buried long ago. And she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to deal with them all. Not now. Not with him so close.
She prayed in a matter of hours, she wouldn’t have to deal with them ever again.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Six years earlier
Cairo
“Thanks for meeting me on such short notice. I know you’re busy.”
“Never too busy for you, Kat. You know that.” Martin Slade pulled the chair out for Kat and waited while she sat at the small bistro corner table. Outside on the street, cars honked and jockeyed for space amongst industrial trucks spewing exhaust and donkey-drawn carts darting through traffic. Inside, the predominantly European clientele clinked cups and saucers amidst a steady hum of chatter and afternoon caffeine.
“I just wish I had more to tell you,” Marty said as he moved around the table and sat down.
Kat set her purse on the floor and waited as a waitress came and took their order. As Marty was speaking with the young girl, Kat’s eyes moved over this man she’d once been intimate with. Funny, but she didn’t feel anything for him now except friendship.
It’d been several months since she’d seen him, but he looked good, albeit tired. Then again, Marty always looked tired. It was as much a part of him as were those broad shoulders and that solid frame and the secrecy that hung around him like cologne. Today he wore a white button-down and a pair of black slacks that accentuated his toned body. His dark hair was longer than she remembered, but still stylish and well-kept as it set off his dark eyes and what looked to be a day’s worth of stubble he hadn’t bothered to shave.
He was an attractive man. One she’d been interested in, but never head-over-heels about. Not like she was with Pete.
Her heart turned over at just the thought of Pete. It’d been six months since their first night at the Mena House. Since then he’d come and gone from her life, never with any warning or regularity. Weeks would go by where she didn’t see him, days between phone calls when she had no idea where he was or what he was doing. She’d imagine the worst, tell herself this crazy relationship wouldn’t last because there were so many things left unsaid and unexplained between them, but then he’d magically appear on her doorstep, and all her rational thoughts would slip away.
When they were together, all she could see and feel was him. And she knew he felt the same. It was in his eyes every time he touched her, every time he kissed her. Every time he sank his body deep into hers and held her close. He’d never told her he loved her, but she didn’t need the words to know what was in his heart. She felt it.
And that knowledge made everything else so much harder to bear.
She knew very little about his business, about what he did when he was gone. She’d asked, of course, time and again, but each time he’d sidestepped her questions by telling her he was working on something important for the future and that he didn’t want to waste their moments talking about work when there were other things more important to do.
His aversion to letting her into such a large part of his life hurt, but she never pushed him. He was right, their time together was already so limited, she didn’t want to do anything to tarnish it. Now, though, sitting across from Marty, she knew she was fooling herself. Sawil had already warned her.
As the waitress moved away, Marty’s eyes resettled on hers. The closest table was too far away for anyone to overhear their conversation, but he spoke in a low voice anyway. “A couple of the pieces you described to me showed up in a gallery in Turkey.”
Kat closed her eyes. Pete had called from Istanbul last week.
“Turkish officials are working with the Supreme Council of Antiquities to return them to Egypt. No one’s talking about how they got there.”
Kat looked up at the mention of the SCA. “You have a hunch, though, right?”
“Technically, Kat, I’m not even supposed to be talking about this since it’s not my area. I passed on what you told me, but I’m only here out of courtesy given our friendship.”
“I know, and I appreciate it. I just didn’t know what else to do. I told Sawil about my suspicions, and he talked to Dr. Latham about it, but so far the SCA