Damn, he couldn’t believe what a passionate lover she was! He’d expected her shyness to take over. And Santos had been prepared for that, telling himself to go slowly, to carefully introduce her the wonders of lovemaking.
But she hadn’t been shy. She’d been a tigress, loving him just as passionately as he made love to her. It had been phenomenal! Afterwards, they’d barely slept as they lay in the darkness talking, laughing, making love again.
She’d been gone this morning, but had left a note on his pillow letting him know that she’d text him her schedule today.
That was another thing. She was sweetly considerate, not assuming anything, nor making demands on his time. His other lovers had demanded that he take them shopping or to the latest openings of whatever hot musical, opera, or whatever, was opening that week. He’d played along when he could, but ignored their pleas when he had business.
Since this week had been one of the more tense of his life, he’d had to focus during the day. Not that he’d been able to do that all the time, not with Talia on his mind. But just the thought of her being there at the end of the day, ready to have dinner with him and talk with him, was enough to get him through the day.
Pacing, he waited for that bastard prince to arrive, but wasn’t as annoyed as he should have been. The man was making him wait, which was a ridiculous power play on his part. Still…
He looked over at his aide and saw a strange expression cross his face just as the door on the opposite side of the conference room burst open.
“You bastard!” Prince Gaelen roared.
Santos stood up, tensed for a fight. “What the hell?!” he snapped back, livid that this man who had finally starting to concede on several issues during the negotiations, would come into the room in such an outrageous and offensive manner.
“You attacked Izara?”
A cold bitterness settled into his chest. “Excuse me?” he whispered, furious at even the suggestion of such an insult.
Back and forth, the two of them yelled at each other, flinging accusations. But everything came back to one thing; apparently, someone had attacked a small village on the border of Izara and Gaelen thought it had been done by Padar military officers, ordered by Santos.
“Are you seriously going to stand there and tell me that you didn’t attack the city of Lutara, despite growing evidence that you did?”
Santos glared right back, livid at the accusation.
The door opened and Gaelen’s assistant came forward, the pictures he’d demanded in hand. “Here,” Gaelen took the folder, pulling the pictures out. He slapped the first one on the table. “Is this not the missile that your country built in the southern district?”
Santos glared at Gaelen for a long moment before slowly looking down at the picture. With great impatience, he examined the image. He blinked, then frowned, still not sure he was seeing the picture clearly.
“And this,” Gaelen slapped a second picture down. “Tell me that this serial number isn’t one of your missiles.”
That’s when it came to him. He’d thought that the perpetrators had only broken into the warehouse containing food stores but the building next to it contained missiles!
Damn it! Santos curled his hands into fists, disgusted with himself for not figuring this out before now, before lives were lost!
But his generals had told him that only food had been stolen!
“I have to go!” Santos said, a cold fury lacing his voice. He started to turn away, but stopped, and looked across the table at Gaelen. “You manufactured this evidence, didn’t you?” He leaned forward slightly. “Your country did this!”
With that, he stormed out of the conference room, furious with himself as well as the situation. What the hell was going on?
Chapter 9
Talia stared at the message, her heart aching. Instead of sending a text, she pressed the button that dialed his private cell phone number. “What do you mean?” she demanded as soon as her brother answered. “Gaelen, this isn’t happening. There has to be a mistake! You told me that the negotiations were going well with Padar. Why would they…?”
There was a deep, heavy sigh that told Talia that her brother was both confused by the situation, and exhausted from the constant meetings over the past several weeks. “I don’t know, Talia. I need to go home and you need to go with me. Have your team take you to the airport immediately. Don’t bother packing, just get to the airport. The plane is standing by, the pilot already clearing the airspace so we can take off as soon as we are on the plane.”
Talia knew that her brother was right; they needed to be home. When there was an attack on their people, everyone needed to be there as a show of support. The people of Izara would look to the royal family for guidance. Plus, she was in charge of emergency relief efforts. Yes, there was another person actually doing the work, but the agency was under her purview and she needed to be there.
“I’m on my way.” she sighed.
“Go to the heliport. We don’t have time to mess with this traffic.”
She glanced at her watch. From experience, she knew the drill. “I’ll be at the heliport in ten minutes. Maybe less.”
“Good. I’ll be there right behind you.”
They hung up. Talia was already walking out of the meeting she’d walked into only five minutes before. Apparently, her security team and assistant had already heard the news. They hurried down the hallway. Rachel was on the phone as she hustled. Talia heard her saying things like “canceled” and “emergency”.
The SUVs were waiting outside of the door. She literally ran from the building and dove into the nearest backseat. The driver pulled away before the last guard had the door fully closed.
The driver made it to the heliport moments before Gaelen’s team arrived and everyone piled into the extra-large helicopter that waited to take them to the airport. It took almost no time to fly across the Hudson River and then they rushed across the tarmac to Izara’s royal plane.
The pilot had permission to take off even before everyone was settled in their seats. Talia stared out the window of the plane, fighting back the tears of frustration. She’d only had one night with Santos! Just one night! And then this happened. What in the world? Why was everything conspiring against her?
And then she felt horrible because at least she still had a home and a place to sleep tonight. There were hundreds of people who had lost family members and homes last night.
So, instead of feeling sorry for herself, she concentrated on the situation. When the pilot leveled off, she headed for the conference room with Gaelen where she and his team coordinated emergency efforts with Amit and Tarin, who were still in Izara. They called the military generals who were on the scene, working with the local authorities as they investigated the attack.
There was one moment when Talia glanced over at Rachel and saw the worry in her eyes. “Everything is going to be okay,” Talia confidently told her assistant.
Rachel took a deep breath, but the sound was ragged. “I know,” she replied, her fingers fluttering over the long list of issues to resolve. “I’ve already contacted…” and she reeled off a list of people that were standing by, ready to help.
Talia was impressed! Rachel hadn’t been with her for long, but she knew how to react in an emergency. “That’s fantastic!” she soothed. “Stand by. I’m going to get more information.” She walked back over the conference room table where Gaelen was discussing options with military generals.
Gaelen shook his head, his anger barely controlled, as he paced the length of the plane’s conference room. “I just don’t understand why Fazir would do this! And why now?!” There was silence for a long moment. “The negotiations were going well. We had agreed to several concessions, so the benefits to his country if this treaty was finally put into place would have been huge.”
Icy fingers skittered up her spine at the name. “Fazir?” she whispered, glancing up from her computer at her brother who was still conferenced
in with Amit. He swiveled towards her, his eyes narrowing at her expression.
“He’s the only one who could have ordered an attack of this size,” he told her.
Talia froze as the implications of that news hit her. Padar wouldn’t attack Izara! There had been rumors of problems within Padar, of course. Although…something niggled at the back of her mind, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Talia was fairly certain that it was pretty important, but…for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what she was missing.
At that point, something else occurred to her. “I have to get some supplies ordered. Let’s talk later.” And with that, she focused on her computer, walking out of the conference room and ducking into one of the smaller rooms towards the back of the plane.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t concentrate. With shaking fingers, she typed in the name of her family’s number one enemy. The fraction of a second it took for her computer to return the results was like waiting hours! When the images finally popped up, she gasped. Staring at her, in full military regalia among other uniformed officers, was Santos. Her Santos! The man she’d made love with last night.
The man she loved with all her heart!
Chapter 10
Several days later, in a military base set up on the border between his country and Izara, Santos peered through the binoculars at the damage to the small village of Lucent in Izara, his stomach sick. So much destruction! So many people displaced! Thankfully, he’d heard that there weren’t any lives lost. Also, he was grateful for Prince Gaelen’s follow-up call, asking for information.
Damn, Santos didn’t want to respect the man! He didn’t want to like him at all! He wanted to hate him but…the man was just too…likeable. Plus, after the call last night, Santos respected him. That respect had started during the negotiations, but had increased over the past twenty-four hours.
There had been a flurry of diplomatic maneuvers during that same period, and if Santos hadn’t already been in conversations with Gaelen in New York, this whole situation might have been different. Whoever had attacked Izara, trying to make it look like the attack came from Padar, hadn’t counted on the fact that Santos and Gaelen had been in intense peace negotiations over the past few weeks. Because of those conversations, Gaelen had convinced Sheik Amit that he didn’t believe the reports about the attack coming from Padar.
In addition, Santos had vowed to Gaelen that he hadn’t ordered the strike, nor had any of his generals. He trusted his military leaders completely. None of them had done this.
So, who had attacked this village?
Santos looked through the binoculars again. Already, the government of Izara had people on the ground, helping out with emergency shelters and food. Impressive, he thought and made a mental note to instruct his emergency management agency to talk with whoever was in charge of Izara’s processes. They were good!
But who the hell had instigated this attack? And why? Why now? There had to be something significant about the timing, with him being in New York and away from Padar. The warehouse break-ins were also tied into this somehow.
But no matter how many ways he looked at the facts and evidence, he couldn’t figure this out.
He was just about to lower his binoculars when someone walking across the rubble caught his eye. Loose jeans, black tee shirt, and long, brown hair pulled on top of her head. “Talia!” he growled, seeing his woman walking away from a pile of broken stones and heading into one of the buildings. “What the hell?!”
Why was she in Lucent? What was her role in Izara?
Then he remembered she was in charge of public services for an area. Was she a citizen of Izara? Or had the Izara government hired her company to come in and help out? That made more sense. If she was a citizen of Izara, surely she would have said something. Talia was too honest to have lied about her work.
Even as he watched, he noticed her hauling debris out of the building and throwing it into one of the dumpsters that had appeared overnight. A woman rushed up to her and Talia put her arm around the woman, listening and nodding, soothing the frantic woman with what appeared to be calm reassurance. They were too far away for him to read their lips, but a moment later, Talia lifted a hand and called out to someone. A man of about twenty-five rushed over, carrying a medical bag. The three of them knelt down on the ground while the man cleaned and dressed the woman’s arm, which was bleeding.
Yes, that was the Talia he knew, Santos thought, smiling as he watched her continue to talk to the woman, soothing her frazzled nerves. His Talia was sweet and shy, but when it came to fixing things for people, making things better, Talia gave it everything she had!
Talia wiped her forehead with her forearm, pushing the sweat and exhaustion away through sheer determination. “I’m here!” she called out after hearing her name. Looking around, she was still shocked by the destruction. She was also relieved that no one had been seriously hurt. For some reason, the attack had happened during a sporting event down at the local school which had brought most of the residents of this small town to the stadium. The buildings that were hit by the missiles had been warehouses and a small apartment complex. The biggest issue was that the infrastructure had been damaged. The underground water lines and electrical connectivity had been destroyed. That meant the village was without power and water. That meant that food was spoiling, and dehydration and sanitation was now an issue.
No one had been hurt, she reminded herself again. Yes, people were injured, but no one had lost their lives or limbs. She closed her eyes and said as silent prayer of thanks for that miracle.
There were a few houses that had been destroyed as well, but no one had been in them. They’d also been the largest houses, so the residents had the financial ability to rebound more easily from this kind of devastation.
That was another odd thing about this attack. Why the wealthiest houses? Most of the time, it was the poor section of a town that was attacked, mostly because the people who lived there didn’t have the financial ability to protect themselves as easily. It also created a more compassionate outcry.
So, why had the attack happened on a day when no one would be hurt and in an area that didn’t make much sense?
Talia turned to look in the distance. About a hundred miles away was the border between Izara and Padar. Her eyes narrowed as she squinted into the intense sunshine. Why had Santos attacked her country?
Not that he knew she was from Izara. Thinking back, they’d both talked about their childhoods over the years, their siblings and politics, but they’d never discussed where they were from. Was that out of habit? She rarely told anyone who she was if they didn’t already know. It was safer that way.
So…what in the world was going on here? Nothing made sense!
With a sigh of resignation, she pulled her eyes away from the distance and focused on the present, on the destruction all around her. “Come on, Tomas,” she called out to her head of emergency services. The man was in his sixties and had the energy of a toddler on a sugar rush, the brilliance of a genius, and the creativity of a writer.
“We need to get the water stations set up,” he yelled.
Talia nodded, pushing her exhaustion away. “I know. I have five people working on it already,” she called back. “When do you anticipate the electricity will be back up and running?” The electric grid had been badly damaged during the attack and Tomas had a team already working on that problem.
They moved through the camp, checking on food supplies, emerging water stations, medical personnel, greeting every person they passed, and talking with each of them to make sure that their family members were all accounted for and safe.
A crotchety older man of indeterminate age hobbled up to Talia and Tomas, his face spitting mad. “When are we paying back Padar for this atrocity?” he demanded, pounding his cane into the dusty ground.
Talia lifted a hand, stopping her security team from intervening. She smiled gently at the man. “Right now, my brother is working
with his generals, sir. How are you doing?”
The man muttered something under his breath. “Seems like we should be doing something more than just sitting on our asses!” He walked away, still muttering.
Talia sighed, wishing that she could give these people more than just food and water. She wanted to give them assurance that this would never happen again. That their small town would be rebuilt, safer and stronger than ever.
It would be rebuilt. She knew that Amit would see to that. But would it be safer? It was a border town and, by definition, vulnerable to issues like this when there were tensions between two countries.
The trick now was to keep everyone from demanding blood, from escalating the tensions. If Padar had truly done this, and she doubted that was the case because she knew in her heart that Santos wasn’t that kind of a man…but if he had, what would she do? How could she love a man who would attack a defenseless village?
She couldn’t, she decided as she moved through the tents lining one area of the village. The tents were only temporary, but would give the residents both shelter as well as a forum where they could vent their concerns and anger.
Talia continued to work until it was too dark to see. Without electricity, the village was shrouded with darkness, only the generators providing light. But the generators had been turned off earlier in the evening, giving the residents a quiet period to sleep. Generators were great and convenient, but they were also loud.
Slipping into her own tent, which was set up further away from the others, she looked at the small cot where she’d slept the previous night. It wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it was better than the ground. There was another tent nearby where her brother, Tarin, would sleep. But he was off doing…something. He was in charge of infrastructure for Izara and had been out examining the roads and bridges, ensuring that they were stable and not tampered with.
The Sheik's Scandal (The Raminar Family Book 3) Page 6