Damn, she hoped she got to come home soon.

Moving back to the kitchen she was reaching for her purse to call Daniel when a knock at the door had a grin twitching her lips. He was obviously becoming impatient.

A friend of Khalid’s impatient? Go figure.

She moved to the door, unlocked it, and swung the door open.

Her eyes widened.

Her lips parted to scream.

A second later, the world went black around her.

Khalid stood inside the living area of Paige’s apartment and stared around, his chest feeling as though an open wound had been dug into it.

It was neat, like his sister was, sparsely decorated. She claimed she hadn’t developed her style quite yet. The electric fireplace was still on, and everything appeared perfectly organized.

“The majority of her clothes and toiletries are missing.” Daniel Conover moved from the bedroom, his expression foreboding, his blue eyes burning with rage. “Her bags aren’t in the closet.”

Khalid shoved his hands into the wool coat he wore, his gaze turning to where his lover sat in a comfortable easy chair, her hands covering her face.

She wasn’t crying, though he knew she was upset. Marty didn’t cry often, thank God. But at the moment, he wished she would, because he couldn’t.

“Would his men have packed her bags?” Daniel asked.

Khalid shook his head. Azir’s men would not have taken the time.

“She would have.” Marty lifted her head. “She was complaining she had none of her favorite clothes or her makeup. She could have packed herself before they arrived.”

“If the bags had been sitting there, and if they were sympathetic to Abram or to myself, then they would have picked up the luggage,” Khalid answered.

“That doesn’t sound like terrorists,” Daniel commented.

“Many of the new recruits are men and young boys who have been raised within the Mustafa province.” Khalid sighed. “They know me, they know Abram. They would have grabbed her luggage along with her if there was more than one. They’re aware this is something Abram would be furious over and they may want to garner leniency by providing her clothes.”

He felt like howling in rage, in pain. He couldn’t believe he had allowed his sister to be taken by that monster, and there was no doubt it was Azir who had taken her.

They knew Azir Mustafa had his men in the area, several of which were aligned with the terrorist cell Ayid and Aman had commanded.

“This is my fault,” he whispered as he stared around the apartment again, aware of Marty as she rose quickly to her feet and crossed to him.

“Khalid, this isn’t your fault any more than it’s Paige’s,” she protested. “You could only keep her confined for so long. She lasted longer than either of us thought she would. He would have been waiting, no matter the circumstances.”

His arms went around her, the need for her comfort like a beast raging inside him.

He had failed his sister.

“When Mother brought her home from the hospital, I stared at this ugly, red-faced little piece of a thing, and I swore I would protect her.” A dagger was digging into his soul. “I swore she would not know what my mother had known. That she would not face that hell if I lived and breathed. And now, he has her.”

“Then Abram will have her.” She pulled back just enough to glare up at him. “Khalid, no matter what you believe about your brother, he will protect Paige. You know he will.”

“What I believe about my brother.” He sighed as he met her gaze. “I believe Abram is a good man, Marty. But even good men have their faults. And his fascination with Paige bothers me. He’ll fight against Azir until hell freezes over, and he’ll walk away from that land without a backward look, but he’s still a product of the desert and how he was raised.”

“Khalid, you know Abram would never do anything to hurt Paige.”

He shook his head. “But he’ll end up hurting her just the same. If he can get to her before Azir kills her.”

And that was his nightmare.

The enmity between Khalid and his father was at a breaking point. Khalid had gone to one of the reigning princes and the Saudi ambassador concerning Azir’s sanity and Ayid and Aman’s attack against him. And he knew it was a matter that was being investigated. Azir would know it as well. He had his own spies within the monarchy, and his own ways of gaining information.

Thank God Abram hadn’t officially defected after Ayid and Aman had been killed. If he had, there would have been no one there to protect Paige.

“It’s been about two hours since I found the door open and Paige gone,” Daniel stated. “We have all the airports covered and we’re checking all the private planes on the ground. There are officers checking out the private landing strips as well.”

Khalid shook his head. “They were in the air within thirty minutes or less of having taken her. She’s gone, Daniel.”

And it was his fault.

He looked down at Marty again, misery crawling through his body as guilt raked sharpened talons across his heart.

“I need to contact Abram.” He sighed. “I can only do that from the house. The satellite link we’ve established can only be made from one location and only at certain times of the day.” He checked his watch as Marty moved back.

Catching her hand with his he looked around the room once again. “It will be another two hours before I can send the message to Abram. Until then, I can still get ahold of a few contacts I have in Saudi and see what can be done.”

“Someone needs to tell your mother and Pavlos,” Marty reminded him gently. “They’re flying into D.C. tonight. We should be there when they arrive.”

His mother had been worried. She had been certain Azir wouldn’t wait much longer to attempt to take Paige, and she had been right.

God, this was going to kill her.

Fragile, gentle, his delicate mother may not survive if her daughter never returned home to her.

He breathed out heavily.

“We’ll meet them,” he told her. “After I send a message to Abram. Let’s get back to the house.” He turned to Daniel. “Lock up the apartment. Check with her neighbors and see if they heard anything. We may not be able to catch them, but hopefully we can track down whoever helped them. They couldn’t have pulled this off without help.”

Daniel nodded, then paused. “I’m sorry, Khalid,”he said, his voice low. “This happened on my watch, and it shouldn’t have. I take full responsibility for it.”

“As Marty said, he would have found an opportunity eventually,” he stated, though a part of him blamed the investigator/security consultant. It had been his job to protect her and to ensure no gaps were open in her security.

It was a no-win situation though. Sooner or later, it would have happened, Khalid knew. Everyone had to blink eventually.

Holding Marty’s hand, Khalid turned and headed for the door. He was almost there when something caught his eye. A glimmer of gold on the floor.

Stopping, he bent and picked up the delicate little hoop with its fragile, dangling chains attached to tiny gold feathers.

The earrings Abram had sent to her for her twenty-first birthday.

He grimaced at the thought.

He’d fought to keep them apart over the years, even knowing it was doing little good, and that the day would come when nothing could stop it.

It wasn’t that he believed Abram would hurt her, or even that he wouldn’t be good for her. It was simply that Khalid knew his brother, and he knew, after the deaths of his first two wives, any lover he had would suffer the ultraprotective possessiveness Abram would feel.

Independence would go to hell along with the hearts. Abram wouldn’t be able to control himself, and all that dark, tortured hunger inside him would become a ravening beast in the face of Paige’s determination.

And this was where Paige would struggle.