by Kyanna Skye
“Alright,” Jesse replied. “I had to ask.”
“Fine,” Amira stood up. “I’ll get my things.”
She brushed past him as she went down the hallway and back to her room.
***
The couple left the ranch house at six that evening. It was a long drive. Three hours later they were back in Los Angeles. They pulled up to a group of houses hidden behind a white wall with two large gates.
“I didn’t think we would be going back to the city,” Amira said in surprise.
“Not to worry,” Jesse said. “There was a slight change in plan, but I decided we might as well stay here.”
Jesse drove inside the compound. His house was a townhome on the west end of the property, a three-story with a red door out front and red trim around the windows. Amira turned to him as they pulled into the garage.
“Is this your house?” she asked.
“Yes, how’d you know?”
She shrugged. “This feels much more like your taste. It’s not all… American hunter like the other house we were in.”
Jesse smiled. They got out of the car together, and once he unlocked the door, Amira walked into the house ahead of him. There were a few steps which led up to the kitchen. After punching in yet another security code, Jesse joined Amira. She stood between the sink and the gray granite island which spanned the length of the room.
“I hope you’ll be comfortable here,” Jesse said lightly.
She put her hands on his shoulders. “I’m sorry about how things have been… tense today.”
“All things considered, I couldn’t ask anyone to keep themselves together more than you have, under these circumstances.” He laid a kiss on her lips. “For what it’s worth I apologize if anything I said made you uncomfortable. It comes with the job.”
“One day. I would like to be free of jobs, responsibilities, titles,” Amira said, her eyes wide. “The most maddening thing is I never chose any of this. Sometimes I wish I had been born just… anybody else. I could be a woman no one cared enough about to hurt.”
A tear ran down her cheek and he wiped it away. “Have you ever told anyone you felt that way?”
“No,” she said. “My family would consider that blasphemy. Especially with Jamaal having abdicated.”
“When this is all done,” Jesse said. “I think you should consider telling your father. Hear me out. He may be angry. He may not accept what you’re trying to tell him. But Amira, that’s such a heavy weight to leave unspoken. Even if you decide to go along with every single duty associated with the crown, it’s not fair for you to do it without your family knowing how you feel about it. You’re for the freedom and rights of other people. At some point, you have to follow that example and advocate for your own as well.”
“I never thought of it that way,” she replied.
“I know you might think it will cause you trouble between you and your father,” Jesse continued. “But you should try. If he says no, at least you won’t have to wonder what could have happened if you spoke up about it. And if he does come to an understanding, it will have been worth it. Think of it like this. A few uncomfortable conversations have to be worth it to get what you want out of life.”
“I don’t know how I feel about what you’re suggesting. My father is very stubborn, and when I have even hinted at having a different life he’s refused to even discuss it. But I will consider it. If I actually make it through these next few days.”
“Hey, none of that,” he admonished. “No negative thinking.”
The doorbell chimed and Amira jumped. “Were you expecting someone?”
“Yes,” he said. “Time for you to meet the rest of my team.”
***
Amira found herself sitting at a dining room table surrounded by four handsome men. Jesse had told her before then none of his colleagues were exactly what one would expect on the surface.
Alec was the first to introduce himself, a tall blond with green eyes and voluptuous lips. He wasn’t at all what she would have expected, having seen the sparse and austere style of his home. He shook her hand and told her that she was even lovelier in person than he’d seen from pictures or television. She’d heard that compliment before but she found herself blushing faintly anyway. The man was a natural flirt.
David was the tech expert of their group but to look at him she would never have known it. He was shaved bald. David was a big, muscular guy who looked like he worked on bikes and cars more than computers. She noticed the bands of tribal tattoos around his biceps, and a metal stud pierced through his eyebrow. “Princess,” he said with a small bow of his head. She could tell that he was a little starstruck to meet her.
“Please, call me Amira,” she told David. “I’ve barely gotten Jesse out of the habit of calling me that as it is.”
Kiefer was the boss, the one who united them all around his professional vision. He had dark hair and blue eyes which lit with warmth when he spoke to her. “A pleasure,” he said, taking her hands. “I hate that we meet under these circumstances but I’m glad to see you seem well.”
“Jesse has been doing a good job of keeping me in one piece,” she said. “I hope I haven’t made that effort any harder on him than it already is.”
“She’s teasing,” Jesse interjected.
Kiefer gave Jesse a knowing look. “I’m sure. Well, let’s talk. We have some possible strategies and we want to run them past you.”
“I get a vote?” she asked.
“Yes,” Alec said.
“We’ll give you the top three choices along with the pitfalls and benefits for each,” David added. “You’ll never go into any situation with us blind.”
***
David made coffee and the five of them sat around the table and talked about the strategy to protect Amira going forward. She was surprised at how calmly things were laid out before her. Jesse didn’t say very much. He was listening as intently as she was. At some point, she reached for his hand under the table and squeezed it. She didn’t notice any looks from his colleagues but she almost regretted doing it. Perhaps Jesse’s colleagues wouldn’t care about him seeing her. She knew what people said about stress and new relationships. Amira felt their connection would have been the same regardless of the circumstances they met under.
The real problem was that she was still a Princess. If and when all of this was over, a relationship with an American man would be considered outside tradition and propriety. She didn’t even really want to think about that. He had to know, to some extent. Her brother had left the crown to be with the woman he fell in love with. Her situation with Jesse was different but she feared that it wouldn’t come to as happy an end.
In some ways, she was angry at her brother. In securing his own happiness, he had pushed her into the same situation he worked to get out of.
Kiefer’s words shook Amira from her thoughts.
“One of the reasons we wanted to bring you in was because the situation keeps changing on us, and we’ve had to readjust several times.”
“Was there any information about the, uh, shooter?” she asked. “Jesse told me that he died.”
“Yes. We found out his real identity. His name was Nabil. He was from Saudi Arabia, but he had business ties in Demani. He was former military. He was provided an attorney. He might not have been expecting to be caught. Or maybe he did and panicked, but either way, he took poison to keep from revealing information. This would lead us to believe this was someone within the power structure of your country who couldn’t allow themselves to be found out. Now, it’s only a theory on our part. But what I’m hoping is that maybe you can provide an insight we seem to be missing here.”
Amira suddenly felt uncomfortably warm. She took her hand away from Jesse.
“Until that letter at the hotel things were going normally,” she met Kiefer’s glare. “As far as I am concerned this all came out of nowhere. There are always people who are disenchanted with me but nothing has happened for me
to be more of an irritation to them now than I was a year or six months ago. If someone has this grand agenda to get rid of me then I don’t know why. Ours is not the largest or most powerful nation in the region. This need to get me out of the way is something I can’t understand.”
“Alright,” Kiefer said. “I’m only asking because you know the struggles you go through better than anyone. You’re the only one who would know if some incident happened in the last few months which seemed like nothing at first but continued to bother you later.”
“We talked about that,” Amira said. “There’s nothing I can remember.”
Kiefer nodded. “The other thing I wanted to tell you, which I haven’t shared with Jesse yet either, is that I had a long talk with your brother. He told me that the last few months before he immigrated to Sweden, he was receiving threats. Did you know about this?”
Amira’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
Alec picked up the story from this point. “I spent some time talking to both your father and Hamid. The King said he was alerted to some vague threats against your brother but that he wasn’t sure of the dates or what the threats were. My first instinct was that your father was probably in the dark to the extent or the seriousness of the threats. It often happens when security feels that the person they are protecting will not be able to handle the news that they or their loved ones are being stalked. I talked to Hamid and he was able to give me more details. Once I spoke to your brother he admitted there had been some threatening letters and at least one suspicious person caught following him. He had already met his wife at that point but he told me those threats were no small part in making his decision to leave the monarchy.”
“This sounds exactly like my family,” Amira fumed. “I was told nothing about this.”
“Luckily, Hamid kept the letters and we had an expert take a look at them,” David said. “Apparently it’s the same person making the threats.”
Amira sat stock still.
“You’re saying this is the same person who threatened him is after me now?”
“We believe so,” Kiefer said. “It would make sense that whoever this person is has been invested in shaking up the royal family for some time. And now that Jamaal is out and they have passed on to you, they’re probably feeling very confident about getting you out of the way.”
“And what does anyone get by having my brother and I out of the way?” Amira asked.
“Access to power,” Jesse said. “The question is how.”
Amira licked her lips. “Okay. Well, what do we do with this information? We still don’t know who this is.”
“What we want to do is draw out a would-be-assassin.”
“You want me to help you find him?”
“Not you, exactly,” Alec said with a smile. “We have a way to work around it.”
“Where’d you find someone willing to do that?” Amira pressed.
“Don’t worry,” Alec said. “I’ve got that part handled.”
***
After everything was explained and the plan agreed upon, Amira excused herself. Jesse watched her go with trepidation. He hadn’t even had the chance to show her around. She was fleeing to get away from his comrades and their questions. Or at least that was the impression he had. Alec and David both said their goodbyes and walked back towards their office on the other side of the compound. Kiefer remained behind, speaking in hushed tones with Jesse.
“How is she really?” Kiefer asked.
“Stressed but handling it,” Jesse replied.
“Okay. I hope she’s telling us everything. It feels like she’s holding something back.”
Jesse nodded. “I’m almost happy to hear you say that because I’ve had the same feeling. Whenever I press the issue she gets upset. And I’ve tried my best not to do that.”
“Understood,” Kiefer said. “Keep trying to get her to open up, as gently as possible. I trust your instincts. I noticed her reaching for you. Anything going on between you?”
“Something,” Jesse said. “Didn’t mean for it to, but it happened anyway.”
“I’m happy if you are,” Kiefer ran a hand through his hair. “It’s been a long time since Caroline.”
“And she’s another woman in danger. You don’t have to tell me, I see all the comparisons,” Jesse admitted. He’d honestly tried not to think about the past but sometimes there was no way around it. The woman he once loved and how things ended between them had been on his mind.
Kiefer nodded. “Just remember your mission. The rest will get sorted out later.
***
Amira was in one of the guest rooms. She sat on the bed with a tablet in hand. Though she had sent a message as soon as she was alone, she was still waiting for a reply. When she heard footsteps on the stairs, she grabbed it and shoved the tablet under a pillow. There was a tap on the door.
“Come in,” Amira said.
He sat down beside her on the edge of the bed, close but not touching.
“You could have put your things in my room.”
She smiled. “Does it matter?”
He shrugged.
“Are the others gone?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Good,” she said touching his cheek. “I wanted to be alone.”
She pulled him close and they kissed. Jesse pushed her onto the bed and teased her, kissing her neck. He traced a line up and down the smooth skin between her breasts. Moving his hand to the left, he caressed her breast. “Well,” he whispered. “I don’t mind, baby.”
“When this is all over,” Amira said. “Will you still…?”
Pulling down her blouse he revealed her naked skin. A touch of his tongue made her shiver. He kissed, taking her nipple into his mouth. She caught her breath and when she exhaled it came out in a long sigh. She let her hand wander the back of his neck. He moved and gave attention to her other breast. It was a while before he stopped to look at her again, and she had almost forgotten her question to him. His hands moved over her inner thighs.
“When this is over, we are not over,” he said. “We continue moving forward and see where things go.” His eyes were so wide and blue, for a moment she wanted to get lost there. “Anything you want, I’ll do for you,” he licked his lips.
Amira nodded. Her hands went under his shirt. She slid her hands over his abs. She would have spoken if only to tell him the thing she wanted most was him. Instead, he kissed her mouth, and she let herself melt against him.
Chapter Seven
Jesse worked for Catherine Vale twice during his tenure with Edgewater. The second time was the one which became the problem.
The first time, Catherine was an up and coming star. She was the featured actress on a weekly show, a favorite on a network which catered to young adults. She was a heroine on television. Her personal life was not as squeaky clean. Kiefer almost turned her down, saying that what she really needed was not a security firm but an image consultant. It was then that Catherine came clean about her real need: she had an ex who was stalking her and wanted protection without alerting the authorities. Police reports were public information. Any such story had a possibility of affecting her career.
Alec took the assignment, and for whatever reason, Catherine could not stand him. The funny thing was the feeling was mutual. Alec said she was mouthy, impetuous, stubborn, and basically a brat. While Jesse agreed, he was still able to build a better rapport with her. There were times he was the only one who could get her to do certain things. Even her manager would call and ask him to talk her out of doing something ill-advised.
Catherine was intelligent and highly capable; her problem was that she pushed the limits of what she should do, what would be safe, and often without considering what the long term results of her actions would be. Her career came first and she wasn’t used to being told no. She was only getting to the point where she had control over her work and she fought stubbornly to keep every bit of control she was given.
Jesse th
ought he kept his feelings for her in check. He believed no one else could see what he felt for her. Of course, he was wrong. Catherine called him on it, and once things heated up between them, there was no turning back. Once he got to know her on an intimate level, he learned a different side to her personality. She told him her stories; why she pursued the life that she did, the things she had to go through in order to secure a foothold in the Hollywood crowd. There was always someone coming up in the game who was younger and more beautiful, and at twenty-five, she was already concerned that she might lose her chance to find a breakthrough role. She could be bitter and cruel when she wanted but it was often because she feared any wrong decision could bring an end to her career.
Catherine was hard to protect because she refused to cut back on her schedule. Since she played the main character on her show, her absence would be enough to shut down the entire production. It felt like giving up and letting this person who was stalking her control her entire life.
There had been letters. Roses left on her doorstep and delivered to her set. Things got bad enough that Catherine agreed to go to the police. The ex was questioned by the police but they had nothing to hold him on. After three months with Jesse acting as her bodyguard, the calls and the texts, all contact from the man ceased. She did something against his advice; she wanted to let his company go and use her old security again.
Catherine believed the threat was gone and she wanted to go back to the way her life was before. It meant less security at work and at home, more interviews, more exposure and access to other people to her time and space. Jesse took it personally—she wasn’t just putting down his company but he perceived it as a quick way to push him aside. Her assertions that it was only business and she wanted to continue seeing him anyway fell on deaf ears. They broke up and went their separate ways.
Since they had been apart from each other for nearly seven months, the news of Caroline’s murder hit him hard.
Her ex-boyfriend broke into her house one night. She had tried to fight him, but in the end, he strangled her to death. The cameras she had installed outside of the house and inside the downstairs rooms of her house—one of the few Edgewater security measures she had allowed—caught an image of the man on tape. A week later the killer was found and arrested. He was put in jail and after a long, messy trial, he was sentenced to twenty-five years.
