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Exact location: Classified, United Arab Emirates
Wednesday, 27 January, 8:16 p.m.
––––––––
Biggie checked our passports to verify our identities, and spoke to someone over a two-way radio. He glanced down at Kelly's passport and back up at me. Awareness flashed in his eyes. He took our mobile phones and searched us for weapons. First, he patted down Rob Granger, and then stepped in front of me. I opened the black cape.
"Your date isn't wearing what we expect." He stared at Rowan, meeting him eye to eye.
In my ear Aidan said, "His accent is Polish. Call him a chuj."
I tilted my head to the right and placed my hands on my hips. The cape remained opened, and I almost smiled when Biggie's eyes followed the rhythmic rise and fall of my breasts. A strip of latex covered my nipples. The girls didn't have any other cover. "Hey chuj, you don't talk to him, you talk to me. Dabrowski, did you hear about him?"
Biggie said nothing. He didn't have to. His eyes answered for him.
"I slit his throat in Gdansk while he took a leak." I stepped forward and placed my hand on Biggie's chest. "You don't tell me what to do. Neither does Rob. Rozumieć?"
Aidan had told me what to say and I hoped my pronunciation was good enough.
Biggie nodded. "The boss won't be happy."
I patted Biggie's cheek, instead of plunging one of the knives hidden in my boots into his eye. Play with your prey. "Then your boss can say it to my face. If he has the balls. Call him, perhaps it will be good for him to hear a few months back I turned down an offer to pay him a visit. I'm not here to kill. I'm here to pierdolić."
Rowan placed his arm around my shoulder. "Do we have a problem?"
"No, just keep your woman in line." Biggie stepped back, allowing Rob and Kelly to enter the Bedouin camp.
Persian carpets covered most of the sand. All around were what I assumed would be private, or not so private sex areas, depending on whether people closed the chiffon curtains. A raised platform stood in the middle of the camp, surrounded by oversized cushions.
"You won't use the word dick, but you instruct Finley to call the helper of a serial killer one." Liam laughed in my ear.
Aidan didn't have to tell me the meaning of pierdolić. In context, it was self-explanatory. "You're good at this, Fin. Now, stay alive." Aidan took a deep breath. "Rowan, stop looking at my wife's butt. I see everything you do, remember?"
I glanced around the camp, unable to see anyone's faces. Mine the only one not covered by an easy to remove mask. Where or how could I get a glimpse of Biggie's tattoo? He had kept his hand out of sight during our conversation.
Rowan led me into a sex cubicle and pulled me down onto the cushions.
"You promised me dinner and a show before we have fun." I kept my eyes on his, but my focus on the other people. In here Aidan couldn't see me through the rifle's scope, but Liam could, as the drone kept circling high above us.
"You made him hard." Rowan pushed the fake red hair behind my ear and placed his hand against the side of my neck.
This is weird. "Rob or Aidan?"
"Biggie."
I smiled, laid on my back and stretched my arms out above my head. "Good. Will make it much easier to get him alone. I just need to figure out when and where." I thought about it, and then recalled smelling something very distinct and delicious, when I placed my hand against Biggie's chest. "He smokes, I'll bum one from him. Might even adjust this little strap, a bit of a nip-slip might do the trick." My two sides were at war: the darkness and the light. When it comes to hunting human predators, one will always be victorious. The darkness trembled with excitement; goose bumps rippled across my skin.
"Eyes on my wife's face, Rowan."
"Kelly, don't make me spank you. Every man and woman here knows not to touch what's mine." Rob growled. Why the hell would Detective Wagner lose this man for one time with Liam?
"Sorry, Granger, I'm not into spanking. If you're a good date tonight, I might show you what turns me on."
I pushed up onto my elbows and locked gazes with Biggie. I opened my legs wide enough to keep his attention and swallowed hard as bile rose in my throat. The faces of twenty-six people flashed through my mind. The man staring at what belonged to Aidan had played a part in their murders, and the attempted murder of Alicia Rideout.
A primal drum beat echoed in the voids of my soul as the darkness flapped her wings. Empty places created by the death and destruction I saw over the years. "Game time." I pushed to my feet, not taking my eyes off Biggie.
"Stand down," Aidan ordered.
I stepped over Rowan where he lay on the plush cushions and pulled the cape's strings. It fell behind me and I bent down until my nose touched Rowan's. Thank you, Pilates sessions. "I'm not going to stay here and watch other people have sex. No matter how good you say the food is. I can eat later. All I need is visual confirmation of the tattoo, and his hand on my ass. The very thing he's staring at right now."
"You're playing a dangerous game, Fin." Aidan breathed hard.
"Tonight, you're my commanding officer, not my husband. Focus, Walker." I lowered myself onto Rowan's legs, and kept my eyes on his, but saw Aidan's in my mind. "The objective of my mission is clear. How long before the decryption-thingy gathers the information from everyone's mobile phones?"
"It takes about fifteen minutes, depending on the number of phones and data." Rowan stared past me. "Everyone seems to be here, let's say you have fifteen minutes. Wait until the show starts and then you can go for a smoke break."
"Is the boss here yet?"
"No, he always wears the same mask. You'll know when he gets here; people need to bow before him."
I suppressed my laughter. "You bow?"
Rowan shook his head. Neither would I. Ever.
"He's here. Eli's running the license plate for us," Liam said.
I climbed off my brother-in-law and came to my full length. Biggie was making this easy for me. Too easy. Something wasn't right, I felt it in my gut.
Rowan stood, placing his arm around my shoulder. "I'm not liking this, something is wrong," he whispered.
"Leave. Now," Aidan ordered.
I wrapped my arms around Rob Granger's waist as a man-lion, or a lion-man, walked into the camp. My palms itched. A telltale sign whenever a psychopath or violent criminal comes close to me. It might be my inner darkness reacting to theirs. Every person has a dark side, some of us acknowledge it and know how to control it.
"I believe the man behind the lion mask is our killer. If not, he needs to be on our hit list for another reason."