Passionate Investigations (13 page)

Rob came up behind her.

“This is what he’s asked for,” Rob said quietly to her as he
handed the much-slimmer file over. She could tell he’d kept almost half of the
papers locked in the satchels, yet if anyone had overheard his words they would
never know anything was missing.

The subtleties of his words gave her an inkling of just how
important wording oneself could be. The many shades of gray to every word and
opinion reiterated to her why Zahra didn’t believe she could ever fit into the
political world her father and Tanya had made their home in.

She heard footsteps come to the door and a pause where she
assumed he checked them through the peephole. A door chain rattled as he
removed it and finally the condo door swung open. Zahra noticed that Miles kept
half his body hidden behind the thick wood, both of his hands hidden behind the
door. She wondered if he held a gun or whether he had maybe already summoned up
some of his magic and held it ready to defend himself.

She lifted the file up, but kept away from Miles’s immediate
reach.

“Where’s my dad?” she said, dispensing with any pretense of
greeting.

“And a good evening to you too, Zahra,” Miles answered
smoothly as if she had said something far more pleasant. “Rob, please leave
your weapon on the front porch. I would hate for Zahra or Grant to suffer an
accident before it became necessary.”

Rob stiffened, Miles’s casual threat clear. Zahra watched as
Rob opened his leather jacket to show he wore no holster, then slowly shrugged
out of the coat and turned around.

“Left my gun behind,” Rob pointed out as he held his arms
wide then turned back to face Miles. “I figured you might be a bit trigger-happy.
There’s no need for anyone to get hurt—umph.”

Miles raced out of the door and rushed Rob. Zahra shouted
and stepped forward, but it was over before she could do more than take a
single step. Miles punched Rob in the face, her lover’s head snapping around
from the force of the blow. Gray threads of snapping, hissing magical energy
covered Miles’s hands and in an instant he had threaded iron-hard restraints
around Rob’s wrists and elbows, restraining him completely.

Zahra dropped the file in her concern as she hurried forward
and cupped Rob’s shoulders. A small split bled at the corner of his mouth, a
bruise forming on his cheekbone, but otherwise he appeared fine. Hotly angry,
Zahra glared up at her ex-boyfriend.

“That wasn’t remotely necessary,” she insisted angrily. “We
did what you asked. You have your fucking file and the cassette and my father.
What more could you possibly want?”

“Oh please,” Miles retorted with disdain. “You and your
stupid sister have ruined my plans, halted my admittedly speedy ascension
through the ranks of my coconspirators and effectively helped sign my death
warrant in their ranks from your endless meddling and do-gooder efforts. If I
could get away with skinning you alive it might be a drop in the ocean of pain
I want for you to suffer.”

Zahra gaped at this stranger. Gone was the slick, charming
seducer, the politically savvy almost-appearing-perfect façade, and instead
Miles finally appeared to be showing his true colors to her. Evil and an
insatiable thirst for power and prestige lurked beneath his suave exterior.

“Where’s the tape?” Miles queried. Rob tugged at the magical
restraints but was unable to move at all.

“Here,” Zahra said softly to her lover, concern deep in her
tone. This had not gone at all as they had thought. She and Rob had hoped to
stall Miles as long as possible, at least until Ben and Layla had arrived and
they could blindside Miles.

Zahra guessed they were in a lot deeper trouble than they
had originally thought. She assisted Rob to his feet. Wildly she hoped he might
be able to recover some ground with his legs free, but as soon as he stood
Miles casually threw another bolt at him, a thick band of energy winding its
way around his lower thighs just above his knees, effectively hobbling him.

“You really are a fuckwit, aren’t you?” Rob sighed. He
sounded resigned but barely managing to suppress his anger. Miles smirked in
response.

“You have no idea,” Miles replied smugly. “It was a pleasure
to set you up. Your arrogance had grated on me for years. Stealing Zahra out
from under your nose and working my way up the political ladder while you
scrounged around in the dirt at my feet. Really, even had my colleagues not
ordered me to set you up for such a fall into the mud, I’d have got around to
it sooner or later myself.”

“But I digress,” Miles continued as he pushed open the front
door and waved them both in. “Zahra, bring me that file please, and that
fucking tape.”

Rob glared but stormed into the condo while Zahra stepped
back and picked up the file she had dropped. Picking up Rob’s discarded leather
jacket, she pulled the Dictaphone from the outer pocket, ejected the small
cassette and held it out to Miles as she passed by him. Instead of taking it,
he jerked his head to indicate she should enter first.

“Where’s my Dad?” Zahra snapped, her nerves on edge.

“Go through to the kitchen. Put the notes and the Dictaphone
on the bench. There are cable ties there. Zahra, you’ll secure one of your
hands behind your back, turn around and I’ll finish restraining you. Padden,
you can have a seat on one of the wooden chairs.”

Zahra stood in place for a long moment, tempted to disobey
and just search the condo until she found her father. What if Miles had been
lying and lured them here? She shook away the thought. Even if her father wasn’t
here, Rob was practically helpless now. Nothing could make her leave him here.
They would simply have to wait either until Rob worked himself free, or Ben
ambushed the place.

“Do it now, Zahra, or else your new boyfriend won’t look so
pretty the next time you want to kiss him,” Miles warned her. “You might not
believe it, but I’ve been gentle with him up until now. My temper is getting
edgy.”

Zahra shot the wizard a furious glance, but stiffly she
obeyed him. What she had ever seen in that smug, arrogant face she didn’t know.
How could she have been so foolishly blind to not see this angry, petty,
vindictive man beneath his smooth exterior before now?

Rob stepped to the side, his back facing the wall. He tilted
his chin to indicate she should walk ahead of him. Puzzled, Zahra obeyed
instinctively. When Rob moved directly behind her she understood. He had
positioned his body between her and Miles.

The silent, calm manner in which he continued to protect her
squeezed her heart with love. Without another word the three of them walked
through the living room, down a small hall past the closed doors of the two
bedrooms, the study, the bathroom and the small exercise room Miles kept.

The hallway opened out into a large kitchen and eating area.
The stovetop and oven ran along one wall, the sink and a window looking out
onto the garden along the other. The long kitchen bench separated the cooking
area from the dining room, running out to section off most of one side of the
room from the other.

Growing angry, Zahra walked up to the bench and tossed the
file, Rob’s jacket and the Dictaphone onto it. She was about to turn back
around and insist on seeing her father, when she saw him bound to a chair,
gagged in the far corner of the room, beside the windows that opened out onto
the backyard.

“Dad!” she cried out. Racing over to him without another
thought, she touched his shoulders then immediately tried to pull the material
out of his mouth. Her father looked tired, strain evident in the creases around
his eyes. She’d never seen him look so close to his age. Usually vitality
radiated out from him. The stress from the last week or more had truly aged him
to her eyes.

“Stop it,” Miles insisted angrily. His words snapping with
energy as he shot off a tiny warning stream of magic. The trickle grazed her
arm, pain burning through her.

“Hey!” Rob shouted. He surged forward but was caught up
short, the bands around his thighs hobbling him. With a jerky lurch he still
managed to protectively insert his body in Miles’s way.

Tension crackled in the air as the two wizards faced off,
neither one willing to budge an inch. Desperately Zahra looked out the back
windows which faced the grassy yard. She wasted a few precious seconds to scan
their surroundings, hoping she would spot Ben amongst the foliage.

When she couldn’t spot him she prayed he’d arrive soon.
Antagonism rose in the air between the two wizards and Zahra didn’t want to
think about the precariousness of their position.

“I love you, Daddy,” she spoke softly so that Miles wouldn’t
be able to hear her private words. Grant’s pale-blue eyes seared into her for a
moment as they gazed upon each other. Despite the fact her father couldn’t
speak, she could read his words as clearly as if they’d rung through the air.

I love you, too, sweetheart
, he silently told her.

“We’ll be fine,” she tried to reassure him. “There’s a plan.
Well, sort of,” she amended with a wry grin. Resignation warred with amusement
in his clear gaze. Zahra held a hand to her arm. The scratch oozed a tiny bit
of blood and stung like fury, but it wasn’t remotely life-threatening.

Closing her hand around it, she pressed tightly, hoping the
pressure would stop the bleeding.

“Can I have a bandage, please, Miles?” She came up behind
Rob then stepped to the side of him so their shoulders brushed. “Or some
tissues at the least. You’ve ruined a perfectly good shirt here and I’d like to
not bleed all over it.”

Power still crackled over the palms of his raised hands, but
Miles wavered at her casual tone and nonchalant query. She’d purposely phrased
herself to sound as bored and normal as possible, needing to lower the level of
tension in the room before the two wizards started brawling—or worse, hurling
bolts of charged magical power—at each other.

Defusing the situation was the first step. Overpowering
Miles could come after that.

“Your shirt is already ruined,” Miles said without a hint of
compassion. “Just tear off a strip and bind the wound. Padden, take a seat.
There’s one over there in the other corner opposite old man Gower.”

Rob obeyed without a hint of defiance. For a moment Zahra
felt as if she might have been transported into an alternate reality. What was
going on? Rob was not some meek little wizard, prone to shuffling along
obligingly when in danger. Cramps of worry tightened in her stomach. Zahra
looked out at the windows over the sink, hoping once again to spot Ben or Layla
lurking around, ready to take charge as soon as the opportunity presented
itself.

They were not anywhere in sight.

Zahra almost hyperventilated when she realized that—for the
moment, at least—everything rested with her. Rob, she finally understood, had
allowed himself to be restrained as Miles would see him as the greater threat.
By not fighting against Miles as he was subdued, Rob had taken the brunt of the
wizard’s attention onto himself.

It remained up to her now, to try to save them.

Fear clenched her stomach into a hard, tight knot. How had
it come to this point? She was a horticulturist, for heaven’s sake. All her
life she had avoided intrigue and debates, politics and the seedy side of
cutting deals with one’s former enemy. She had never been in a physical fight
before and wouldn’t know the first thing of how to overpower a wizard with as
much magical fortitude as Miles, no matter what.

She grew plants, basked in the sunshine and communed with
nature. Zahra felt crushed by the weight of responsibility that pressed down on
her. Rob had placed his trust in her, offered himself as a willing sacrifice to
Miles and only now did she understand he had unconditional faith that she would
make this right.

Her father’s life depended on her.
Rob’s
life and
well-being depended on her. The thought of letting either wizard down, or of
something happening to them because she was too chicken-shit to act, had her
feeling lightheaded.

No way would she let that happen.

While Rob hobbled over to the chair Miles had indicated she thought
with lightning speed. Miles’s attention had been momentarily diverted as he
watched her lover slowly amble over as instructed. Her breath accelerated, her
heart pounding furiously in her chest as she tried to think of where her
strengths lay.

Miles still had energy crackling around his hands, not
letting his guard down for a moment. Should she rush him, chances are he would
either seriously harm her, or possibly even kill her accidently as he defended
himself. So a physical attack was out of the question right now.

Zahra glanced wildly around, desperately searching for a
knife, a fire poker…hell a heavy lamp or cut-crystal decanter would even do. Something
that could be used as a blunt instrument to beat Miles over the head with.
Anything.

Nothing came to mind as a usable weapon and Zahra began to
panic in earnest. She made Healing poultices, for fuck’s sake. Her skills lay in
crushing herbs, making tisanes and—Zahra jerked her head up as the idea hit her
like a bolt of lightning.

Of course, how stupid could she be?

Her gaze shot out to the small shelf above the sink where
the windowsill had been deepened to allow a group of tiny pots of various herbs
to flourish in the sunlight. Ironically she had gifted Miles with many of the
plants during their brief months of dating. While a few of them looked as if
they could do with a bit of care and water, they all were still alive at least.

Her breath catching, she mentally ran through the list of
each herb she could see. They were all as recognizable to her as individual
witches or wizards. She’d spent her life working with plants and flowers, herbs
and shrubs, so it was no effort for her to catalogue what was on offer.