She'd barely taken two running steps when they swarmed her. The farthest one, a late-model Mercedes with dark windows, looked empty.īefore she could decide where the influence was radiating from, the second car suddenly floored its engine.īefore she could draw another breath, the car screeched to a halt beside her and its doors burst open. The next one, also nondescript, was pulling away from the curb, too. The nearest had a man slamming the hood, getting inside and driving away with the exhaust firing. She looked across the street at three parked cars. Just burning with curiosity and…excitement? Strangest part was, she didn't feel threatened by that unwavering intent. She'd stepped out only to be caught in its electrifying embrace again.
She'd entered the building accompanied by the sensation of being enveloped in that watchful force field. Not that that had anything to do with what she now felt. So here she was, alone at night for the first time in more than two years, leaving the deserted building from the back exit that opened onto an equally empty back street. But Mira had left to see her father, who had been taken to the E.R. Usually she would go home with Mira, her business partner and roommate.
And since she'd exiled herself from Zohayd and come to live in the Windy City, she always had. She observed normal safety protocols, like anyone who lived in Chicago did. Not that she thought that she needed protection. Of course, with her safety no longer among anyone's priorities for the past two years, there were no more guards dogging her steps. Those men had never tried to hide themselves, and to hell with her personal space. This felt nothing like having the security detail she'd once had breathing down her neck. One she couldn't detect when she'd tried to investigate it, though she'd been certain of its cause for some time. Not that she really thought abnormal hormones were at work here. Why not throw in premature menopause, too? Like being the only female born to her family in forty years. But then she held other unwelcome records. Which would be some record at age twenty-seven. This sensation had scalded through her so many times during the past few weeks, it was as if she were having hot flashes. That would have caused ice, not fire, to shudder through her veins. It wasn't the below-zero Chicago December evening. Laylah Aal Shalaan felt a shiver burn down her spine.
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