Page 92 of Deadly Betrayal

“You think I’m cute?”

She nudged him. His face contorted into agrimace: eyes squinted, mouth thinned, lips white. “Sorry, sorry.”Lightly, she pressed her hands to the area she’d connectedwith.

His expression transformed into a mischievousgrin. Despite having been tortured for hours, he found it inhimself to tease her, to want to make her smile. Her chesttightened. This man was so good. Almost too good. Definitely toogood for her. “I am very sorry. I did not intend to cause youpain,” she cried, burying her face in her hands. “I am alwayshurting you.”

He roughly pulled her down into his arms,unbalancing her. He flinched when she landed solidly on his chest.“Your ribs!”

Every time she came near him, she made thingsworse. She tried to move away, to put a buffer of space betweenthem. But he was having none of it. His arm immobilized her.

“Fuck my ribs. I need to feel you againstme.”

“I am not good for you.”

“Shh,” he murmured, petting her hair. “Youare everything to me.”

“But I… the ambush…” She choked on her words,not wanting to talk about what she’d done. Did that make her ahypocrite? If he ever found out… No. It wasn’t like her to avoiddifficult discussions. She sniffed and pushed her hair behind herears. “You cannot say things like that until you know the truth.Allthe truth.”

His hand on her hip tightened, and beneathher ear, his heart pounded, confirming her thoughts. He didn’t wantto know.

“We cannot avoid the matter forever.”

“Not forever. Just for now. Look, we’recaptives here. We might die together in this fucking hole. Enoughshit has happened in the last few days. We don’t need to add thedistant past to the pile. Not now.”

Her bottom lip trembled, and she blinkedrapidly against the new burn in her eyes. “I do not deserveyou.”

His hand gripped her hair. “Honey, I’m prettysure we deserve each other.”

She brushed her lips against his bare chest,right above his heart. “Now that Shahram is—” The words clogged inher throat. She swallowed and kissed Kaden’s warm flesh once again.“Now that he is gone, you are all I have left in this world. Thankyou for letting me have you just a little while longer.”

He stiffened, every muscle in his long bodygoing hard as a tree trunk. Had he changed his mind? She tried tosquirm out of his hold, but a hand on her back kept her down. “Ifailed you yesterday, Azita. Failed you both.” He paused and whenhe spoke again, his voice was a raspy whisper. “I should have beenable to keep you safe.”

This time when she pushed up, he let her go.Sitting, she ran the pads of her fingers over his battered face.His eyes glistened as he looked away. “You did everything youcould.” And she would be in his debt forever.

He shut his eyes. “I shouldn’t have left youalone. Shit. I knew Shahram couldn’t fight, couldn’t defend youagainst a carful of militants.” His head lifted and dropped back tothe ground as he pounded his closed fist against his forehead. “Ishould have brought you both with me. I could have carried Shahram.Hell, I ended up carrying him anyway.”

He banged his skull on the hard dirt floor oftheir underground cell several more times in rapid succession.Alarmed, she scooted around so she could kneel behind him. Shecaught his head in her hands before he could slam it down again.Instead, it landed on her lap, where she held it.

“You were not responsible for us,” shemurmured while rubbing circles on his temples. “Shahram knew whathe was doing. He—” A sob interrupted her. Determined to be strongfor Kaden, she swallowed down her own grief. “He sacrificed himselfto protect me. It was the bravest thing he ever did. I am so veryproud of him.”

She caught her trembling lip between herteeth and breathed through her nose until she calmed enough tocontinue. “I wish he had not done it. I wish he had not come withus. He would have been safe in his home in Kabul were it not for mystupid, naïve quest to save Laila.”

Kaden reached up and ran a finger over herlips. “Sounds like we both have a lot of guilt.”

“Shahram would not want that.” It was thetruth. He’d resent either of them taking responsibility for hisdecisions.

“Then let’s leave him his glory,” Kaden said,a gentle smile gracing his face. “His heroism saved us.”

“Inna lillaahi wa inna ilayhiRaaji’oon,” she said softly. To Allah we belong and to Him isour return.

Kaden closed his eyes. “Inshallahyouwill be reunited in the gardens of Jannah.”

She paused, touched that he knew the phraseand could use it with such sincerity. Bending down, she placed alight kiss on his swollen lips. “Inshallah.” Godwilling.

The old wooden chair was hard and extremelyuncomfortable. Khalid wiggled around in the hope of finding abetter position. Despite the lack of bonds, he understood exactlythe reality of his predicament: he was a prisoner. Tariq had givenhim food and water. He’d pretended that Khalid was an honoredwedding guest, yet Khalid was forever in the presence of an armedguard.

The choice of room in which he was being heldwas also strategic. Even a deaf man would have heard the screams.Screams that had rung out all night. From the occasional curses theman had let out, it was obvious he was American.

But was he Azita’s American?