The Jewish Neighbor (7 page)

Felix continued. “That day I saw
you heading into the park. I got up, got dressed and decided to finally man-up
and come and talk to you. I was ready to get slapped and told off. But I wasn’t
ready to see you being raped.”

“You risked your life to save me,
only to have me stab you in the heart with my ignorance. Why would you even still
want me?”

Felix didn’t speak any more, but
allowed his hands, his lips, and his whole body to tell Umayma what she yearned
to know. That what was, didn’t mean anything. But what is, and what will be, is
all that really mattered.

§

That
very night near a gentle fire place and burning amber incense, Umayma lay naked
on her side on
Kamal’s
bed with Felix’s body fused
around hers, the two of them like perfectly matched spoons. Her immediate
thirst for him had been quenched. And she had a lifetime to satisfy her
long-term hunger for her lover. Careful not to wake him up, she reached out to
the night table for her purse. She pulled out the one dollar bill her father
had given her when she had turned eight and held it against the light of the
fireplace to read the inscription on it.

Umayma.
You were born free. Never let a
man convince you otherwise.

The
dollar bill and the outline of Felix's peaceful, beautiful body lying next to
her were the only two things in her possession now reminding Umayma she was
finally a free woman.

§§§

More fiction by A.M.
Khalifa

Terminal
Rage,
a critically acclaimed novel
amazon.com/
dp
/1940387000
UK version:
amazon.co.uk/
dp
/1940387000

Publishers
Weekly Review

The
plot twists in
Khalifa's
thriller are dizzying,
intricate, and entertaining. Alexander Blackwell, a former FBI agent haunted by
his past, is pressed back into service when the enigmatic leader of a terrorist
group takes control of a Manhattan skyscraper. But the hostage situation in New
York is just the beginning, as Blackwell and the Feds must contend with the
kidnapping of a powerful senator's daughter and demands for the release of two
men convicted of bombing an Egyptian resort. The negotiations with the
post-Mubarak generalship and the description of the Egyptian prison are among
the best set pieces of the book, displaying a wry grasp of Egyptian mores and
deft pacing. The clever plot twist that turns this novel from a hostage drama
to a byzantine account of staggering theft and calculated revenge is appealing.

The
Egyptian Affair,
a short story
amazon.com/
dp
/B00BJP4KPQ
 
UK version:
amazon.co.uk/
dp
/B00BJP4KPQ

When
a man discovers his wife is having an affair, self-restraint and reason fly out
of the window. Humiliation rests on his shoulders like a burden too heavy to
bear. And the onus of doing something about it lies squarely on him. The
universe will not let him rest or have his peace until he acts to set the
balance straight. Even if he wanted to look the other way and take one for the
team, he would still wind up facing his demons with no option but to react.
To do something.
Anything.
Even the unthinkable.

The
Italian Laundromat,
a short story
amazon.com/
dp
/B00DWFZ70S
UK version:
amazon.co.uk/
dp
/B00DWFZ70S
Like
many Italian middle-aged women,
Donatella is locked in a loveless, sexless marriage. Just when things couldn't
possibly get worse, her husband Mauro gives her a "surprise" that
adds insult to injury. With her back against the wall, Donatella comes up with
a desperate escape plan, and along the way ensnares an unsuspecting young
Bangladeshi immigrant as an accoutrement to her designs. But will she get away
with her scandalous plans or will they backfire? The Italian Laundromat is a
sizzling romantic suspense steeped in forbidden sex, treachery and the final
laugh of all women shackled by terrible husbands.

The Box: Episode 1,
a multi
part science fiction thriller series
amzn.com/B00I0EVR46
UK version:
amazon.co.uk/
dp
/B00I0EVR46
An Italian vintner discovers a dead woman clutching a flash drive, inside an
abandoned car on his estate near the town of
Pienza
.
Fingerprints reveal the murdered woman to be an American FBI agent, on the run
for the last seven months after stealing valuable evidence from a case she was
investigating.What
you are about to read are excerpts of
confidential FBI and Homeland Security transcripts found on the flash drive,
and pertaining to the case the dead FBI agent was investigating before she went
rogue.

It all started when a
mysterious box surfaced at an apartment block in Los Angeles in 2010.