She closed her eyes tightly. “Is that supposed to be comforting?”
“The only comfort I can give you.”
“It sucks, Novak.” But she was still holding tightly to him. “The tapes?”
“Gone.”
“And machetes are a strange weapon of choice for a thug in Cairo.” She added unsteadily, “But it was Varak’s favorite weapon.”
“Varak wouldn’t have been the one who did this, Jill.”
“But he had an entire troop of machete killers in his personal army. Who knows what kind of force he has now? He could have sent one of them to take care of this small job. Nothing much, just killing a reporter who got in his way. A reporter who I put in his way.” She couldn’t stop talking, couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks as she lifted her head to look up at him. “That’s why I was afraid. All those deaths…I thought: What if Varak is still alive and comes back to do it again? And he is back, Novak. I brought him back. I set out bait for the tiger.”
“The hell you did.” His hands were cupping her face as he glared down at her. He said fiercely, “You know that’s not true. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. I won’t have it.”
“I don’t feel sorry for myself. I feel sorry for Kimbro, dammit. And I have to accept responsibility for the—”
“I gave you the assignment. You didn’t even realize that anyone but you knew what Kimbro was up to. And you told me yourself he not only wanted to repay a debt, he wanted the story. If he hadn’t moved too quickly, we could have had someone to protect him from the moment he left that police station. He was careless and overconfident, and it got him killed.”
“It’s not that easy. I drew him into the web because I was worried about what those tapes would do to Eve and Quinn. You can’t absolve me of blame, Novak.”
“Then let me share it. Because I sure as hell can’t take watching you like this.”
He meant it. All the fierceness and the almost brutal intensity that electrified him were naked in his face. It shocked her. She instinctively pushed him away. “You can’t do that, Novak. You have your own problems.” She shook her head to clear it. “And you shouldn’t have to deal with all this angst I’m going through either. You had a man killed today also. Did you know Nassem?”
For an instant, his face still retained that shockingly fierce intensity. Then it was gone, and he said without expression, “I’d met Nassem a couple times. He was a good operator and supposed to be a good guy.”
“Very vague. Is your life usually that vague?”
“It’s safer to keep it that way in my job.”
But there had been nothing safe or vague about him only a moment ago. Forget it. She shouldn’t have even asked the question. Keep away from anything personal with Novak. “I can’t do that.” She got to her feet. “I used to try, but it doesn’t work for me. People pop up, and suddenly there’s a Kimbro or a Hajif or a Gideon.” She was wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt. “Or even a Novak.”
“And you get hurt.”
“It depends on how the story goes. Sometimes I can make it come out right. I’m not sure about this one. I’m beginning to doubt it.” She said unsteadily, “I suppose I should take care of arrangements for Kimbro. He doesn’t have a wife or kid, but he used to talk about his mother in Toronto.”
“Later perhaps. Not now.”
Her gaze flew to his face. “Why not?”
“It’s better if the bodies just disappear for a while. We don’t want the police or Egyptian government involved in this yet. I told Absar to do a cleanup.”
“What about the evidence? I don’t want it cleaned up. I want the people who killed Kimbro to be caught.”
“We’ll send in a forensic team. Absar’s already on the job. We’ll find the murderers and take care of it. I promise you.”
“He was my friend.”
“Then be a friend to him. Don’t go after the errand boy, go after Varak. They have those tapes now, and all hell may break loose.” He met her eyes. “It’s starting, Jill.”
She stared at him for a long moment.
It was starting.
It had already started when Eve completed that reconstruction. But Kimbro’s death had marked the beginning of the battle to come. There was no turning their backs on the struggle now. Those security