“Quinn doesn’t trust you. Not me either, but I’m working on it.” She paused. “And I knew it would only be a couple hours delay. It didn’t seem too bad. What can I do to make it right with you?”
He didn’t answer.
“What can I do?” she repeated.
“The eternal question with you.” He was suddenly walking toward her out of the brush and turning off his phone. “You should have stuck with Quinn. As you said, I’m more pissed off with you than he is right now.”
“It wasn’t really Quinn, it was Eve. I had to balance what she—” He had put his fingers over her lips, and she looked up at him, startled.
“Hush,” he said. “I’m trying very hard not to confuse this anger with anything more emotional or sexual. But since it’s always there, it’s a factor. Along with the fact that I find myself oddly hurt that you didn’t trust me to handle this situation. That’s very weird in itself. But it will help if you don’t make excuses or tell me you owe me anything.” He took his fingers away. “Now why did Quinn kick you out?”
Her lips still felt warm and tingling even though his touch was gone. “He wanted her to rest.” She moistened her lips. “I was just another disturbance.”
“Yes, you are.” His lips twisted. “So he tossed you to me?”
“No, he wouldn’t care where I went. She’s the only thing important to him. It’s kind of nice. Warm…” She met his gaze. “It was my choice to come to you, Novak. Because I do trust you.” She added simply, “How could I do anything else after what you’ve done for me? No matter how much you want your own way, you’d never do anything to hurt me. I’ll always come to you if you’ll let me.”
He was silent. “Oh, shit.” He took a step toward her. Then he stopped abruptly. “You leave yourself wide open, dammit. You haven’t been paying any attention to what I’ve been saying to you, have you?”
“Sure I have.” She smiled with an effort. “Some of it sort of scared me. I’m really not the kind of person anyone would obsess about. I don’t know what I’d do with you if I didn’t believe you’d probably change your mind before all this is over.”
“I can offer suggestions,” he said thickly. “And you must be wrong because the obsession is definitely there.” He paused. “But there’s nothing I’d do to you that should scare you.”
“You’re back to walking wounded again?” She shook her head in exasperation. “For Pete’s sake, it’s not about sex.” Though that was patently untrue. She couldn’t get near him without this feeling of heat and electricity. She drew a deep breath. “Is it okay if we don’t talk about this? I just wanted you to know that I do trust you. And it’s important that you not shut me out of anything when everything seems to be exploding around us.”
“Heaven forbid that you miss one single minute of any combustion coming our way,” he said dryly.
She nodded. “Heaven forbid,” she echoed quietly. “It’s my story, my responsibility, and if I don’t tell it, then it might not get told. And I brought Eve into this, and now Quinn is involved.” She made a face. “You might say I even brought you into this, Novak.”
“The hell you did.”
“I came to you. Just as I’m coming to you now. You turned me down then. Don’t turn me down this time.”
He swore under his breath. “Low blow, Jill.”
She nodded. “Yes. But I speak fluent Egyptian and Arabic. Can’t you use me to find out what’s happening in Cairo?”
“Possibly.”
“Novak.”
“Hell, yes, I’ll use you,” he said roughly. “Haven’t I done that from the beginning? Quinn’s right, we’ve got to either eliminate or delay anyone’s finding out who killed that sniper and was in the château tonight. And we need time to get a plan together. Which means we have to get our hands on those gallery videotapes. I’ll see if I can patch you into the local Cairo police from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, and you can express concern that some of the antiquities on loan to Dobran might have also been stolen. In short, lie through your teeth and work your magic.”
She nodded, frowning thoughtfully. “I can do that. But it might be better if I contact a friend of mine, Matt Kimbro, who’s a reporter for the Cairo Messenger and also does freelance.