Indebted To The Sheikh (You Can't Turn Down a Sheikh Book 5)
Page 16
Dylan was trying to apologize to the Sheikh, who was howling at him so furiously that it took Dakota several moments to piece together that the girl whose dress Dylan had ruined was the Sheikh’s daughter.
“It was an accident,” Dylan said feebly, and, pulling a napkin from a nearby table, made as if to dry off the front of her dress.
The Sheikh roared and shoved Dylan away from his daughter, who turned and fled, pursued by two of her friends.
Dylan staggered back with the force of the Sheikh’s push, regained his composure, shouted, “Hey!” and shoved the Sheikh back.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Dakota moaned, picking her way through the assembled crowd, who had stopped partying altogether to watch the Sheikh fight the American. She could already see the flashbulbs going off, indicating the presence of reporters. This was going to make headlines tomorrow.
“Dakota, what’s going on?” It was her father. He’d appeared at her elbow looking anxious and concerned. “Is that Dylan?”
“Is that Mom?” Dakota countered.
Anne Lee had pushed her way through the crowd to her son’s side and was now yelling at Sheikh bin Ayad, who had paused in his shoving match with Dylan long enough to stare at her incredulously. Ben Lee pushed his way into the crowd. Dakota tried to catch his sleeve, to stop him, but missed.
The Sheikh had been joined by two of his sons. The fighting was now so loud that it drowned out all side conversations; everyone was staring at the conflict on the center of the dance floor. Dakota made her way to the front of the crowd. Dylan was standing off to one side looking bemused and a bit sheepish, no longer taking part. She sidled over to him.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said. “While they’re all still fighting.”
He glanced at her and nodded.
Tonight was not the first time Dakota had had to extract her brother from an escalating conflict—far from it. At least she could be assured that the cameras would be inside capturing the Sheikh’s meltdown rather than her brother’s graceless exit from tonight’s ball. With any luck, the bin Ayads would come off the worse in this one. She would just have to hope her parents could behave themselves.
She put Dylan in the car and then climbed in after him. As they rode home, she was already spinning the event in her head, working out what she would say to the press and the shareholders when she was asked to explain her family’s behavior tonight. Maybe it was time to send Dylan to a treatment facility. She didn’t really think he had a drinking problem, but as a gesture it might be good for the shareholders to see. She wondered if she would be able to persuade him to go.
And to think she had been so excited for tonight’s party. How was it that things always went sour, and that when they did, the bin Ayads were never far away?
Dylan dropped off to sleep almost immediately, but Dakota felt miles from rest. Instead of retreating to her bedroom, she went down to the kitchen and began putting together a sandwich. As she ate, she pulled up a news site on her laptop and scanned it for references to the evening’s meltdown. Nothing so far…but the night was young, she thought grimly.
She didn’t expect to get any sleep at all tonight. Tomorrow, it would be her job to face a press conference and explain her family’s behavior at the Emir’s party. Somewhere, the bin Ayads would be facing the same task, and Dakota could only hope that she would do a better job than whoever spoke for their family. If the news cycle focused on the misbehavior of the bin Ayads, it was possible the Lees would be overlooked.
And there was a chance of it. After all, the bin Ayads were royalty. They were related to the Emir. Surely their behavior would be more highly scrutinized by the people of Baraq than that of the Lee family. Dakota was used to being part of a high profile family, but there was a difference between running an aeronautics company and being a member of the royal family. The Lees would be a footnote to this story. The bin Ayads would be the headline.
She refreshed the page. No news yet. Social media no doubt had reports of it from people who had been at the party, but Dakota knew from unpleasant experience how tempestuous those kinds of reports would be and decided not to check. She would wait and see what the official news outlets were saying first.
It was nearly two in the morning by the time her parents arrived home. Anne Lee came into the kitchen looking disheveled, her immaculate updo falling apart and her heels dangling from one hand. She padded across the kitchen without acknowledging her daughter, opened the refrigerator, pulled out a bottle of beer, twisted off the cap, and took a long swig. Only after she’d drained half the bottle did she look over at Dakota. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she said, “That was a disaster.”
“What took you so long getting home?” Dakota asked, folding down the top of the computer.
“We couldn’t get a car,” Anne said. “No, don’t make that face. You were right to take ours and get Dylan out of there. That was smart. Where is he now?”
“Up in bed, sleeping it off.”
Anne sighed heavily. “I mean, all he did was spill some champagne.”
“Right down the front of Karida bin Ayad’s dress,” Dakota pointed out. “Why did he have to choose her to dance with?”
Dakota’s dad Ben made his way into the kitchen, loosening his tie. “Anything in the news about it yet?”
“Not yet,” Dakota said, tipping up her laptop screen and refreshing the page to make sure. “What happened after Dylan and I left?”
“Oh, it turned into a whole ordeal.”
“Turned into? It wasn’t an ordeal already?”
“Security started throwing people out,” Ben said. “The Sheikh and his sons and your mother and I were all removed from the party.”
“I was just telling her it was a good thing she and Dylan left when they did,” Anne said, taking another pull of her beer. “Our whole family being kicked out would be a much bigger story.”
Dakota nodded her agreement. “As it is, they’ll probably just focus on you, Dad. No offense, Mom.”
Anne shook her head to indicate that no offense was taken.
“Well, hopefully, the real story will be that the Emir kicked Sheikh bin Ayad out of the palace,” Ben said. “That’s family feud stuff. If we get lucky, they’ll leave us out of it altogether.”
Dakota said nothing but inwardly felt that her family would have to have more than luck on their side to escape being tarnished by tonight’s debacle.
“We might as well go to bed,” Anne said. “I don’t think we’re likely to find anything out tonight.”
Dakota hesitated. She was tempted to stay up and wait for the news reports to come in. That way, she would be better prepared for the inevitable press conference she would have to hold if she’d had time to go over what was already being said about the scene at the palace. It was her best chance to get a leg up on the bin Ayads.
They’re royalty, she thought with a huff, not for the first time. I’m sure they have servants who can stay up all night, scouring the internet and making notes for them. They’re probably getting a good night’s sleep and will wake up to breakfast in bed and a full briefing on the incident. Meanwhile, I have to do it all myself.
At the same time, her mother was probably right. It wouldn’t help her spin any if she had to address reporters looking as though she hadn’t slept. As things stood, she was the one member of the Lee family who hadn’t been involved in the scandal. If she showed up looking like a mess…well, who knew what the press would make of that.
It’s a good thing this job pays so well, Dakota thought, shutting her computer and carrying her plate over to the dishwasher. Kicked out of the Emir’s palace. Talk about humiliating. One of these days, her family would have to learn to coexist with the bin Ayads without a fight breaking out. Otherwise, Dakota’s whole life was likely to be spent papering over the cracks of their petty conflicts.
What a disappointing New Year’s Eve it had turned out to be. Her family ejected from the party in dis
grace, Dakota stuck working on the first morning of the new year, and she hadn’t even been kissed.
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