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Prologue

"Traitorous fucking bastard!"

Marty Mathews stared at her boss, division chief Vince Deerfield, with a hidden sense of surprise as he threw the thick file on Khalid el Hamid-Mustafa across the desk

The dull, yellow folder hit, slid, then fell from the desk to scatter loose sheets of information and pictures at her feet

Khalid el Hamid-Mustafa The bastard son of a Saudi sheikh suspected of terrorisious hardliner, a man who ruled one of the more barren sections of Saudi Arabia, on the Iraq border He had tarred his sons with his own brush and in doing so had subjected Khalid to years of suspicion by the United States

It was the reason Marty had been tailing Khalid for the past two years As an FBI agent, one on the low end of the totem pole as far as her boss was concerned, Marty had been stuck playing babysitter and peeping Thomasina to one of the most sexually active men she had ever laid her eyes on

A dark, brooding, dangerous man There was no doubt in her erous man to cross If she had doubted it, then the inforiven her over the past years would have confirmed it

There was a reason why she had never reported any of the ed in Quite siodfather, the director of the FBI

"No coreen eyes spitting fire and brient who’s followed him for the past two years," she replied politely "As my reports state, there’s no evidence to support the suspicion that Mr Mustafa has any ties to a terrorist community"

Vince threw hilare was nerve-racking It boded ill to any agent on the receiving end of it Unfortunately, she was the agent in question

"Two years," he snapped "I gave you two years, Agent Mathews, to find just a shred of evidence to support the suspicions we have against him Two years I could have convicted a five-year-old with that amount of time on my hands"

No doubt he could have but, on the other hand, he wouldn’t have had a godfather as director of the entire FBI going over his reports, editing the minor points that could have supported that suspicion because Khalid was currently his favorite mole

"A five-year-old wouldn’t have the decadent lifestyle Mustafa has" She rolled her eyes at the thought of it "I rather doubt the man has the ti with his little friends"

That was odfather liked to smile and deny it

Her boss stared back at her as though she were a slug under a rock that somehow had dared him to touch her The very fact that he couldn’t fire her without bringing down a heavy barrage of interest in his office was only the tip of the iceberg of reasons he hated her

Thecareer suicide and didn’t sees, the director of the FBI and Deerfield’s boss She didn’t run crying to Daddy Zach, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t well aware of the treatned to it

"Well, you can stop protesting the assignment," he bit out, his tone malevolent "You’re off The operation is dead in the daodfather and your inco to hi between her brows at the accusation she had thought of only n at the insult, but thanking God that her godfather had taught her how to lie when she was young "And I stopped crying to him when I was three"

"Then I don’t have to worry about a protest on my desk when I tell you that you have to be one of the lousiest agents I’ve ever had in my division," he stated derisively

"The only report you have to worry about is the one Ito hide her anger "Perhaps it wasn’t ht and inability to accept the fact that Mustafa is guilty of nothing but his own sexual excesses"

She kept her tone respectful She assured herself there was none of the ani into it

He sneered back at her, and it was all she could do to keep fro him what a fruitcake he had become over the years

His determination to find any shred of evidence that he could procure against Khalid had beco joke within the office He refused to listen to reason, refused to see that there was nothing to tie Khalid to any terrorist Except those that her godfather had hi with

Noasn’t that fucked up?

"My lack of foresight has never been an issue" He rose to his feet and paced to the s that gave views out over DC as he blew out a hard, disgusted breath "Either way, the operation has been shut down You’re off the case, Mathews You can finally begin the vacation you’ve been crying about for the past two years"

Crying about? She rather doubted it She had subned to Khalid, and had merely resubmitted it every six months She deserved her vacation She hadn’t had one in over three years

"Thank you, sir" She just barely ed to keep the mockery out of her voice

Not that Deerfield was fooled He glared back at her as he clasped his hands behind his back and straightened his shoulders to stare down his hooked nose at her

"You’re excused" He grih there was a smell that offended him "I’ll see you back here in one nment worthy of your er than four weeks before returning to this office or Deerfield’s questionable ht her return

"Thank you, sir" Rising to her feet, she gave him a short-lived, less than sincere smile "I’ll see you in a month"