Page 53 of Acting on Instinct
That didn’t mean that Kira wanted to make it easy for them.
She put her bags in the back seat, climbed under the wheel, and locked her doors.
Where should she go?
Before Kira knew that Lula was a CIA field operator, Lula had said that she worked for the State Department in the diplomatic corps. And as such, she had ongoing training in how to stay safe in a foreign country where she might be the target of terrorism, kidnapping, or other kinds of attacks. Lula had talked to Kira about her safety and given her a few lessons on how to be a ghost, in case her uncle called with a marriage contract that Kira found unacceptable.
Lula had explicitly said that Kira shouldn’t do the things she read in romantic thrillers because most of those were written by retired women who were more interested in what the sweaty bodies of the operators were doing during their between-the-sheets rumba and less about the application of actual spy craft.
Kira didn’t read suspense thrillers. She read historical fiction that depicted the lives and circumstances women navigated in a time when they were considered little more than children in terms of brainpower and emotional maturity. Kira would rot under such circumstances. But the heroines in the books found ways to thrive.
Thrive might be beyond her. Right now, she wanted to survive.
No, Kira didn’t know anything about anything when it came to survival against trained and determined men.
Kira realized that idling in her car in the middle of her drive made her the proverbial sitting duck.
She forced herself to back out of the drive steadily, without calling attention.
It was after midnight, she reminded herself, she was going to call attention.
Kira drove out of her neighborhood, following the route into the city, and considered the police station. But no one had done anything to her. She had seen no one. What could the police possibly do to help her?
So she drove with no particular destination.
Checking the gas gauge, she saw that Ty must have filled up the tank for her at some point.
Full was helpful.
Kira’s mind spun around and around, and try as she might, she couldn’t find a solid footing for a clear thought to land on.
Somehow, she was on a highway completely turned around. Without signs, she didn’t know if she was heading north or south.
Distance was her only goal.
Away seemed good enough for the moment.
“Get it together!” Kira yelled as she gripped the steering wheel hard enough that the skin on her knuckles pulled tightly over the bones, and Kira thought her skin might split.
She moved into the right-hand lane and checked her speed.
So far, her body seemed to be working on autopilot, and she was grateful.
Uncle Nadir had questions about Omar.
What did Kira know of Omar Imadi?
Next to nothing.
Before the party in Tanzania, London had warned Kira that Uncle Nadir had promised her to Omar in marriage.
Her Uncle never told her about that. In fact, as far as Uncle Nadir knew, Kira was still in the dark about the name of her intended.
Before any of it could be discussed, Omar was dead.
Kira thought Ty had probably killed Omar, but he never said, and she never asked. If Ty had killed Omar, it was because he was ordered to take out a terrorist, not to save her. Saving her was a side bonus.
So what would she say if the interrogators asked?
