Trusting A Sheikh (Playgrounds of Power 1)

by Rosie Pike

  "Do you really think he'll go that quietly?" Chloe asked apprehensively.

  Tariq smiled, full of self-confidence and the sight reassured Chloe more than words could possibly have done. She knew, just looking at him, that nothing bad was going to happen to them – not any more, anyway.

  "No. With Khalid in custody, and the recordings, he doesn't have a choice. It'll take him a couple of weeks, but he's going to have to retire. He won't like it, I'll probably have to keep an eye on him, but in the end he knows that if I release those videos, he won't have long to live."

  "The king would just execute him?" Chloe gasped.

  "Not officially… But let's just say that he might die of natural causes rather quicker than he otherwise might…"

  "I don't know how you've managed to live that kind of life for so long." Chloe said sadly. "It sounds so poisonous."

  "Honestly? Nor do I." Tariq agreed. "I think after a while you just get used to it, you know? It takes taking a step back before you realize quite how awful an environment it is… You want to know something?"

  Chloe nodded.

  "I wouldn't have done it without you. You helped me see the light, never forget that." Chloe smiled warmly, leaned over and planted a passionate kiss on Tariq's lips after hearing those words. But he wasn't done.

  "Now, about that plane… Fancy taking a trip?"

  Chloe giggled and nodded vigorously. "There's just one thing we have to do before we go." She said.

  "What's that?" Tariq asked curiously.

  "You need to meet my dad."

  26

  Chloe watched – and winced – as Tariq's jaw muscles clenched ever so slightly in response to her father's crushing handshake.

  "Dad! Don't be like that…" She cried out, half in amusement, but half worried that her father might succeed in his quest to scare off her new lover.

  "Like what?" Her father replied, the slight grin on his face indicating he knew exactly what he was doing.

  "You know." Chloe replied firmly. "Don't pay any attention to him, Tariq, you understand?"

  Tariq smiled back, turning his head slightly towards Chloe so that Nabil wasn't able to tell he was winking at his daughter. "I wouldn't dream of it, darling."

  "Shall we go inside?" Marte, Chloe's mother suggested – aware of the tension and doing her best to dampen it. "Let's have a nice cup of tea…"

  "Since when do you drink tea, mom?" Chloe asked, surprised. "I thought you were a diehard coffee drinker?"

  Turning back inside, her mother shrugged. "Twenty years of living with these English, you have to make sacrifices, don't you…"

  "Oh, it can't be that bad, can it?"

  "No, you're right. It's like a national pastime – whenever I go over to a friends house, they offer me a cup of tea. I can't think of a time when the English don't think a nice cuppa is appropriate. It could be a funeral, or a wedding, or good day at work, or a bad day at work, or a birthday… You get the picture."

  "I know, mom – I was brought up here!" Chloe replied, grinning.

  "Oh." Her mother replied absentmindedly. "That's right, of course you were. Anyway," she continued, her face lighting up with a wicked smile, "who's for a nice cup of tea?"

  "Yes please, Mrs Rouhani." Tariq said, as politely as a choir boy on his first play date. "That would be lovely, thank you."

  "Oh, please." Marte replied, flicking her hair self-consciously. "Call me Marte. Chloe is told us all about what you did for her, the least I can do is offer you a nice hot drink!"

  "Well then, thank you, Marte." Tariq replied formally. "You're very kind. But your daughter saved my life just as much as I saved hers. If she hadn't been so alert, God knows what would have happened…"

  Marta shivered. "Thank God she did, that's all I can say." She said. "Please, sit down."

  "Enough." Chloe's father said firmly, slapping his hand down onto the table for emphasis and shocking both his wife and daughter with the intensity – after all, he was typically a quiet, retiring sort of man. "As far as I can tell, Tariq – my daughter wouldn't have been in any danger at all had she not been hanging around with you…"

  "Dad!" Chloe replied, astonished by her father's behavior. "I didn't invite Tariq over for you to insult him like that!"

  "Well, it's my house, and I didn't ask you to invite him over." Her father replied in a surly tone of voice. "If you don't like it, then you can leave."

  Chloe stood up, knocking her chair back and was about to reply hotly when her mother stepped in.

  "Nabil! That's no way to treat a guest – have you completely taken leave of your manners?"

  Tariq had also stood up in the commotion, and quietly pulled back his chair. "No, I didn't mean to cause any drama – I'll leave."

  "Don't be silly, Tariq." Chloe replied, her cheeks flushed with anger, and her fists clenched. "Stay here. My father and I are going to have a couple of words."

  "Oh are we?" Nabil replied childishly.

  "Dad! Come outside, now." Chloe half shouted, embarrassed by the way her father was behaving. If she'd known he was going to act like this, then she wouldn't have dreamt of bringing Tariq over. Her father grudgingly stood up, pushing his chair back into the table with a thud. As they left the room, Chloe heard her mother apologizing awkwardly to Tariq.

  They stood, facing each other in the dimly lit corridor outside the kitchen. "What gives you the right," Chloe began, fuming, "to treat him like that? He saved my life, for God's sake!"

  "You know exactly why I'm angry." Her father replied, his own fists clenched in frustration. "I know who he is, and who his father is – and I don't want him in my house. Have you lost your mind, Chloe? How could you possibly fall into bed with someone like this – he's evil. How can you trust that he hasn't tortured someone, or worse – killed them. How can you think that you won't be forced to become some kind of subservient wife, dressed all in black? You don't know these people like I do…"

  "These people?" Chloe replied, almost speechless. "If you want me to leave, dad, then you just need to say it. But let me warn you, if I walk out that door – I'm not just gonna come crawling back when you call, you understand?"

  The muscles on her father's jaw clenched reflexively as he took in her statement, and he opened his mouth as if he was contemplating replying, before jamming it tightly closed, turning his lips white with exertion.

  "And another thing." Chloe began, trembling with rage. "You didn't even listen to any of his story. How can you just think you know him? You don't even know what happened in that room, yet you act like this – it's pathetic."

  "So tell me, then." Her father replied, exerting control over his anger. Perhaps it was Chloe's thinly veiled threat that she would no longer see him that had caused his rethink, or perhaps it was his normal calm and collected demeanor reasserting itself, but inch by inch he seems to be calming down. "Why do you think you can trust him?"

  "You know his father?" Chloe asked rhetorically, knowing that it would bring up awful, horrifying memories in her father's mind, but equally knowing that she had to do it to make her point.

  "Of course, you know I do." He replied, grimacing.

  "Have you seen the news?" Chloe asked, knowing that she was about a deal killer blow to her father's objections to Tariq.

  "What news?" The father replied, curiosity now replacing his quickly diminishing anger.

  Chloe allowed herself a small smile, both in appreciation of her father's mood, but also to reassure him that she wasn't as angry as she seemed. "The news from back home – from Saudi Arabia. Don't tell me you haven't seen it – I thought you and your exile pals were all addicted to reading the papers..?"

  "Oh, just tell me." Her father smiled, almost completely calm now. "Stop beating around the bush."

  "Okay, okay." Chloe smiled. "Tariq forced his father to step down and retire completely from public life. He doesn't approve of his father's behavior any more than you do – and he's proved it, not just by saving me, but by cutting h
is own dad out of his life, and making it so that the man can't do any more damage… What more can I ask?"

  The shock registered on Chloe's father's face slowly like a wave breaking on the shore. First, he crinkled his eyebrows in mild confusion, and then his forehead descended into an undulating series of hilly frowns, and finally his eyes widened in surprise. "No…" He breathed. "Surely not?"

  Chloe nodded, smiled. "See? I told you he was a good man."

  Nabil rested a hand on the wall as though he was fighting for his balance. "But that means…"

  "It means you could go home, if you wanted to." Chloe replied, smiling.

  Her father shook his head, clearing it of distractions. Chloe noticed with concern that her father had gone as white as a sheet. "Go… Home?" He said haltingly, as though the thought had never occurred to him. Her own anger completely dissipated by now, she closed the distance between them and laid a calming hand on his shoulder.

  "Yes, dad." She said soothingly. "If you wanted to, I mean. You don't have to…"

  He didn't say anything for a couple of seconds, and Chloe was stuck between two minds – should she keep pressing, or let him work out the issue on its own? After all, the man had spent decades as an exile from his country of birth, and had probably never expected he would ever be allowed to go back. Not as a free man, anyway. She held her tongue and waited.

  "I'm sorry, Chloe. I was a fool." He finally admitted, unable to meet her gaze, his voice croaking with emotion.

  "No, dad – it's fine. I understand what it must mean to you. And I didn't know until a couple of days ago – you know, how badly his father had actually treated you…"

  "I've got to apologize to Tariq." Her father muttered under his breath. "I'm ashamed…" He tailed off.

  "Ashamed of what?" Chloe asked, surprised. She'd never heard her dad talk in this introspective manner before – he'd always been a sort of idealized figurehead for her, so this was new and unsettling.

  "Ashamed." Her father began, pushing himself off the wall and beginning to sound more authoritative, more composed and more under control. "That I allowed myself to treat a guest like I just did. I've shamed myself, and your mother."

  "Dad…" Chloe began, doing her best to hide the slight sense of mirth in her voice. "I think your reaction was understandable, given your history. I'm not sure you shamed mom – that's a bit, I don't know, old-fashioned, don't you think?"

  "Maybe it is." Her dad agreed, walking with his head still hung slightly in embarrassment back towards the kitchen. "But when you get to my age, you're set in your ways, Chloe."

  "Dad." Chloe said again, in the kind of tone of voice that practically halted her father in his steps. "I'm proud of you."

  "You're proud of me?" Her father said with astonishment. "After the way that I just acted? It was childish."

  "No, I'm proud that you admitted it. I suppose – well, I don't know really. I suppose that's the way you raised me…"

  "No, Chloe. I'm proud of you, and I shouldn't have let my own personal feelings interfere with how I treated you. Especially," he smiled with embarrassment, "given how wrong I was."

  "Don't worry about it." She smiled, closing her hand into a fist and raising it in front of her – an old tradition between the two of them. "Truce?"

  "Truce." Her father agreed with a grateful smile, meeting her fist in the air with a gentle bump, before affectionately resting his arm around her shoulder. They walked back into the kitchen intertwined, only to face the concerned looking gazes of their respective partners.

  Chloe's mother was the first to break the silence. "Things… all sorted out then?" She asked hopefully.

  "I think so." Nabil agreed with a smile. It may be that I –." He paused, hanging his head again slightly in shame while searching for the right word. "No, scratch that. I definitely overreacted. Tariq – I hope you can bring yourself to forgive me? The way I treated you was not only unfair, but unacceptable. I'd understand if you can't bring yourself to – I'm ashamed that I could treat someone – particularly a guest in my home – the way I treated you. My daughter," he turned to Chloe with a loving and apologetic look, "has educated me on the sacrifice you've made to be with her, and I can't thank you enough…" He tailed off, as though he didn't know how to finish his long, heartfelt apology.

  Tariq sat there for a second considering his response, and Chloe looked to him nervously. She didn't think that he would react badly to her father had just said – but then, she knew he must be in a delicate emotional state, perhaps more than any of the rest of them, given that he'd just cut his family off…

  "Don't mention it." He said casually. "No offence taken."

  "Are you sure?" Nabil asked uncertainly. "I mean, what I did was unacceptable –."

  Tariq cut him off with a smile. "I mean it, no offence taken! Listen – I understand why you had the response you did, and I don't blame you, not one bit." He looked round the table, saw Chloe's grateful smile and her mother's relieved expression. "Anyway… How about that dinner I was promised?"

  The request broker fee tension, and as Chloe's mother sprang into action, rattling pots and pans and preparing a feast the likes of which hadn't been seen since the return of the prodigal son, Chloe linked arms with her lover. She pulled him to one side and whispered into his ear.

  "That meant a lot to me. Thank you."

  27

  "You’re sure?"

  "I am, I'm afraid." Chloe said into the cell phone cradled in her hand. "To be honest, I'm not sure that I fit in with this kind of job. I didn't mind doing it when I was all the way down the pyramid just helping out, but I think it took trying to do the Gloucester job to teach me that maybe I'm just not cut out for this… I'm sorry, Rachel." She said sadly.

  "Nonsense, dear." Rachel replied firmly. "It's your choice, and I'm not going to stand in your way. The only thing I would say, though, is that most people don't have a single client in their entire careers with as much… baggage as Prince Tariq arrived with. If you did change your mind, I can almost guarantee you'd never have to deal with something that challenging again."

  "Thanks, Rachel." Chloe replied. "But it wasn't so much the challenge – it was coming to the realization that, Tariq excepted, I'm not sure that these are the kind of people I want to spend the rest of my life around, you know what I mean?"

  "I do." Rachel replied, her voice quavering with sadness this time. "Although, if I'm not wrong, you're just about to jet off with Prince Tariq, aren't you?"

  Chloe flushed, glad that Rachel couldn't see that her legs were draped over the Prince right at that moment as they sat in the back of one of the Gloucester's Rolls-Royce Phantoms on their way to the airport. "That's kind of different…"

  "I'm sure it is." Rachel chuckled. "I don't mind either way, as long as you're happy. Have a good trip, alright Chloe? And keep in touch, won't you."

  "Don't worry about that, I'm sure I'll be around like a bad penny."

  "You better be." Rachel smiled, and on the other end of the line, hung up.

  "How did that go?" Tariq asked with a concerned look on his face. "Everything okay?"

  Chloe smiled back at him reassuringly. "Don't worry about it – it's not your fault. I just didn't feel like I was cut out to work in that business forever. Far too stressful! Especially with people like you knocking about…"

  "I just want to make sure that you don't feel like I'm forcing this decision for you in any way…" Tariq said, his face still wrinkled with worry. "I know I came in and messed up your life, I feel guilty about that – I really do."

  Chloe chuckled and gave him a little kick with her heel, which was resting on his muscular left thigh. "Who says you made the decision for me? Trust me, you don't have that kind of clout – not yet, anyway. Even if my father seems to like you, I still haven't made my mind up…" She smiled cheekily, to make sure he knew she was joking. By the look on his face, she hadn't fooled him in the slightest.

  "Well as long as you sure?" He smiled back
sweetly.

  "I am. And anyway, I'm pretty excited – it's not often, well never now that I come to think of it, that I get to fly in a private 747…"

  "Oh, I see how it is." He joked. "You're only into me for my money, is that right?" He pouted, staring back at her behind his long, batted eyelashes.

  The Rolls-Royce Phantom slowed as they reached the gated exterior of Heathrow airport, and the driver rolled down his window as the guard waved them over. "Papers please." He asked in a strong Essex accent, and the driver handed them over without argument.

  The guard looked over, shining a torch at their passports, even though it was the middle of the day. Still, Chloe thought, it was November in England and therefore miserable, overcast and raining, so maybe he really did need the extra light.

  "My apologies, Prince Tariq." The security guard said, touching his hands to his cap like he was in an old movie. "I didn't mean to delay you…" He looked nervous, as though he might have made a mistake.

  Tariq rolled down his window and beckoned the poor man over, smiling. "Are you new?" He asked.

  "Yes, first week on the job, sir." The man answered, awkwardly bobbing his head.

  "You didn't delay me, don't worry about that. Keep doing your job, alright?"

  "Yes sir." The man smiled back. "And sir – thank you."

  "Don't worry about it." Tariq smiled, reaching out the window and patting the man on the shoulder.

  The guard rushed, beaming, to slide open the heavy metal gates and let them through.

  "That was kind of you." Chloe smiled. "What made you do it?"

  "If the last few days has taught me anything, it's that there's always space for a good deed." Tariq smiled as the car started moving again. "Maybe if my father spent more time being a normal human being, he wouldn't have cracked. Did you ever watch Star Wars?"

  "No." Chloe smiled seriously. "Why do you ask?"

  "No reason, really." Tariq said as they pulled up by the huge green and gold Royal 747. "I feel like my father somehow turned to the dark side – it's a bit cartoonish, really. But I've been thinking, you know, he wasn't always that way – something must have changed inside him. I want to make sure that that never happens to me."