by Leslie North
The Lounge grew very quiet, and Atif’s eyes widened as Iman and Bahir walked in. The man glanced around, obviously realizing he was trapped. He stood, and Bahir immediately clocked him in the jaw. “That was for my wife and child,” he hissed.
Atif straightened, and Iman followed suit. This time, the older man stumbled and had to grab the booth to right himself. No one bothered to interfere. “This is for the hell that you put my family through.”
Atif stood bent over the table for a few seconds, then he finally straightened and stared stiffly at Riyad. “Well? Are you going to defend your lover’s honor as well?”
“No,” Riyad said softly.
“And why not? Have you finally realized that you’re no better than a womanizer?” Atif snarled.
“I am better than that. I’m going to make Danielle my wife, and I’m going to raise her child as my own. I love her, and I don’t care what anyone says. My only vengeance will be when you’re executed for treason against your own people and your family. Until then, I’m happy to see you rot in prison.” Riyad stepped back and nodded his head. “Arrest him.”
Several men stepped forward, prepared to grab Atif, but the older man lifted his hand to stop them. Holding his head high, he walked toward the exit flanked by police officers.
As Riyad turned back, he faced the stunned looks on his brothers’ faces. “Don’t lecture me. Not tonight. I realize that accepting a child that isn’t my blood isn’t traditional, but I’m going to do it anyway.”
“That’s not it,” Iman said softly. “Riyad, we didn’t know how you felt about her, or we would have told you sooner.”
He stiffened. “Tell me what?”
“Danielle insisted that we couldn’t keep her prisoner, and she was right. Her plane would have left for the States an hour ago. She’s gone, Riyad.”
Gone. The word echoed in his head, and he wanted to put his fist through the wall. Instead, he straightened and nodded his head. “Good. That’s what she wanted. She’ll be happy there.”
Unable to remain in the Rooftop Lounge a second longer, he walked back out to the car. Instead of getting in, he walked in the opposite direction. In a single night, his whole life had come crashing now, and now the only person who could make him whole again was gone.
14
Three months later
* * *
“These are copies of the contracts with the Grovetown Apartments that are due for court next week,” Danielle said as she placed one stack on the desk. “These are the contracts for the BNC Credit Bank defaults, and these are the copies of the injunctions filed against the Hexington Publishing company lawsuit.”
“Perfect, Danielle. Thanks. I’ll take care of the injunctions. Evictions go to Donnelly, and wage garnishments are for Smith. You can call it a day. It’s late.”
It was more than late. It was nearly eight o’clock at night, but Danielle was trying to cram in as much overtime as possible. The work was dull. The law firm handled mostly civil claims, but her boss was happily married and didn’t seem to have a wandering eye.
“Thanks, Mr. Pennington. I appreciate it.” Grabbing her purse, she headed out the door. Since arriving back in the States, she’d done everything she’d said she wanted to do. She’d moved to Maryland and found an apartment. It was easy enough to get a job at another firm. She felt more established and in control. She had plans for fitting a nursery into the cheap one-bedroom apartment, and her pregnancy was progressing nicely.
Everything was perfect…with one small exception. She was miserable.
Entering her dark apartment, she flipped on the lights and sank heavily into the armchair. Unable to help herself, she pulled out her phone and started her nightly ritual.
The swift end to the Haamas rebellion had been a big enough story to reach even the largest newspapers in America. The story had, of course, been sensationalized. The three brothers, a crowned sheikh, a business mogul, and a playboy-turned-spy, had managed to ferret out the head of the rebellion, and the entire kingdom had celebrated. Peace reigned once again.
The gossip blogs went even farther regarding Riyad. It had not escaped the kingdom’s notice that the sheikh had not left the palace in months. Some speculated that he was busy raising a secret love child. Others reported that his brothers had finally put him under house arrest.
And some, not many, but some thought that maybe he was nursing a broken heart.
That was ridiculous. Riyad would never have let her go if he’d really wanted her, so if he was nursing a broken heart, some other lover had hurt him.
The kingdom was also celebrating other news. Amy was pregnant. It was a boy, giving the Karawi family an heir to the throne.
That was, if he survived his older sister and cousin.
Smiling sadly, Danielle placed a hand on her now-large belly. “I’m sorry, Genevieve. I think Taslima was right. I should have stayed. Should have given you the family you deserve, but I’m going to do the best I can for you, and I hope it’s enough.”
It was time to stop punishing herself for past actions. Although sleeping with her boss had been a poor decision, she’d already grown to have so much love for her daughter, she could no longer fault a decision that had brought life. Those few weeks with Riyad hadn’t been a mistake, either. They’d given her something she hadn’t thought she’d ever experience: a taste of real love. Something she’d never had with anyone else. Maybe, one day, she’d have it again.
She was about to get ready for bed when she heard a knock at her door. Peering through the peephole, she chuckled when she saw her new neighbors. “Gordon. Georgia. What’s up?”
“We’re so sorry to be bothering you this late,” Gordon said with a sidelong glare at Georgia. “But someone was worried when you weren’t home at your usual time.” He hesitated, then burst out, “Honestly, Georgia is so nosy!”
“Me!” Georgia gasped. “What about you? You’re the one who always thinks she’s not eating enough. Honestly!”
For the life of her, Danielle couldn’t figure them out. They didn’t seem to be a couple, but they were obviously close, and they had a vested interest in her. Within days of her moving in, they’d moved in next door, and not a day went by that they didn’t find some way to check on her, whether it was stopping by the office to bring her a snack, or calling to remind her to take her prenatal vitamins.
Frankly, it was a little creepy.
“I didn’t mean to worry you guys. I was trying to get a little extra work done,” she explained. “Everything is fine. I even grabbed dinner on the way home.”
“Good. Good. We’re having a movie marathon this weekend, and we demand that you join us. Prop up your feet and relax. What do you say? Oh, and I totally want to drive you to your doctor’s appointment next week. You know what they say…you shouldn’t go to those alone,” Gordon insisted.
Did these two even work for a living? “That’s not necessary.”
“We insist.” Georgia answered, her voice almost a sing-song. “Okay. Enjoy the rest of your night, and we’ll talk to you later. Isn’t it fun that we all live next door?”
Nodding, Danielle tried to force a smile. “Yes, it is. Thank you guys.” They were sweet but a little overwhelming. Bidding them goodnight, she eased the door closed, hearing them arguing as they walked back to their apartment.
“You’re going to blow it if you’re not careful,” Gordon hissed.
“Me? You’re the one she doesn’t like. We’re supposed to be friends. I want to be friends with her!”
Danielle closed the door all the way and sighed. They were strange, indeed, but they made her feel a little less lonely.
“You knock. Last time I knocked, he nearly took my head off.”
“You’re the Crowned Sheikh. He’s your responsibility!”
“I’m responsible for a whole kingdom. I would think you could help me out by taking care of family matters.”
“He’s not a ‘family matter.’ He’s a disaster. Why can�
��t we send Natalie and Amy to talk to him again?”
Riyad rolled his eyes. His brothers could face a rising rebellion or rule a kingdom, but here they were, cowering at his door. Idiots. Annoyed at their hushed tones, he yanked the door open and stared at them. “What do you want?”
“Riyad. You’re up!” Iman’s bright smile did not match the uneasy look he exchanged with Bahir. “Normally, you’ve been sleeping in lately. Until almost noon.”
“I haven’t gone to bed yet, and my temper is short. Say your piece, and then leave me,” Riyad grumbled, stepping away from the door. His two older brothers entered the suite, and Bahir didn’t bother to close the door behind him. Obviously, they wanted a quick escape.
This was ridiculous. Riyad knew he’d been a little unhappy these past few months, but this kind of reaction was uncalled-for.
“You missed dinner last night. Amy had more ultrasound pictures.” Bahir put the photos on the desk, and Riyad scanned them.
“I’m glad things are going well.”
“Are you? You’re the perfect uncle to Iris and Aisha, but you haven’t shown the slightest bit of interest in your unborn nephew. I have a feeling it has less to do with the baby and more to do with Danielle, and for that, Iman and I want to apologize.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, and this has nothing to do with Danielle. She was a lover, that’s all, and now she’s back home. My job was to keep her safe, and I did that.” The automatic response was getting harder to recite.
Iman cleared his throat. “We’ve shouldered our fair share of blame to the media for Atif’s actions. We’ve apologized that our family skeletons have hurt the kingdom and that we allowed him to get so close.”
“You didn’t let him get close. I did.” It was still eating him inside that he’d been so blindsided by his mentor.
“When Father died, I took over my duties, and I forgot to focus on my family. I was too busy trying to maintain peace within the independent alliance. Bahir was busy with the family holdings, and then we were starting our own families. Families that you were actively trying to protect.” Iman shook his head. “We pushed you away.”
“I was an adult. I made my choices.”
“You made the choices you thought were right, and now, you’re questioning them. It’s affecting the decisions you’re making now. You’re going to have to trust someone again, Riyad.”
Riyad swallowed hard and stared out the window. Every time he looked at the gardens he had once loved so much, he saw only the angry words he’d thrown at Danielle and the disgust on her face. “You are my brothers. If you think that I don’t trust you….”
“This isn’t about us, Riyad. You love her. We didn’t know. We treated your relationship with her frivolously, and for that, we owe you both an apology,” Iman told him, and he could hear the contriteness in his brother’s tone.
“You didn’t drive her away,” Riyad said, feeling his throat start to close. “I did. I made her think that she was better off as a secret. I made her think she didn’t deserve a place in this palace.”
“Fix your mistake, Riyad. For what it’s worth, I think my son might need someone his own age to keep Iris and Aisha from ganging up on him. Even if that someone is a girl,” Bahir said with a grin.
Riyad looked up sharply. “A girl? How do you know?”
“At the request of Natalie, I helped some of her friends go into a new line of work. Surveillance. I think you met them when they came to visit. Gordon and Georgia?” Iman practically gloated.
Riyad stared at them. “Excuse me? You hired those two to follow her?”
“Not follow. Befriend. Danielle is all alone, and we wanted to make sure she was all right. We know that she’s safe but terribly unhappy at her new job. She has a cheap apartment in a bad part of the city, so naturally, we’ve employed someone to make sure she’s not bothered by her neighbors. We also know that her pregnancy is progressing nicely, and she’s having a girl.”
“Genevieve,” Riyad whispered. His mother had told him of her conversation with Danielle. He could only imagine how beautiful the child would be, if she was anything like her mother.
“You want her for your daughter. You want Danielle as your wife.” Bahir smiled. “Not that you need it, but you have our blessing. Trust your instincts, Riyad. You love her. Now, go get her.”
It sounded so easy when someone else said it. Just go and bring her back…but he wasn’t sure there was anything he could say or do that would allow her to forgive him. He could barely trust himself these days. How was he going to be a husband or a father?
And was he brave enough to face her, knowing she might turn her back on him and walk away?
15
As she loaded her groceries into the trunk of her car, Danielle once again glanced at the man loading his own car nearby. Something was familiar about him, like she’d been seeing him around the city, but that was ridiculous. This wasn’t Haamas. No one knew her here, so why would anyone follow her?
Except, of course, her neighbors. They stuck to her like glue, and while she was growing fonder of them, she really needed her alone time.
She drove home, yearning for a nice hot bath. She’d spent the day filing, and her back and feet ached. She wouldn’t have stopped by the grocery store, except that she was pretty much out of everything.
Groaning, she hauled the groceries up the steps. It surprised her that one of her neighbors didn’t pop a head out when she passed their door. Sometimes, she had the feeling they were spying on her comings and goings from their peephole.
Dropping her bags at her door, she fished out her keys and unlocked the door.
All her lights were on. That was her first indication that something was off. She was meticulous about her bills. She’d have to take some time off after giving birth, and that meant that she’d need her savings account to bring her through. For one thing, she made sure she didn’t waste electricity.
The second thing she noticed was a stack of boxes in the kitchen. She’d recently ordered a few things for the baby, but no one other than the landlord had a key to her apartment, and she didn’t think he’d be kind enough to put her boxes in the kitchen.
Also, she hadn’t ordered nearly that much.
Her first thought was to flee, but when she saw him walk out of the bedroom, she was rooted to the spot.
Riyad.
Too many emotions hit her at once. The happiness of seeing him again. The pain of knowing how much she’d missed him. The anger of remembering how much he’d hurt her. The love she’d never been able to let go.
“I’m tired. Go away,” she muttered and turned and dragged the bags in.
“Not yet.” He crossed the room and picked up the bags.
Too weary to protest, she walked over to the couch and sat down. Closing her eyes, she leaned back and tried to sort through what was happening. “Then when?”
“When there’s nothing else I can do here,” he said mildly as he set the bags down on the counter dividing the kitchen from the living room and started to unpack them and put things away. She thought about all of the potentially embarrassing items in those bags, but she didn’t move to help him.
“Then can you at least heat up a frozen dinner for me? I don’t care which one. Just pick one and put the rest in the freezer.” She didn’t open her eyes as she listened to the rustle of the bags. It was nice to hear him, feel his presence. She could imagine that this was normal. That they had made everything work out.
“No more frozen dinners for you. I stopped by a store on my way here. I thought I’d make us some dinner. It won’t be anything fancy, but it won’t be processed with a bunch of chemicals. You need to take better care of yourself and your daughter.”
My daughter? At that, Danielle’s eyes flew open. “I imagine finding my address wasn’t hard. I applied for a new license when I got here. And, well, we’ve already established that you’re a ninja, so breaking into my apartment wouldn’t be hard for you,” her eye
s narrowed, “but my medical records are confidential. Even my co-workers don’t know the gender of my child.” She paused in consternation. “Did you pay off my doctor?”
Riyad visibly tensed in the middle of pulling things out of the refrigerator. “I did not have to pay off your doctor. I simply asked your neighbors.”
“How did you know that my neighbors knew?” She groaned. “No wonder they never leave me alone. They’re your spies. I guess you’re having me followed, as well. That’s just great.”
“It was not my idea. I wanted to give you what you wanted, which was space. However, Natalie and Amy couldn’t stop meddling. Gordon and Georgia are old friends of Nat’s. They were more than happy to establish a support system for you. And of course, once my brothers realized that this apartment complex was in an area riddled with crime, they wanted to make sure that you were safe.”
“I was kidnapped in your country, but a neighborhood that experiences a few car thefts and some weed dealers is considered crime-ridden?” She closed her eyes again.
Riyad continued to move around the kitchen. “We’ve made all the necessary arrests. The rebellion is over.”
“I read that online.” She paused. “I’m sorry about Atif. I know how much he meant to you. I hope you’re not blaming yourself for what happened. The most manipulative people are the ones who play on the things we love most.”
“It’s taking some time to get over.”
She could tell that it bothered him more than he wanted to admit. His voice was heavy with pain and a hint of anger.