Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Betrayal stung worse than I could have imagined.
I said nothing. My throat felt clogged, as if I might cry if I opened my mouth. This man was not going to get my tears. The small cloud of bliss I had gotten a taste of had evaporated so quickly.
“I need ideas. Where could he have gone? Has he mentioned going anywhere with Samson Zephyr before? Has he mentioned any out-of-the-country trips? Is there anyone else he has spoken about?”
His demanding tone only made the wave of emotion that I had been struggling to tamp down worse.
I had told him everything I knew. I started to say no and stopped.
Perry hadn’t mentioned going with Samson, but he had wanted to take me to somewhere in Morocco for my birthday this year. He’d talked about it and planned it, then had to cancel it. But would he go to some tourist place if he was running from the Feds?
“Where? I can see it on your face, Winslet. Tell me, and you can stay in this room tonight. I’ll even let you come downstairs and eat whatever you want. But rewards require information.”
I licked my bottom lip. Perry was in trouble. The longer this took, the more he ran, the angrier they got. The Feds might not kill him, but I wasn’t so sure that the Southern Mafia or whatever wouldn’t. There was a very slim chance that he had taken off on a trip to Morocco. He had gone on Samson’s private plane. They’d have gone somewhere safe. My telling him about the birthday trip would get me a meal and a night in this room. I could sleep in a bed, and I would get another shower, and it wouldn’t lead them to my brother.
As hurt as I was that he hadn’t come to get me or sent someone, I couldn’t let them kill him. That was my line I wouldn’t cross. It was getting clearer to me that this wasn’t some crazed psycho making threats. This was an expensive home. It might not be his, but whoever it belonged to had money. Which meant they probably had power.
“My birthday.” The two words felt heavy on my tongue.
“Go on,” he urged.
I sat up straighter, crossing my legs and clasping my hands together in my lap. “He was going to take me to Morocco. But he had to cancel the plans. He had been there earlier this year and loved it. He wanted me to go see it.”
The spark of interest in his eyes did not make me feel better about this. When this led them on a wild goose chase, they weren’t going to be happy with me.
“Where in Morocco?” he asked me.
Ah crap. Perry had told me, but I didn’t know much about Morocco—actually, I knew nothing about it.
I shook my head. “I can’t remember.”
“Think harder. You want this bedroom for a night, then you’ll remember.”
The threat in his tone made me anxious. I had to tell him where if I was going to sleep in here tonight.
“Can you like, maybe, list some cities in Morocco? I will remember it if I hear it.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “If you’re lying to me, you’ll regret it.”
I shook my head. “I’m not. I just honestly can’t remember the name of the place. I never considered going to Morocco. It was his idea. It has a weird name. I just need my memory jogged.”
He continued to stare at me for a moment, as if he was trying to decide to believe me or not. I wanted to plead my case some more, but I waited.
“Casablanca,” he said.
I scrunched my nose. “That’s where Casablanca is?” I asked, not realizing that it was in Morocco, although it had been since high school when I watched that movie.
His expressions became more severe.
Jeesh. Temper much?
“Tangier,” he said tightly.
I shook my head. That wasn’t it either.
“It starts with an M, I think.” Actually, I was almost positive.
“Marrakesh.”
I nodded before he got the full word out. “That’s the one! Marrakesh. He knew someone in his software world who had a house there.”
As soon as that came out of my mouth, I stopped. Understanding dropping on me like a five-gallon bucket of ice water. Samson—it could have been Samson’s house.
I blinked as horror clinched me. Had I just sent them to kill my brother?
Oz jerked his phone out of his pocket with a determined gleam in his eyes. I was right. He was thinking it too.
“I doubt he went there,” I blurted, trying to think of anything to save Perry. “He wouldn’t go to a tourist city if he was hiding.” Although I wasn’t positive if that was a tourist city or not.
Oz leveled me with his gaze. “You really don’t know much about Morocco, do you?”
I was an idiot. What had I done?