Unmasking the Mercenary by Jennifer Morey Page A

choice…believe me, I wanted to get her on that plane as much as you did.”
    A longer silence passed. If Haley knew Cullen, he was demanding information from Rem. She watched as Rem relented.
    “Yes, his name is Ammar Farid Salloum,” he said at last. “You wondered if Habib Maalouf was into terrorist financing, well, you were right. But it goes a lot deeper than that. Ammar’s the one you want, not Habib. Ammar’s been threatening Habib for years. Holding the lives of his family over his head if he doesn’t do what he wants. Usually that’s laundering money through the purchase of diamonds.” He paused. “That I can’t tell you.”
    What had Cullen asked? What couldn’t he tell anyone?
    “I’ll get Ammar. That’s all you need to know,” Rem said.
    Haley heard Cullen’s raised voice from across the vehicle but couldn’t decipher what he said.
    Rem glanced over at her before facing forward again. “I understand your concern, but there’s nothing I can do about it. If you believe nothing else I tell you, believe that Ammar will find Haley no matter where she goes. He’ll find her and he’ll kill her.”
    He paused again as Cullen spoke on the other end of the connection. “I know Ammar. Better than I want to know him. He won’t try anything as long as Haley’s with me.”
    Was Ammar afraid of Rem? Judging by the long silence, Cullen was wondering the same thing, or else he’d realized he wasn’t going to win the argument. Rem wasn’t budging. And if someone as disreputable as Ammar was afraid of him, he must be more dangerous than any of them imagined.
    She was still grappling with that and the notion that he knew more than he was saying when he handed her the phone.
    “He asked for you,” he said. “Not too kindly, either.”
    She took the phone and Rem faced the road as though nothing unusual had occurred.
    “Cullen?”
    “I don’t like how personal it is for him. He won’t even tell me why he’s after Ammar.”
    The picture of the woman flashed in her mind. “Don’t send anyone, Cullen. Not yet. Let’s see where this leads over the next couple of days.”
    “Out of the question.”
    “Cullen—”
    “I’m not leaving you with a guy like that. I don’t trust him.”
    “He isn’t going to hurt me.”
    Silence.
    “I can gather information.” It was the closest she could come to letting him know she’d picked up on the fact that Rem might be withholding something big from them.
    Cullen didn’t say anything. She could tell he still wasn’t convinced, but he was beginning to waver. Haley was his only inside source at the moment. He wanted to maintain that, but he didn’want her at risk.
    “I’m safe with him, Cullen. You know that,” she coaxed.
    “You’re anything but safe, Haley. I want you back here.”
    “Well, I don’t want to come back yet. I want to see what else I can dig up on Ammar and anyone he’s associated with.”
    “Precisely why I want you back here. I don’t want you going any further with this.”
    “You wouldn’t have sent Travis and I to Monrovia if you didn’t think there was something worth pursuing.”
    “You’re alone now. Travis isn’t with you.”
    “I’m not a victim anymore. When are you and Travis going to get that?”
    Cullen sighed hard, the size of his frustration reaching her from across the miles separating them. “I’m posting some men in Monrovia. They’ll be at the Mamba Point Hotel.”
    “Cullen—”
    “You have forty-eight hours before I tell them to go after you. And my order is going to be shoot to kill without asking questions. Understand?”
    “Yes.” It was the best she’d get from him.
    She said goodbye and held the phone in her lap. Beside her, Rem stayed quiet and kept his attention on the road.
    “Who is she?” she asked.
    As she expected, that brought his head around. The abruptness of it.
    “The woman in the picture,” she explained. “It was in the zipper comp—”
    “I said get the phone, not