by P. G. Van
“Yes,” she murmured looking away, unable to hold his gaze.
Almost thirty minutes later, Amy sat in the conference room fuming at the scene through the glass wall. The women lawyers and the girls in the intern program with her were crowding around Sid as he got coffee before their meeting.
She tuned out the comments the guys on her team were passing as she tried to address her reaction to Sid getting attention from her teammates. She looked away unable to handle the burn of jealousy spreading through her skin and told herself she was overreacting. She forced air into her lungs in a deep breath as she acknowledged she might be a bit more attached to her roommate than she had wanted. He was her first, but he was a pretty high bar for any other man to come close to. She shivered at the thought of being with another man and couldn’t push away the image of Side and her together.
I’m fucked.
Sid’s eyes bore into hers like he enjoyed her burning glare as he laughed walking into the room. Amy sat at the far end of the large oval table in the conference room with the guys while the three other girls pulled their chairs closer to where he was sitting at the table.
Sid stood up and started a lazy walk around the room as he spoke. “Good morning, everyone. I want to start off by thanking you for agreeing to work with me to help my government bring a group of radicals to justice.”
One of the girls who Amy admired for being the most passionate about her work was ogling Sid like she was all alone in the room. The girl’s reaction to Sid’s presence was the least annoying thing—her biggest annoyance was her reaction to their behavior. They had an interesting time together, but she wasn’t ready to accept it meant anything to her because of her uncertainty, but she was proven wrong every second Sid spent in the room. He seemed larger than life in his uniform as he spoke with a sense of duty about the situation they had ahead of them.
Amy gripped the soft leather of the chair as Sid walked closer to her and stopped right behind her.
“On behalf of the government, I ask all of you to help us identify the process to file the cases.”
“Why does an American citizen have to file the cases on citizens of your country?” Amy was the first to speak up after he was done giving an overview.
He grinned, his eyes gleaming. “The future queen of Edenridge has an American passport, and she is the only one who can file the cases against the outlaws.”
“Can your queen be crowned if she is not from your country? How is it that she is a citizen of America?” Amy was curious. She was finding out so much more about Edenridge and all she could think about was to start working on the research on international law.
“The Princess of Edenridge had to be raised outside the country to keep her safe. The Princess is the sole survivor and is the only one who will be capable of bringing the group down. We need to make sure we can bring them to justice.”
“Where is the Princess?” one of the interns interjected.
“We have identified her location recently,” his voice was soft.
“What charges will the Princess be pressing, Commander?” Amy could not contain her curiosity.
“Charges for hunting and killing every single person in her family including her parents.” A hush fell in the conference room, and Amy felt the moisture evaporate in her mouth and a few beads of sweat form on her forehead. She didn’t have to look at the others in the room to know how they were feeling. She knew why the royal family was killed, and it made her sick to her stomach.
Seven hours and a countless number of coffees later, she flipped through the pages of a ten-pound book on international law in one corner of the dusty reference section of the law firm. Sid was in the conference room with the senior partner and his battalion of men in black suits. She wondered why he suddenly needed all the security when he barely had anyone around him when he was at the apartment or when they were outside.
She looked up when she heard the door open and smiled at the dark eyes dancing with hers. Sid held a brown box and walked toward her. “Why do I get the feeling you are hiding from me.”
“Because I am,” she laughed.
“You can run, you can hide, but you can’t escape my view.” He winked placing the brown box in front of her.
“Sid, why do you need so much security now? Did you have all these people following you around all this time.”
“I had some security.”
“You don’t need so many people to protect you,” she teased.
“They are all your security,” he crooned.
“Stop kidding… what’s this?”
“As promised, I’m here to have dinner with you before seven. Lobster mac and cheese.” He opened the box making her drool.
“You didn’t have to bring me dinner,” she teased pulling the box away from him.
He smiled leaning in the chair.
“Where is your princess?” she asked digging her fork into her food.
“Right here.” He ran his thumb on the back of her hand.
“Cheesy,” she grumbled.
“Me or the mac and cheese?” He laughed making her catch her breath.
She looked at him for a long moment. “You helped me make a choice today.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve been debating between corporate and criminal law… I want to be a criminal lawyer.”
“I’m glad to be of assistance with your life choice.” He smiled brushing his lips over hers.
“I need you to leave now,” she ordered. “I need to finish my research before I head home.”
“Yes, ma’am. I have a meeting with the senior partner in a bit. I will see you back at the apartment in a few hours.”
“Be nice to my boss,” she teased.
“I’ll try.” He smiled and brushed his lips on her cheek before leaving her to enjoy her dinner.
Chapter 11
“Sid!” His name rolled off Amy’s lips like it was a curse word. She stepped into the living area and was greeted with silence. She took a moment to take in the dimly-lit apartment that always looked full when Sid was around.
She couldn’t remember the last time she came back to an empty apartment. He was either with her or was in the apartment doing his thing, but he had stayed up until she came back no matter what time she came home.
She growled his name, dropped her bag on the couch, and headed straight to the shower. Her mind was still in shock that the intern program was canceled for the rest of the summer. Each of the interns on her team was handed a check which paid for the rest of the summer and was sent home with recommendation letters.
The senior partner invited every one of the interns into the conference room telling them they had a big case they needed to focus and wouldn’t have time to mentor them for the rest of the summer.
When asked how they were suddenly overloaded, the senior partner declared they were working on a high-profile case for Sid’s government, and she had a tough time containing her anger—if only she knew before he disappeared with his battalion of men in dark suits.
“Fuck it!” She was so angry she slammed the bathroom door so hard the thin walls rattled. She had hoped to learn a boatload from the internship and didn’t expect to be sent home halfway through the program with a fat check.
The warm water from the showerhead burned her skin causing her to turn the faucet to cold. She had just finished washing her hair when she heard the bathroom door creak open.
“Fucking bastard. What did you do?” she barked at Sid through the shower curtain.
“Baby, where’s the love?”
“Seriously?” She pushed the shower curtain aside and flung the washcloth at him.
He caught the damp cloth before it hit his chest and smiled at her. “Are you suggesting I give you a bath?”
“Get out!”
“Baby, why are you mad?”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Why the hell did you ruin everyone’s internship program? What the heck were you thinking?”
“Amy, you have to hear me out and not try to kill me with your washcloth.” He walked closer to her feeling the heat from her glare on his skin.
She fumed at him in silence, her body wrapped in the dripping shower curtain.
“You’re so fucking hot right now, I want to bury myself deep into you.” He roared stepping into the tub and getting under the warm water fully dressed. He still had the form fitting shirt and the dress pants on.
“Sid… get out!” her voice wavered making him smile. She was angry, but he knew from the way her lips trembled she was turned on, too.
“You are way too precious to be wasting your time working for someone else.” His lips trailed along her cheekbone, but she stood frozen.
“It is not up to you to decide,” she spat.
“I’m responsible for you, your everything.” His teeth sunk into the side of her neck making her shiver and hang onto the shower curtain for support.
“I know they were good lawyers and sucked at being mentors, but that’s up to the other interns and me to decide what we want to learn to do or not to do,” she managed to say through clenched teeth as his tongue swirled over the pulse beating on her neck.
“Your time is too valuable… you are meant to do greater things.” He meant every word he said, and his other reason for getting the intern program canceled was for her protection. The building she worked in was a challenge to run a security detail.
“Sid…” her voice trailed off when she realized she had nothing to say, nothing to counter the depth in his voice which had a much deeper meaning. She was furious about not working at the firm for the rest of the summer. She didn’t like it when things didn’t go as planned. She was pissed but convinced with what Sid told her, convinced so easily it scared her.
She didn’t fight him when he pushed the shower curtains way from her body. “I also have my selfish reasons… I wanted you for myself and not have you spend all your time at the law firm.”
Amy shivered when he gently pushed her back into the stone wall of the shower, lifting one leg to open her up for his invasion. “You’ll be lying if you tell me you didn’t want me to take you on the table in the middle of the conference room.”
She moaned when she felt his fingers stroke her inner thigh. “Your uniform… I want you to fuck me in your uniform.”
“I can’t, but I’ll fuck you harder without the uniform.”
“Don’t make me wait,” she whispered, and it hit her she was falling for him or worse, had fallen for him.
“I’ll fuck you hard… till you pass out!”
*****
“I want to go back home,” she whispered taking his hand to her lips. She lay next to him, her back to his chest the next morning.
“What about your roommate? You can’t leave him behind.” He nuzzled her ear warming her skin.
“I think my roommate is going back to Edenridge.” She felt the lump forming in her throat after the words left her mouth. She didn’t want him to leave but knew his duty would take him away from her.
He moved the arm on which she rested her head making her turn to face him. “Your roommate is going nowhere without you, Amy.”
“Sid… I… I know you can’t stay here forever, you have a country to serve.”
“Serving you is my first and foremost duty.” He smiled, and she saw something else in his eyes. The words didn’t sound romantic, and she couldn’t read his tone.
“Would you stay back here…” she gulped down the words, “for me?”
“For you, yes.”
Her heart fluttered with joy as she buried her face into his chest, her arms tightening around him, but she knew she had to let him go, so he could do what he aspired to do— serve his country.
“Sid, will you please take me home?” She pulled away to look into his dark eyes that danced with her eyes.
“My pleasure, babe.” His lips brushed hers tenderly as she felt him suck away the doubts in her mind about the future of their time together. The sweetness of the kiss reminded her to stop and devour the moment and embrace the emotions that made her implode every time he held her to him.
*****
Almost five hours later, she looked at Sid’s Hummer which was fully loaded with her stuff in the back. Sid had a bag he had to pack, and she had multiple boxes most of which were kitchenware that traveled with her.
“I have no idea how my dad got all my stuff to fit in the minivan.” She laughed getting into the passenger seat.
“And you had room to get the rebel group guy into your car.”
“Yeah… did you ever find him?”
“Still out there. We have information he tried to look you up using your fake address.” He looked at the rearview mirror as he pulled out of the parking spot.
“Look me up? Why?” A shiver ran down her spine.
“He is trying to get hold of the memory card he accidentally or purposely dropped in your car.”
“Why would he drop it on purpose?” She shook her head disbelief.
“This guy was seriously hurt and wondered if he would make it. He probably didn’t want it on him if he didn’t make it. It was the only way for him to pass on the information he stole to his team… by dropping it in your van.”
“And hoping his team would have found my van easily just from looking at the video footage from the hospital parking,” she finished his sentence.
“Yes, I’m sure they tried more than one way to get hold of you…”
“Determined crowd.”
“Yes, they are obsessed with power and would go to any length to get what they want.”
“What do they really want?” Curiosity was building up.
“They want their own country, a country they create so they can make their people perpetual slaves.”
“Slaves? What the heck? In this day and age, we are talking about slavery?” She was furious.
“Yes, they don’t have enough people to work, so kids are also made to work for them.”
“What the crap is your government and all these humanitarian groups doing about it?” she growled.
“That portion of the country cannot be governed by the President as per the pact the King made with the leader of that province almost forty years ago. I know what happens there, the rest of the world doesn’t.” His voice seared as if it burned him on the inside just talking about it.
“Sid, I know about this pact. Is this the one where there was a huge fire accident, and the gas pipeline was damaged, and an entire village burned down?”
Sid took his eyes off the road and looked at her in disbelief. “How do you know about this?”
She rolled her eyes laughing. “My dad… let’s just say my way of learning geography and history was extremely high pressure and competitive.”
“I don’t understand. The information about the pact is not known to the rest of the world.”
“My dad is a history buff, and I loved hearing all the things he narrated, and this was one I couldn’t forget because of how many people were… burned alive in that accident.”
“Yes, it was tragic, but the conniving leader of that province took advantage of the King’s guilt and got him to write the pact. They claimed they felt unprotected by the then government and ended up making it a princely state.”
“So, how did they get out of control?”
“Well… when the King died, his son took over and tried to convince the people of that region to join the bigger nation, but before they could vote on it, the King’s son was killed along with key royal family members making it an ungoverned state. The leader took charge and forced the people by abide by his rules, and the ones who revolted were brutally killed, and the rest ended up becoming slaves.” Sid’s voice held a grudge.
“Sid, why can’t you just pull an Army operation on these morons?”
“Too many innocent lives at the mercy of these power- hungry animals, and the region is protected by mountains on one side and the coast on the other side making it a
hard target for a covert operation.”
“Do you have moles in that region?”
“I’m not at the liberty to speak to that.” He smiled looking at her.
“Hey, you know I’m not linked to those idiots. Why can’t you have a sniper as a mole in that region?”
“We did, and you are looking at one.”
“What? You were a mole? Holy crap, and you survived?”
He nodded, and she noticed how his chest heaved.
“Sid, are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Do you want to talk about what you had to do when you were a mole?”
He shook his head without responding, and she realized there was a lot more to the outwardly strong man she had known for over a month.
“If you had to do things you didn’t want to do, remember you did it to make the lives of all those people better. You shouldn’t feel guilty about it.” She watched his jaw clench and saw the ticking.
“How much time did you spend in the region?”
Sid was quiet for a moment before he responded. “Six years.”
“How old were you when you moved there?”
“Fourteen!”
“What? How were you a mole at that age?” She was taken aback.
“I lived in that region, went to school there, and joined their Army college and served for three years.”
“What the fuck?”
“I became a citizen of that princely state. I was one of them and had to build the trust to be accepted into the Army.”
“Did this rebel group take over the oil rigs along the coast?”
“Yes, they have too much money for their operations.”
“Did your family go with you?”
He shook his head. “Mom died when I was seven in an accident, and Dad worked for the government, so he had to stay back.”
“I’m so sorry.” She looked at him running her hand on his arm.
“I had no other choice but to go there by myself.”
“What? You moved there by yourself? How did you get there? How did they not suspect you?”
