“Shit.”
“What?” Leo asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing new. Just more roadblocks on one of the schools we’re trying to open in Cambodia. The government’s only happy if they get their beak wet.”
“Is that something you can handle now?”
She shook her head. “It goes to Reggie. Chanlina was just telling me because she still doesn’t feel comfortable talking to men. I’m going to have to send Reggie to Phnom Penh for a month or so, then she can see what a good guy he is.”
She jumped when there was a knock on the door.
“Why don’t you hit the bathroom and I let in the server?” Leo suggested.
It made sense, and she really appreciated it, so she nodded. When she went into the bathroom, she took a good look at herself and laughed. Never had her hair looked so eighties girl-band before. She definitely was sporting sex hair.
She got out her brush and went about taming it. When she was done she looked down at the spot where she had been curled up in front of the toilet this morning and bit her lip. An overwhelming wave of anguish hit her as she thought of her dad. She had to grip the sink to continue to stay standing.
“Are you all right in there?”
“Huh?”
“I thought I heard you cry out. Are you okay, Daisy?”
She looked at herself in the mirror and realized she really wasn’t okay.
12
Leo knocked again and Daisy opened the bathroom door just as he was going to knock once more. She was not the same woman who had gone into the bathroom. Something had happened.
“What’s wrong?”
She just shook her head and moved past him, careful not to touch him. Yep, something was way wrong. Once again she looked like the woman he had walked in on hours ago. This time he was going to get to the bottom of things.
“I’m going to put some clothes on real quick, then we can eat.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. He watched as she grabbed something from her suitcase then went back to the bathroom. This he could understand; after all, he was back in his clothes. In a Muslim country, he wasn’t about to open the door in just his pants, of course he had put on his shirt.
She came back out in yoga pants and a peach sleeveless blouse that fell past her hips. Her expression was stoic.
“I think you need some food.” He sat her down at the small couch in front of the coffee table and whipped off the lids from the food. He hadn’t ordered Western food—it was always such a crapshoot in other countries, it was best to stick with native dishes.
Daisy gave a wan smile even when he unveiled badenjan borani to start.
“Oh Daisy, there must be something really wrong if this isn’t doing it for you. It’s eggplant simmered in tomato sauce with garlic yogurt. I thought this would really turn your crank.”
She let out a half-hearted laugh.
He put the lid back over the dish and sat down beside her. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
“It’s Dad,” she whispered.
“Alistair?”
She shook her head. “Ethan. My biological dad. I saw something horrible.”
Ah fuck. She’s seen the video.
“Do you want to tell me?”
She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears.
“Yes. No. I don’t know.”
He scooched closer and grabbed her hand. “You saw a video, didn’t you?”
She put her other hand on top of his and nodded her head. “How did you know? Did someone tell you about it? Did you see it?”
A tear dripped down her face. She swiped it away by wiping her cheek onto her shoulder.
“Yes, I saw it.”
“They hurt him so bad. They want to kill him, Leo.”
That was the point when he realized that she hadn’t really—hadn’t consciously—figured that out yet. She might have talked a good game, but this was the first time it had settled in for her that her father was going to be murdered. He thought back to their talk at lunch, the way she seemed to compartmentalize her feelings, especially when it came to Ethan.
“I know, Daisy.”
“I don’t want him to die,” her voice was forlorn.
“I know you don’t.”
“What am I going to do? How am I going to save him?” Her hands clenched his.
“Honey, you’re not. You can’t. What you’re going to do is let the professionals handle it.”
“But that’s not what I do. I always help.”
God, she’s killing me.
He wrapped his arms around her and she fell against his chest. She didn’t cry, but her body heaved dry sobs against him.
“But what if you can’t rescue him?”
“We can. It’s what we do.”
Jesus, did I just make that promise? Stupid, Perez. Really goddamn stupid.
She looked up at him, her eyes shimmering with tears. “I know you’ll try. But I don’t want you hurt, either.” Her hands gripped his shirt, her nails biting into his chest.
“Daisy, how did you get ahold of that video? Who gave it to you?”
She looked away. “I can’t tell you.”
“You have to. Not only is it important from a security standpoint, but whoever showed you that video is not a friend of yours.”
“How can you say that? I needed to know what was going on with my father. Leo, you should have seen it. It was horrible.”
“Daisy, I did see it,” he admitted. “That’s why I’m saying whoever showed it to you isn’t a friend of yours. Think about it—would you ever show a family member something like that? Ever?”
He watched her wheels turn.
“Ever, Daisy. You would tell them about it, and say that their father was alive, but you wouldn’t show it to them, right? What kind of person would show
