101 Nights Box Set: Volume Two Page 22
“Purge the government of my father’s lackeys and then send Hasan on a one-way trip somewhere horrible with the intent he doesn’t come back.”
There are moments when he really does scare me. I’m afraid to ask if his purge will be Lenin-style or the kinder, gentler American version where people are simply voted out of office. “I was thinking more like ordering the world’s hugest sundae and eating it with a pure gold spoon while wearing a crown,” I admit.
“We do need real food after two days of that shit you made.”
“You’re welcome for not letting you starve.”
“Truce,” Josh says from the front.
I gaze out the window. The city goes by slowly; the streets are packed with late morning traffic.
“I do like ice cream,” EJ says finally. “A sundae sounds good.”
I laugh. “And taking care of Natalie.”
“Yes,” he says more softly. “I left things off with her in a very poor state.”
“You dumped her.”
He glares at me.
“There’s no sugar coating that one,” I tell him. “You put her at the mercy of your insane father and then left her to deal with the consequences.”
His look is unreadable. “Yes,” he manages hoarsely. “I did. I made a mistake. But I plan on making up for that in every way possible, starting with her rescue.”
“And treating her like the queen she is for the rest of her life,” I add.
“Absolutely.” There’s warmth in his eyes. “Though you might be banished from the Kingdom.”
“Two words: Natalie, George,” I reply.
He smiles. “How serious are you about him?”
I flinch. Of all the questions he could ask, this is the one I can’t answer.
It’s EJ’s turn to chuckle. “Keep in mind if you fuck him over, you’ll be joining Hasan.”
“You aren’t the first to threaten me,” I reply.
“If you two are serious, then I’ll pay off whoever I need to.”
I look at him.
“Fine. I’ll do it anyway to keep Natalie happy.”
He’s resolute. He may not like me, but for his fiancé and best friend, he’ll shell out the millions it’ll take to appease Tony, the Russian mob captain I pissed off. The man I can’t stand will give me a second chance after I fucked up my life. I don’t know what to think of a clean slate, especially when it comes from EJ, who has hated me since we first met. It helps knowing he’ll do it because he has to and not because he really wants to. I can’t stand the idea of liking the person who’s taking my Natalie away or worse – of owing him anything. Ever.
But a new start. With George.
The idea terrifies me. I’m not sure why, except that I feel both grounded and a little out of control around him. I’ve never fully trusted anyone but Natalie. I have an inkling of where I stand with George, but …
“I recognize that look,” EJ murmurs.
I blink and realize I’ve been staring at him while deep in thought.
“Like standing on the edge of an abyss and trying to decide if you should jump or run away from the edge.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “It was an easy choice for you. You had Natalie waiting to catch you.”
“It’s no different for you. You have George.”
“I don’t know if I have him, though,” I say before I stop to consider if I should tell a man like EJ my deepest fear.
“When we find him, you can figure it out.”
“Just … ask him? Hey, are we a thing or not?” I joke.
“No. You tell him there’s a place in your life for him, and if he wants it, he has one chance to tell you so right then and there. Questions are weak. Issue an ultimatum. No matter what he chooses, you will have left him no room to make you doubt the situation. You’ll have closure either way.”
I start to smile. I like EJ’s directness sometimes, and the thought of saying something similar to George tickles the part of me that enjoys messing with him. “I can do that,” I respond. “You have to say it nicer to Natalie, though. You fucked that up. You need to show up with a sundae the size of a Mercedes or something just to start things off right.”
“Yeah.” He looks out the window.
At least he knows it, which soothes the edges of my resentment for everything he’s dragged us into.
“We’re here,” Josh announces.
The car draws to a halt in back of what appears to be an official building, a courthouse maybe. Three men in suits wait for us with dark glasses and Secret Service style earphones. We get out, and one of them opens the door.
Josh leads us into the building, his wary gaze taking in the plain hallway with its blank, white walls and fluorescent lighting. Another Secret Service style man, probably a member of the Nijalan Security Bureau, meets us at the first corner.
The three men who greeted us are trailing quietly. EJ isn’t remotely interested in the official protection, another reminder of how different his world is from mine. If I were walking down the street and saw these guys coming towards me, I’d run, because they would likely be coming to take me away for hacking someone I shouldn’t have.
To EJ, they’re part of the birthright of being a prince.
We enter an auditorium-sized room, and my breath catches.
It’s not a courthouse; it’s their congress or parliament, a round auditorium with tiered seating around a central floor. Several dozen men fall silent as we enter. They’re gathered with Malika in the open area where I imagine speeches are given. At the center of the space is a wooden table with a stack of paperwork larger than the pre-nup agreement Natalie told me EJ had her sign, and an oversized document that runs of the length of the table. It’s in Arabic, but if I had to guess, it’s probably a constitution or some other official, historic document that’s probably headed for a museum after this meeting.
Awe fills me at the scene. This kingdom is about to change in a way that will be documented in history books, and I’m here to witness it.
EJ comes to a halt before stepping onto the floor. I stop and glance at him.
His features are tight, and he’s looking at the scene before us with rare uncertainty. It strikes me that he’s a businessman, not a diplomat, one who never had any pretension about ruling a kingdom until recently, when his older brother died.
Malika is rounding up the men into some semblance of order I don’t quite understand, perhaps by seniority, if their ages are any indication. A second line forms on the other side of the table, and I see a blond man at the forefront wearing an American flag on his lapel. The others, presumably representatives from democratic or other western countries, behind him wear similar pins with the flags of their countries.
“Who are all these people?” I whisper to EJ.
“Ministers and parliamentary members who support our efforts, and ambassadors or official government liaisons, if there are no missions in country,” he replies.
“Wow.” Two photographers are setting up on either side of the table, too. “So you sign all that and then we can go rescue Natalie and George?”
“I imagine they have to depose my father.”
I shift. “Um, does that involve a guillotine?”
“I wish.”
“Alisha, this is official business,” Josh says and takes my arm. “We should wait outside.”
I’m grateful for it. There are entirely too many politicians in this place for my taste. “Go sign that shit so we can leave,” I order EJ quietly and nudge him.
He starts forward while I leave with Josh. We reach the hallway outside the chamber. I begin to pace, gauging how much time it’ll take for EJ to read the stack of papers, sign, pose for pictures, and then leave.
Hours, probably, and the bastard took my laptop. I can’t wait hours.
I throw myself into a chair near the door and manage to sit still for fifteen minutes before I grow too edgy. I can’t stop thinking about Natalie and her baby, about George and what conditio
n they’ll be in when we get there. I’m not religious despite my Catholic mother’s attempts to make me so, but I’ve been praying the past two days for Hasan not to torture or hurt the people I care about.
And even God can’t help EJ, if he does something to screw this up like refusing to sign because they forgot to kiss his ass.
He’s not in there twenty minutes when the doors open. I don’t expect to see him striding out and stand up, startled.
“You’re done?” I ask.
“I am.”
“Did you sign?”
“What do you think?”
My stomach sinks. Anger flares inside me. “If you fuck this up, EJ, I swear to god, I’ll –”
“Fuck what up?” he turns on me. “You think I’d put Natalie and George’s lives in danger over the fact I’m not allowed to call myself His Supreme Grace and can only refer to myself as His Grace?”
My brow furrows.
“Come on. We’ve got work to do.” He lifts the laptop tucked under his arm.
“Elijah!” Malika doesn’t sound happy as she emerges from the chamber. “Part of your official duties is to meet with diplomats.”
“You gave me twenty four hours to handle the situation with my father. There won’t be diplomats that survive his purge if I don’t take care of this,” he replies without turning.
“You … what are you planning on doing?” Malika demanded. “We have a plan. You can’t walk into the palace while your father retains his kingship.”
“Alisha!”
I scramble after him.
Malika starts addressing him in Arabic. My mother speaks to me in Spanish when she’s super pissed. Red creeps up EJ’s neck, but he ignores her. We round a corner to find George’s security team members milling with the Nijalan Secret Service agents.
“James, come with us!” EJ orders.
The large Iowan doesn’t correct him this time. I wait until we’re walking through quiet hallways before addressing EJ.
“What’re we doing exactly?” I ask.
“Going to see my father.”
“Doesn’t he want you dead?”
“Yeah.” He hands me my laptop. “I need you to turn off the alarm systems in a couple of spots.”
“We’re not going in the front door.”
“Absolutely not. We’re going in the side door.”
I smile. I kinda like this side of EJ, the no-nonsense command of someone who’s not about to back down from getting what he wants now that the obstacles have been mostly removed.
We make our way through the building and back to the car awaiting us. The moment I sit down in the backseat, I hop on my laptop. “So are you, um… a king?” I ask awkwardly.
“I will be in twenty-four hours, whether by force as Malika plans or quietly, as I prefer,” he replies. “I need him to surrender command of the military before I can storm the bay.”
“Not bomb it,” I remind him.
“We’ll see.”
“EJ! You know you can’t risk their lives or bomb your own bay.”
“It’s about to become my bay to do with as I please.” He pulls something from his pocket. “I need you to find my father first. I borrowed this from Malika.” He hands me a cell phone with a contact pulled up on it.
“Easy.” It takes me thirty seconds to ping his father. “Palace, west wing.”
“Josh, west entrance,” EJ directs the two men in front. “It runs off either a gate code or a remote control, Alisha.”
“Got it. What if your father won’t listen to reason?” I ask, focus on my laptop.
“We’re getting them out of there tonight. I’m not waiting another day,” he says. “George has six men here, and … I don’t think there’s a military commander alive who won’t want to be on the right team when it comes down to it.”
“So you’ll use your infamous charisma,” I say and snort.
“Or my cutthroat business deal-making skills.”
“We’ll need to be closer so I can isolate the signal for the gate,” I tell him, watching the Wi-Fi and internet traffic on my pwn pad, a tablet turned into the ultimate hacking tool capable of sniffing all active networks in my vicinity. It’ll identify the signal I need to hack for the gate. I plug it into my laptop. “Breaking into the palace on your first day. Kinda cool.”
EJ’s attention is out the window. He’s tense, and I suspect the reason. I dug up some squirmy information on his crazy father that makes me think he and his sister were abused growing up. He hasn’t been home in over five years, and if the tabloids are remotely accurate, the relationship between EJ and his father is nasty at best.
The car pulls up to the thick, metal gate on the side of the palace grounds that appears to be used by cargo trucks and the like. It takes me a few minutes to crack the gate code before the door slides open. The narrow road beyond it circles to side of the palace with loading docks. We follow it back and park in the employee parking lot close to the palace.
“Wait here.” EJ opens the door.
I lean over and take his arm. “Wait. You can’t go in alone.”
“I need to do this,” he replies.
“They’ll know who you are on sight! We don’t need any more messes, EJ,” I remind him. “You may be the King of Nijala, but I’m the queen of horrible ideas, and this is one of those.”
He settles back into the car and runs both hands through his hair. There’s a tremble to his hands I never thought I’d see.
He’s afraid. Of his father, if I had to guess. I don’t see him fearing discovery or guards or heck, even the devil.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask, beginning to understand just how much emotion is hidden beneath his icy façade. “You don’t have to do it this way. Let Malika handle him.”
“I want to look him in the eye and tell him face to face. I don’t want to hide behind my aunt,” he replies tersely. “I spent my life hiding from him, and I’m done.”
“Okay but let’s be smart about this,” I urge him. “If you walk in and someone recognizes you, what happens?”
He frowns. He doesn’t want to hear this, but my two-person rescue operation is about to become one, if he does something stupid.
“You get your ass thrown in jail, the ministers of your government are purged, and you lose any chance of rescuing Natalie,” I summarize. “You’re too smart for that, EJ. I recognize when emotion is in the way.”
EJ leans back with a sigh. “Then I hope you have a better idea. I’m out of them.”
It’s not normal for me to be the voice of reason. “Give me a minute,” I say and lean back. I type furiously onto my laptop keyboard and then switch to my pwn pad before going back to the laptop. “And … now.”
For a moment, nothing happens.
“Tomorrow, when you’re king, you’ll have to have your systems completely revamped,” I explain. “I just uploaded a virus that’ll take out everything: internet, alarms, surveillance, Wi-Fi, and any electronically controlled security measures.”
On cue, alarms begin sounding throughout the palace.
“People are going to be too confused to look twice at you, and in about five minutes, every active duty police officer and fireman in the city will be headed this way,” I add. “The rest is up to you.”
“Thanks,” EJ says dryly. “Guess who I’ll put in charge of fixing this mess?” He lifts his eyebrow at me.
“If that keeps me from the guillotine, great,” I reply. “Chaos should be breaking out right about now.”
He opens his door once more, hesitates, and then meets my gaze. “Thank you, Alisha.”
“No problem.”
“If things get bad, leave.” EJ closes the door.
As if. The only two people I care about are stuck on a tanker in the bay, and I’m not about to let the one man who can procure the army I need to rescue them to walk out on me. I settle back to wait and watch the progress of the chaos I unleashed on his palace.
Chapter Three: George
I ignore Natalie and set the meager daily meal of rice mixed with some sort of meat in front of her before returning to my usual place seated against one wall. It’s sweltering in the mini-oven that is our shipping container.
“George,” she chides me.
“You’re eating for two,” I respond. I was initially concerned about what Hasan, our captor, would do if he discovered Natalie is pregnant.
I’m relatively certain no one is listening. I’ve found no devices within our sparse surroundings, and the sounds from outside are infrequent enough to convince me someone only thinks of us twice a day when water and food are delivered. This isn’t an operation that’s being run with the intention of there being survivors. While I’ll never tell her this, I have a feeling Hasan doesn’t care what’s said in here, that this box is mean to be our grave after Hasan and EJ’s mad father get what they want from EJ.
“You’re the one who can muscle us out of here,” she points out. “You need your strength, too.”
“I’m fine,” I reply. Resting my head back against the corrugated steel wall, I gaze at the ceiling. The wound in my arm makes it harder to move it. Fortunately, it’s not infected. I can handle a slow down but not an infection. “You have names chosen for the baby?”
She pauses in her eating, a troubled look on her features before she shakes it off.
I can guess what’s bothering her. “You’re concerned about EJ.”
“I am.”
“He’ll move heaven and earth to find you,” I assure her.
“I know that. I’m not sure I want him to. I mean, I want to get out here. I’m just not sure what happens with him when I do.”
I keep quiet, not wanting to stress her more than she already is.
“He was pretty … clear about not wanting anything to do with me,” she whispers. “I’m not going to let a child change that.”
“He cares, Natalie. He loves you. Whatever was going through his mind the night you were taken, he was trying to figure the out best way to protect you.”
“From this?” she asks bitterly.
“Unfortunately.”