn’t need men to get them out of sticky situations.
Either option was going to take time, though. Two more days minimum before Drew would strike, and that only if he’d managed to follow her abductors. It could be several days, maybe as long as two weeks, before he came for her or she managed to break out on her own. She just had to hold on until then.
She swallowed the broth Daisy spooned into her mouth and ignored her full bladder. A handful of men would come in with handcuffs after the meal and let her use the bathroom. She’d bloodied one’s nose the previous night while trying to escape, and earned a glare from the man and a chiding cluck from Marco.
At least he hadn’t tried to wiggle a promise out of her not to try again.
The door opened and the devil himself stepped inside.
Jerusha deliberately flattened her gaze. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Happy to see me?”
“Sure, that’s exactly what I’m feeling.”
Marco’s smile was boyish and almost sweet. “It’s too bad you’ll lose your spirit over the next few weeks. I’m beginning to enjoy it.”
Daisy gathered the remains of Jerusha’s meal together, bowed toward Marco, and scurried out the door.
He stalked toward her, his dick already tenting his slacks, and Jerusha withdrew into a basketball game, Georgia Tech versus Duke. Tech scored, the crowd went wild, and Drew slid his hand into hers, his laughter full of that rough Southie charm she adored.
* * *
Rebecca’s heels clicked sharply against the bed and breakfast’s hardwood floor. Ten days had passed since Lukas Alexiou had requested an interview with her, ten days since he’d offered to exchange artifacts for a visit with the Oracle. Once Rebecca’s shock had worn off, leaving him alone to stew had seemed the best option. Now, though, she couldn’t afford to wait any longer. She needed his help, needed to know if he and his kin had kidnapped Jerusha.
She paused outside the sitting room doors and pressed a trembling hand over the sick worry in her gut. Having a child captured by the Shadow Enemy was every Daughter’s worst nightmare. That it had occurred while Jerusha was on a vital mission was doubly upsetting. Drew was working on retrieving her, but if Rebecca could pry information out of the tight-lipped Shadow as an added condition of his meeting the Oracle, perhaps it would hurry Jerusha’s rescue along. For her children, she’d gladly bargain with the devil.
Rebecca straightened her shoulders, wiped the worry off her expression, and entered the room.
Lukas was sitting on the settee next to his nephew, reading a book to the young boy. He glanced up and smiled. “Director. What a pleasant surprise.”
“I’m afraid the feeling isn’t mutual, Mr. Alexiou.” She nodded toward his kin. “You may wish to send him out of the room.”
Lukas marked their place in the book and handed it to his nephew. “Go to your room, Steven. I’ll be along shortly.”
Steven grinned and scampered off the settee and across the room. He paused in front of her and tilted his head way back. “You’re not as big as Dani.”
Rebecca sighed. Of all things for a child to notice, why did it have to be her own lack of height? “No, darling, I’m not.”
“She promised not to eat me.” Steven’s mouth twisted into a frown. “You’re not gonna eat me, are you?”
“Whyever would I want to?”
He shrugged and fingered one corner of the book he held. “Mama said Daughters eat little boys, eat ‘em right to the bone.”
Lukas stood up and buttoned his suit jacket over his lean stomach. “The director will not harm you, Steven. Run along now.”
The little boy heaved a heartfelt sigh and trudged out of the room, and Rebecca arched one eyebrow at his uncle.
“My apologies, Director. His mother was seriously injured by a Daughter not long after his birth. She insists on filling his head with nonsense.” He gestured toward the chair opposite him. “Please, have a seat. Have you had a chance to consider my offer?”
“I have.” Rebecca cleared her throat, then perched on the edge of the chair’s cushion. “That isn’t why I’m here.”
He unbuttoned his jacket, settled onto the settee, and crossed an ankle over one knee. “Oh?”
She tamped down her irritation. After all this time, she should be used to the games people played, but oh, how she hated enmeshing herself in the political when her child’s life was at risk.
And so, this time she would not.
“My daughter, Jerusha, was kidnapped yesterday during a mission in Turkey.”
One corner of Lukas’ mouth turned down. “I’m sorry to hear that, Director. Have you had a ransom demand or—?”
She slashed one hand through the air. “Please don’t insult me, Mr. Alexiou. We both know your people have her.”
“My people.”
“Of course. Who else would want the items she was after?”
“And what was she after?”
She pressed her lips into a hard line. “As if you don’t know.”
“Humor me, please.”
“The bones of a Sister.”
Lukas’ carefully controlled expression erupted into laughter and he leaned forward. “You’ve truly found a Sister’s remains? Outstanding.”
She clamped her jaws together. That wasn’t the reaction she’d expected, and it wasn’t one she was prepared to deal with. The Shadow, happy over the People’s success? It was unheard of.
His laughter faded. “But of course, she had them in her possession when she was kidnapped.”
“Fortunately, no. Her partner managed to smuggle them away. He’s searching for her as we speak.”
Lukas folded his hands over his ankle and tapped a thumb against the leg of his slacks. “And you believe I had something to do with this?”
“You or your people.”
“Not on my direction,” he said flatly. “I have a strict rule against harming Daughters and I severely punish anyone who disobeys me.”
Her mind flashed back to something Dani had told her, about the man that had killed Linda Terhune the day Lukas Alexiou had ordered the kidnapping of her daughter, Amelia. That man had wound up dead in a slum in New York. According to Dani, his death had been a direct result of Alexiou’s orders.
“You’ve kidnapped one of ours in the past,” she said.
“And will not hesitate to do so again, should the need be great.” He inhaled sharply through his nose. “Still, I had no hand in your daughter’s situation. If you truly believe someone within my organization has kidnapped her, I will gladly assist your efforts to retrieve her.”
Rebecca sat back in the chair. Just like that, after millennia of enmity, this man was willing to help her? “Why should I trust you?”
“Because you have something I need.”
“The Oracle.”
He inclined his head. “Precisely. The best interests of both our peoples are served by such a meeting. I will do whatever I have to in order to facilitate it.”
Relief sighed out of her and she nearly slumped. Only her innate pride kept her spine rigidly straight. “Will you help us find my daughter?”
“I will. Excuse me, please.”
He retrieved his cell phone and dialed a number. A moment later, he said, “Mr. Winstead, I have need of your assistance. No, it’s Marco. He’s in Turkey on business. It’s come to my attention a Daughter has been kidnapped there and I have reason to believe he’s involved.” Lukas’ eyes shot to Rebecca. “Of course. You know what to do.”
He dropped the phone onto the coffee table. “You already have people working on it.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“And her mission is paramount. Every second counts now, Director. Time is running out and we have much work to do.”
“I haven’t made a decision regarding your request.”
His mouth quirked into a half smile. “Yes, you have, but no matter. Mr. Winstead will know something within a day or so. If needs must, I shall travel to Turkey myself and aid in the search.”
“Because you’ll do anything to see the Oracle.”
“That’s part of it, Director, but not all. Your daughter’s mission is critical.” His hands gripped his thighs tightly. “She must succeed. I will do everything in my power to aid her success, including hunting down my own brother.”
Rebecca sat back in her chair. For some odd reason, she believed him, and that disturbed her on a level so deep, she refused to examine it closely, for fear of what she might find.
* * *
The computer screen blurred for the nth time. Drew rubbed his fingers wearily over his eyes. They burned and ached, a lot like the rest of him, and had since he’d lost Jerusha. Three days. Three goddamn days since the morning he’d staggered into Pari’s apartment searching for help, and they were still miles away from finding his Jaybird.
One of Pari’s endless stream of kin had hacked into the security cameras scattered around Nevşehir and tracked the vehicle carrying Jerusha to the outskirts of the city, into the unmonitored farmland beyond.
Drew had watched the museum’s flickering outside security feed over and over again. Two men had carried Jerusha out of the building. Her head had lolled and her body had hung limply between the men. Every time he saw the way they’d beaten her down, his stomach twisted into a greasy knot in his gut.
A heavy hand fell on his shoulder. Drew jerked out of a half doze and twisted around. Saul, one of the few men in Pari’s compound, was standing behind him, his flinty gaze locked on the computer screen Drew had been studying. As soon as Drew had met the former Turkish Maroon Beret, he’d recruited him to help find Jerusha and hadn’t regretted it a single minute since. Saul was tough, a creative thinker, and he knew exactly what it was like to live under a Daughter’s oppressive thumb.
“How is the work?” Saul said in deliberate, accented English.
“You know, I don’t mind Turkish if English is a pain.”
“I need to practice.” Saul pointed at the computer. “You have something?”
“Naw. Just going over the same ground.” Ground he’d covered a million times already, searching for something, anything, that would lead him to his blue-eyed lover. “Any word on the car tags?”
“It takes time, Andrew.”
Drew scowled. Why the hell did Saul insist on calling him by his full first name when he refused to share his own surname? Nobody Drew had met at Pari’s seemed to have one, but maybe that was just a thing here. “It’s been three days.”
Saul’s hard gaze shifted to Drew. “In the United States, everything is online, yes? Here is not the same. Some small areas are still...” Saul’s mouth pressed into a thin line among the angular planes of his lean face. “Converting to computers and the Internet.”
“Yeah, well.”
Drew scrubbed his hands over his face. God, he needed sleep. He just couldn’t. Every time he drifted off, Jerusha’s face popped into his head and whatever dreams he’d been having morphed into nightmares. Her blood spilling in crimson dots across an interrogation room’s floor, her body bruised and mutilated, her spirit crushed. He woke up sweating with his fingers ripping into the sheets and his heart galloping in his chest.
His mind fixed inevitably on one uncontested fact. He hadn’t saved her, not in his dreams, not in reality. She’d trusted him to save her, and he hadn’t been able to. He hadn’t made it out of the museum quick enough, hadn’t managed to find a single, solid lead, and he missed her. God, he missed her so much, holding her, breathing her in, sharing her laughter.
And the blood, so much blood spattered across the floor, Jerusha’s bright blue eyes forever sightless...
Saul shook Drew’s shoulder, jarring him awake, and Drew slumped into his seat.
“Sorry, man. I guess I dozed off.”
“Go to bed, Andrew. Chana will give you a sleeping aid.”
Drew sighed. He hated taking meds, fucking hated it, but if he didn’t get some sleep soon, his brain would turn into mush. He’d be useless to Jerusha, useless to the team Pari had assembled for him, useless to himself. “Yeah, guess I’ll do that. G’night.”
“Sleep well,” Saul said.
Drew waved a tired hand at him and fumbled his way through the compound in search of Chana, his mind weaving through the scant information they’d gathered on the men that had taken his Jaybird.
