He was fast. He could do five miles without breaking a sweat. If she could keep up, fine. If not…
He skidded to a stop when they reached the edge of the wall. She banged into him. He motioned her to stay back, then peered around the corner.
The vehicles that had made up the convoy were still parked in the driveway.
“Stay here,” he whispered.
“No way.”
“Stay here, damn it!” He grabbed her hand, shoved the little file into it. “Use this if you have to.”
He started out from the shadows.
“Wait!” she whispered, her voice urgent.
He swung back and looked at her. “What?”
“I don’t know your name. I mean, I can’t keep calling you Mr. Knight.”
“It’s Cameron. Cam.”
“Cam,” she said, and gave him a wobbly smile.
Impulsively he plunged his hand into her hair, cupped her head and kissed her. Then he took a deep breath, crouched low and started running toward the parked vehicles.
Luck was with him. The drivers had never removed the ignition keys. He plucked them from each vehicle and shoved them in his pocket. He’d just reached the Humvee at the head of the line when the throaty growl of an angry mob broke the silence of the night.
The sultan’s goon squad had beaten down the door and found nobody home.
Cam swung around. “Salome,” he yelled. “Run!”
She hurtled toward him, threw herself into the Hummer as he turned the key. The engine roared to life and the vehicle shot forward just as the first of Asaad’s men came flying around the corner.
“Get down,” Cam snapped. When she didn’t move fast enough, he reached over, palmed the top of her head and shoved her down in her seat. “Damn it, what did I say? You do as I tell you.”
“I dropped the nail file,” she said breathlessly.
“Tough,” he snarled, as he shifted gears. “I guess you’ll just have to rough it.”
He knew damned well she’d been thinking of the file as a weapon lost but they had bigger worries now, thanks to her. She’d forced him into an escape he hadn’t planned and wasn’t ready for.
The chatter of a Kalashnikov shattered the night but they were moving fast. Before very long, the men and the bullets were too far back to matter.
Ahead lay the endless desert.
And whatever slim hope they had of survival.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE Humvee flew across the hardpacked sand.
Cam tossed all the keys he’d taken out the window while Leanna fumbled with what was left of her bra. Somehow, she managed to tie the ends together. It was surreal enough to be racing across the desert next to a man like Cameron Knight without doing it with her breasts bared.
Had she really been dancing in Ankara a few days ago, practicing pliés and arabesques? Now she was in a place ruled by psychopaths, her life in the hands of a cold-eyed stranger who drove the Hummer as if it were a race car, his eyes fixed on whatever was ahead.
Sand, she thought bitterly. That’s what was ahead. Sand and her life, in this man’s hard hands.
His hands hadn’t felt hard when they’d touched her. Her skin—her skin still tingled from his touch.