Sa.s.sy paced the room with nervous energy. "Trey's judge is expected to rule on the case immediately after the trial. We're running out of time."

Bryan took a deep breath. He'd thought they would have at least another couple of months before the judge's ruling. This added a whole new layer of urgency to finding answers for Trey. Bryan needed to be home, or at least on the North American continent, to help his friend.

While he seriously doubted Elizabeth was alive, he knew voicing that thought here would be a mistake. Besides doing nothing to help Trey's precarious situation, it would only ratchet up Sa.s.sy's anxiety. He wasn't sure how to help her right now. He wanted to hold her, but after the fiasco of last night, touching her seemed a recipe for disaster. Instead, he handed her the bag of clothes he'd just bought.

She looked at the simple offering inside the plastic sack and gave him a wry grin. Beyond that she said nothing, which surprised him. He expected some sarcastic comment about his selections, but she slipped into the bathroom to change without a word.

He was staring at the door and puzzling over her reaction when his cell phone rang. It was Marissa. The meeting was set to take place in a hotel across town where Sa.s.sy's pa.s.sport and cash would be delivered for their trip home. Risa had also arranged for a flight out of Mohamed Boudiaf International there in Constantine. How she had done it on Christmas Day, Bryan had no idea. But he didn't ask. All he knew was that they were checking out tonight.

Thank you, Baby Jesus.

He explained the plan to Sa.s.sy though the bathroom door and began pulling his own belongings together and packing to leave. He shook his head, still surprised they'd made it through the past twenty-four hours without fighting or sleeping together. Aside from feeling grumpy, grouchy, and h.o.r.n.y, he was beyond grateful that temptation and Sa.s.sy would soon be out of his hair.

When she reemerged moments later, she put her other, impossibly dirty clothes alongside his in a plastic bag. Nestling her belongings into the duffel bag beside his Dopp kit, she packed with him as if they'd been together for years. For some reason the idea of packing a bag together felt as intimate as kissing her, and he had no idea why. He stared at the white plastic bag a moment before zipping the duffel, then straightened and caught her staring at him.

"We're just like an old married couple, aren't we?" she muttered, echoing his thoughts so completely that he wondered if he'd spoken aloud a moment.

"As if," he snorted. "Let's get out of here, Harriet."

She winked and grinned for a moment. He had the urge to lean in and kiss the dimple at the edge of her smile, or better yet, push her to the mattress and finish what they'd started yesterday. But he managed to get a grip on himself. That was not in the cards, and he was moments away from making it out of this hotel room with most of his sanity intact where Sa.s.sy was concerned.

"Let's go. We have just enough time to get across town and meet Marissa's contact."

"But I don't want to go back home. I think we can find Elizabeth here."

He stopped with his hand on the doork.n.o.b.

"Are you crazy? After all you've been through in the past four days? Where would you start looking? You don't even know for certain that Elizabeth was ever in Africa."

"But Juan said she was put on a boat in Venezuela. Wouldn't that-"

"Juan Santos, your contact?"

She gasped. "How did you know that?"

"I don't think you should depend on what old Juan told you. He has, or I should say, he had a somewhat dubious reputation."

"Had?"

"Juan's dead. He tried to kill Nick Donovan yesterday morning on the Sidi M'Cid Bridge."

Sa.s.sy put a hand over her mouth.

"Nick told me before I came to get you. It seems Juan was notorious for lying when the truth would do. That caught up to him yesterday."

"But why would he have lied to me?"

"I don't know, Sa.s.sy. I think the more important question is, why would he have told you the truth? According to what Nick learned yesterday, Juan lied about pretty much everything, even when he didn't have to."

She stared at the floor a moment longer before shaking her head. "I came here to Africa looking for Elizabeth because of what Juan told me. I can't believe-" She stopped herself. "I don't want to believe it was all a lie." She moved to the door but didn't make eye contact. "G.o.d, we're running out of time," she repeated. "Trey's running out of time."

He nodded. What had she traded to get the trafficking routes for the women he had seen on the side of the road in Constantine? He thought of the kiss they'd shared last night and wasn't sure he wanted to know. He also didn't want them to walk out of this room at odds with each other.

He couldn't argue with Sa.s.sy and keep her safe at the same time. He had no idea if Rivera's men were still looking for her or not. With Ernesto Vega dead, things were most likely in utter chaos, but he wouldn't take chances with her safety.

Regardless of what was happening with Trey's case, getting Sa.s.sy home to the U.S. was the wisest course of action for now. Convincing her of that would be the problem. He decided to wait until he knew how they were getting out of Africa before pushing the subject of going back home any further.

"Why are we meeting so late?" she asked on the way to the elevator.

He grabbed hold of the new subject with gusto, happy not to be bickering. "It must be because of the holiday. Marissa warned it would take a while to get everything together. I'm not sure who we're meeting across town. She just told me where to wait, and said that they'd find us."

He turned in their hotel room key, and they caught a cab. The streets were bustling, much more so tonight than the evening before. The cab dropped them in the driveway of the Hotel Hocine, and they walked inside to meet their contact.

Bryan did a double take when he saw Gavin and Marissa seated in the lobby drinking coffee. He grabbed Sa.s.sy's elbow and pulled her with him to the white leather sofa.

Gavin stood. "Merry Christmas."

"What are you two doing here?" The hair rose on the back of Bryan's neck. There was a warrant out for this man's arrest in the U.S., yet Gavin was in Africa instead of trying to clear that up?

What the f.u.c.k?

He shouldn't be that surprised. Gavin had a way of turning up in the most unexpected places. The first time they'd met was in an army hospital in Afghanistan. It had been crazy unexpected and a G.o.dsend at the same time.

But with AEGIS under investigation, could Bryan really be one hundred percent sure of Gavin? Loyalty was incredibly important to him. But Bryan was experienced enough not to take it all on face value, even though his and Sa.s.sy's options were so very limited right now.

Still, if Gavin was dirty, Bryan was the pope. He'd worked with Gavin too long and seen the man in too many situations to accept anything else. His gut check was not buying that Gavin could be corrupt. Bryan squeezed Sa.s.sy's hand and hoped like h.e.l.l he wasn't being nave.

"Don't worry about me, Hollywood. Only in the U.S. do they want my head on a pike."

"So far," added Marissa with a grim smile.

Gavin raised a shoulder in a shrug and pointedly ignored the comment. "Risa figured we were the logical ones to deliver the travel doc.u.ments. Nick is already on his way home, and Leland is still on crutches." He studied Sa.s.sy with undisguised curiosity.

"Whatever the reason, I'm glad to see you," said Bryan. But even as he reached out to shake Gavin's hand, Nick's words in Skikda came to mind. We can believe whatever we want. It's what we can prove that will matter.

Bryan was still holding Sa.s.sy's fingers in his other hand and dropped them when he realized he was squeezing a little too hard. "This is Sa.s.sy Smith, Trey Smith's sister." As he introduced Gavin and Marissa, Bryan fought the urge to put his hand on Sa.s.sy's back.

What was it about his always wanting to touch her?

One of Gavin's eyebrows shot up. "Elizabeth Yarborough's Trey Smith?" he asked.

Bryan nodded and forced himself to meet Gavin's stare. While he had told Gavin that Trey was a friend when AEGIS had been hired to look for Elizabeth, he had never told his boss about the connection between himself and Sa.s.sy and exactly how AEGIS had come to be hired.

After Elizabeth's disappearance and Trey's arrest, Bryan had gone to see Sa.s.sy at her mother's house, explained what he did with AEGIS, and offered to help. In turn, Sa.s.sy had introduced Bryan to Elizabeth's parents and encouraged them to hire AEGIS to help find their daughter. The Yarborough family vehemently believed in Trey's innocence, which had made for some heartrending news coverage. Even so, Bryan suspected Gavin had never told anyone else at AEGIS about his connection to Trey Smith.

That suspicion was confirmed when Marissa put her hand out to greet Sa.s.sy. "I must say that it's a surprise to meet you. I had no idea until now that anyone in AEGIS had a personal connection to Elizabeth Yarborough before her parents came to us." The look Risa shot Bryan would have melted gla.s.s if he hadn't already been so fried by everything else happening.

Sa.s.sY GLANCED SIDEWAYS at Bryan as she shook the stunning redhead's hand. Sa.s.sy wasn't sure what to say to the woman or to the man. Something had happened as soon as Bryan had seen these people seated in the hotel lobby. She'd felt it in Bryan's hand gripping hers when he'd completely tensed up and squeezed the h.e.l.l out of her fingers before the introductions.

Marissa's voice wasn't unfriendly, but it wasn't exactly dripping with enthusiasm for the situation either. And Sa.s.sy could tell the woman was world-cla.s.s p.i.s.sed at Bryan. She had a feeling it had to do with her being Trey's sister.

What was going on? Could Sa.s.sy trust these two people or not?

"I appreciate everything your organization is trying to do for the Yarboroughs and for my brother. I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have Bryan on our side." Sa.s.sy smiled like a good Southern girl and thickened her accent while patting Bryan's shoulder as she would her brother's.

He glanced down at her and gave a slight shake of his head. Was that a warning sign or resignation?

"What are you doing here in Africa?" Bryan asked again.

Marissa studied Sa.s.sy openly with her bright green gaze before answering, and it took every bit of Sa.s.sy's hard-earned poise not to squirm under the scrutiny. She was the poor country cousin next to the beautiful redhead's elegant ensemble. Sa.s.sy's outfit had been pulled together from what Bryan had bought in a glorified grocery store and what she'd been able to salvage from her own clothing by rinsing everything out in the sink last night. Not exactly the height of couture, even here in Africa.

Sa.s.sy's clothes fit and didn't smell, but that was about all she could say for her "eclectic" look. Her thick curly hair, normally forced into submission with a blow-dryer and flat iron, was corks.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around her face like Medusa's serpents. She'd broken three nails at the quick, and with no makeup, her self-confidence had taken a direct hit.

Normally, she could have dealt with one or two of the issues with aplomb, but all of it together made her feel "less than." Less than put together, less than having her act together. She'd worked her entire life not to feel less than. Ever since that horrific summer Bryan had left and her life had fallen apart.

"Surely you didn't come all this way just to help us out?" Sa.s.sy stood a bit taller, giving the other couple a skeptic's gaze.

She'd never responded well to feeling at a disadvantage. Bryan put a hand on her arm, giving her elbow a slight squeeze as they sat beside each other on the opposite sofa facing Marissa and Gavin.

Another warning?

Most likely. Right now, Sa.s.sy didn't give a d.a.m.n.

Marissa raised an eyebrow at the contact but didn't respond to her veiled comment. Instead, she addressed her remarks to Bryan. "We're trying to find out what's happening with Ernesto Vega and Tomas Rivera. From what we understand, they're behind these trumped-up charges on Gavin."

Bryan hadn't mentioned anything to Sa.s.sy about trumped-up charges, but that didn't surprise her. Bryan hadn't said much of anything about his work, today or last night after their mistimed whatever-the-h.e.l.l-that-had-been and the ma.s.sive in-room dinner they'd shared.

They'd turned on the television to avoid talking once the dinner had been delivered, and she'd fallen asleep soon after. She a.s.sumed Bryan had slept on either the floor or the tiny sofa. When she'd woken up this morning, he'd been in the shower. Their conversation today had been somewhat superficial until they'd discussed Trey's trial date being moved. They had not discussed the legal problems of Bryan's employer.

"Didn't Nick tell you?" Bryan's question pulled her back to the conversation. The heat of his thigh next to hers radiated through her thin cotton dress.

"Tell me what?" asked Marissa.

"Ernesto Vega's dead," said Bryan. "He was killed early yesterday morning near some Algerian oasis. Nick followed the truck of women that Sa.s.sy and Jennifer were with to Constantine and got Jenny out of the warehouse before the truck headed for the coast. Sa.s.sy escaped when they had a flat tire near the Casbah. I'm still trying to figure out how they knew to pick her up outside the cafe in Niamey in the first place. Who told them she was part of this?"

"Do you think it was Juan Santos?" asked Sa.s.sy. "He knew I was here. He practically told me to come."

She looked at Gavin and made a concerted effort not to outright stare. Movie star handsome, he was in his early to mid-forties-if the salt-and-pepper hair and laugh lines around his eyes and mouth were any indication-and seemed very fit underneath his sport shirt and jeans, pretty much along the same lines as Bryan but leaner.

Bryan might be taller but not by much. The biggest difference she could see was that Gavin had a distinct sadness to his expression, a coolness that was untouchable. Sa.s.sy liked Gavin better than Marissa, even if he was intimidating. She knew how to handle men much better than women.

When he spoke, his voice was even and deep with very little accent. "That seems a lot of trouble to go to just to get another woman when they kidnap and spirit away so many. It sounds as if you knew something or were poking round in something they didn't like. Any idea what that could be?"

The lobby was deserted except for the cleaning crew working across the foyer.

Bryan's voice was quiet. "She's a reporter."

Sa.s.sy felt a spurt of irritation sizzle in her veins. He made her profession sound like a bad thing.

"I write freelance for the a.s.sociated Press. It helps pay the bills and gives me an excuse to ask nosy questions while I'm looking for information to help my brother's case."

"Hmm." Marissa nodded with a look of approval. Surprised, Sa.s.sy acknowledged an unexpected spark of grat.i.tude toward the otherwise chilly redhead.

"I found out today they've moved up his trial date. The judge will be handing down a decision just after New Year's."

"That is soon. Are you sure you didn't step on any toes in your research recently?" Marissa asked.

Sa.s.sy shrugged, reluctant to acknowledge that she'd wondered the same thing herself. "Possibly. I don't know. A contact gave me a map of supposed routes for smuggling women. I showed the map to Bryan, and that's when everything went to h.e.l.l in a handbasket."

Gavin nodded. "Do you really think Elizabeth was here?"

"Two days ago I would have said yes, but now I understand that's only been verified by a man with a reputation for habitual lying."

Bryan nodded. "Juan Santos. Nick confirmed he worked for Ernesto Vega and Tomas Rivera, and any other high bidder. Often as not, he's played both sides against the middle. It's very likely he was lying. Why remains to be seen. Presumably he didn't need much of a reason."

"Bottom line sounds like you two need to get out of Africa as soon as possible," said Gavin.

"But . . . what about looking for Elizabeth?" asked Sa.s.sy. "If we don't find some kind of evidence, Trey will have nothing at trial. He's looking at life in a Mexican prison."

Gavin looked from Marissa to Bryan and shook his head. Before he said anything else, Sa.s.sy knew that Gavin had been appointed to break some bad news. And despite the mesmerizing intensity of his gaze, she wasn't going to like what the man had to say.

"We've got some things going on internally with AEGIS. There's zero support from the U.S. government or from our typical sources. With the Ebola outbreak and quarantines east of here, you need to leave now, while you still can. There's no telling what will happen if that chaos spreads across the borders."

"You could have difficulty getting back in time for Trey's trial if they instigate more travel bans," Marissa continued. "If anything else were to go sideways here, there are no resources. I can't stress that enough. These papers will get you back home, but given the nature of all that's happened in the past week, it's entirely too risky to be here without any kind of backup or AEGIS's usual resources. We're under siege."

Sa.s.sy interrupted. "But Elizabeth could be here-"

Bryan joined in, speaking right over her. "You missed Christmas with your mother. She needs you. You know she does. I understand she's cleaned up her act, but this thing with Trey has got to be tearing her apart. Go home to see her, talk to Trey's lawyer while we regroup. I'll turn around and come right back to look for Elizabeth if we find any solid evidence that she's been here."

He leaned in, his eyes cool and serious as he crowded her a bit more on the sofa. "You need to go home. We all do."

She wanted to argue despite the p.r.i.c.k of her conscience. But sitting here facing these professional "fixers" with her makeshift clothes, no papers, no phone, and not even a penny in her pocket-it was pretty much impossible. Even if her mother didn't need the moral support, Sa.s.sy needed a break from the gut-wrenching week she'd just spent chasing leads all over Africa, leads that had only proven how nasty people could treat each other.

If she was honest with herself, home sounded pretty d.a.m.n awesome right now with a refrigerator full of food, clean clothes, and her old-fashioned claw-footed tub.

But how could she consider that while her brother was in prison? She blushed at the shame of her weakness. "I'll go home. But don't you think for a minute I'm going to sit on my hands. I'm turning in the article I've been asked to write on s.e.x trafficking between Mexico and Africa. My editor left me a couple of voice messages about that earlier as well. He wants a story and he wants it now."

"You'd didn't tell me you were planning to do that," said Bryan.

"Well, I thought the call from Trey's attorney was a little more pressing to share. But in light of everything else, I've got to see if perhaps that will shake anything loose."

"You understand what you're saying? Whoever is behind all this could come after you." Bryan's voice dropped lower and he straightened on the sofa cushion, towering over her with his chest at her eye level. She supposed that posture would have intimidated someone who hadn't known him as long as she had.

She resisted the urge to poke at his torso and stood up instead so that she was head and shoulders above him. "I've got to do something. It's Trey."

"I'm not sure the story is a wise idea," said Marissa, keeping her voice low.

Sa.s.sy turned pleading eyes to the woman. "It's not your brother. And no one's leaving me with much choice here."