The Book of Joshua I - Trust (The Gems & Gents Series 2)

by Iris Bolling

  “According to Tobyn about an hour ago.”

  He heard the man move. “Did she see our visitor?”

  “I believe he had left before she was brought to appear before the Queen.” The man seemed to relax at the woman’s words. “The Queen is questioning her now. What will you do if the girl learns the truth?”

  The man sneered, “The girl is not an issue. Once her role is complete she will die.”

  “I don’t want her here. You lust after her. It was only due to the Queen’s plan that you did not have your way with her. Banish her from our lands.”

  “You do not order me. Your duty is to pleasure me,” his voice eased. “Bow before me. I wish to be pleasured, now.”

  For a moment, Joshua thought he would have to intercede. It sounded as if the King had physically injured the woman from the sound of her gasp. That, he could not allow. However, from the sounds of things, the King was now being pleasured, for he could hear the man’s moans. It may not be the most professional picture, Joshua thought as he pulled his handheld device out and snapped pictures of the King and the woman. He looked at the picture. Technique wasn’t bad, he thought as he sent the picture to Ned, with one word-identify.

  There was a knock on the door. “My King, Queen Sermyera is en route,” a man’s voice came through.

  Joshua watched as the woman attempted to get up, but the King held her head in place. “Finish,” he commanded. The woman was trapped and had no choice but to comply. Once the deed was done, the King fell back on the bed and the woman fled out a side door. The King closed his robe just as the doors opened.

  Joshua shifted his position to get a better view of the woman walking through the door. She was regal, as she walked through the sitting area of the bedroom. He snapped her picture.

  “Tarik, the transfer has been completed.” He could hear the joy in her voice. “We now have the funds needed for our mission.” She ran into his arms and they embraced.

  The King held her once the kiss ended. “Sanctions are still in place my sweet. We must kill the American who threatens our throne.”

  “The delay of Akande’s mission in America was necessary. The opportunity to add significant funds to our accounts was fundamental to our mission. If we are frugal we can survive off the funds we just received.”

  “I am King. I should not have to be frugal.”

  She took the Kings arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Soon, very soon, Akande and the American will be dead. The lands of Asmere and the surrounding countryside will be under our control. Then we can again live without fear.”

  “Where is the girl?”

  “I have ordered Tobyn to take her to the basement.”

  “Why.”

  “A reminder of her purpose was necessary.”

  “The girl is too strong willed. You should have allowed me to tame her.”

  “She will be on her journey soon.” Sermyera stepped away. “As our friend promised, an American saved Princess Zsa Zsa and Akande. This American, he has connections in Washington. His presence will reduce the time Akande will need to establish a relationship with the Senator.”

  “How is it possible if Akande is here?”

  “She will be back on her journey to America very soon.”

  “For twenty years now, I have been denied the life of the King of Asmere. I do not like our fate being in the hands of a girl.”

  “All we need her to do is get an audience with the American. The rest will be taken out of her hands.”

  The King smiled down at her. “You have a contingency plan?”

  The two laughed.

  Joshua had heard enough. Pulling out his handheld, he had to find another escape route. There was no way he could leave the way he had entered for the couple were now seated on the balcony. He pulled up a schematic for the palace, then slipped from behind the drapes and out of the room. Now he knew a Senator’s life was in danger. He had to find out who. Akande was going to have to lead him to the target. Before they reached the states, he had to find out what happened twenty years ago.

  Chapter Ten

  At precisely six p.m. there was a knock on her door. Shelly nervously looked around at the dining room one last time. The table was set, the china was sparkling, wine was cooling, everything seemed to be in place. As she walked through the hallway into the living room she stopped by the mirror just to check her appearance. She smoothed her hair down just to make sure it was neat, then she rubbed her hands down her size twelve frame to calm her nerves. When she got to the door, she took a deep breath and opened the door with a smile. It quickly turned into a frown, then confusion.

  “Ms. Shelly Knight,” a man dressed in a black suit, white shirt and tie, flipped an ID and badge at her. “Secret Service Agent McNally.” He turned and pointed behind him. “Agents Johnson and Scott.” He stepped inside past her, with the other two agents in his wake. “We need to search the premises. It shouldn’t take long ma’am.” The two agents briskly walked through the living room. One went in the direction of the kitchen and family room, the other went upstairs. Agent McNally stood next to her, discreetly scanning the living room.

  “What is going on? Why are you doing this?”

  “National security, ma’am.” He continued to look around. “Is anyone else in the house ma’am?”

  “No,” Shelly replied a little frustrated. “Why do you have to search my home?”

  Agent McNally turned to her. “As I said ma’am, national security.”

  The man from the kitchen walked back into the living room. “All clear,” he said then disappeared as if he was never there. All Shelly could do was stare at the man’s back as he walked out the door.

  A minute later, the other agent appeared from the back staircase. “All clear.” He also disappeared out the door. Agent McNally nodded his head to someone outside, then turned to her. “Have a good evening, ma’am.”

  When Agent McNally walked past her, Shelly looked up and there was Royce Davenport standing on her front porch, as if he appeared out of nowhere. The entire process took all of two minutes, but it left her already frazzled nerves shaken. “What in the hell just happened?” she asked looking out the door at the men now departing in a black SUV, which had been parked in front of a black sedan.

  “Security detail,” Royce replied as he also watched the SUV pull off.

  “Well, what are they doing?” she asked seeing the two men still outside her home.

  “I’m afraid they will remain until I leave.”

  She stood in the doorway staring at him with a quizzical look.

  “May I come in?”

  “Of course,” she shook her head. “I’m sorry.” She closed the door behind him as he walked in. “This all took me by surprise.” They stood there for a minute staring at each other. Then her manners kicked in. “Please,” she said with a motion of her hand, “Do come in.”

  He held up a bottle of wine in a carrying case. “Peace offering.”

  Taking the gift she smiled. “Thank you. I should be giving you a peace offering.” She walked to the left towards the family room. “Please make yourself comfortable while I put this on ice.” He watched as she continued into the kitchen, which had an open connection to the family room. Smooth jazz was playing in the background. Najee, he thought. Taking a look around, gave him a sense of home. From the moment he walked in the door, that’s what it felt like, home.

  The furniture looked comfortable, with an overstuffed matching sofa and chair set. Not like some homes he walked into that felt like a museum. No, this felt good. There was a table at the corner of the sofa and a coffee table with an arrangement of callas and tulips in a glass vase. On her walls there were pictures of her and her foster sister, and some of an older couple. “Are these your parents?”

  Shelly looked where he was standing, and thought the room looked small with him in it. “Yes,” she replied as she walked over extending a glass of wine to him. “My foster parents.”

  �
�Thank you,” he said as he accepted the glass. “Do you keep in touch with them?”

  “We did. They have both passed away now.”

  “My condolences.”

  “It’s been awhile. But, we do miss them. Please, have a seat. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes. I just put the bread in the oven.”

  He raised an eyebrow, “You made bread?” He asked as he sat on the sofa.

  “Homemade rolls.” She nodded as she sat in the chair.

  “Yeast rolls?” He smiled.

  “Laid them out this morning,” she explained. “They had all day to rise.”

  “Do you do this every time you have to apologize to someone?”

  She lowered her head and smiled. “Believe it or not, it’s a rare occurrence. I’m usually a pretty nice person.”

  “There’s something about me that brings out the opposite reaction?”

  “No,” she anxiously replied. “No, I did not mean to insinuate that at all.” She looked up to see him smiling, and exhaled with a grin. She cleared her throat. “Please,” she placed her hand over her heart. “Allow me to apologize properly.” She placed her glass on the table, then unconsciously ran her tongue over her bottom lip and sat forward with her hands clasped together in her lap. “I sincerely apologize for my actions and the words spoken. I have never behaved that way in public. My only excuse was that I was upset and disappointed with the outcome of the meeting. However, that gave me no right to speak to you in that manner.” She looked up at him. “Please forgive me.”

  It took a moment for Royce to compose himself. From the moment he followed her curvy body into the family room, he had been trying to control his reaction to her. When she gave him the glass of wine, their fingers touched and heat, the likes of which he had never known, surged through him. Now, she sat there nervously licking her lips and all he could think about was how her tongue might taste. What on earth was wrong with him? He was a forty-five year old man who knew damn well how to control his body.

  She was trying, really trying not to jump the man’s bones. After all he was a United States Senator. There was a certain amount of decorum, she had to maintain in his presence. But, damn if he didn’t look good and smelled even better. Lord, the way he looked at her was as if he had stripped her of every stitch of clothing. If he didn’t stop soon, she was sure her body would burn away the fabric just from his stare. “Senator?”

  He looked up from her lips. “Royce.” He repeated it when she looked confused. “My name is Royce.” They sat there gazing at each other as if there were nothing else important in the world.

  The alarm from the oven buzzed. “I’m burning!” Shelly blurted out as she abruptly stood. “Not me,” she fluttered pointing in the direction of the kitchen. “The rolls! I need to take the rolls out!” She almost ran into the kitchen.

  Royce sat back a moment, closed his eyes. Whoa. Okay get yourself under control. He exhaled, and stood. “Do you mind if I remove my jacket, it’s a little hot in here?”

  Shelly had the pan of rolls in her mitten clad hand as she looked over to see him remove his jacket. “Sure,” she replied, “You can remove anything you like.” She snapped her fingers, catching herself. “I mean, you know, make yourself comfortable.” Still standing there with the hot pan in her hand, she watched as he walked into the kitchen.

  “It smells good in here. May I help you with that?” He nodded towards the pan of rolls in her hand as she stared up at him.

  “No.” Clearly shaken by his nearness, she quickly sat the pan on the island. “Why don’t you have a seat in the dining room while I butter you...these down?”

  “Are you sure you don’t need help with that?” he asked as he walked back into the family room to retrieve their wine glasses.

  “Yes, umm, I’m sure.” She removed the mitten and began to spread butter on top of the rolls. “The dining room is right through there.” She pointed to the opposite side of the kitchen as he walked by her.

  “You have a very inviting home, Shelly. May I call you Shelly?” He asked as he looked back over his shoulder at her.

  “Yes, please do,” she replied trying not to look up so she could at least finish the simple task of putting butter on the damn rolls without thinking about how intense his eyes were.

  “Good, because I like the way it sounds on my lips.”

  She froze and stared at him in the doorway, staring back at her. “Senator...”

  “Royce.”

  “Royce,” she corrected as she sighed. “I’m not good at picking up signs and notions and things like that. I’m kind of the ‘go straight at it’ type of girl. So, forgive me if I’m being a little blunt, but are you flirting with me?”

  “Yes,” he replied then walked into the dining room. “You cooked a smorgasbord.”

  It took a moment for her to recover from his blunt reply. She took the rolls from the pan and placed them on a platter. Shelly walked cautiously into the dining room. He was seated at the head of the table placing the linen napkin in his lap as if the question was never asked or answered.

  Shelly placed the rolls in the center of the table. “I wasn’t sure what you liked to eat, so I cooked a little of this and that,” she said as she sat at the opposite end of the table and placed her napkin in her lap. “You don’t know me. Why are you flirting with me?”

  “You don’t know me either, and I think we should change that.”

  She hesitated and stared at him as he took a sip of his wine. “What exactly do you think is going on here, Royce?”

  He smiled at hearing his name on her lips. “An apology.”

  She nodded and smiled at his reply. “And how far do you think that apology is going?”

  “As far as you like, however, it doesn’t matter.” He shrugged his shoulder. “We’re going to be doing this again, aren’t we?” He held her eyes and they both smiled. He tilted his glass towards her, motioning for her to do the same. “Apology accepted. Here’s to new beginnings.”

  She liked the man. More than that, her taste in a fantasy man was reaffirmed.

  An hour later, they were back in the family room on their second bottle of wine. Royce was at one end of the sofa, with his tie pulled loose, his shoes on the floor and his feet propped up on the table. Shelly was at the other end of the sofa, sitting with her shoes off and her feet under her, laughing at a story Royce had just told her. “Are your constituents always so animated?”

  “You would not believe half of the requests we receive. I try to do what I can to make life a little easier for all of my constituents. The one thing I cannot do is make their neighbors mow the lawn after ten in the morning.”

  She laughed again. “I think there should be a law against mowing the lawn at six in the morning. Are you sure you can’t make that happen?”

  He really liked the sound of her laughter. There was something magical about it. Lord he wished he could bottle it up and take it back to Washington with him. He held her gaze and sobered. “Tell me about the children in the program.”

  They had sat in the dining room eating dinner and talked about everything under the sun, his career, her career. Their marriages, what happened, why they didn’t work out and about his two children, one in college and one in high school. With all of that, they did not discuss the details of his job or the situation that brought them to this point.

  Shelly took a sip of wine, and exhaled. “You know we were having a perfectly good time until now.”

  “We’re still going to have a good time. I promise.” he grinned. “However, I need to know about the children.”

  Shelly threw her head back and exhaled. “The children are priceless.” She held her head back up smiling. “They don’t have much. Most of them are in single parent homes with limited income and love. They’ve lost faith in the system and don’t believe they have any future other than what they see every day in their neighborhoods.” She shook her head. “I used everything in my arsenal to get participation in the Abstin
ence Pays project. Do you know that over half of my senior class homeroom is pregnant? The other half has contracted a STD at least once. That should not be happening to children. We have babies having babies, and they don’t know how to teach their children right from wrong, or good from bad, because they haven’t had time to learn these things themselves. I’m telling you, if Congress wants answers as to why our education system is so poor compared to other countries, it’s because teachers have to spend so much time on raising the children and in some instances the parents, too. Then we have to teach to this ridiculous ‘standards of learning’ crap that doesn’t give a true assessment of jack shit. And most, of the questions on the damn test are geared to one class of people.” She sat up, “I’m telling you, if I had the money I wouldn’t open up a school in another county, I would open my own school right here at home and say the hell with what lawmakers think I should be teaching, and teach these children what I know they need to survive in this world.” She took a breath, looked up at him and raised an eyebrow at his exasperated look. “Well...you asked.”

  He laughed. “I did. And I see you are not one to hold back, are you?”

  “Not when it comes to children.”

  “Why didn’t you have any children?”

  She sighed. “My ex didn’t want any. The one time I thought I was pregnant he told me to abort it.” She shrugged. “Thank God I wasn’t. I would have aborted him before I did my child.” Royce laughed a deep rich laugh that made her heart flutter. Everything about this man made her insides quiver.

  “You will be happy to know, the other children in your program will be attending the camp.”

  Shelly beamed, “You did that?”

  “I did.”

  The look in her eyes filled him with pride. Being with her for the last few hours was like fresh air whipping through the clothes on a clothesline in the backyard of his grandmother’s house. When he was young he would hold his hands up under the sheets as the wind whipped through them. The breeze was warm, fresh and invigorating. That’s what she was to him. Royce watched as the play of emotions showed on her face. “If you ask me to...I will.”