Marty stared back at him, not in horror but in confusion.
“Why?” She surveyed his expression carefully, watching the subtle emotions that flickered through his eyes. “When you first went to Saudi fifteen years ago, according to the file I had on you, there was a sense of alliance between you and your three brothers. What happened, Khalid?”
“They found out I was working against them,” he stated baldly. “And in doing so, I was responsible for the attack on the headquarters of a small cell based in Riyadh that was planning to infiltrate the royal palace and blow it to hell. The strike the government made against those headquarters resulted in the deaths of their wives. They swore then they’d destroy any woman I claimed as my own. It hasn’t helped matters that I’ve continued to attempt to destroy them over the years.”
Silence filled the limousine as Marty stared at him in surprise and pain. The grief that seemed to envelop Khalid drove a wedge of pain inside her chest. To see him, his black eyes flickering with sorrow, tore at her. A sorrow that his brothers had destroyed any hope of a future with any woman he could love, any child he might have.
Marty saw the agony he felt, that at no time had he ever been safe. That his friends, his family, that everyone he loved could be struck at any time. The weight of the knowledge must have been horrible.
Breathing in tremulously, she considered the options they had.
“What do we do next, then?”
“Tomorrow, I’m taking you to the club,” Khalid said, causing her lips to part, first in shock, then in mounting anger. “Ian has agreed to allow you to stay in a specially prepared area beneath the club for those members’ lovers, wives, children who are in danger. You will be safe until this is finished.”
Marty couldn’t believe what had just come out of his mouth.
“Ian is not going to allow me back in that club,” she informed him. “Not after tonight.”
“The agreement has been made,” he informed her. “The rooms beneath the club are safe, Marty. Neither Ayid or Aman, nor their assassin, can get to you there. You will be completely sheltered.”
She looked at Shayne. Once again, he had found something else to direct his attention to.
“The fucking scenery isn’t that interesting,” she burst out as he stared out the window. “Did you know about this? Did my fathers?”
Shayne turned to look at her and cleared his throat. “It’s a rule. All members have to be informed in the eventuality of this. No names are given, nor the location of where you’re staying. Simply that you are staying on the property and that your protection is assured by the club. That means we’re all responsible for your safety and well- being.” He stared directly at her then. “And we take it very seriously.
“Well, bully the hell for you and your club members!” she sneered. “But you can count me out. I do believe I have other plans.”
“And those plans are?” Khalid wasn’t happy, but at the moment, she really didn’t give a damn. She couldn’t believe he would dare attempt to stash her someplace safe while he and Shayne got to run around having fun catching terrorists. It wasn’t going to work out like that.
“Anger Thornton is hosting a party in two nights,” she informed them both as she sat back and crossed her arms over her breasts. “I’m scheduled to be there, as are the rest of the very powerful and elite here in D.C. There’s enough gossip at those parties that if a person catches the right whispers, they may very well get a clue as to what is going on.”
“We attend the party and do what?” Shayne asked. “We have no idea who to watch, question, or kill. You’re reaching Marty.”
“As long as I hide, Ayid and Aman will never show their faces or their intentions,” she snapped back at him. “Put me out there. Show them we’re not frightened, that we intend to fight back, and you’ll piss them off. You’ll make them move.”
“And risk your life?” Khalid said as he leaned forward and all but shoved his nose against hers. “I don’t think so.”
Marty watched Khalid. It wouldn’t work without his cooperation, without his help. He would have to be there with her as well as Shayne to present the correct image and to incite the brothers who hated him so desperately.
“I don’t need your permission,” she stated coolly. “Don’t make this mistake, Khalid. You can work with me. I can even follow your lead. But I’m not a helpless little homebody that’s going to be content to sit in some basement and twiddle my damned thumbs while you’re out having fun catching the bad guys.”
“I can’t believe she’s pissed off because she thinks we’re going to have fun!” Shayne said.
“Call it what you will.” She shrugged negligently as Khalid leaned back slowly. “Either way, you can work with me or I can work alone. Anger’s party is perfect for this. There’s always a fair number of Saudi businessmen in attendance, and trust me, those guys gossip worse than any other men I’ve ever met.”
Khalid glared at her. She glared back. She wasn’t backing down. She wasn’t going to hide and play dead and hope the monsters went away. She was going to fucking slay them.
Long moments later elation seared through her at his slow nod. “Under the right circumstances, the right controlled conditions,” he agreed. “And with your fathers’ supervision.”
She wanted to roll her eyes at the thought, but a part of her also agreed with him. Her fathers could ensure her safety as well as lay a trap that could catch anyone who may be watching or tailing them. If they caught the assassin, if his brothers were in the States, then the mole would be revealed, it was that simple. Khalid’s sexual lifestyle was a sore point with the royal family, considering he was distantly related to them, she knew. Their faith didn’t allow for the extremities which Khalid had made a part of his life.
“Dad and Zach can arrange the security we need as well as any extra surveillance to watch for your brothers and their assassin,” she said. “It could be the chance we need to put an end to this.”
“If they take the bait,” Khalid pointed out, his voice, his expression dark and brooding now.
“We’re the bait,” she told him. “The very fact someone has already struck at me assures it.”
“My original suggestion stands,” Shayne drawled, his tone dangerously low now. “Someone would be doing the world a favor if Ayid and Aman simply disappeared.”
Marty couldn’t help but agree, from a personal standpoint. As a law enforcement agent, though, it was a harder call.
Khalid simply said nothing. His gaze remained locked on her, his eyes black, a flicker of light, like white-hot flames, gleaming in tiny pinpoints with the raw emotions she could feel tearing through him.
“Come to me.” He held his hand out to her once again. “If you have to risk your life in such a way, then I’ll at least have what you’re willing to give me for now.”
Marty restrained an instinctive flinch at the harsh tone of his voice. But she couldn’t deny him. She knew how he felt. Knowing the danger he faced, that he had faced most of his life, left her insides shaking with fear.
Moving slowly she closed the distance between them, allowing him to draw her into his arms.
The second he did so, she melted. The warmth that surrounded her abated her previous anger and struck a spark to the flames of arousal that simmered, ever present, within her.
The intimacy she had missed in his bed was there now, as though he needed to hold her, to cushion her against his chest to assure himself that she was safe, that she was his to touch.
And he intended to touch her.
Tipping her head back, he didn’t ask for permission to kiss her. As though the very thought of the danger she could be facing spurred the need he felt for her, his lips and tongue took hers with a hunger that burned through her.
Holding her to him with desperate hands, and lifting her closer to him, Khalid ate at her lips, licked at them. He drew her into a sensual, heated world where nothing mattered but his touch and the desires raging through her now that she was in his arms.
It felt as though it had been ages. Centuries. It had been too damned long. It had been since this afternoon, and as far as she was concerned, that was a lifetime ago.
As he kissed her, as his hands roved over her back, her hips, she felt the touch of another’s hands at her thighs.
Shayne.
It wasn’t a shock; it was an addition to the pleasure, a sensual, erotic enticement that stoked the fire burning inside her higher, hotter.
“I’ve wondered who held your heart.” Shayne’s voice was a caress against her senses as Khalid’s lips stroked
