Naina (Al-Ameen Family #4)

Stairwells

Two Weeks Later

Something happened to me the day after I landed in London, and I woke up with an insane fever. My body ached, my head was pounding, and what little food I had in my stomach exited it promptly. Namrata had a quick call with a doctor who confirmed I was most likely down with pneumonia.

It lasted for almost a week and a half. I laid in bed cocooned in multiple blankets while Namrata took as much care of me as she could. It delayed our work but Namrata assured me my health came first. I was frustrated and eager to recover, but upon thinking about it one night after reading Isha'a, I realized Allah was giving me with more time before I had to go interrogate the Al-Ameen family. Pneumonia was a blessing in disguise.

After exactly two weeks since the day it began, I was feeling good enough to start getting back to work. I took a long shower and hit the gym in the building. While I was slowly picking up speed on my treadmill, I spotted Nazeeha leaving the building through the window of the gym room.

My thoughts trailed back to Armaan. It had been two weeks since I sent the letter, but I had not heard anything back from him. Well, I guess the answer was in his silence.

I fought back tears as I pushed myself harder and harder on the machine until I was wheezing. Two weeks of no exercise and then suddenly going at it was not the best idea.

Since Nazeeha was not in her apartment, I figured it might be worth using my time to go scope out her apartment to see if I could find any notes on her research. Maybe if I could find something to exonerate her, we could avoid getting a warrant for her interrogation.

I took a quick shower and prayed Zuhr. It was only noon and I wasn't hungry enough for lunch, so I just munched on a few of those mini cinnamon roll things as I got my things together. I changed into a plain black outfit and grabbed my stun gun, slipping it into my waistband, with a few other tools I would need. I let my hair fall around my face and put on a baseball cap for that extra cover from the security cameras in the hall.

Namrata would be at HQ all day so I didn't bother cleaning up my mess before leaving. Locking my door behind me, I walked over to the stairwell. There were no cameras there- super safe I know- and took the stairs down to Nazeeha's floor. I checked myself out once before walking into her hallway, ensuring nothing about my appearance would be picked up by the hallway security cameras.

Step one is to look left and right, making sure nobody was around. Step two is setting up an alibi in case somebody was to walk by. I took out the paperclips I had in my pocket and scattered them beside her doorsteps. Weird choice, but paperclips were all I could find. If someone were to walk by, all they would see is a young girl picking up something off her floor and no one would bat an eye.

Step three, I took out my thermal radar and checked to see if it picked up any bodies inside. Her apartment was empty. I began to pick her lock, knowing the sound of how it opens from the few times I'd been here before.

The lock clicked open just when I heard the elevator ding. I dropped the little gizmo I was using into my hoodie pocket and used my paperclip decoy while whoever it was passed me by.

His cologne's scent reached me before he did.

"Nazeeha you good?" his British lilt was like honey to my ears. Even though it had only been two and a half weeks- 17 days to be exact- it felt like I was hearing it after eons.

Before I could stop myself, my head whipped around to see him. I stood up while he froze mid-step, realizing it was me and not Nazeeha.

"Naina" his voice was a whisper.