Harts of Arizona Series

by Yahrah St. John

  “Damn you!” Amar raised his fist again, and Rylee tried grabbing his arm, but he was too strong and the effort she spent trying to ward him off allowed Khalid to jab him in his abdomen. Amar went stumbling forward as did Rylee. That’s when she knew she had to go get help.

  She rushed out of the suite. She found Tariq running down the hall toward her in his pajamas and a robe. He must have heard the noise and commotion.

  “Stop him!” Rylee said, pointing to their suite.

  “I will, Rylee.” Tariq touched her arm. “I promise.” He rushed inside the room.

  Rylee stared at the door. She couldn’t go back in there. She hated to see brother against brother. What kind of life was this? She had to get away from the madness. She needed to go back home. It was clear that her presence was only a hindrance to Amar. Soon he would be asked to take a wife not of his choosing. Better she leave now and avoid the heartbreak than have him send her away later.

  Rylee looked at the door. Her heart told her to stay, to be there for Amar if and when he needed her, but her head told her she had to go for her own self-preservation. Rylee made a split-second decision and ran down the hall.

  She knocked on Sharif’s door. It took several minutes, but eventually he appeared, looking slightly disheveled as he fumbled to put on his glasses. When he’d brought her into focus, he said, “Ms. Hart.” His voice hitched, and he glanced down the hall to make sure no one was listening. She could only assume it was completely inappropriate for her to show up to his door unannounced in the wee hours of the morning. “Can I help you?” he asked.

  “Yes, Sharif.”

  “Why do you hate me so much?” Amar asked, looking down at Khalid’s face, a glowering mask of rage. When Amar had come back to the palace, he’d been in a peaceful state of mind. He’d made peace with his father’s decree. That’s until he saw his brother lording over Rylee, and she was holding her cheek. I should have never left her alone.

  “Hate you?” Khalid laughed and blood splattered onto his shirt. “I don’t hate you, Amar. I envy you.” He tried to rise to his feet but couldn’t. “Don’t you get it? You were Father’s favorite. Even though you were gone, you weren’t forgotten. He loved you more than any of us. Isn’t that right, Tariq?”

  Amar looked to the door and saw his youngest brother staring at them in horror.

  “Tell him,” Khalid said, stumbling to his feet. “Tell him, Tariq. Tell him how Father talked about him all the time — Amar this, and Amar that.” He gestured wildly with his hands. “Tell him how we could never live up to the great Amar. And now this!”

  “I never wanted this!” Amar yelled back at him.

  “You didn’t have to,” Khalid said, “because apparently it was always yours to begin with. Father was just humoring me and allowing me to keep your seat warm.”

  “That’s not true,” Tariq replied, rushing to Khalid’s side. “He must have had a change of heart. He had to have his reasons.”

  “His reasons?” Khalid laughed bitterly, pushing Tariq away. “That’s bull, Tariq, and you know it.”

  “It’s not,” Amar said. “You were always the golden boy, Khalid. Father made you in his image.”

  “Because he’d lost you!” Khalid shouted. “And what did it get me?” He pounded his fist with his chest. “A slap in the face. I spent my entire life trying to please that man.”

  “And you did,” Tariq responded. “Father looked to you to lead this family.”

  “Ha, what a joke.” Khalid laughed bitterly. He made an attempt to sit on the bed but ended up sliding down the edge and fell on his bottom.

  Amar stifled a laugh but kept a straight face. He heard a helicopter flying overhead and wondered who would presume to arrive at the palace at such an ungodly hour, but he ignored it and said, “It doesn’t have to be a joke.”

  “What are you talking about?” Khalid asked.

  “I’m telling you that nothing has to change,” Amar replied. “You can still be King.”

  “After I’ve dragged our father’s name through the mud?” Khalid asked from the floor. “Ruined his legacy.” He shook his head. “As much as I want to, I can’t do that. I won’t give his enemies the satisfaction.”

  “Not after,” Amar said. “Now!”

  “I don’t understand.” Khalid peered at Amar in confusion.

  “Neither do I,” Tariq commented, turning to his brother. “What do you mean?”

  Amar kneeled until he was eye to eye with Khalid. “I never wanted to be King, and I don’t want it now.”

  “What do you mean you don’t want to be King?” Khalid couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of Amar’s mouth.

  Amar rose to his feet and turned to Tariq. “I never wanted any of this. I didn’t ask for it, and I don’t want it. The only thing I ever wanted was my father’s love, and now I know that I’d had it all along. I could care less that he decreed me the monarchy. You can have this bloody kingdom and every brick and mortar that comes with it. I want my life back in America.”

  Khalid stared back at him, dumbfounded, and Tariq appeared speechless. Amar continued, “Though he loved me, Father was a coward. Rather than tell me his feelings, he took the easy way out and told me in a letter.” He pulled the envelope from his pants and held it up. “A letter, a goddamn letter! The two of you,” he said, pointing to his brothers as a stray tear fell down his cheek, “he showed the two of you love all of your lives, but me, I was the outcast. I was treated like a leopard and all because of his duty. Well, you can have your duty, Khalid, and all the privileges that come with it. I just hope you wield your power better than he did. I hope you’re able to show your son that you love him and not wait until your deathbed confessional.”

  Khalid slowly rose to his feet, staring at Amar all the while. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You don’t want to be King?”

  “No, I don’t,” Amar stated emphatically. “So we can burn that decree as if it never existed.”

  “But it was Father’s wish,” Tariq said quietly.

  “And I’m exercising mine,” Amar replied. “I am happy to know that Father really did love me, but I don’t belong here any more than I did as a child. The only thing I want is to leave here and move on with my life with Rylee. Speaking of which, where did she go?” He hadn’t seen Rylee since his altercation with Khalid had begun.

  Amar walked to the suite door and looked both ways down the hall. It was empty, save for several bodyguards who’d no doubt been dispatched in case one of the brothers murdered the other.

  “I don’t know,” Tariq answered. “The last time I saw her, she was running down the hall for help.”

  “You really mean this?” Khalid asked, switching the subject back to the kingship as he looked at Amar. “Because you know once you do, there’s no turning back.”

  “I’m a man of my word.”

  “Then let’s shake on it.” Khalid offered his hand.

  “You were born for this, Khalid,” Amar replied as he and Khalid joined hands. “Embrace it. Just promise me one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That you’ll be a good king, a fair king.”

  “I can promise you that,” Khalid replied, and for the first time, he reached out to hug his brother.

  Chapter 18

  “Thank you so much, Chynna,” Rylee said into her cell phone many hours later after she had arrived in London. Chynna had just returned to Tucson from one of her tour stops and had assured Rylee over the phone that her jet was available to fly from Arizona to New York to pick her up and bring her back home once she arrived in the States.

  Riley’s exit from Nasir had been unplanned, and she’d been ill-prepared. It had taken some convincing, but she’d finally gotten Sharif to agree to help her, and thanks to him and Karam, while the brothers were arguing she had snuck back into her suite to retr
ieve her purse and her overnight bag. She barely had time to change clothes and get her belongings before she’d hopped on the helicopter and flown out of Dubai.

  A day later, when she finally landed in New York and turned on her phone, it instantly started beeping to tell her of missed voicemails and texts. She didn’t have to read or listen to know who they were from. She was sure Amar was upset with her, but she had had to leave abruptly because she didn’t want Amar to prevent her departure.

  She had refused to wait in Nasir like some lovesick teenager and have him show her the door. She cared about him too much, loved him too much. She let out a long, tortured sigh. She really loved him. There was no question about that now. It was an indisputable fact. She loved Amar.

  She loved his sexiness. His intelligence. His wit. She even loved his arrogance. It kind of went with his persona that made him uniquely Amar and uniquely hers. But was he? They’d never made any commitments to one another. And now that he was decreed King of Nasir, they never would. Khalid and Ibrahim had told her that Amar had a duty as King. He would have to marry someone of Nasirian descent, and Rylee would be left out in the cold.

  She had to accept her fate. Yet again, she’d fallen in love with someone she couldn’t have. Why hadn’t she learned her lesson the first time with Shelton? She supposed some lessons you didn’t learn you were destined to repeat.

  But why does it hurt so bad? Rylee felt like her heart was literally being split in two, one half she’d left in Nasir with Amar and the other she was bringing back with her to Tucson. Perhaps Jeremy had been right. Perhaps she’d made a mistake falling for Amar. Or was Caleb right and she should be happy to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?

  Rylee’s head was spinning. All she knew was that she’d lost the man she loved, and she didn’t know if she would ever recover.

  The previous day, Rylee’s surprise departure had thrown Amar into a crazed daze.

  “What do you mean she’s gone, Sharif?” his voice had risen several octaves. After his long talk with his brothers, he’d gone in search of Rylee to apologize to her for not only leaving her alone at the palace as he’d grappled with his father’s bequest, but also because he’d wanted to apologize for the scene she’d witnessed. He hadn’t, however, expected for his trusted friend and advisor to tell him that he’d helped facilitate Rylee leaving Nasir, leaving him. “You should have never let her go.”

  “I’m sorry, Your Highness,” Sharif had said and bowed. “I meant no disrespect, but she’d vowed she would leave, in her words, ‘one way or another.’ ”

  “Get up, Sharif,” Amar had said, grabbing Sharif by the arm and lifting him to his feet. “I’m not Your Highness.”

  “But the decree?”

  “Is null and void,” Amar had replied. “I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but I’m no more interested in being King than I am in walking on the moon.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “Khalid will be King as he should be, but I don’t care about any of that right now,” Amar had huffed as he paced the floor back and forth. “I want to know why you agreed to help Rylee leave here without speaking to me first?”

  “I didn’t want any harm to come to Ms. Hart if she found her own transportation outside the palace. You know how stubborn she can be. You would have my head if something happened to her, so I called the pilot and asked him to take her to Dubai.”

  Amar had known Sharif was right. Rylee could be as stubborn as a mule, especially if she believed something to be true. “And where was she going then?”

  “Presumably, after several connections, home to Tucson?” Sharif had offered.

  “Damn!” Rylee had left thinking Amar was some brute beast, thinking that becoming King would change him, had changed him. He had to tell her that he didn’t want any of it. He had to tell her that he wanted her and only her. He had to tell her … he loved her.

  “I’m so glad you’re back home, sis,” Caleb said, hugging Rylee after she’d exited the airport terminal and found him waiting for her with the pickup truck.

  “I’m glad to be home,” Rylee replied.

  “What was Noah thinking, allowing you to go out there?” He threw her belongings into the back of the truck before coming around to open her door.

  “Noah couldn’t have stopped me,” Rylee said, sliding inside. “Once I got it in my head that I was going with Amar, nothing and no one could have stopped me.”

  “I could have.” Caleb closed the door behind her. He walked in front of the pickup to the driver side and climbed in. “It was reckless going to a foreign country, Rylee. You must see that now.” He turned on the engine and kicked the truck into gear.

  “I wasn’t thinking of that.” Rylee defended her actions. “I went there to be with Amar. His father was dying. I had to go.”

  “And what happened?” Caleb asked, glancing at her as he drove. “It blew up in your face.”

  “Not in the way you think,” Rylee said. “Amar didn’t cause any of this.”

  “Then why did you leave?”

  “I left on my own accord. It was my choice to leave.”

  “But why?”

  “There was a tough decision ahead of Amar between duty and his family and me. Rather than have him struggle, I made it easy for him, and I left.”

  “You took the choice out of his hands?” Caleb surmised. “Do you think that was fair?” The truck came to an abrupt halt at a stoplight, and Caleb turned to glare at her. “You didn’t give him the chance to choose you. How do you know he wouldn’t have?”

  Rylee stared at him before answering, “I don’t.”

  Caleb shook his head in frustration. “If I were him, I’d be ready to spit nails.”

  “I’m sure he is,” Rylee said. “But I stand behind what I did. I made the right choice.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Caleb asked. “Because from the looks of it, you were over the moon for that prince, yet you’re willing to throw that all away. Can you live with that decision?”

  “I have to,” Rylee stated with conviction. “I want Amar to be happy, even if that isn’t with me.”

  “That’s pretty selfless,” Caleb responded, keeping his eye on the road. “I doubt I could do the same if I were in your shoes. But then again, I respect my big sister. You’re an amazing woman.”

  Rylee reached across and touched his arm. “Thank you, Caleb. That means a lot.”

  “You’re welcome. But what happens when Amar comes looking for you? Because you know he will. In the little time I got to know him, he doesn’t strike me as the type to take this lying down.”

  “He won’t,” Rylee said. “He’ll be too busy, and if he does, I won’t be here.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Chynna and Kenya offered to let me tag along on their twinie weekend back to the Canyon Ranch Resort. As soon as we get back, I’m heading there for a few days to try and get my head on straight.”

  “I hope you’re able to make peace with yourself.”

  “I’m certainly going to try.”

  Rylee didn’t waste any time packing her bags again once they returned to the ranch. Her mother wasn’t happy to see her leave so soon after she’d just got her back, but Rylee needed time and space. Some walks alone at the resort might be exactly what the doctor ordered. After a long hot shower, within an hour she had repacked and was on her way to the spa in her Toyota RAV4.

  She didn’t anticipate that Amar would come for her, but in case he did, she couldn’t be at home. She needed to get away and really evaluate their relationship. Amar might try to talk her into coming back to Nasir or even into a casual sex setup, and she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to resist him. Would any relationship with Amar be better than nothing at all?

  It could, but she wouldn’t, couldn’t be like his mother - waiting for Amar to
come to the States to appease his fleshy urges. No, she had to be strong, because deep down she knew what she wanted. She wanted commitment, a real one in which they would vow their eternal love to one another. She would settle for nothing less than his entire heart.

  She arrived at the spa twenty minutes later and drove the tree-lined street to the private villa. Chynna and Kenya had stayed there previously when Chynna had been trying to escape the paparazzi. It’s where Chynna and her sister had concocted their elaborate plan to switch places over a year ago. Rylee didn’t need to hatch any crazy schemes, but she did need some shoulders to lean on and ears to listen, and she found them in her sister-in-law and her sister-in-law’s twin.

  Kenya opened the door to their villa just as Rylee was pulling her suitcase out of the back of the SUV. “Here, let me help you with that,” Kenya said, rushing toward her.

  Sometimes it was so weird for Rylee to see Chynna’s face on someone else. Chynna and Kenya had both been gifted with great DNA and svelte bodies — that was until Chynna’s recent baby bump. And now, Kenya had cut her hair into a stylish bob.

  “Kenya!” Rylee smiled when she approached and greeted her with a hug.

  “Good to see you, Rylee. I would say you’re looking well,” Kenya replied, taking Rylee’s toiletry bag out of her hands, “which you usually are, save for those dark circles under your eyes. Did you get any sleep on the flights?”

  “Not much,” Rylee replied, hauling her suitcase out and closing the trunk. She followed Kenya up the stone steps to the villa.

  “Rylee!” Chynna gushed, running toward her when she walked in. “So happy you could join us.”

  “Thanks for the invite,” Rylee responded as she glanced around and really saw the nicely decorated villa for the first time. She’d been inside once, when she’d come to help Chynna pack her bags after she’d crashed her jeep at Golden Oaks and first met Noah. It was funny that it seemed a lifetime ago after the last few weeks spent with Amar.