Page 51 of Acting on Instinct
There were times when athletes traveled to foreign places during political catastrophes in their home countries—a crackdown of some kind. And the athletes were often in the position of deciding whether to remain free and accept the host country's hospitality and asylum status.
They usually returned home despite their opportunity to escape.
They did it because they loved.
Kira understood that kind of love. She’d already chosen her family over freedom once when she was asked to marry Omar.
But once she understood how Uncle Nadir had betrayed her and had signed a marriage contract with a demon, a terrorist, she was done with that. Done.
Kira’s memory slid back to the steps at the Tanzanian compound when the plane landed, and Kira saw Omar for the first time.
Rory had known from the start. Rory had moved between her and Omar and sat on her feet, staking his claim.She’s mine.
And Kira felt protected. Honored. It was a feeling she’d never forget. She was special to a military K9, but to her uncle, she was nothing but a chit.
That wasn’t true. Kira was something, a pawn.
Now, Uncle Nadir believed the Kira was responsible for Omar's death.
More concerning was that he wanted information from her.
What information could she possibly have, and why now?
Chapter Sixteen
Kira
Would someone even try to take her to Qatar? Kira wondered as she scowled at the wall.
Uncle Nadir and William were in Tanzania as far as she knew.
Kira had wrapped her arms tightly around herself, and she rocked side to side as if infant Archie was held to her chest, needing to be soothed.
If William was in Tanzania, that meant he’d left London, damaged and pregnant, alone with the servants at their Qatari home with the missiles.
Did he know this was going to happen, that the world would suddenly go topsy-turvy, that they’d shut down the airspace, and you were either in or you were out?
In or out.
That might not be true.
Lula said she’d gone to Qatar for some reason. She got out of there by the skin of her teeth, then right to North Carolina. That’s the timeline Kira had heard.
But even if Lula’s timeline was that tight, she’d said that London had to be reminded of the ring. With short-term memory issues, London could have written it long ago or that morning.
No. That felt wrong.
If London thought of the ring then and she used anxious wording, she knew it couldn’t wait. If she had told her necklace about the ring, she would have said it needed to go overnightto Kira; she wouldn’t have tucked it away, just in case Lula was going to show up and could hand-deliver it.
No, the words London chose in her letter were words that had an imminent quality.
Someone was watching Kira. Someone was coming.
The airspace in Qatar being closed wouldn’t protect her because her Uncle Nadir was a member of the global elite and could afford to hire anyone, anywhere in the world. Several anyones.
Kira was pretty sure that Lula didn’t know about the warning that had been meticulously folded to hide the cramped, minuscule letters that London had penned.
Lula would have safeguarded her. Looking back at their friendship, Lula had always been dependable. She found ways to protect her friends even as she got her job done. Lula was fiercely loyal, even if she wasn’t always honest.
