Free Burned by Kaylea Cross

was willing and eager to assist. Though there wasn’t much he could do from behind bars, perhaps he could provide useful background information later on if they needed it.
    “Do you know how I could find her? She’s in danger.”
    A mute shake of his head, then his expression turned speculative. “You know something.”
    Amir nodded. “My friend called me a few hours ago. He found out she’s been invited to a function tomorrow night. I’m going to see if she shows up, so I can warn her.” Hopefully his lie would go unnoticed if anyone translated the conversation later.
    Ibrahim searched his eyes, seemed to hold his breath for a moment. “What are you going to do?”
     “Me? Nothing.” Then he smiled. I’m going to carry out Allah’s will and finish what you started, brother.

 
    Chapter Six
    The drive back to headquarters was tense. A brittle silence lay between him and Zahra and he didn’t know how to ease her. She was still visibly shaken by the news about the men on surveillance, her lips pressed into a thin line and her arms wrapped around her waist in an attempt at self comfort. He’d give anything to have her open up and let him soothe her but she’d completely shut him out. His temper did a slow burn all the way back to the office and up the elevator. By the time they hit the sixth floor, it had spilled over into a simmer and the silence was grating on his nerves like the scrape of sharp fingernails over a blackboard.
    When they finally arrived on their floor and stepped out into the hallway, Sean knew she was going to walk away and couldn’t take it anymore. He snagged Zahra’s arm with one hand. She stopped and looked up at him in surprise and he quickly tugged her into an empty office and shut the door.
    The instant the mechanism clicked she yanked her arm from his grasp and turned to face him with a belligerent expression. “What?”
    Seriously? Sean fought back his annoyance, tried to keep his tone calm when he felt like shouting at her. “Tell me what happened back there. You know something, and whatever it is it scared the hell out of you, so just tell me. Let me help.” It drove him crazy that she was afraid and wouldn’t let him do anything about it.
    The anger in her face faded, replaced by a weary sadness that made him desperate to wipe it away. He’d seen that look often enough over the years to understand what it meant. He’d seen it in soldiers who’d watched their teammates die in a firefight and in helpless civilians caught in the crossfire and witnessed their entire family being wiped out in a single misplaced airstrike. He hated seeing that same haunted look in Zahra’s eyes because it told him she’d suffered some unspeakable trauma in the past.
    “I told you, the men we’re tracking are affiliated with the mosque I used to attend,” she said.
    “Yeah, and about that. I had no idea you were a practicing Muslim, let alone religious at all.” She didn’t wear a headscarf and he’d never seen or heard anything about her praying the required five times a day, so to say the mosque thing had surprised him would be an understatement.
    Zahra wrapped her arms around herself and held his stare. “I’m not anymore. Not since I left for college when I was eighteen.”
    Christ, it was like trying to pry a locked vault open with nothing but his bare hands. “Do you know those men?”
    “No.”
    “Is it possible they know you?”
    “It’s possible they know of me,” she answered cautiously.
    What the hell was that supposed to mean? He dragged a hand through his hair, wanting to shake her. Why wouldn’t she trust him with this? “That’s it? That’s all you’re gonna give me?”
    She huffed out an exasperated breath, appearing equally frustrated that he wouldn’t let the matter drop. “Look, I was raised in a really strict traditional Muslim home, all right? Traditional to the point that I attended mosque every Friday and prayed five times every day and wore my