Five minutes later, Dalai drove her up to the gates of the stockade, where Lon Markel was standing guard. Zahra leaned forward and nodded curtly at him. “Open those gates. I have to see him, Markel.”
“Did he give you permission?” Markel asked with the hint of a sneer. “You know that he—”
“Open those gates!” Markel was her agent, only on loan to Varak, and he was daring to question her! It just showed how much respect had been stolen from her by that son of a bitch. “Now!”
He shrugged, opened the gates, and stood aside.
Two minutes later, Dalai screeched to a stop before the long porch of the house.
“Do you wish me to come in, madam?” Dalai asked. She was tense with nervousness as she watched the door open and Varak come out on the porch.
She was actually trembling, Zahra noticed impatiently. You’d think she’d have learned to control herself by now. But just one glimpse of Varak, and she was falling apart. “I haven’t decided.” She got out of the car. “Stay here, I’ll let you know.” She strode up the steps, her gaze on Varak. He was staring straight at her, and she could see why a weakling like Dalai might be afraid of him. The expensive plastic surgery for which Zahra had paid an enormous fee might disguise his features, but those dark eyes were piercing, and the power and ferocity were unmistakable. His black hair had been dyed to a pale sandy shade and allowed to grow longer than his usual cropped cut because she had thought it might soften his appearance. Perhaps it did at first glance, but that was also a failure in Zahra’s opinion. All these temporary measures were only safe as long as everyone was certain Varak was dead.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Varak said harshly. “I told you not to come here again. You could have led them right to me. People are always watching you.”
“And I’m supposed to pay any attention to what you tell me to do?” She stopped before him, glaring. “And I’m no fool. I went out the secret panel, and I leave a car parked in a garage down the street. No one saw me.”
“I know they didn’t, or I wouldn’t have let you come near here. Do you think I didn’t know you’d do something like this?” He turned and walked back into the house. “Come in. I don’t want my men seeing your tantrum.” His lips twisted. “Or I’d have to either beat you or cut your throat. I don’t allow myself to show weakness to them as I’ve demonstrated to you on many occasions.” He poured himself a drink from the bar just inside the door. “You like that about me, don’t you, Zahra?”
“I like to see power at work. It amused me to watch them grovel.” She added through set teeth, “But I’m not amused now, Varak, and I won’t grovel to you. What are you trying to do? Give me my statue.”
“I’m trying to give it to you, bitch,” he said. “I told you that there was a problem. I’m not playing mind games with you.” He drank down his whiskey. “And I have more to worry about than your fancy statue. Something weird happened at Asarti last night that might be more important to both of us.”
“Nothing is more important. Give me my statue.”
“I’d have to find it first. Because it wasn’t at Asarti.”
She went still. “What?”
“Interested now?” Varak asked. “You weren’t interested in anything about the way I was going to get the statue back. You just snapped your fingers and said you wanted it.”
“You said you’d get it back from Dobran a few days after the skull was identified as you. You promised me. But he still has it.”
“He has nothing. Dobran is dead. I had a sniper set up to take him out last night.”
“Good. Then why don’t I have my statue?”
“You were going to have it,” he said harshly. “I was tired of hearing you nag me. I thought I’d get you off my back about the statue in case I had to go to Robaku and take out that Duncan woman in the next couple days. I knew I couldn’t trust you to do it.”
“My statue,” she reminded him.
“I was going to eliminate Dobran as a witness and take the statue at the same time. I sent in a team to bomb the place and start fires that would block all the entrances