Page 57 of Acting on Instinct
She’d been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours, Kira reminded herself.
An armed robbery was a lot.
To set that experience on a shelf and discount it simply because she’d walked out unscathed wasn’t the right way to handle the situation.
Add in a spy, an estranged friend’s warning, and the augury ring, and, of course, her nervous system was a dumpster fire.
As Kira pulled into the parking lot of the all-night doughnut shop, she peered through the plate-glass window. The shop was empty except for the server at the front counter. Inside her car, with the engine running, Kira felt like she had more options.
After rolling through the drive-through for coffee and a cinnamon roll, Kira parked behind a tree, nose out, so she could watch the road.
The fat and sugar from her roll did the trick, soothing her nerves. The rolls weren’t nearly as good as the ones that Ty and Rory had brought her yesterday morning, but still, a carb was often a crutch that Kira leaned on.
And the decaf tasted warm and comforting, probably because Kira associated coffee with friendship. She could use a friend right then.
Kira opened her phone. It was three in the morning.
Who did she know that she could call at three in the morning?
Scrolling through her contacts, Kira stopped on C.
Christen Davidson Rochambeau—or D-Day as she liked to call herself—was William’s daughter and therefore London’s daughter-in-law, which London found insane because both Kira and London were younger than Christen by a couple of years. Though it was more common in Kira’s family and amongst their Qatari friends, it had set up a strange dynamic for London.
Christen … Kira hadn’t talked to Christen since her marriage to Gator almost two years before.
Would Christen know what Kira should do?
Probably not.
Christen was a pilot for special operators. In fact, by happenstance, Christen had piloted the mission Ty was on when Lula went to meet him and fly Ty and Rory on the CIA plane to Durham, where he was ordered to make Kira fall in love with him.
Wasthatwhat Kira knew?
Did Uncle Nadir know that Ty was on Delta Force?
Did they know Lula was in the mix when Omar was killed?
Or maybe it was what Kira knew about Christen and Lula spying? She didn’t actually know anything. She had a story in her head.
Christen and Lula, along with their friend Johnna Red, had joined the retreat that Kira had put together for William and her uncle. Now that Kira knew Lula worked for the CIA, Kira assumed that the three women had gone to spy on Christen’sfather. That was when Lula met London and befriended her, and then befriended Kira. Kira had to believe that Lula wanted a foot in the door to watch what that group was up to in a world of geopolitics and the manipulation of the world order.
Spies had infiltrated her family compound: wasthatwhat she knew?
To protect Ty, Lula, and Christen, Kira would take that knowledge to the grave with her, she vowed.
But then Kira remembered the depiction of torture on the movie screen and the SERE training shown on TV. “Did you do that, Ty?”
Of course, he’d done that.
When she’d asked, Ty took her into his arms and cuddled her. “It’s good for a man to test his limits,” he’d whispered into her hair as she’d clung to him.
Kira wasn’t up to that.
Even if Christen had no advice to give Kira about staying out of the interrogator’s reach, Kira had to call and warn Christen.
Kira’s thumb tapped the telephone icon.
They weren’t friends, but Kira still had hopes that Christen would take the call, despite the hour, and that Kira wouldn’t have to leave a voicemail about something so delicate.
