CHAPTER 20

The minute Lu opened her door, she knew something was up. Khalil was still laughing giddily behind her, so she put two fingers to her lips and motioned for him to be silent.

She closed the door as silently as she could and took off her heels. She was dressed in a nice, red cashmere gown that accentuated her hips and flaunted a lot of leg.

Her hand stretched absentmindedly to the doorpost. She retrieved something long from the darkness and crept steadily into the house. It was just a one room apartment, plus the toilet and a cubicle that was supposed to serve as the bathroom, but there were plenty of places to hide if she was being attacked.

“This is how we greet friends now, Lu?” a voice sounded beside her. Then she smelled cigar smoke. She should’ve known.

A match was struck in the darkness and a cigar was put to it, but in the brief illumination that the matchstick offered, she could make the gaunt face of the man that had raised her.

“Sir John!” She tried to push down the lump in h