“Oh, give me a break.”
“You think I can keep the peace in a kingdom like Zohayd by playing favorites? I am where I am, as effective as I am, because everyone knows my code and believes beyond a shadow of doubt that I would never compromise it. And I never do.”
Her eyes flickered before they hardened again. “Good for you. But I’m not telling you anything more. What will you do? Force it out of me like those thugs intended to?”
He ached with the need to erase that doubt, that fear, once and forever. He couldn’t bear that she could be uncertain of her fate with him. “I again swear that you are safe with me, in every way, no matter what.”
His gaze bored into hers, as if he’d drive the conviction inside her mind with the force of his, until she gave an uncomfortable shrug.
He knew that was all the concession he’d get now.
He exhaled. “With that settled, let’s get to other vital points. Now that I know you’re not the reporter you were…reported to be, and not the spy I suspected you to be, I am wondering if all this isn’t a case of catastrophic misinformation on all sides, if you weren’t kidnapped for the wrong reasons.”
She gave him an exasperated look. “Is that your roundabout way to get to the reason I was taken, the same reason you came to extract me? Okay, let’s get this out of the way. I came here following a lead that can prove my brother’s innocence. And I stumbled on information terminally damaging to the Aal Shalaans. I have no idea how your rival tribe, or you for that matter, got wind of that, and so quickly. Maybe when I emailed my brother’s attorney with the developments. So yes, I know why I was kidnapped. Your rival tribe wants the information I have to destroy you. You want it to avoid being destroyed.”
And though she was looking at him as if she’d like nothing more than to see him and his family “destroyed,” another wave of admiration surged inside him for this golden lioness who was here risking everything for her twin.
He at last sighed. “At least one thing turned out as I believed. But you said you were ‘given’ the chance to prove your brother’s innocence and refused to tell me who gave it to you. Don’t you realize that someone is orchestrating all this?”
A considering look came into her eyes. “Sure. Your point?”
“My point is, that someone cares nothing about you or your brother, you’re just one of the instruments they’re using to their end of causing the most chaos and destruction.”
She gave a slow nod. “I never thought they were doing this out of the kindness of their hearts.”
“Did they give you anything that might exonerate your brother yet?” She glared at him, then gave a grudging headshake. “Don’t you find it suspicious they only gave you information that will hurt the Aal Shalaans?”
Her eyes spat blue fire. “According to them, it will end your reign.”
He gritted his teeth at the very real danger of that coming to pass. “Didn’t you ask yourself how they intend you to use that information? How using it will help your brother?”
She shrugged again, her eyes losing their hard gleam, the first flicker of uncertainty creeping there. “I didn’t have time to think. I just got the info this morning, and within a couple of hours I was snatched. But I came to one decision. I wouldn’t give my kidnappers anything. For every reason there is. I knew I wasn’t walking out of that hole. So not only wasn’t I about to be party to your tribal feud, I sure wasn’t helping my abusers become the rulers of Zohayd and the abusers of millions.”
He stared at her. There really was no end to her surprises. Almost anyone in her place would have said and given anything for a chance to walk away from the situation. But he’d pegged her right in those first moments. She would rather die in defiance, for a cause, than beg for her life from someone she despised and have her survival mean untold misery to others.
He fought the need to pull her into his arms, chide her for being such an obstinate hero. The one thing that stopped him, besides the settling weariness of the whole thing, was that he knew she’d resist. Spontaneous expression of emotion was something he’d have to work on re-earning.
He at last said, “You seem to realize the gravity of the information you have and what having it fall into the hands of the wrong people can mean. Have you decided what you’ll do with it?”
Her shoulders drooped. “If I get out of this in one piece, you mean? I’ll solidify my facts first. Then I’ll think long and hard how best to use it.” She shot him a sullen glance. “I may announce it to the world, maybe paving the way for Zohayd to become a democracy at last.”
He raised both eyebrows, answering her surliness with sarcasm. “Like one of the so-called democracies in the region? That is the epitome of peace and prosperity, in your opinion? You want to save Zohayd from its current wealth and stability, from the hands of a royal family who have ruled it wisely and fairly for five hundred years and place it into the hands of hungry upstarts and militia warlords? And that’s only Zohayd. Do you have the first inkling what the sprouting of such a ‘democracy’ among the neighboring monarchies would do? The unending repercussions it would send throughout the whole region?” He waited until he again found evidence of his points sinking home, in the darkness of grim realization in her eyes, the tremor of ominous possibilities in her lips. Then he went on, “Even if we’re deposed tomorrow, and that doesn’t plunge the region into chaos, it still doesn’t help your brother. Or would you settle for avenging him, seeing his abusers punished, and leave him in prison for the rest of his sentence?”
“I don’t know, okay?” she cried out, her eyes flaring her confusion and antipathy. “I told you, I had no time to think. And it’s pointless to start right now. I’m in the middle of nowhere where I’m neither help nor threat to anyone. Ask me again, if I get out of this mess in any condition to be either.”
Before he could assert that he would do anything to see her to safety, she winced, almost doubled over.
His heart folded in on itself, mimicking her contortion.
Before he could move, she keened, lurched back, and a ball of panic burst in his gut.
He’d taken her word that she was fine. What if he’d left an injury she’d sustained unseen to that long?
He pounced on her, disregarding the pain the careless move shot through his side. He raised her face to his, feverishly examining its locked-in-pain features.