Final Vow (18 page)

“Unfortunately, I agree. I’ll pass along this information to Jamal in Rahmi
. Bridget, you should probably tell your military contact.”

“You mean her
. . .” Cy started.

“Yes, my contact
would appreciate the heads-up,” Bridget said, cutting Cy off. “Damn,” she cursed. “I was hoping for more. Let’s turn them over to Cole and get to work.”

Ahmed watched her stalk back into the shower and stuff her things back in her bag. Cy and Miles headed in and put their
captives’ shoes and socks back on before dragging them out of the locker room. They waited as long as possible before taking the smelly shirts off of their heads.

“Why did you do that?” Ahmed aske
d quietly once they were alone.

“What?” Bridget asked annoyed.

“Take over. It’s not like you to torture someone, even if it was only a little prick of the toe.”

“To protect you.”

Ahmed couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “To protect me? Me?”

“Yes, you. You’re too emotionally involved in this. That’s when you make mistakes, take things too far, and get into trouble. What did you want to do when you heard Sergei had called me?”

“Kill him.”

“Exactly. You two have made this so personal that you can’t look at it
objectively. That’s why I took over.”

Ahmed hated to admit it, but she
had a point. “It looks like I’m heading back to work,” Ahmed said with a sigh.

“And I’ll be waiting for you at home.” Bridget raised her head and placed a gentle kiss to his lips. “I love you.”

Ahmed wrapped his arms around his salvation. She was his everything. Although he knew she was a strong woman, the strongest he’d ever known, it was just hard for him to stop trying to protect her. He knew he’d spend the rest of his life trying to protect her and make her happy. “I love you, too.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Ahmed took a deep breath as he tried to calm his heavy breathing.
His heart was pounding and he wiped a thin layer of sweat from his brow. He turned his head and saw the night sky outside the window before his thoughts overtook him again.

“Hmm,” Bridget murmured as she snuggled her naked body closer to his and fell asleep. She had welcomed him into her bed in the middle of the night knowing h
e was frustrated with the case.

He ran his hand down her bare
back and enjoyed the feel of the woman he loved. Finally he felt his body relax and his eyes were just about to drift shut when he heard his phone vibrate. Ahmed reached an arm out and managed to answer it without waking Bridget.

“Hello?” he whispered.

“Ahmed, it’s Jamal.” He heard his brother’s serious voice over the phone.

“Give me a minute.” Ahmed pulled the sheet up and covered Bridget’s sleeping
form before slowly sliding out of the bed. He gave her a quick look and saw her wrap both of her arms around his pillow. He managed a smile at the sweet expression on her face.

“I don’t have that much time,” he heard his brother say
, aggravated.

Ahmed closed the door and walked naked down the hall to the living room. “What is it?”

“Rahmi’s been attacked.” Ahmed straightened up and his mind instantly focused on his brother. “It was the king’s own oil minister! He set off bombs on the oil lines, forcing us to shut down production. We caught him trying to sneak out of the country.”

“Why would he do this?”

“I don’t know, but he says he wants to talk to you. That he doesn’t trust me since I’m part of this fraud.”

“Fraud?”

“Yes. But I have no idea what he’s talking about. We need to find out if there are any more bombs and if he’s working alone. Can you leave Nabi in charge and come out here immediately?” his brother asked.

“Of course. Do you th
ink he’s involved with Sergei?”

“We can’t find a connection. No emails, phone calls,
or anything. It seems he’s developed some personal grudge against the king and wants you to plead his case.”

“What kind of explosive was used to blow up the pipeline?”

“The one closest to the palace was dynamite. We haven’t examined the explosions farther down the line.”

Ahmed ran a hand through his hair and nodded. It wasn’t Sergei, but it was also the first time his brother had ever asked him for help. “Okay. I’ll be in the air in less than an hour. Have you called Mo?”

“Yes. His Royal Highness,” Ahmed heard the censure in his brother’s voice, “approved your use of his jet. Hurry.”

Ahmed let out a breath and wished he didn’t have to go. He didn’t want to lea
ve Bridget, but he was a Rahmi Guard and it was his duty to protect the country. He went into the kitchen and found a piece of paper and pen. He wrote Bridget a note explaining what had happened and left it in the middle of the island where she’d see it in the morning.

He snuck down the hall and back into the bedroom where he got dressed. He stood ne
xt to the bed and looked down at Bridget. He felt the warmth in his heart and decided right then that this was the last time he was going to leave her. Ahmed bent over and placed a feather-light kiss on her cheek. “I love you,” he whispered to her. He stood up and gave her one last look before leaving.

* * *

Bridget viciously sliced her pecan and chocolate chip pancakes with a knife and looked up at the table of women staring at her. “What? As if you wouldn’t be mad if your husband left in the middle of the night for halfway across the world without waking you.”

Gemma looked at Dani
, Tammy, and Morgan before looking back at Bridget. “Okay, so I’d be upset,” Gemma finally admitted.

“Yeah, I don’t think I would take that too well. At least he left you a note
, though. Surely that means he cares for you and that he didn’t really want to leave,” Morgan said.

“What I want to know is what were you doing that had you
in such a deep sleep that you didn’t wake up?” Tammy giggled. Bridget blushed and took a bite of her breakfast as Tammy wiggled her eyebrows.

“Why do I always feel like I’m reminding you that you’re married?” Morgan asked with a smile on her face.

“As if you weren’t thinking the same thing,” Tammy grinned and when Morgan blushed, the whole table started laughing.

“Hi, honey,” Gemma said with a guilty look on her face. Cy looked at her strangely before dropping a kiss on her
forehead.

“Bridget, where i
s Ahmed?” Cy asked. The serious tone to his voice caught her attention.

“Rahmi, why?”

“Where’s Mo?” he asked, suddenly impatient.

“I’m right here.” Mo entered the café and headed to the table. “What can I do for you?”

“I need to have a word if you don’t mind. Privately.” Bridget couldn’t believe that Cy practically dragged Mo to the back of the restaurant. The girls all looked at each other and Bridget shuddered. Something was wrong.

Cy wouldn’t look back at the table as he pulled Mo to the back of the café. He had just gotten a call from one of his former CIA counterparts who had caught wind of some troubling news. “What did you hear from Rahmi about the explosion?”

“How did you know about that? We haven’t told anyone. We didn’t want it to affect the oil contrac
ts,” Mo said irritably.

“I just got a call from one of my former buddies. There’s chatter that the bombing had nothing to do with oil and more to do with the oil minister’s family being kidnapped.”

“Kidnapped? Why . . .” Mo’s question died.

“Sergei,” They both said.

Mo cursed. “It was a ploy to draw Ahmed to Rahmi so Sergei can kill him.”

“Not just Ahmed, but all of Rahmi. King Sarif of Surman is working with Sergei again to take over the country.”

He hated telling Mo his country was under attack, but he had to. They had to plan. Mo pulled out his phone and dialed his father. Nothing. He tried the landline and waited until he heard the out-of-service message. Communication was down in the small island country. “I need to get to Rahmi.”

“Wait. We need to tell her,” Cy said as they both turned and looked at Bridget.

Bridget rose from the table.
Please don’t let him be dead
. “What is it?” she asked. The café must have picked up on something because everyone became quiet as Mo walked toward her and picked up her hands.

“
It’s Ahmed. I fear my dear friend is in a battle for his life.”

Bridget just nodded her head once as some of the patrons gasped. “Where?”

“Rahmi is under attack. The bombing wasn’t an accident and now communications have been cut. I fear there is more danger in store for my country and my friend.”

Dani’s
hand shot up to cover her mouth. “Our family?”

“They’re safe as far as I know. I must go. My country needs me.”

“No,” Bridget said forcefully. “You need to go to D.C. and manage this politically. If Rahmi should fall, you could be the rightful ruler and you would need to get your country back.”

“Bridget is
right,” Cy told him as he placed his hand on Mo’s shoulder. “I’ll go with her.”

Gemma’s eyes watered, but she didn’t say anything. Instead she placed one hand on her bel
ly protectively and Bridget realized what that meant. She’d seen Kenna and the Davies women do that enough to know she was pregnant. “I can’t let you do that. I'll have backup. You know I’ll call in favors. And with Mo in D.C., we’ll have support there soon.”

Cy looked back to Gemma and just nod
ded as he went to stand by his wife. “I’ll call in all the favors I have as well.”

“Bridget, please don’t go,” Tammy cried. The Rose sisters had come up with tears in their eyes and placed a hand on T
ammy’s shoulders as tears fell.

“She has to
, dear,” Miss Lily said quietly. “Our boy is in trouble and her heart would never allow her to stay.”

“Here, dear. Take this for the trip. You need to eat.” Miss Violet hand
ed over a large basket of food as she fought back tears.

“Come back to us. Both of you,
” the stalwart Miss Daisy said seconds before pulling her in for a tight hug.

Mo kissed Dani hard. “Keep our boys safe. You and Nabi need to go to our safe house. I’ll take a handful of the guys and Bridget with me to Washington.”

Dani nodded and immediately hurried from the café with a look of sheer determination. She would keep her children safe at all costs.

Bridget looked around the room. Henry had never looked so serious
; Neely Grace and several other women sniffled and tried to hold back tears. Bridget felt her throat start to tighten. If she didn’t get out of there soon, she’d be a mess. “Thank you all. Let’s go, Mo.”

* * *

The plane landed on the king’s private airfield in Rahmi almost fifteen hours after he left Bridget. He could see the oil fires from the air. There had been more bombs detonated on the oil line. He’d talked to his brother when he’d reached London right around the time Bridget would have woken up. He hoped she found his note.

He had been missing her when his brother picked up the phone and told
him that they were going to try to get Ameera and Dirar out of the country on a fishing boat, but the king and queen refused to leave. The line went dead before they could say anything more. As Ahmed looked around, he saw why. The bombings had blown up infrastructure and cell towers for as far as he could see.

Ahmed
hurried from the plane and made his way to the heavily guarded entrance to the palace. He nodded to one of the guards he knew and flashed his diplomatic identification to another as the heavy metal gate slowly opened.

Flashbacks from that horrible day eighteen years ago
crept into his mind. Guards had been stationed on the palace grounds the same way that day. The palace was on lockdown. Come to think about it, there had been no cars or people on the streets either.

Ahmed picked up his pace and hurried into the palace, down the long hallways
, and pushed open the door to his father’s old office. The room was filled with high-level security officials, including Jamal, standing by a map of the country issuing orders.

“There was another explosion at the five
-mile marker of the pipeline. Communications are down still. We need to communicate via two-way radio. I want three teams patrolling the pipeline, but I have a feeling more troops are needed here,” Jamal told the men. He looked up and Ahmed bowed his head quickly to his brother. “Ahmed, good; you’re here. Men, please excuse us for a moment. I’ll call you back in when I’m ready for you.”

Ahmed step
ped into the office and waited for the room to clear. “What’s going on, Jamal?”

“Thank you for coming. I don’t know
who I can trust anymore. We caught a soldier fleeing the area where a bomb had taken out our communications. He said the same thing as the oil minister—that he would only talk to you.”

“How many bombs have gone off and where?”

“Three on the pipeline. Then a massive bomb was set off at the telephone station, knocking out our landlines and the cellular tower. Then one more was set off on the other cellular tower on the island.”

Ahmed shook his head. This wasn’t right. “This is a coordinated attack on our country. First they cut us off financially and then they took down our communications. They’re attacking our infrastructure.”

“I think so, too. I checked and Sarif has been quiet since you shut him down at the UN.”

“Too quiet?”

“Maybe. The explosions are a mix of explosives, but there’s some evidence that Semtex has been used.” Jamal let out a nervous breath. “We couldn’t get the prince and princess out. There were too many unknown vessels in the area to risk sending them out on the ocean. They are in the new safe room I had built after the last attack on Rahmi. The king and queen are still here and being very visible and offering support to the people.”

“Move the guards out of the palace and onto the palace grounds. Only those you personally know are to be inside the palace. Have the king and queen sought help from their allies?”
Ahmed asked as he studied the map.

“No. They haven’t been able to communicate with them. By the time we thought this was something besides domestic terrorism
, it was too late.”

“Then
let’s hope Mohtadi will figure this out and send help. We have to plan as if no one is coming to our aid, though. Do you trust all the men who were in here before?”

“All but one.”

“Then dismiss that man. Tell him to go home to his family or occupy him with a nonessential duty. Do the same for anyone you know to be loyal to him.”

Jamal took a deep breath and went to his desk to write out orders. After a minute of silence
, he went to his door and called the men inside. Ahmed swallowed and pushed the image of Bridget lying in bed waiting for him from his mind. Thank goodness she wasn’t here or he wouldn’t be able to focus on the operation. He only hoped he would make it back to her.