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Paige’s mother had contacted Anna Bailey’s family as soon as she had been able to, but they see to rescue their daughter

Pavlos had checked into it for the woman he still intended to marry, and learned that when Anna had been kidnapped, her father had received a large deposit to his account to cover excess ga debts

Marilyn had always suspected Anna’s family had sold her, or perhaps accepted the pay the Saudi govern up her disappearance

Both Anna Bailey and the French-born tourist Marilyn Girard would have been forgotten had it not been for Pavlos Galbraithe’s determination to find his fiancée, and Marilyn’s stubbornness in not giving up her plans to escape

But, by the ti to breech the fortress and rescue Anna and her son, Azir had killed her According to Abdul at the tiled her to death in her own bedroo them both back from an escape attempt

Abdul had recounted to her parents and to Khalid how the young Abraht to free himself from the wooden crib he had been placed in How the round, lifeless, he had stopped screa, stared at her, then slowly sat down in his bed, lifted his eyes to his father, and simply stared back at him

Now,to stand between his father and a wo to kill

Where the hell was he now? She could use a little rescuing herself

He had to be here somewhere There was no doubt in her mind this was the Mustafa fortress on the Iraqi border She hadn’t been kidnapped and sold, she had simply been kidnapped by a madman Didn’t that just round out her week

Turning, she walked back to thearound oncethat would at leastto escape

As she started to ain, the wide, heavy wooden door was thrown open, a breeze surging past her She stared at the apparition that entered with a nightmarish vision of terror

The sense that this couldn’t be happening almost overwhelmed her It had to be a dream

Azir Mustafa swept into the room, his black eyes locked on her, his desert-dark face worn and creased with bitter lines The long white thobe, the loose, ankle-length garment mostly worn in the Middle East seehutra, or keffiyeh, the large white square cloth secured to his head by a black cord, swept out behind him only to reverse direction and swirl around hih mesmerized

His eyes appeared dazed and da hope as he watched her carefully, as though frightened she would disappear at any h to touch her from a more than ten-foot distance, before he let it fall limply back to his side

"Marilyn," he whispered, his lips tre as he took a step forward, be his expression "You stayed so young, Marilyn And I have grown so old What trick is this that you return to ripped the sheet between her breasts and stepped back, her eyes narrowing at the proof of Azir’s weakening sanity He thought she was her e informed him cautiously She didn’t look that ain "My precious Marilyn Why did you leave? Why did you corrupt my sons?" Pain, bitter and filled with a little boy’s confusion, he watched her with tears in his eyes "Did I not love you above all others? Did I not whisper e inhaled sharply Her er Paige had always argued that it wasn’t insanity, it was criance Now, she wondered if herIt was obvious the man had some serious, delusional issues

The crazed belief that filled Azir’s face as he stared at her wasn’t in the least bit co He truly believed that soe moved back another step as Azir ca toyed with by a very large cat, and she had no hole to hide in

"Coer as she kept retreating "Do not test er, beloved You know you will lose and I will feel remorse for the need to punish you You are ht she was going to let hi a daood job of it And if he wasn’t, then he was far crazier than anyone suspected and she was in a hell of a lot ined

"There’s been a hter, Paige"

Azir stopped and frowned at her, his body poised as though ready to ju on her before pure, furious hatred snapped into his gaze for a quick second In the next second, his eyes cleared and he stared around the roo how he had found hie Galbraithe," he hthter of my faithless, adulterous wife and the whore’s son that stole her frohter You should have been stoned to death at birth"

As he spoke, his voice becaed tone sounded grating and filled with the very insanity Paige had doubted he suffered froht There was no doubt in her mind now that he was bat-shit crazy

"Mother wouldn’t be pleased if you killed me, Azir," she told hiive a fuck "She ht never come visit you before you die"

"You mock me," he rasped "No worries, I can have it done whenever I please It is a matter easily taken care of The sins of the hter"