Massive Attack (A Guy Niava Thriller Book 1) by Dana Arama (diy ebook reader TXT) 📕

“You didn’t abandon her.”

“I did.” Another tear threatened to drop from my eyelashes and I turned my head away from Guy. “I abandoned her and that is why she can’t forgive me. I can only say in my defense that I thought with her being so young… Well, I wanted to believe that he wouldn’t harass her as well, because she was so young.”

“What a scumbag. Pedophile. Monster. You must have started developing and didn’t quite suit his taste anymore, so he arranged for you to leave the house.”

“Maybe. Maybe that was the reason…”

Guy opened his arms in an invitation and, without thinking twice, I fell into his warm embrace. I felt so secure, as I hadn’t in years. I needed that, desperately. I’d needed it when I thought of how my uncle had abused us, or when I thought about our dead parents, or when I’d won a competition and I had no one to share it with. The hug didn’t make up for the past, but it gave me strength to take on the reality I was living in in the present.

“Now I am sure that Jonathan will be saved,” I whispered in Guy’s ear. “I am sure he will be saved, and you will bring him home safely.”

I heard him whisper, “Amen!” as he stroked my hair.

I let myself be protected for a moment longer and closed my eyes. Deep down I made a request of the God I hadn’t turned to in years to deliver Guy’s nephew safely to us.

Guy Niava,

Guatemalan army base, November 14, 2015, 8:00 p.m.

“Listen,” Gideoni notified me, “We have received messages from our love birds in Mexico.”

“What messages?” I asked, as I caressed Zorro’s back where she lay beside me. Gideoni was a senior Mossad agent and the heart of the operations room, but I -- with one foot out the agency’s door, drawn back in to save my nephew -- I was far from his sources of information.

“Gail is having a heated argument over Zorro. Her precarious partner’s ex-girlfriend,” Gideoni said. I wanted to reply that I was also hot for Zorro, but for a different reason.

I observed her as she lay next to me on her stomach, her eyes closed. The sheet covered half her body, revealing only a long leg and half her muscular back. It made her look longer than she really was. “I am sure that Zorro knows it,” I answered him. The situation would be amusing if it didn’t involve discussion of very dangerous people, present company included. I saw movement under her eyelids, a slight signal that she was listening intently despite her relaxed façade.

“In the message we received, she demanded revenge. Pass on the message to her and tell her that she is invited to come with you to the United States and an Israeli embassy car will await her. She will have diplomatic immunity for as long as needed until the jealous rage is over.”

“I will let her know your proposition.” There was something about Gideoni and Zorro’s relationship. She was a big girl and knew how to look after herself but still, he was there for her.

“I can be there in less than ten hours.”

“Are you going to leave Europe to handle this operation?” I wondered if he would think about coming over if she wasn’t involved.

“Just make sure she warns her staff as well.” Gideoni ignored my last question and added, “He promised her that he will burn down the place.”

I caressed Zorro’s cheekbone and the soft, delicate skin above her ear. A hint of a smile crossed her lips. I said, “She will warn them and if it’s up to me, she will come to the Israeli embassy. I know she is important to you.” I ran my fingers through her hair and then remembered. I said, “You wanted to talk to me about that British school…”

“Yes. About that. It is important for you to know that the Americans have received the information and are working in that direction. We have our directions,” Gideoni said. “It is not just any private school, but one situated in a village owned by a certain nobleman.”

“What’s so special about him?” I inquired.

“We’ll get to that…” I heard him hit the keyboard, then he said, “Arthur Nicholas Graham the eighth. He inherited a fortune, a knighthood and a huge estate which includes farmlands and a whole village. The above has three children. The eldest is twenty-seven. Arthur Yassin Graham, the ninth. He is married and has a little boy aged five. The family has been in our sights since the 1990s, when Arthur Nicholas Graham the eighth converted to Islam.”

“Became a Muslim?” I repeated this unexpected piece of information and immediately understanding the dimensions of the problem. “You said that he had converted already in the nineties?” Zorro got up quietly off the bed, wrapped herself in the sheet and took her cell phone out of her bag. She signaled to me that she was going outside to make a call and I nodded my head.

“Exactly,” Gideoni answered my question. “He converted over twenty years ago before Islam re-entered Europe. Long before it became popular the way it is now.”

“Since when has he been on our radar?”

“Since forever. This family has always been in our sights, but ever since Yassin visited Iraq, they have been under close surveillance. Since you mentioned the name of this specific school, we increased surveillance.”

“Do we have men in there as well?”

He laughed. “We don’t spy on regular civilians in allied countries, but there are over a thousand employees in that estate. Yes, you heard correctly. A thousand workers. Amongst them there are quite a few workers who are certain that they are guarding the queen, but before the information arrives at the correct intelligence British department and after it leaves the estate, it stops for an hour or two at