Seized by the Sheik

by Ann Voss Peterson

  “I know this is delicate. I’m sorry. I told him there was nothing to worry about. That you would never let a mere woman sway you from doing what you felt was right for your country, let alone an American woman who will profit more than anyone if this oil deal goes through.”

  “What did Fahad say?” He wasn’t sure why he wanted to know. What good would it do? Fahad was dead. And Callie…he knew she wasn’t trying to manipulate him.

  “Just that this woman was doing all she could to get close to you.”

  He pressed back another surge of anger. He couldn’t stand the thought of anyone talking about Callie this way. And about him, as if he was being led around like a dog.

  “Whenever he turned around, he said she was there, trying to catch your eye.”

  Efraim thought of Callie riding toward him on the BLM. He’d thought it was unusual she’d come after him. At least he had before he’d learned it was Stefan who had sent her. But not for a moment did he feel as though Callie was trying to manipulate him. No, she wouldn’t.

  “He was concerned she would…”

  “Would what?”

  “Find her way into your bed. Take unfair advantage to see that this agreement of hers went through.”

  He shook his head. He’d known Fahad had as many reservations about COIN as he had. No, probably more. But for him to insult Callie this way… It was good that Efraim hadn’t known about his call to Darek until now.

  “There is no danger, Darek. If I choose to remain part of COIN, I will do so of my own free will.”

  “That’s what I told Fahad. Who knows? Maybe he was jealous. He said she was quite beautiful. He always liked blondes.”

  Efraim gritted his teeth at the thought of Fahad or any man coming on to Callie. “Yes, maybe that’s it.”

  “May he have many blondes waiting for him in heaven,” Darek said. “I have to go, Efraim. Please call when Amir is found, if not before.”

  “I will. And thank you, Darek.”

  “For what?”

  “For helping me gain some perspective, as always.” Efraim ended the call just as he caught sight of Callie striding toward the truck, blond hair fanning out behind her in the gentle night wind.

  She climbed into the driver’s seat, a small smile on her face.

  A smile that gave Efraim a warm shiver.

  Darek wasn’t right about Callie, but that didn’t mean Efraim didn’t have to be careful. Her effect on him seemed to grow with each minute they spent together. “You found this Tanya?”

  “No, but I have a full name and a place to look.”

  He returned her smile, although his felt like it lighted his whole face. He was ready to get some answers or at least narrow down the possibilities. “Then let’s go.”

  Callie drove a few blocks out to the edge of town and turned into the parking lot of a late-night diner. “Tanya Driscoll works here. Brent says if she isn’t at the Tumbledown, she’s probably working.”

  “Brent? Your brother?”

  She nodded, but offered no more.

  “He knows her?”

  “He knows of her. Says she moved to town about two weeks ago.”

  “Just before we arrived for the summit.”

  “Right around the time we finalized the plans.”

  The parking lot was less than half-full, late-night diners who left the bars early, no doubt. She swung the truck into an empty space and switched off the engine. “Not that we know the timing is related.”

  “You think her arrival is just a coincidence?”

  “I didn’t say that. I just think we need to know more before we jump to conclusions.”

  “Then let’s hope Tanya can give us more.”

  They got out of the pickup and made their way into the diner. A smattering of customers sat at the tables, chatting a little too loudly and smothering their night’s drinking with burgers and breakfast foods. Silverware rolled in paper napkins perched on empty tables, waiting for the night’s rush at closing time. In a town the size of Dumont, this must be the only twenty-four-hour diner, the place to go for the after-bar crowd.

  Efraim and Callie stopped at the hostess stand and waited for a man wearing a crumpled dress shirt to look up from a laminated sheet mapping all the tables in the restaurant. Efraim peered at the sheet, taking in the black marker splitting the tables into two sections, the names scrawled in the middle of each.

  “Excuse me,” Callie said. “We were wondering—”

  “Can we sit in Tanya’s section?” Efraim interrupted.

  Callie looked up at him with arched brows.

  “Tanya. Sure.” The man scooped up two menus printed on a single sheet of laminated paper. He drew an X through one of the squares representing tables on the chart and motioned them to follow.

  He stopped at a window booth, set the menus on the table and left.

  Callie slid into one side of the booth. Efraim took the other. She picked up the menu. “Hungry?”

  He realized for the first time that he hadn’t eaten all day. “Actually, yes.”

  “Might as well order. Maybe she’ll be more forthcoming if there’s the promise of a tip in the balance.”

  Efraim spotted the woman who must be Tanya long before she reached their table. She was a good-looking girl, medium brown hair that curled seductively around her shoulders. She wore a white shirt like the man at the desk, but hers was unbuttoned low enough to earn her some extra tips. An apron pulled tight around her hips outlining her slim body as effectively as a slinky dress.

  She stood in the doorway to the kitchen, talking to someone they couldn’t see. Her lips moved quickly and her body leaned forward, as if she was telling someone something urgent. She was too far away for him to hear what she was saying, but something struck him as out of place.

  Finally she scurried into the dining room with a tray of food. She stopped at a nearby table and delivered the plates, then moved to a table of four men who’d just taken their seats, their voices loud and faces flushed from a night of drinking. At least they weren’t wearing T-shirts telling Efraim and “his kind” to go home.

  Small favors.

  Having finished flirting with the men, Tanya reached their table, order pad in hand. She turned a smile on them so brilliant and perfect that it looked as if it were made of plastic like a Barbie doll. “So what can I get the two of you tonight?”

  They ordered a couple of burgers with fries and the works. Tanya thanked them and was about to turn away when Callie gave the woman a big smile. “You’re Tanya. Tanya Driscoll. Right?”

  The false smile fell from Tanya’s lips. “Yeah. So?”

  “You hang out at the Tumbledown Tavern?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Nearly every night you aren’t working is what I hear.”

  Her frown deepened. Without the smile, Tanya looked older, harder. And there was something about her that bothered Efraim, like what he’d felt while watching her earlier. Something wasn’t right. If only he could figure out what it was.

  She glanced toward the kitchen as if plotting her getaway. “So I like to party. What of it?”

  “Nothing.” Efraim gave a little chuckle. “We were just wondering if you knew a friend of ours.”

  “A friend? Who?”

  “A cousin.” He pulled the matchbook from his pocket and held it up to her. “You gave this to him. Fahad Bahir.”

  She didn’t bother to look at the matchbook. “So? He’s not married or anything, is he? If he is, I didn’t know about it.”

  Efraim didn’t answer. There was something about Tanya’s casual quip that wasn’t exactly off the cuff. He wasn’t sure he could put his finger on it, but something felt rehearsed in her speech. As if she was trying very hard to seem nonchalant.

  “So you wanted him to call you?” Callie prompted.

  “Sure. Men like me. So what? Is that a crime?” She focused on Callie, as if her questions might be simple jealousy talking.

  Efraim wanted to la
ugh. As far as he was concerned this woman should be the jealous one. Everything about Callie felt so sincere, so candid. But Tanya? Even her candidness felt false and forced. “Did Fahad call you?”

  “No. But I saw him at the bar. And afterward.” She smiled at Efraim, not taunting, but inviting.

  “Did he know that you were also seeing other men?” Callie asked.

  Efraim narrowed his eyes on her, unsure who she was talking about.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. It was not as if he gave me a ring.”

  Efraim didn’t want to ask the question, but he had to. “Were you seeing anyone else who is staying at the Wind River Ranch?”

  “Men have money. They want to spend it on me. I’m not going to say no.”

  He would take that as a yes. “Who?”

  She shrugged, as if it was all horribly unimportant. “Cute man from a country called Nadar.”

  “Fahad was from Nadar,” Callie said, frowning.

  Tanya rolled her eyes. “Not Fahad. He was cheap. He only bought drinks. This other one…” She smiled. Her hand rose to a beautiful stone pendant on a chain around her neck. “He knew how to treat a lady.”

  The back of Efraim’s neck prickled. “The generous one, what was his name?”

  “It started with a K. I think it was something like…”

  A weight descended on Efraim’s chest. He didn’t know how this piece fit in a puzzle about an American shooting Fahad, but it gave him a deep feeling of dread all the same. “Kateb.”

  Tanya smiled. “That’s right. Kateb.”

  Chapter Ten

  Callie and Efraim sat and wolfed down their burgers in silence. But even as hungry as she was, Callie knew their lack of conversation wasn’t caused by their need to eat. It wasn’t even caused by the shocker Tanya had delivered and the need for both of them to let it sink in.

  From the moment Tanya had uttered Kateb’s name, Callie knew she’d made a big mistake in not telling Efraim her brother, too, had dated their waitress. She hadn’t done it for the simple reason that she’d known he would take that as proof that Russ had shot Fahad. And that she was afraid of the consequences, whether it was true or not. The consequences for the bond that was growing between them. The consequences for her own dreams about what could possibly be.

  Stupid.

  She dug into her burger, not even able to taste the meat and bun and cheddar cheese.

  Efraim was first to break the silence. “I’m afraid I might owe you an apology.”

  “You don’t.”

  “No, I thought the man who shot Fahad was American because of his voice. Maybe I was wrong.”

  She shook her head. There was more. More Efraim didn’t know. “I found out something else at the tavern.”

  “Something about Kateb?

  “No.”

  “I thought he was acting strange when we returned to the resort tonight.”

  She shook her head. She didn’t know if Kateb had something to hide, if what Efraim obviously feared was true. But she knew he didn’t have all the facts. And when she told him the rest, she had the feeling he wouldn’t be happy. She had to figure out how to soften the blow. “You can’t be too hard on Kateb. Grief affects people differently. None of us know how we’d react to news of our brother’s death.”

  “That might be true. But Fahad and Kateb, they weren’t close. They were like me and my brother. They shared blood, but they didn’t always see eye to eye.”

  “I often don’t see eye to eye with my brothers.” An understatement, especially lately.

  “But you are not rivals with them.”

  “This has happened before with women?”

  “Women. Cars. Homes. Guns. You name it. Kateb is always trying to outdo Fahad. And more often than not, he fails.”

  “Then he should be used to it, right?”

  “Not Kateb. I think the rivalry made him hate his brother. And I think Fahad enjoyed egging him on.”

  Callie’s mind scrambled to catch up. “But you said the man who jumped you had an American accent.”

  “Kateb went to school here in America.”

  “But his accent—he doesn’t sound like a local.”

  “No. Not now. Now he is used to living in Nadar. Working in Nadar. He has reverted to his original accent. But he is still able to speak like an American. He does it often for fun, like a parlor trick. He’s very good at it.”

  “And you don’t think you would have recognized his voice?”

  He shrugged a shoulder. “He could have disguised it. I was not expecting to know the voice. And now that I think back, it could have sounded like him.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible, but I think there are other explanations.”

  “Like what?”

  That was her opening. She needed to tell him.

  She set the rest of her burger down on the plate. Her stomach felt like it was being squeezed by a strong hand. She never should have eaten something so heavy, so fast. She hoped to God she wasn’t going to be sick. “Like the Russian mob.” She choked down the nausea with disappointment in herself. She’d taken the easy way. She’d had the perfect opportunity to bring up Russ’s history with Tanya, and she ducked out.

  Efraim stared at her, as if something she said had changed his whole way of thinking.

  Or was it something she hadn’t said?

  She shook her head. Efraim had no way of knowing that her brother had also dated the ever-popular Tanya. No way of knowing that he was just the type of hothead who might take offense to a man like Fahad horning in on his territory. Callie didn’t believe Russ would shoot Fahad, kill him in cold blood. There was no way. But she needed to tell Efraim nonetheless. She’d worked too hard to win his trust to keep anything like that from him now.

  She was just afraid of what he’d do, what he’d think, once he knew. What he’d think about Russ.

  And what he’d think about her.

  She pulled in a deep breath and pushed ahead. “There’s more. I also—”

  Efraim held up a hand to stop her. “Russian. That’s it.”

  “The Russian mob?” She frowned. They’d talked about the sniper who’d attacked Stefan and Jane. They’d discussed the possibility that the mob wanted to stop the COIN summit. That they’d sent the sniper to do just that. That they might have planted the bomb. Or shot Fahad. This was common knowledge they’d discussed many times.

  So why was Efraim acting like it was some big revelation? “I’m sorry, Efraim. I’m not following.”

  “Tanya. Before she came to take our order, she was standing in the kitchen doorway talking to someone, someone I couldn’t see.”

  Callie glanced at the kitchen entrance behind her. No one was milling there now. “What did she say?”

  “I don’t know. I couldn’t hear anything from this distance. But something about the conversation seemed strange to me. I couldn’t figure out what. Until now.” His dark eyes gleamed with whatever he’d discovered.

  Callie leaned forward, arms on either side of her plate. “What was it?”

  “Russian.”

  She shook her head. That was what he’d said before, and she still wasn’t following.

  “The language,” he explained. “Tanya and whoever is in the kitchen were speaking to each other in Russian.”

  A frisson of fear shot up Callie’s spine. “You think she might be working for the Russian mob?”

  Efraim gave a shrug, but the curve of his lips told her that that was exactly what he was thinking. “Maybe our little waitress doesn’t like to party as much as she says. Maybe she’s interested in something else entirely.”

  HIS REALIZATION having quashed both his and Callie’s appetites, Efraim threw some American dollars on the table for a tip and stepped up to the cashier to pay their bill. Tanya seemed to have vanished after they’d grilled her, never filling their water or coffee, never returning to the neighboring tables, never even poking her head out of the kitchen.
>
  Callie shifted her feet on the low-pile carpet and scanned the restaurant. “Did everyone leave? Where’s the host who seated us?”

  Other diners craned their necks, as if wondering the same thing.

  Efraim peeled a couple of twenties from his wallet and plopped them on the seating chart. “That should be more than enough.”

  Callie looked at the money. “I’ll say.”

  He moved a hand behind her back and ushered her to the door. “We have to get out of here.”

  “Do you think they know we’ve figured something out? Is that why everyone has disappeared?”

  “I don’t know. But I don’t want to wait to find out.” They had to get back to the Wind River Ranch and Resort. They would be safe there, and they needed to tell the other royals about this latest development. Who knew what other men in their entourages had fallen under Tanya’s spell? Who knew what information Fahad or Kateb might have unwittingly given away? They had to circle the wagons, as the Americans said, and figure out what to do next.

  Kateb. He needed to talk to Kateb most of all. Efraim felt a headache coming on at the thought of the two brothers fighting over a woman who’d been playing them the entire time. How ironic that Fahad had voiced his doubts about Callie to Darek when all the while, he was flirting with a woman who wanted to see all of them dead.

  And who was actively trying to make it happen.

  The parking lot was full of cars, but no voices, no people. Except for the crowd inside the diner, the town felt as if it was shutting down for the night. Somewhere in the darkness, a coyote howled.

  They circled the diner heading toward the back lot where they’d left the truck. As soon as they’d rounded the corner, Efraim slowed.

  When they’d arrived, two lights had illuminated the back lot, a streetlight and a light perched on the diner’s back wall. Now both of them were dark.

  A scan of the lot and he knew why.

  Shadows loitered near the pickup. Two men. Their arms hung by their sides. Efraim couldn’t see their hands, but he guessed they weren’t empty.

  Efraim grasped Callie’s elbow and pulled her to the side of the building.

  She turned to him with wide eyes. “Do you think they’re—”