NocC 003 - Mina Khan - The Djinn's Dilemma - Harlequin 2011-11 by Nocturne Page B

to him. “You said the first time you saw me was a setup.”
    Oh shit. “That wasn’t the first time I saw you,” he said. Nausea churned in his gut. Now didn’t seem the right time to spring the Djinn explanation on her. Her nerves seemed brittle and fragile as spun glass. Shit. Shit. Shit. “The first time I saw you, I was hidden. In fact, I’d planned to stay hidden, but those two hoodlums showed up and things changed.”
    She held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay.”
    “Good.” The knot in his stomach unraveled. Rukh focused on business. “So if you’re writing about the governor, then we can suppose he’s the client.”
    “Not necessarily,” she said. “It could be his lover, his wife, or even his mother.”
    “Whatever.” Rukh rolled his eyes. “The stories are about him, so I take out the governor and your problem is solved.”
    A jolt of nervous exhilaration shrieked through her. To have so much power at her fingertips, to have this man willing to protect her and kill for her…left Sarah feeling drunk. For a moment, she could imagine what Helen of Troy might have felt. Then reality crashed down on her head, sobered her in an instant. Death. They were speaking of death.
    Sarah shook her head. “No.” She convinced him they could nail the client without resorting to murder.
    Rukh resisted for a while. Death was final and foolproof. It could be trusted…he’d been killing long enough to know that deep in his bones.
    “I really appreciate you trusting me and telling me,” Sarah said. “It gives me a chance to stay alive, but I can’t agree to another’s death.”
    “But they want you dead,” he argued.
    “Yes, but I am not them.”
    He turned away from her, muttering about naïve and idealistic fools.
    Sarah turned him back towards her.
    “You satisfied desires I didn’t even know I had. It wasn’t just sex, it was a connection—an electric, intrinsic connection that’s not easily found,” she said. “But I have to confess, I can’t be with a killer. Do something else, anything else, that doesn’t involve murder or torture and is preferably legal.”
    Good to her last breath. He shook his head, laughing. “Let’s see if we can save your life first.”

    They suspected the client to be the governor or his lover, but they needed to prove it. The email address was one of those free email accounts; further digging only yielded a bogus identity behind it.
    So Rukh called his bank and had them return the recent payment. Next he sent an email to the client: “Problem with fulfilling your order due to nonpayment of balance. Please advise.”
    Sarah hoped their ploy would draw the contact out and they could get a picture of him.
    Within a few minutes, he had a reply. “Balance transferred at 0900 Tuesday of this week as per your specifications. Please explain.”
    He sent a terse response: “Payment isn’t in our account and we regret to inform you that we are unable to fulfill your order under the circumstances.”
    Sarah went through some yoga moves as Rukh paced; both kept glancing over at the laptop as if it was a ticking time bomb.
    After the longest fifteen minutes, the email alert chimed again. The missive read: “Time 2 short. Let’s arrange for f-2-f handover.”
    Rukh looked at her. “He wants a face-to-face.”
    “Has he ever met you?”
    “Of course not,” he said. “I never meet anyone in person.”
    Rukh typed: “Fine. Where and when?”
    Sarah grabbed his hand before he could send. “Are you sure? This could be dangerous. You don’t have to do this.”
    Guilt gnawed at him, he still hadn’t found the time to tell her he wasn’t wholly human. What was dangerous for her, wasn’t necessarily for him. Fine, timing had nothing to do with it. He was a coward, afraid of losing her. Rukh shook her hand free and clicked the send button. “I want to.”
    The drop-off was arranged for 4:00 p.m. at the outdoor café of the Whole Foods Market on 6th