She handed him the box, and he opened it. The large diamond solitaire was surrounded by smaller stones, each one representing the colors of the flag. Even the jewel made a reference to a life of servitude and obligation. Was Izzy ready for such commitment? Not just to him, but to his country, his people, and their future?
“I do, Nassor. I want you to be happy, and you’ll be a better king if you come home to a wife who loves you and whom you love. You have too many obligations at work to have to marry out of duty too.”
He kissed the top of Kesia’s head, then squeezed her shoulders. “Thank you. I wasn’t expecting so much support, but I appreciate you.”
His mother patted his back. “Good. Because my caveat is I’d love to be involved in the wedding. You know, what with Izzy being so brand new, she’ll need someone to guide her through our traditions.”
Aha. “I’m sure you can offer, but it’s her call,” he said. Izzy probably wouldn’t refuse, but why not give her the decision-making power?
“I’ll convince her. If you need me for anything, please let me know,” she said, and he detected a trace of vulnerability in her voice.
Did his mother worry about being shoved to the side once he took a wife? Especially a wife from the western world—unlike the ones from his culture who would be certainly a lot more agreeable and submissive than Izzy. The thought amused him.
He couldn’t wait to propose to Izzy, but he couldn’t do it before the situation regarding Mary’s death was sorted out. Wouldn’t be fair. When it happened, though… He glanced at the ring again.
It’d be a ride of a lifetime.
…
Izzy cozied up to his chest. Hmm. She could get used to this. He ran his fingers through her hair, and she stroked his cheek in the dark. She looked at the alarm clock. Two a.m. He often woke her up to make love, and who was she to deny him?
“Izzy,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“We need to go. I received a text from John. He’s arrived with Obasi and he’s keeping him in the security room.”
Obasi. Immediately, she sat upright and rubbed her eyes, then opened them. He jumped out of the bed, and, covering a yawn, she did the same. Within minutes, they’d dressed and walked in the direction of his office to speak with the man responsible for Mary’s death.
When she arrived, she saw Obasi sitting on a chair. Hands and feet handcuffed, he resembled the pictures Mary had shown her. Only skinnier and with dark circles under his eyes, his hair disheveled.
Heart pounding in her ears, Izzy launched at him and slapped his face, the sound cutting the thick air. She was about to slap him again, adrenaline pumping in her veins, when Nassor grabbed her from behind, pulling her a few feet from Obasi.
“That’s enough, Izzy. Let’s question him.”
John, a tall blond man with a blank stare, nodded, agreeing.
She took a deep breath, rubbing her forehead. He’d been responsible for the death of the only person remaining in her life who had given a damn about her. Why should she give him a break? Mary hadn’t gotten one. “Why did you kill her, you son of a bitch?”
Obasi stared at her square in the eye, his face softening. A mix of sadness and regret touched his eyes. “I’m very sorry for your loss. Mary loved you. She always talked about you.”
“Why did you kill Mary?” She stepped forward, but Nassor put his hand on her shoulder. Was it support or concern she’d launch at Obasi again? Was he worried about her safety or the ripple effect this situation could cause to his name? “She was everything I had, and you took her from me.”
“I didn’t kill her, I swear. I’ll admit to my faults. I’ll confess,” he said. A tear fell down his face. “After my divorce, I struggled to make money. Someone told me about bringing willing women to high-class customers. They called me the liaison. I accepted, but when I did, I never imagined some of those women didn’t want to sell their bodies.”
John let out a sigh.
Nassor squeezed her shoulder, then let go of her and stretched to his full height. “Why Mary?”
“I was assigned to bring a white woman here. I started a conversation with her, and I fell for her. She was easy to talk to, and had the best sense of humor. When she arrived, I tried to keep her from my client. I lied to him and said she’d never shown up, but he easily confirmed that wasn’t true with the airline. Then I checked her out of the bed-and-breakfast and planned on escaping with her, without her ever discovering what my plan had been.”
“You’re fucking twisted,” she said under her breath.
“Who did you work for?” Nassor asked.
“I can write down a list with four names—they’re the men who called me on a regular basis. They kept me busy.”
“Who?”
He recited names, and none of them rang a bell. She kept on looking at him, wishing he’d disappear from the face of the Earth. She didn’t believe his lies for a second—how could a creep like him be capable of love? Did he think she was some kind of idiot to believe his spiel?
Nassor rubbed his forehead, the contours of his face hardening. “I’ll need to contact my legal team to move forward, but you’ll have to testify against them.”
“I will. I don’t have much left,” Obasi said, glancing down at the floor.
“Which one of these men ordered her to be brought from the United States?” she asked.
“Taavi Cisse.”
Nassor ran his hand down his face. “He’s one of my new advisers. I had no idea.”
“He didn’t ask for Mary. He requested an older white female. I went online looking for women in the UK actually, but when I came across Mary’s profile—”
“You just couldn’t wait to have her come here to be abused and fed to the wolves,” she said, and slapped him again. This time, Nassor didn’t hold her back. John lifted his chin, observing her, but didn’t make a motion to stop her either.
Her breath came in gasps, her heart about to leap up her throat. “You fooled an innocent woman.”
Tears brimmed his eyes again. “I did, but I would never let her go with any man. That’s why I took her away.”
“What happened?”
“We got caught because of an emergency cash withdrawal I did at an ATM. They took her with them, and I fought them, but I couldn’t take on three men. They took my Mary away.”
“How long ago did this happen after she arrived here?” Nassor asked.
“They took her about four weeks after we met. They had her for a couple weeks, then she turned up dead. That’s when I decided to go to the woods. There was nothing left for me.”
Two weeks. Tears pricked behind her eyelids.
Two weeks. She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining the kind of pain she must have endured. Mary. Mom. She’d never called her mom, and now she never would. Her heart squeezed. A part of her had clung to calling Mary by her name or referring to her as a stepmother out of self-preservation. She’d lost so much before and didn’t want to take more risks. A weight slumped over her shoulders. From now on, she’d honor Mary by calling her what she had been all along—without fear. My mother.
“Who killed her?” Nassor asked.
“I wasn’t there, but Taavi Cisse’s men took her away, and they’re the ones I’m hiding from.”
An hour later, Nassor’s legal team composed of two older men and a woman in her thirties arrived in the conference room.
Izzy had chosen to go to this meeting with Nassor, while John had stayed behind to keep an eye on Obasi. Obasi was now an important witness and they couldn’t let him go. But he’d also have to pay, she added inwardly.
Izzy had no idea about how the legal system in the kingdom worked, but hoped the authorities would be invested in arresting everyone involved in that despicable scheme. Including Obasi.
After Nassor introduced her
to the team and they briefly shook hands, everyone sat around the long oval table. He gave them an explanation and used the paper evidence he had, passing the pages around.
The oldest lawyer fixed his glasses. “What’s the plan? I mean, what kind of outcome are you expecting from this, Your Majesty?”
“I want the four guilty men who were mentioned arrested and questioned. There’s a prostitution ring and human traffic happening I won’t tolerate.”
The female lawyer made some notes on the notepad on the desk. “Would you like to do this quietly? We can use the law to our favor.”
“What do you mean?” Izzy asked.
The female lawyer glanced at her. “Well, if the king rules this a matter of national security, all four men can be arrested and have their rights stripped from them. So will Obasi. But the public doesn’t need to know.”
“What?” What kind of justice was this, swept under the rug? Izzy shook her head, the idea sending her blood into a boil. “How can these guys be arrested and people not notice?”
“They will, but the reason doesn’t need to be disclosed.”
“We’d do this to protect King Nassor,” the older lawyer said. “He just hired an adviser involved in a dangerous operation. What’s to say people won’t start a revolution after they learn the king made a bad decision?”
“That he’s made a bad decision and is correcting it,” Izzy said, standing up, too restless to stay still. “Nassor, tell me you don’t agree with his idea.”
Nassor rubbed his chin. “You want justice for your stepmother, right? I always told you I’d make it happen and I will. I’ll also make sure whoever is involved in this disgusting operation will be arrested. We’ll look into policies in place to protect women.”
“That’s nice and great, but the way you’re talking about it is like you’re covering it up.”
“How can the king work on policies to empower women if they don’t trust him?” the female lawyer said. “You’re from America. Things are different here, Ms. Lima. We’re miles away from your idealistic views. We finally have a king who cares about our people, and I’d hate to diminish his chances before he even gets started.”
Izzy gave Nassor a sideways glance, but he remained sitting, shoulders stiff, lost in thought. “What kind of sentencing will these creeps get?”
“Twenty-five years in jail is our maximum time,” the third lawyer, who’d been quiet until then, spoke. “The king can deem the men as national security threats and he can execute his power to veer from the court. But a board formed by the skilled homeland security team will vote on the amount of time each person will receive.”
“Why can’t the king vote?” Izzy asked.
“This is the way we do things so there’s no abuse of power,” Nassor said.
She shook her head. Annoyance turned into a cooling frustration. What guarantee would she have that this board of security people wouldn’t be involved too? For all she knew, they could all be corrupt. “So there’s a chance if we choose this route that the security gods may give them, let’s say, five years?”
The female lawyer gave her an apologetic look, then sighed. “Unlikely, but yes, sentencing is their call.”
“Well, that’s not reassuring, is it? Given the king just hired an adviser who happens to be a human trafficker and a murderer, I hardly think we can trust your background checks, let alone your justice system.”
Izzy surged to her feet, with both hands on the desk, ready to launch at the team of lawyers who might as well have been public relations people. None of those people cared about Mary. None. Except, maybe…Nassor? Her heart skipped a beat, and she turned to him.
Tension crackled in the air.
When his gaze met hers, a glint of irritation—maybe more?—flashed in his eyes. The lawyers must have noticed, too, because they looked at each other in silence.
“I need the room,” he demanded, his voice sharp.
Chapter Fifteen
Nassor shut the door after the last lawyer left the room.
She had a point—in his first decision as a king, he’d screwed up by hiring a lowlife who exploited women and who had possibly killed her stepmother. Fuck. Two weeks in charge, and he was already fucking up. Anger thrummed through his body, flaring his insides.
“What are you thinking?” Izzy asked, within a safe distance from him, folding her arms over her chest. Her eyes darkened, the brown one shifting into almost black, and the green one shifting into a gloomier shade. “Tell me.”
He drew in a breath. This was not the time to be selfish. But if she was to be his partner, why couldn’t he share his thoughts? Popping his knuckles, he exhaled. “There’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you about, not in front of the lawyers. It’s crossed my mind, and it’s small, but I trust you.”
She tilted her head to the right. “What is it?”
“My top priority is to remove these creeps from their jobs, have them arrested, and give Mary Roberts justice,” he said, resolute. “I also want us to work,” he added, gesturing at the space between the two of them.
She uncrossed her arms, perching her hands at either side of her waist. “What does one thing have to do with the other?”
“If the prostitution ring news is leaked, there’s a chance our situation will come to light too. How we met,” he said, thinking of Rasheed. What if someone else used the opportunity to show his hypocrisy? “It’s safer for us to proceed with caution.”
“I don’t care about how I will look to the media. I care about—”
“Justice, which is what you’ll get.” Maybe if he talked to the authorities, they could find a way to use Taavi Cisse and the other three men that Obasi had named as bait, and ambush them.
She lifted her chin, challenging him. “No. I’m not so sure I’ll get it if a bunch of privileged men will decide the fate of other influential men who may as well be their golf buddies.”
“Listen, if you want to go through the regular route, that’s fine. It’s your decision.” Well, it was officially his decision, but he was giving it to her. Despite what going through the right route might mean to them down the line, that’s what she wanted to do—and that’s what she’d get. He couldn’t give her any less, not after what she’d been through.
“Is it really? Because I sense you’re trying to convince me otherwise,” she said, her voice wavering.
“I was studying our options. Damn it, Izzy. I asked for them to leave so we could make this decision together—you and me. A decision that can impact the future of my country, and that I’m putting in your hands.”
“I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask to make decisions on the future of Gwokon. All I want is—”
“Yes. Justice. I know. I’m giving it to you, but all of a sudden you want more. You want to expose those men. That’s what this is all about.”
“It’s not that I don’t care about your reputation—”
“My reputation?” he repeated, elevating his voice, his heart rate spiking. “I was trying to spare you, too, Izzy. I’d do anything for you. Hell, I was blackmailed a few days ago by an old adviser and I gave in—a mistake, I realize now, so he wouldn’t tell the world how we met.”
Tears brimmed her eyes, but she blinked them away, drew in a breath, then said, “You never told me that.”
“I didn’t want you to feel bad about it, or like—”
“Like I’m holding you back? Like I’m a lifetime liability for you and your precious kingdom?”
He lifted his hand in disagreement but at the same time erased the distance between them. “Izzy, don’t.”
She stepped away from him, lifting her own hand as a signal to keep him away. “Listen, you don’t have to pick me over your kingdom. I appreciate this…thing we had, but let’s face it, it would never work out.”
“That’s fear talking.” I thought
I had pushed through those walls. Disappointment expanded in his chest, and, like a sharpened blade, twisted into his heart. What kind of relationship would they have if he always had to prove his love for her?
“I got what I wanted. I know you have me here for sex and I’m still due for another week, so I can’t go anywhere. But if you have any affection toward me, please release me from the contract.”
“Izzy, I love you,” he said, his voice more of an accusation than declaration. He threw his hands in the air, desperate for a middle ground. Why couldn’t she see? Why did she have to treat their deal as a transaction when it’d become so much more? Unless…it hadn’t. His gut clenched, like a street fighter had given him the blow of his life.
“Can’t you see? Love isn’t enough.”
“I’m fucking tired of these games. Of you not believing in me. In us,” he said, tossing his words at her. Anger lanced through his heart, tensing up his entire body, and curling his fingers into a ball.
He hated letting her go, but he deserved someone who loved and trusted him 100 percent. “I thought my love for you was enough. I was wrong.”
He was ready to release her from the contract, as requested, from his life, and from his kingdom.
Chapter Sixteen
Izzy shoved her clothes in the bag.
She’d go to a hotel for the night, but she had to get away from the castle. She’d find a place to rest her head and gather her thoughts. Fighting with Nassor had been idiotic when she still needed him to bring Mary’s offenders to justice.
She couldn’t think straight, and maybe he’d been right—the fear was still there. Old habits died hard. Fear of losing him like she’d lost Mary. Fear of having a whole country telling her she wasn’t good enough for the king. She’d seen the look in the lawyers’ face when she talked back to the king in front of them. She’d probably broken a protocol she never knew existed.
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