Rabiah works from home. We’ll have the use of a phone, or computer, and a shower.”
“Sounds good. We’ll head out there.”
It took forty minutes to cross town, and another fifteen for Thorne to find a parking garage with a big enough entrance to hide the truck.
BOTH RABIAH AND HUSANI were home when Thorne and Isis arrived at their apartment. The couple looked slightly stunned by their appearance but didn’t ask questions. While Rabiah supplied Isis with a change of clothing for both of them, Thorne made a couple of calls to set the ball rolling.
Isis went into the small bathroom to wash before eating. Horrified, she stared at herself in the mirror. “Dear God, seriously?” After all they’d endured it was no wonder she looked as bad as she did, but somehow it was worse seeing herself up close.
Her hair was out of control. Wild and frizzy, and curly around her head and shoulders like the Wild Woman of Borneo. Her pale face wasn’t just dirty, it was filthy, the sand and grit smeared around from her hasty attempt at washing while in the tomb. Her sunken eyes looked bruised, her lips dry and cracked. Her clothing was beyond filthy. Hastily yanking off the top two T-shirts, she was marginally cleaner. And while washing her hands and face several times with soap and hot water helped, she was dying for a hot shower and a scrub brush. She left the bathroom and, seeing that Thorne was off the phone, said, “It’s all yours.”
He passed her in the short hallway and closed the bathroom door behind him. The mouthwatering, stomach-rumbling smell of frying eggs, toast, and coffee lured her to the kitchen.
Rabiah motioned Isis to a seat at the kitchen table, where a glass of Coke on ice waited for her. “I love you, Rabiah! Thank you.”
Her hostess smiled. “You look much better.”
“Hard to look worse,” Husani told her grimly, ducking when Isis threatened to bop him on the head with her glass. “Are you sure you two don’t need a doctor? I have a friend I can call to come here—”
“I’m okay, but I’m worried about Thorne’s leg. He needs a cane, and since he won’t ask, I will. Do you have anything for him to use temporarily?”
“I have some in the storeroom downstairs. Why don’t I get him a cane while he’s getting cleaned up? I’ll be right back.”
Husani went off to get the cane.
“Your Thorne is very nice-looking, even when he’s scruffy,” Rabiah observed as she slid more bread into the toaster.
“He can be very charming when he isn’t dragging you from place to place with bullets flying.”
Rabiah quirked a brow. “Oh, sexy and dangerous. That’s a deadly combination for a woman’s heart.”
Isis bit into the warm toast, letting the crunchy texture of it roll about in her mouth. Rabiah was right. No matter which way she tried to frame things, she and Thorne had crossed a line somewhere in those tombs. And she ached to think what her life was going to be like without him in it once they tricked the bad guys and saved the tomb.
The last thing she wanted was to bring any danger to her friends, but the excitement of her father being right buzzed in her veins, making her lightheaded. She couldn’t wait to tell the world. But Thorne said they needed to wait. Timing was everything when it came to outwitting people like Yermalof, Dylan, and Dr. Najid, and they needed to be precise in their planning.
The bathroom door opened, and a few moments later Thorne limped to the table, his face washed and his hair damp, just as Husani returned. He set a carved cane against the back of Thorne’s chair. “Should you have need of it.” His nonchalant way of saying it made it easy for Thorne to nod his thanks.
“Appreciate it.” Thorne picked up his coffee cup and drank as Rabiah set plates of food in front of them, then joined them at the table.
While they ate the Western-style breakfast, they filled their hosts in on what they knew.
“This was a very involved plan, but the theft of antiquities happens here every day,” Husani told Thorne. “For the most part the authorities turn a blind eye.”
“It’s a disgrace,” his wife said, her voice angry. “They are stealing our national sovereignty. There is a new syndicate to stop such things. I hope they punish these men to the full extent of the law.”