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I got several reviews and private messages about last chapter's cliffhanger. I know, I'm so mean! Haha I'm sorry, but what's a good story without a little drama? Or a lot of drama… Please don't hate me.

Thank you for coming back to another chapter. I appreciate each and every one of you that has read, reviewed, favorited, followed, and private messaged. You keep the story alive, and I am so grateful. I have this story written through to the end, so now all that I have to do is edit and post! If the reviews are still coming in pretty quickly, I may start posting more frequently (hint, hint). I used to do that back in part one and the response was great.

Also, in regards to the response being great… some of you have sent me private messages (and there have also been reviews) asking to hear more about Ari and Allie's past because you love hearing about it. I'm happy to say that I will oblige you in this chapter by giving you a very early snippet. Enjoy.

I hope that you enjoy this new chapter!

Happy Reading!

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Chapter Twenty: The Contingency Plan

Allie

Time stood still.

Ari stood at the foot of my bed, barely illuminated in the light of the full moon. But it was him… it wasn't a ghost or just my imagination. He was as real as the bed that I was sitting on.

"Ari," I breathed, almost afraid that speaking would somehow make him disappear, even though I'd already established that he was very real.

"Um… Do you mind if I turn on the light?" There was something off about his voice, but it was very real. I nodded, and he moved to the wall and flipped the switch. I blinked against the sudden assault on my eyes and very slowly, realized what was going on.

He had the same bone structure as Ari. They could have been twins. But… he didn't have the incredibly small scar on his left temple. He was maybe one and a half inches shorter. He wore a vest, whereas Ari had always said that vests were for the extremely intelligent or the extremely fashion inept.

It wasn't Ari.

"Imran," I realized before Ari's brother could say anything.

The corners of his mouth pulled up in a small smile. "Ari mentioned me to you."

"Several times," I nodded. "You went into Mossad about five years after your brother. I don't know much more than that, actually."

"Well, he talked about you a lot." Suddenly seeming abashed, he took a step back and gestured towards the door. "Do you maybe want to go into the living area? Being here in your bedroom feels a little… I don't know. Disrespectful, I suppose."

At his reminder, I jumped up in a panic. "You can't be here! Medici has cameras…" But the words died in my throat at the calm in his eyes, so much like Ari's that it made my heart ache.

He took the chance to speak. "I've been watching you for a while. I already knew about the cameras. I know a guy… I had him put the cameras on a loop."

Impressed, I smiled. "Wow. He must be pretty good."

With a snort, he headed for the door and gestured for me to follow him. "Don't ever call him just pretty good to his face, but yes. He is extremely talented. Mossad wouldn't be the same without him. He can't make it last forever, though. We probably have about twenty minutes."

I sat down on the couch and watched him sit in the armchair directly across from me. He even moved like Ari. "I don't know if that's enough time to have all of my questions answered."

"Let me start from the beginning." At my nod, he continued. "Several years ago, right before he died, Ari contacted me. He said that Mossad and the CIA were working on an op together, and he felt like it was going south. He told me that if anything happened to him, he wanted me to watch out for you."

A dying wish. To take care of me, even after he was gone. I always want to be there to protect you… I blinked away tears. "Obviously, something did happen to him."

With sadness in his eyes, Imran said, "Yes. It did." When I looked away, he leaned a bit closer and spoke with a tenderness that surprised me. "Allie."

Still holding back tears, I looked up at him. "Yes?"

Very seriously, he said, "Ari died exactly the way that he would have wanted to. Doing a job that he loved, protecting the woman that he loved. I know that he wouldn't want you to feel terribly about it."

"But I do. I always will. You don't know the whole story."

"I read your debriefing report. But, if there's more that you want to tell me…" Sighing, he looked down at his watch. "We'd better not get into all of that now. We don't have the time. But when all of this is over, I'd like to grab coffee and talk about him, if you think you can."

"That would be nice." And I meant it.

He smiled. "Good. So…" He clasped his hands between his knees. "How can I help?"

So, I proceeded to tell him about Medici coming to Hawaii, stealing me away, kidnapping Trent, and forcing me to come up with a plan to steal the box from the Kingsley Museum. I also told him what the box really contained, and about the plan to replace it with a forgery to make sure that Medici would never have a chance to use the codes.

When I had finished, he leaned back in his chair and scrubbed a hand down his face. "I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it was certainly not this." He sighed. "So, what do you need from me?"

"I don't know," I answered him honestly. "Ari told me that if I was ever in trouble, I should leave that sign. I kept having dreams about it, so I just did it. And now, here you are. But I don't know exactly what you can do. Getting me away from here won't do any good, because he would just hurt Trent. And we have people looking for Trent, but… obviously, there hasn't been much success."

"So much stress can't be good for a growing baby."

Surprised, I looked over at him. "How can you tell? I'm not even showing." I looked down at my stomach, but there was only the barest hint of anything there – well-hidden beneath my T-shirt. The nurse that saw me before Dr. Dubois always told me that I didn't even look pregnant and she was waiting for me to show at least a little bit.

"You're a former CIA agent and now, you're a member of a government task force." Before I could ask the question, he answered it, "I've kept up with you over the years. Anyway, to be a part of any task force, you have to be in pretty good shape. And the rest of you is in excellent shape, but your stomach is – and I mean absolutely no offense – a little looser than the rest of you."

A smile tugged at my lips. "You remind me a lot of your brother, you know. I hope that's okay to say. And I don't just mean in appearance, either. He…" I swallowed the small lump in my throat. "He always noticed things that others didn't. It was like he was honed in to things in a way that the rest of us weren't."

Imran smiled as well. "I remember. He was certainly the best at what he did. I miss him." Sadness washed over him and he hung his head and let out a shuddering breath. "I really would like to get together and talk about him with you, after all of this is over. You knew him – really knew him – better than anyone."

"It's a deal."

"For now…" Imran looked at his watch as he stood. "I only have a few more minutes to get out of here." From the pocket of his jeans, he withdrew a small phone. "It's a burner. Nothing fancy. My number is already programmed in. I would try not to use it except in an emergency, though. Medici will be on his guard after the last time."

That meant no calling Steve, which stung, but I knew that Imran was right. "Got it. Thank you."

"I'll call you as soon as I have a plan." He headed for the door. "Anything else that you need before I head out?"

"Not that I can think of." I followed him to the door. "Thank you so much for coming."

He smiled and, for only a moment, I allowed myself to pretend that it was Ari. "No problem. I'll be in touch."

In less than a second, he had left and swiftly closed the door behind him. That didn't leave me much time, so I rushed back into the bedroom and slipped back into bed before the cameras could come back on.

The rest of the night was spent pretending to sleep when, in reality, I was far too excited about the things to come to get any sleep.

Somehow, I must have fallen asleep, though. I woke up the next morning, dazed. I hadn't had a single dream – good or bad – and I actually felt refreshed for the first time in a while. Imran's visit had given me new hope. Sure, I still couldn't talk to Steve and my brother was in the clutches of an Italian psychopath, but at least I had an ace up my sleeve.

As I swung out of bed and went to get ready for the day, I thought about everything Ari had ever told me about his younger brother – the only sibling that he had. Most of the talk about him had happened one night after I'd told him about my mother, and then about my father and my brothers. I stared at my reflection in the mirror as the memory washed over me.

"Do you have any siblings?" I asked him and swirled the last of the wine around in my glass. Ari had gotten to drink the night before, so now it was my turn. One of us had to be alert at all times, just in case someone in the cartel somehow figured out where we had disappeared to and came after us.

"One," he answered without looking at me. Not looking at me seemed to be one of his favorite activities, right alongside sharpening his knife and doing tai chi in the mornings.

When he didn't offer any further information, I poured myself the last of the wine and said, "Do you care to expand on that? Brother? Sister? Twin? I have a twin, you know."

"Yes. You've said that." Completely unaffected by the small amount of sarcasm in my voice, he continued to clean his gun.

"What could it possibly hurt for you to tell me that you have a brother or a sister? It's not like I know their name. Or even your last name, for that matter. Anyway, I've just told you all of mine."

"Yes, you're quite the open book."

The way that he said it implied that he didn't think that was a very good thing. "I don't mind being somewhat open with the guy that saved my life a week ago and that I'm now stuck in this safe house with for the foreseeable future. I thought it would be less torturous if we got to know one another a little better. You can never have too many friends, right?"

"I don't really have any friends."

It was the first real piece of information that he'd given me aside from his name, and I pounced on it eagerly. "Why not?"

He shrugged. "I was with special forces right out of college. Lost touch with all of my college friends during that stint. A lot of my very close friends in special forces wound up dead, so I just decided to stop making them."

I felt an immense sadness at his nonchalant confession. "I'm sorry."

For the first time in a while, he looked at me. Really looked at me. With eyes that had seen more than I could dream of. "For what?"

Slightly taken aback by the question, I searched for the right words. "For your suffering."

"But I'm not suffering. Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional."

Despite the sadness in the atmosphere, I rolled my eyes. "Thank you, Seung Sahn. I didn't say that you were suffering now. But you did at one time. And I'm sorry that you had to go through that."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise, which felt like a small victory to me because I had thought that nothing could ever take this hardened assassin by surprise. "You know Seung Sahn?"

"The Whole World Is a Single Flower is one of my favorite works ever. Do you know him?"

"I do." I almost could have sworn that the corners of his mouth pulled up in an actual smile. "I also enjoyed that book."

For a moment I just sat there, frozen. Then, slowly, I felt a smile break out on my own face. "Do we actually have something in common?"

He rolled his eyes and shifted slightly to face me better. "I'm sure that we have more than that in common."

"Like the fact that we both have siblings," I pointed out. "I have four brothers. And you?"

There was only the smallest of pauses before he answered me, "I also have a brother. Imran."

"Imran." Nodding slowly, I asked, "What does he do?"

Something in his expression hardened, but he answered my question. "He actually followed in my footsteps. He just joined Mossad a few months ago."

"As an assassin?"

Ari nodded. "He's still in training, and he will be for the better part of a year. Then, he'll be stationed wherever they choose."

"I guess it's similar to the CIA's assassin program, then," I said thoughtfully. "They have assassins stationed in major cities throughout the world."

"Similar," he agreed. "The assassin route wasn't for you?"

"I'm surprised that it's for anyone," I said, and hoped that he would sense that there was no judgment in my voice. "Killing someone… that must be hard."

Raising an eyebrow, he asked me, "You've never had to kill anyone in your time with the agency?"

"No. That's what assassins are for. I'm more of a… of an information collector. That's more my specialty."

"A field agent, then. That's what I assumed, but I wasn't sure."

"Why did you come for me, anyway?" I asked him.

"Because my handler asked me to. I owed him a favor. And from what I understand, he owed your handler a favor. And now you owe your handler a favor."

"And you," I pointed out with a smile. "I owe you a favor for saving me. And for holing up here with me. I'd go out of my mind if I had to be here all alone." I raised my empty wineglass to him. "And drunk."

A full smile broke out on his face and I thought that it just might have been the most beautiful thing that I'd seen since coming to Colombia. He was a very handsome man, with the kind of face and body that women all around the world dreamed about.

But it was more than his physical appearance that made him attractive. He was intelligent, and very confident in who he was. He was obviously brave, and he had a desire to serve his country. He'd seen terrible things and was still living well. There was a lot about him to appreciate.

"Well, I'd hate the thought of you being here drunk and alone."

"But I'm not. Because I have you to keep me company."

He said nothing, but looked at me with those dark, depthless eyes that seemed to be looking at all of the parts of me that no one else had ever discovered.

To keep my face from flaming, I said, "So, tell me about your brother. Are you two close?"

"Probably not as close as you are with your brothers," he said, seemingly unaffected by the things I'd just felt. "But we're always there for each other. I didn't want him to join Mossad, but he said that he wanted to be like me. He always has. And I know that he'll do well, but that doesn't mean that I won't worry about him."

"Of course not." Laughing, I said, "I still worry about Kol all the time and he's not being ordered to go out and kill dangerous people. You always worry about the people that you love."

"Yeah… I guess you do."

The wine was making me hear hidden emotions that didn't even exist in his words. Deciding that I needed to leave before I said something stupid, I set the empty wineglass aside and moved to stand. But when he began to speak again, I stayed.

"He's never been nearly as good as me with hand to hand. Probably due to my special forces training. He was a police officer for a while and didn't see the kind of action that I did. But he's been practicing. Where he really excels is at the covert stuff. Brush passes, blending in, going undercover… I know he'll be fine, but that doesn't mean that I'll ever stop checking in on him."

"It shouldn't."

He gave me a small smile. "Thanks for listening."

"Thanks for talking. I honestly didn't know if you knew more than twenty words."

He laughed, which was far more surprising than his smile. "It takes me a while to get used to people. And even longer to trust them enough to open up. But there's something about you that makes me think that we could be good friends. What do you think?"

This connection that I feel makes me think I'd like to be more than just friends. I shook the inappropriate thought out of my head. Ari and I were from entirely different spy agencies, which meant that a relationship between us was not only forbidden, but also dangerous. "We can definitely be friends. I've been told that I'm a pretty good one."

"I'm sure you are." Sighing, he rose to his feet. "I'm going to double check the alarms and then go to bed. Are you headed that way?"

"Definitely." With the amount of wine that I'd had (and the knowledge that a very skilled assassin would be there to protect me), I knew that I would sleep soundly.

He paused in the doorway to give me one last smile. "Okay. Good night, then. See you in the morning."

"Good night," I responded, and then watched him head off down the hall and towards the small control room.

Once I was certain that he was out of sight, I let out a long, slow breath. "I'm going to have to really watch myself with this guy."

Back in the present, makeup on and hair pulled up into a messy bun, I smiled at my reflection as the memory faded away. Only a week after that, Ari and I had shared our very first kiss. The rest, as they say, is history.

It was all so incredible, I thought. I'd all but forgotten about the signal that Ari and I had come up with so long ago, and then I had a dream that reminded me. Before he'd died, Ari had informed his brother of the signal, just in case anything ever happened to him. Now, Ari's brother was going to help me just like Ari had helped me all of those years ago.

If I believed in that kind of thing, I would have thought that Ari's spirit was the one that had set that all in motion. It was, honestly, the explanation that made the most sense.

"Just in case," I murmured to the emptiness, "I want to say thank you."

No one could hear me, of course, so I got dressed and went about the rest of my day. It involved shopping for a ball gown to wear to the Kingsley on the night of the heist, which was the last thing that I wanted to do. Finding one to fit my subtly growing body was not a fun task.

But, it did get me one step closer to the completion of the heist.

Which would get me one step closer to getting the box.

Which would get me one step closer to freeing Trent.

And then, finally, I would go home to marry Steve and have our baby.

And that made every second of torture worth it.