Page 162 of Protecting You

This man was a terrorist. A killer. And he wasn’t bothering to hide it anymore.

“Where’s Peri?” she asked.

“You didn’t think I would bring her with me. I had to ensure you weren’t followed by police. Or CIA agents.”

Did he mean Dad? Or Callan? Or both?

She tried to keep her face impassive. “You told me to come alone. I came alone.”

“I will take you to the child as soon as you’ve been thoroughly searched.” He gave Benson a go-ahead nod.

Alyssa fought the urge to fight as the meaty man pawed at her clothes, her hair, her body. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths and prayed, prayed, prayed.

When he took her shoes off, she knew.

She’d cut a slit into the sole and shoved the narrow disk inside.

But he saw it, pulled it out, and held it up for Ghazi to see.

“A worthy try.” The man actually smiled as he took the tracker and flipped it into the woods. “You are good, Alyssa Wright. But I am better.”

She hoped she looked suitably horrified at the man’s arrogance.

Arrogance that, God willing, would bring him down.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX

“They’ll find it!” Callan was pacing. Furious. Horrified. “They’ll find it, and when they do, they’ll kill her and Peri both.”

Grant said nothing.

On the phone, Michael said, “Think it through, man.”

Think.

Exactly what Alyssa had said to him.Your daughter needs you to think.

And now she did too.

He paused his circuit across the makeshift command center.

Gavin loved his daughter, even if he was terrible at showing it.

Callan had learned in the last few minutes how much Grant and Michael loved their cousin. That Alyssa had helped Michael more than once. That her work had saved lives.

She’d located the little curly-haired Levi when he was kidnapped.

She’d aided Michael in escaping from Iraq with Leila and Jasmine, who’d eventually married into the Wright family.

Even Gavin seemed surprised by that information.

These men loved Alyssa, and they didn’t feel that for Peri, but she was a child.

It went against everything inside him, but he needed to trust these people to help him find and save Peri and Alyssa.

“She saved my life more than once.” Michael’s voice on the phone was strangely gentle. “I promise you, we will do everything in our power to protect her.”

Protect her. Right. They’d practically sent her to Ghazi, who could kill her.

---