Page 78 of Steel Vengeance

“You can’t kill him,” Sloane gasped, reading between the lines.

Blade shrugged. “You’d be safe. He’s a bad guy, Sloane. He’s working with the enemy.”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t live with myself.”

And that was why she couldn’t come to Karachi.

“Okay then, what if we get him arrested? That would take him out of the picture, at least for a while.”

Stitch smirked. “It’s not easy for a foreigner in a Pakistani jail.”

“Exactly.”

Sloane hesitated. “How are you going to do that? Give the police his cell phone data?”

Stitch had a feeling he knew where Blade was going with this.

“By now, Jeremy’s probably told Matthew you came to see him,” Blade explained.

Sloane watched him warily. “Yeah, but he already wants me dead, so what?”

“Exactly, he’s going to be desperate to shut you up.”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“In fact, I’ll bet Matthew’s already tried to reach you,” Blade continued.

“He can’t. I destroyed my sim card and left my phone in Peshawar.”

“Yeah, but you know his number,” Stitch said. By heart.

She paled. “You want me to call Matthew?”

Both men nodded.

“But why?” Her eyes were wide with trepidation. Stitch couldn’t blame her for being scared. Matthew had betrayed her. He’d seduced her, recruited her, and then sent her out here to die.

“Because if you don’t, it’ll look suspicious,” Stitch replied.

“But he tried to kill me?”

“Someone tried to kill you, yeah. You don’t know it’s him. You trust him, remember?”

“I think I’m going to throw up.”

“It’s a good plan,” Blade said. “Tell him you lost your phone. Beg him to fly you home as soon as possible.”

“Do you think he’ll believe me?”

“Why wouldn’t he? Under the circumstances, it would be odd if you didn’t try to contact him.”

“Then what? As soon as I get to the airport, he’ll try to have me killed again. He’ll probably have Jeremy waiting for me there.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Stitch said quickly. “Jeremy won’t get anywhere near the airport.”

“He won’t?”

Blade grinned. “No, we’ll make sure of that. All you need to do is make the call.”