This was madness. He had no reason to trust this woman, yet Leila was trying to put their lives in her hands. This screamed ‘bad idea’ on top of an already terrible one. In fact, this couldn’t get any worse. Might as well give Faris and Jones a call and get it all over with.
“Shoot me if you want,” the woman spread her arms wide, now void of any weapons, “but believe me, it won’t solve any of your problems.”
Xander ran his tongue over the back of his teeth. She had a point. Besides, it would make a mess… and leave a trail. He lowered his gun.
“That’s better.” The woman smiled smugly.
“So, I guess it’s a little late for this but…” Leila said slowly, then waved a hand between them, “Xander, Drake. Drake, Xander.”
Xander narrowed his eyes and nodded once. Drake’s smile had vanished, and she nodded back.
“I take it you two aren’t here to go for a dive,” Drake said, raising an eyebrow.
Leila shook her head.
“We’ll have to get out of town first. I’ve got a car ready to head to camp.”
“Camp?” Xander furrowed his brow.
“Yeah. A camp.” Drake crossed her arms. “You can come with me or stay here. Have fun with that.” The woman turned to Leila. “The others are there, waiting.”
“Who?” Xander asked. He didn’t like the sound of this at all. A party was the last thing they needed right now.
“The Medjay,” Leila said.
Xander grimaced. He wanted nothing to do with those people after what they’d done with Leila. Nothing.
Leila placed her hand on his arm again. “We should go with her.”
He sucked his lips between his teeth, then took Leila’s wrist and pulled her to the other side of the room. Drake shook her head and walked out the door.
He turned Leila to face him, resting his hands on her forearms. “We can’t just hop in a car with her,” he hissed. He had to admit that staying out of cities was their best option, but why did it have to be with that woman? “How do you know she won’t take us to the police, or shoot us, or—”
“She’s on our side,” Leila whispered, glaring up at him. “We can trust her.”
Xander let out an agitated breath. Leila had made up her mind, but he still had a choice. He could walk away from all of this. Fly alone to Sri Lanka. But if he did that, he might as well have left Leila with Jones instead of throwing his whole life out the window.
“I don’t like this.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Not one bit.”
“I understand.” Leila sighed. “But Drake has trained me for months now. She’s always stayed with me. She would have yesterday, too, but Faris had her dragged out of the villa. And, for the record, she didn’t leave me to die last year… that was someone else. She was trying to help me.”
Ah, yes. Leila’s ‘self-defense’ lessons. Which, he now knew, was another lie. Leila had been training for her little artifact rescue fun and games. He should have realized something was up. Her arms had become more muscular, her movements less clumsy, her reflexes faster. That wasn’t the work of simple self-defense classes. What else had she lied to him about?
It was all too much. He’d seen what lies could do to relationships. His father had been an expert liar, hiding his drinking and gambling problems. His mother, too, constantly lying to cover up her pain.
Xander’s job then had been to keep his mouth shut if he didn’t want a black eye. All he could do was carry on as if everything was normal. Weren’t all families like that? No?
“Let’s go to the camp and keep our heads low,” Leila went on when he didn’t answer. “We’ll see how much Drake and the others know about the scroll and Soliman’s whereabouts. If they can’t help us, we’ll leave.”
We. She kept using that word. He kept using it, too. But were they really in this together?
He tightened his jaw, studying Leila’s face. Despite the cuts and bruises given to her by Jones, she looked like the woman he thought he knew. But what was really going on in that mind of hers? For the last four months, she’d been telling him one thing, but doing another—a secret life. But then again, so had he.
He’d been so sure it wasn’t true, that it was all just a huge mistake. The sting of the realization that he was the one mistaken penetrated deep. So deep he wasn’t sure how to move forward. Helping Leila find Drake was only to give himself time to decide what to do. Run and leave this mess behind him or go with her on this doomed-to-fail mission. It was probably all for nothing, but he might as well keep going. If the Medjay couldn’t help, Sri Lanka would be waiting.
“Right. I’ll see what they have to say.”
He motioned toward the door and Leila led the way out. They found Drake leaning against one of the SUVs parked out front, arms folded over her chest.
“Coming?” she asked.
“Yes,” Leila said. “But only for tonight.”
“Good. Get in.” Drake tilted her head toward the vehicle. Once they were seated, Drake started the engine and, instead of taking the road, followed two tire tracks toward the open desert.
Still driving an hour later, the vehicle rattled over the rocky tracks. Sitting in the backseat, Xander could feel his body loosen, some of the tension from the last two days being blown away with the cloud of dust behind them. They were safer in the desert; not completely safe, but they would definitely be harder to find.
And he didn’t need to talk. Leila and Drake mostly ignored him from the two front seats.
“How did you get away from Faris’s thugs?” Leila asked.
“They threw me into the Nile.”
Xander rubbed his face. Hadn’t he done something similarly thuggish only a few days ago?
Leila leaned forward, her eyes wide, as Drake went on, “Not fun when you’re tied up with a bag over your head. I managed to keep my head above water and free my hands. I ended up in Heliopolis and made my way back to my car. Then, when I couldn’t get a hold of Soliman, I headed to the scuba shop.”
Leila nodded. “So, who owns the scuba shop?”
