“I see no reason to tell him anything other than that we had a pleasant lunch on the boardwalk, and you showed me some of the local sights while we were here.”

Zeynep looked genuinely relieved, removing her hand with a guilty look. “Thank you.”

Yasmin slid into the car, relieved when Zeynep turned the vehicle onto the road that would take them back to the shipyard. She didn’t know what to make of Zeynep, but she thought it might be in her best interests to befriend the cagey woman… in case she needed to take Zeynep up on her offer.

When they arrived at the office, there were several vehicles in the parking lot that weren’t there before. Yasmin hoped she wouldn’t have to meet anyone else. She was tired and wanted to go back to her beautiful office and perhaps take a nap on the cozy looking couch.

When they entered the building, they discovered a crowd of big, burly men in black suits. There seemed to be about ten of them. As she looked at them, she decided they looked like a lot like Henry; bodyguards or security. Then she caught sight of Henry who was standing to the side with Volkan. He was talking to the bodyguard in a low urgent voice, waving his hands in agitation as he spoke.

Yasmin edged around the men toward him, trying to find out what was happening. Maybe there was something wrong. Maybe a threatening ship came in or something. She didn’t want to interrupt what looked like an important conversation, but she wanted to know what was going on.

As she approached, she caught sight of Zeynep slipping away down a hallway, probably heading back to her office. The look on her face was one of guilt. What on earth was going on?

“Check in with our guy at the embassy and see if she went there; it’s probably first on her list of places she’d go. Then check the airports. I’ll take a couple of guys and go over the entire shipyard, then we’ll have to check each ship one at a time. She can’t have gone far, but I don’t want to risk her getting injured while she’s on her own. She doesn’t know about the threats we receive here. If one of my rivals gets their hands on her…”

Yasmin had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that all the fuss was about her. Volkan thought she’d gone missing.

She searched for an escape route, wondering if she could make it back to her office and say she never left. From the thunderous anger on his face, she was sure she didn’t want to tell Volkan the truth if she could avoid it.