Kitabı oku: «Prince Under Cover»

He drew in a deep breath, then said on the exhale, “I’m not Zahir.”

Miah’s ears buzzed. Had she heard him right? She frowned so hard her face ached. “What did you say?”

“I am Prince Javid Haji Haleem of Anbar. Zahir is my twin brother.”

“Bull.” Miah laughed at the absurdity and glared at him. “Zahir hasn’t got a twin.”

“Yes, he does. Me.” His voice was so impassioned, his expression so earnest, her fury faltered.

Her skin burned. She’d met Zahir last January, had dated him, spent time with him during these past six months, but she’d never noticed when one twin took the other’s place? No way. If that were true… No. That was too humiliating to contemplate.

Dear Reader,

We have a fabulous fall lineup for you this month and throughout the season, starting with a new Navajo miniseries by Aimée Thurlo called SIGN OF THE GRAY WOLF. Two loners are called to action in the Four Corners area of New Mexico to take care of two women in jeopardy. Look for Daniel “Lightning” Eagle’s story in When Lightning Strikes and Burke Silentman’s next month in Navajo Justice.

The explosive CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL continuity series concludes with Adrianne Lee’s Prince Under Cover. We just know you are going to love this international story of intrigue and the drama of a royal marriage—to a familiar stranger…. Don’t forget: a new Confidential branch will be added to the network next year!

Also this month—another compelling book from newcomer Delores Fossen. In A Man Worth Remembering, she reunites an estranged couple after amnesia strikes. Together, can they find the strength to face their enduring love—and find their kidnapped secret child? And can a woman on the edge recover the life and child she lost when she was framed for murder, in Harper Allen’s The Night in Quesiton? She can if she has the help of the man who put her away.

Pulse pounding, mind-blowing and always breathtaking—that’s Harlequin Intrigue.

Enjoy,

Denise O’Sullivan

Associate Senior Editor

Harlequin Intrigue

Prince Under Cover
Adrianne Lee

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

When asked why she wanted to write romance fiction, Adrianne Lee replied, “I wanted to be Doris Day when I grew up. You know, singing my way through one wonderful romance after another. And I did. I fell in love with and married my high school sweetheart and became the mother of three beautiful daughters. Family and love are very important to me and I hope you enjoy the way I weave them through my stories.” Adrianne also states, “I love hearing from my readers and am happy to write back. You can reach me at Adrianne Lee, P.O. Box 3835, Sequim, WA 98382. Please enclose a SASE if you’d like a response.”

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Miah Mohairbi—Finding out she’s a real live princess betrothed to a real Prince Charming puts this Chicago-raised all-American woman on the roller-coaster ride of her life.

Javid Haji Haleem—The Prince of Anbar is keeping secrets that could get not only himself killed, but Miah, too.

Zahir Haji Haleem—Javid’s twin brother wants to rule the world, and will stop at nothing to gain this end.

Sheik Khalaf Al-Sayed—Miah’s newly discovered father is like a fairy godfather, lavishing her with riches and adoration. Could he be anything but what he seems?

Big Tony De Luca—This former wrestling champion now publishes a tabloid that thrives on lies and innuendo and seems to be waging a vendetta against Javid.

Bobby “The Buzzard” Redwing—Is this paparazzo as much of a vulture as his nickname implies?

Cailin Finnigan—Does Miah’s best friend have pre-knowledge of events because she’s fey, or because she’s behind the danger?

Rory Finnigan—Cailin’s brother is suddenly spending money he hasn’t earned tending bar.

I dedicate this book to those we lost on Sept 11, 2001, for not only were they lost to their families, friends and co-workers, they were lost to us all.

We will never forget.

SPECIAL THANKS to all the men and women in our armed forces. God bless you and keep you safe, and thank you for risking everything to keep our wonderful country free.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Epilogue

Prologue

Martha’s Vineyard

“Hurry, Javid,” Zahir Haji Haleem urged his twin as they raced up the stairs to the second level of their American grandparents’ Victorian summer house, their movements as quick and furtive as the warm, sea-scented breeze stealing in through the open windows.

Their destination: the attic, that forbidden refuge of irresistible treasures—Grandfather Hayward’s stash of antique war relics, daggers, swords, helmets and rifles. All were tinged with a musty scent of bygone days, of mysterious lands, of adventurous times, their lure irresistible. Especially after Nana Hayward, ever fussing at Grandfather about the dangers of weapons and “boys being boys,” insisted he store “that junk” away under lock and key. Grandfather had informed Nana that what she called “junk” belonged in a museum. She’d suggested he put them in one, but he refused to part with even one item. In the end, he’d stored them in the attic not only under lock and key, but with an alarm system for protection against theft.

The rattle of the keys Zahir had taken from Grandfather’s desk brought Javid up short. He hesitated as Zahir worked the right key, disarmed the alarm, shoved the door wide and quickly ducked inside.

Torn between the pull of temptation and the push of wrongdoing, Javid held back, weighing the pros and cons of disobeying Father. He could no more help his prudent nature than Zahir seemed able to help his reckless one. His brother was forever rushing into mischief as though he didn’t understand right from wrong, as though he hadn’t been taught the same virtues as Javid, as though his DNA makeup was the polar opposite to Javid’s.

But that was impossible.

They were identical, their fourteen-year-old faces mirror images, down to their pitch-black hair and date-brown eyes, down to their love of competition, their need to win.

But there were differences.

The boys—sons of Anna Hayward, American playwright; and Salim Rizk Haleem, Emir of Anbar, a small oil-rich nation on the Arabian Gulf—had inherited traits, good and bad, from both parents’ diverse gene pools.

While Javid hated incurring Father’s disapproval, Zahir, who would one day succeed to the throne of Anbar, seemed to relish it, as though his manhood relied on his asserting his will, on defying authority. Javid, younger by five minutes but quicker both mentally and physically, worried that this streak in his brother was more than defiance. There had always been in his twin something ruthless—something dark and indefinable.

“I’ve found the case, Javid. Come.” There followed a click of a latch being opened. “Ahh.”

Zahir’s sigh held pleasure as thick as the velvet protecting the specially lined case that cradled the matching daggers, and despite Javid’s struggle with right and wrong, he was seduced into the attic by the thrill swirling in his belly. He hurried to Zahir’s side, shoved back a hank of unruly raven hair and eyed the weapons, the prize of Grandfather’s treasures. Father had given them to Grandfather on the day of the twins’ birth. One had been forged in Anbar, the hilt shaped like the head of a king cobra, the other forged in America, the hilt shaped like a bald eagle. The daggers represented the equal halves of the twins’ heritage. More than once, the boys had been warned not to touch the dangerous weapons—which made touching them ever more tantalizing.

Zahir fingered the solid gold hilt shaped like the head of a king cobra. Full-carat rubies served as eyes. The twenty-two-inch blades were curved at the tip and honed to razor-keen edges.

“Careful,” Javid cautioned as his brother lifted the bald eagle-headed dagger and presented it to him, hilt first.

Javid gathered the handle in both hands, surprised at the heft, at the surge of something almost electric that undulated from his grip into his flesh, heating his veins as though the weapon possessed the potency of lightning, as though it had imbued him with the power and strength of the eagle. A grin tugged at his mouth, and he lifted his gaze to meet his brother’s.

Zahir’s handsome face was alight with wicked pleasure, and Javid’s guilt at touching the forbidden object dissolved in a soft chuckle. He hoisted the blade chest level and took an offensive stance learned in fencing classes. “I am Khalaf, Sheik of Imad, come to slay the Emir of Anbar and claim his country as my own.”

“I will see your blood ground into the sands, hyena,” Zahir spat, accepting the challenge with a fierce arch of one ebony eyebrow. He raised his dagger, the curved blade glinting in the lamplight as it connected with Javid’s. The ensuing metallic clink echoed in the vast attic, but neither boy feared discovery. The adults had walked into town and would be gone for at least an hour.

The swordplay ensued with exuberance, the boys thrusting and parrying, leaping and sidestepping, kicking up dust as they ducked between antique dressers and tables, their excitement raising their voices.

Javid laughed, danced, light on his feet. Sweat popped across his forehead, beneath his arms, at his groin—and he grew bolder. Confident in his ability to best Zahir as he always bested him in fencing class.

They leaped and dodged and darted dangerously close several times more. But the heavy dagger was not an epee and soon its heft made Javid’s arms ache from the weight. But he would not give up. Or in. Not with victory in sight. For Zahir was also tiring. He could see it on his face. Tasting triumph, he swung at Zahir as Zahir dipped toward him. Too late, he wrenched the blade back. Zahir yelped, dropping his dagger and grabbing his ear. Curses spewed from him.

Javid stood horror-stricken at the injury he’d inflicted on his brother, at the blood seeping between Zahir’s fingers. All the guilt he’d abandoned earlier rushed at him now and the dagger slipped from his hand, clattering to the dusty floor near his feet. “Zahir, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

Zahir’s furious growl cut off the apology. He lunged. His head rammed into Javid’s gut, punching the wind from him, knocking him off his feet. Javid’s spine smacked the floor. Zahir landed on him, pinning him down.

Blood from Zahir’s wound—not to the ear, but behind it, he realized—dripped onto Javid’s dusty, sweat-smudged T-shirt. He started to apologize again, but the fierce hatred emitting from his brother stilled his tongue.

“You did this on purpose. Your jealousy offends me, Javid. You must always best me. Humiliate me. As though you, and not I, deserve to be the next Emir of Anbar.”

“No—” Javid choked. “Accident.” Stunned at the accusation, he tried bucking Zahir off, but Zahir, in his fury, possessed inhuman strength.

“Well, that will never happen, brother.” Zahir grabbed something off the floor and scooted higher on Javid’s chest, cutting off his intake of air.

Then Javid saw it, the eagle-headed dagger that moments before had been his confederate. Fear shot through him. He wrenched against his twin’s hold. But for once, Zahir was faster. He sliced a small X into Javid’s chest, right over his heart.

Javid’s breath hissed as the pain and his shock gave way to fury. “Let me up, Zahir!” Blood sprang from the wound, wetting the front of his shirt. “We’re even now, brother.”

“Even?” Zahir’s laugh chilled Javid. “I don’t want to be even. Not with you. Not with anyone.”

Pure hatred shone in Zahir’s eyes, a light so clear it was as if a window had opened on his soul. Javid shuddered at what he saw there. “Get off me, Zahir.”

“X marks the spot.” Zahir lifted the eagle-headed dagger high, the ruby eyes as bright as fresh blood. He meant to thrust the blade into Javid’s chest, right through the X he’d sliced there.

“No!” Javid bucked. Twisted. Squirmed. He couldn’t get free. He was going to die.

“Zahir!” Their father’s voice resounded in the murky attic. “What is this madness?”

Zahir scrambled off Javid. “Nothing, Father. We were playing war. Javid lost.” Zahir gathered control of his expression, his manner and voice now contrite, humble—as though he hadn’t meant to kill his brother.

But Javid knew. He shoved up on his elbows, struggling to drag in a deep breath. His ribs felt bruised. The cut on his chest burned. But it was a deeper pain that immobilized him, a wrenching sadness, a sense of great loss, a disjoining of some vital part of himself, as though the dagger had plunged into him and severed the blood cord between himself and his twin.

No apology could heal the wounds inflicted this day.

He and Zahir were no longer allies, but enemies. From here on out, Javid must watch his back.

Chapter One

Chicago—present day

July

“I won’t lie to you, Ms. Mohairbi.” Dr. Elias Forbes’s long face seemed even longer this afternoon, his slanted eyes grayer, as solemn as his tone. He tapped his pen on an open file folder. “Your mother’s condition is deteriorating. The sooner she gets that heart transplant, the better.”

Miah clutched her hands in her lap, reminding herself to breathe. Her mom’s name had been on the national registry for ten months now, but so far no donor had turned up with Lina Mohairbi’s rare blood type. All they could do was wait and pray as precious time, time she might not have to spare, slipped away.

“Should I be preparing for the worst?”

“Well, now, I can’t—”

“Darling, don’t put Dr. Forbes on the spot,” her mom said, interrupting the doctor.

The door to the examining room had opened so silently, Miah blinked seeing her mother standing there. Lina Mohairbi crossed the elaborately appointed office in this exclusive section of Chicago on Lake Shore Drive, touched Miah’s shoulder with affection and settled her tiny frame on the neighboring chair.

As the doctor repeated for Lina what he’d told Miah, Miah considered the pair, thinking it odd that though this man held her well-being in his hands, her mom could not bring herself to call him by his first name, as though she believed keeping their relationship formal somehow preserved or increased his surgical skills.

But Miah knew Elias Forbes was just a doctor. A better doctor in every way than that cold-blooded jerk at the neighborhood clinic who had treated her mother like one of the mannequins she used to dress in Macy’s windows—before becoming too ill—instead of a living, breathing woman who deserved compassion along with a diagnosis.

Thank God, Fate had stepped in and given them the means to afford this doctor whose credentials were impeccable, who kept his patient load small these days in order to pursue other interests, professionally and privately, in his spare time. She’d been assured he was the best surgeon for the job. Lina’s best chance of surviving. Worth every cent he was costing. But she liked what she’d seen with her own eyes, in particular his concern for her mother and his attention to detail.

Miah shoved a thick lock of long ebony hair from her cheek. “I was trying to get the doctor to give us an idea of how much longer we should expect before a donor comes available.”

“Well, now—” The doctor started once again, tapping the pen with renewed vigor as though punctuating the point he hoped to make. “That’s just it. We could have one tomorrow. Or next week. Or—”

“Next month,” Lina added. “Or the month after that.”

The doctor winced, and Miah’s stomach dipped. His dour expression confirmed her worse fears. Her mom was rapidly running out of time. Miah wanted to scream. Instead, she gave herself a mental slap. Panic would serve nothing. Only depress her mother. Frighten her. Stress her out. Weaken her ailing heart more. Miah had to stay positive. Upbeat. No matter what.

“Miah, Dr. Forbes is giving you his best guess. That’s all he can do. We knew from the start that my rare blood type was a factor. But on the upside, it also puts me on a much shorter waiting list. So, we’re going to live for today. Enjoy every moment we have together and leave the donor up to God.”

“That’s the attitude, Lina,” the doctor said. “At all costs, continue to avoid stress.”

Avoid stress, Miah thought with bitter irony. Six months ago, the clinic doctor had prescribed that very medicine. And as though he’d been predicting disaster on the horizon, stress arrived on their doorstep within days of the warning—striking like a tornado. But with the tornado had come the wherewithal to secure this doctor, and his care had managed to keep her mom stable through all of the heartache and all of the joy; even too much good news could bring stress.

No more extremes, Miah determined. She would see that stress stayed far from her mom in the days ahead.

“Oh, one thing more, Doctor.” Lina scooted to the edge of her chair. “Will I be able to travel overseas at the end of the month?”

“No, no, no.” He glanced up from her chart, shaking his head. “It’s out of the question. Not only should you avoid flying, you need to be near the hospital should a donor become available.”

“Oh, of course.” Her mom looked chagrined, as though just remembering the doctor had already told her this a while ago.

Miah wondered if the heart problem was cutting off or short-circuiting some of the blood circulation in her mother’s brain, affecting her memory a bit.

“Don’t frown, Me-Oh-Miah,” her mom said, teasingly calling her by the pet name she’d used since as far back as Miah could remember. “I’m not happy about missing your coronation and the royal wedding in Nurul either, but that’s okay. It has been an incredible and lucky time for both of us, darling. It’s no good to be selfish. To want more.”

But Miah did want more. So much more. She wanted her mother’s heart healed, healthy. But if her mom wasn’t going to survive, wasn’t going to be lucky enough to find that special donor, Miah didn’t want whatever time they had left shadowed by negativity. She covered her mother’s tiny hand with her own much larger one, feeling these days as though she were the protector, the parent, and forced a grin.

“All right. I’m smiling. See?”

“That’s better, darling.”

As the doctor wrote something more in her mother’s chart, Miah and Lina sat in silence, holding hands. Miah wrestled with the inner struggle that consumed most of her days lately. Last winter, she and her mom had been getting by paycheck to paycheck. Then the tornado had swept in, picking up their lives and spinning everything around and around, then counterclockwise, so that when the dust settled, nothing looked the same.

The unpredictable winds of change had dumped on them a golden rainbow, a key to utopia. Wealth beyond their wildest imaginings. Of course, there were conditions attached, but experience had taught her early on that most things in this world came with conditions.

Miah could still taste the desperation she’d felt just before then, and recall the desperate bargaining with God. She’d have sold her soul to save her mom. Fortunately, the required conditions asked considerably less of her.

She touched her engagement ring—a white-gold band with a three-carat diamond surrounded by emeralds on one side and blue sapphires on the other. Her betrothed said the ring was an heirloom, passed from his grandmother to his mother to him. No, Miah didn’t regret the bargain she’d made. It had given her options she’d never dreamed possible.

Her first priority had been this doctor.

Lina smiled. “At least I’ll be able to give my daughter away at her wedding tomorrow.”

Miah squeezed her mom’s hand. The arranged marriage—the main condition attached to the golden rainbow—would bring her a royal title, her own wealth, the incredible and new sensation of everyone treating her as if she were special, making her feel special. On the other hand, she barely knew her groom-to-be, and that scared her. She had, however, kept this secret worry to herself.

She glanced lovingly at her mom. Lina seemed even smaller than usual, frail. Her lips a bit blue beneath her pink lipstick. Even her hair, which had always been thick and black like Miah’s own, was thinning, graying. Her mom didn’t need to know about Miah’s misgivings. Couldn’t deal with even one extra burden. She needed to smile as she was smiling now, a Mona Lisa glow in her brown eyes.

Lina stood. “I’ve been afraid, Dr. Forbes, that I’d finally be joining my darling Grant, leaving our daughter without either of her parents to see her married. Or that I’d be bedridden, in which case Miah would insist on the ceremony taking place in my hospital room.”

“I would do it, too.” Miah gathered her purse and rose.

“Yes, I know. But I’ll be grateful if a donor doesn’t show up tomorrow to spoil your wedding.” Lina’s smile widened as she joked. “Day after tomorrow would be fine, though, Dr. Forbes. See if you can arrange it.”

Laughing, she winked at Miah, and Miah allowed herself to embrace the joy she saw in her mother’s eyes, that she felt trickling through her worry. Life had held so little happiness in the past, she still struggled with accepting the good things that had befallen them these past six months. She’d wake up some nights in a cold sweat, certain it had all disappeared because she’d believed in it too much, enjoyed it too much.

“Go and enjoy yourself.” The doctor held the door open. “You’re a fighter, Lina. Just keep fighting.”

Miah ushered her mother out of the doctor’s office, down the hall and onto a crowded elevator. All the while, she mulled over the doctor’s last words. As far back as she could recall, her mom had had to fight for everything. She’d been widowed when Miah was twelve. Grant Mohairbi had been a freedom fighter in his youth, and a firefighter later on. He’d died a hero’s death, rescuing three small children and their mother from their blazing apartment building, before being overcome with smoke inhalation.

Grant and Lina had shared the kind of love everyone strives for and few find. He had been a wonderful father to Miah. His loss had devastated them both.

But instead of falling apart, as she had had every right to do, Lina had wanted to honor Grant’s memory, make him as proud of her as she had always been—and remained still—of him. She had picked up her five-foot frame, gathered her ninety pounds and assessed their situation, then threw herself into doing whatever it took to keep a roof over their heads.

The survivors’ pension had only stretched so far. Lina had worked two minimum-wage jobs, coming home worn-out, but always finding time for Miah—helping her with homework, listening eagerly to her talk about her day, keeping their connection strong and intact—before falling exhausted into bed.

So tight was their bond, Miah had never had an inkling she was adopted. It had come as quite a shock, one she still battled to believe, even with daily, hourly proof staring her in the face.

Like the chauffeured limousine awaiting them at the curb, provided by her birth father—her real-life fairy godfather—Sheik Khalaf Al-Sayed, a multimillionaire oil mogul. It amazed Miah how quickly a person could come to accept luxuries as the norm.

The chauffeur helped Lina into the back seat, then turned to Miah. “Ms. Mohairbi, I found this on the floorboard. I thought perhaps it had fallen out of your pocketbook.”

Miah frowned, accepting the envelope. The moment she recognized the block lettering, she froze. This hadn’t come from her purse. Someone had placed it in the car. When? How? “Did you leave the limousine unattended at any time, Mehemet?”

His black eyes became evasive. “Only one moment…to answer nature. But I lock first.”

“Okay.” It was a silly thing to lie about, but she knew he couldn’t have locked the car. Otherwise, the note would not have been in it. And it was unlikely he’d seen whomever had put the envelope inside it. She quickly read the enclosed note, feeling the heat drain from her cheeks.

“Avoid stress,” the doctor had said. But this…this… Miah squished the blackmail note in her fist and shoved it into her pocket. This would bring her mother’s ailing heart to a dead stop.

Miah squelched the urge to curse and got into the car, letting the soft leather embrace her. She’d thought the first payment to the vile extortionist would be the end of it. But there had been a second demand. And now another. God, how naive she’d been. He wanted ten thousand more or he’d ruin her wedding. Destroy her mother. Start a scandal that could strip her of her future. She stared out the window as the limo merged with traffic. She hated the shivering in her stomach that felt as if she’d swallowed a full glass of ice shavings.

Fear.

Truth didn’t scare Miah. Lies did.

Perhaps that was because she’d discovered last January that her whole life had been a lie. Had Grant Mohairbi’s life also been a lie? Had the father she’d grown up loving, adoring, honoring been who her mother and she had thought he was? Had he been a freedom fighter? A hero? Or had he been a mercenary? An assassin?

“Darling, is something wrong?” Lina touched her clasped hands. “You’re very pale. For a moment there, you looked absolutely…terrified.”

“Terrified? Don’t be silly. No, no,” she managed to say in a tone that sounded normal. “I was thinking about the wedding. Nothing for you to fret about, honest.”

But her mom’s brow knit, a sign she wasn’t going to let this go so easily. “Are you having second thoughts about marrying someone you’ve been betrothed to since you were a baby?”

She doubted anyone would blame her if she were having second thoughts, but she couldn’t afford them. She had agreed to the marriage without coercion from anyone, agreed to it for all that it would give her—including her own money, an enormous inheritance that would allow her to pay off the extortionist once and for all. She said, “No second thoughts.”

None she would admit to out loud, anyway. Not to her mother. Not to herself. Outside, stifling damp heat prevailed; inside, air-conditioning froze the sweat on Miah’s brow.

“You’re going to be a beautiful bride, darling.” Lina touched her hand as the car inched along in heavy morning traffic. “I’m so excited about tomorrow.”

Miah’s internal alarm went off, shredding all thoughts of the blackmailer’s note. “Well, you don’t want to get too excited, Mom. Perhaps you should take a nap this afternoon.”

“That sounds like a great idea, but not if you’re going to pace the floors, bored while I rest.”

“I’m not going to pace. Fact is, there are a few minor details, a couple of items for my trousseau I want to pick up. So, I’ll be plenty busy.”

The limousine pulled up to their building farther along Lake Shore Drive. They occupied a penthouse with a magnificent view of Lake Michigan. It was a far cry from the tenement apartment they’d called home for most of her life.

Miah walked Lina through the lobby to their private elevator. “I’m just going to change into something a little more comfortable.”

“MORE COMFORTABLE” was impossible for Miah to achieve. The ice chips in her stomach still had her shivery half an hour later. She had to get the money and drop it off before one today, and it was nearly that now. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass doors as she exited the apartment complex. Her long, lean legs flashed from beneath the scrap of hot pink skirt that hugged her slim hips, while her slender upper body sported a neon green, sheer top over a creamy camisole. Her thick, blunt-cut raven hair swung across her mid-back and shoulders with every step, and framed her face…which looked shades too pale at the moment.

Her outfit drew a look of disapproval from the chauffeur as she met him at the curb. She climbed into the back seat of the limo and waited until he closed the door, then tugged on the hem of her short skirt. Her mother had tried to steer her toward the conservative styles she favored, but Miah needed variety. Color. Flash.

Making her clothing allowance stretch had meant shopping in consignment stores and thrift shops. Even though she could now afford to buy her favorite designers new, or spend thousands on a single blouse, she still shopped in the same stores she’d always frequented.

She liked her style. But no one else seemed to. Not her mother, not her newly discovered father, and especially not her fiancé. Too bad, she had decided. She was who she was. Nothing could change that. And today, she needed the “old” Miah more than ever to get through the next hour.

The chauffeur intruded on her thoughts. “Where would you like to go, Ms. Mohairbi?”

Oh God, she’d been daydreaming, wasting time she didn’t have. Her heart moved with uncomfortable quickness. “Chicago First Federal, Mehemet.”

Miah tried relaxing, but the traffic moved with aching slowness while time seemed to spin off the dial of her wristwatch. Would the blackmailer keep his threat if she was late? Would he send his vile story to the editor of The Clarion, a local tabloid that thrived on exposés and half truths? Her father, the sheik, had warned her that a scandal in the States could affect her acceptance by the people of Nurul. She could not afford to let this story get out. Not even if it were a lie. She tapped her foot, feeling ill, helpless, muttering, “Hurry, hurry, hurry.”