Their Virgin Concubine(93)

The big, hunky private investigators had been on her since the moment she’d stepped off the plane. Oh, they used their wife Jessa’s sudden interest in business and marketing plans for her art business as a reason to stick close to her, but she wasn’t an idiot. There was no doubt in her mind who was paying them.

Hannah grinned. “Yeah, I know. It’s why I have hope. Oh, and your computer has been pinging for ten minutes. You better check it.”

Piper sighed and followed her inside, hoping it was just her worrywart sister wanting to check in on her again and not another reporter offering to pay her an obscene amount of money for her story of danger, debauchery, and betrayal at the hands of three desert princes. She’d refused repeatedly, and still the press kept hounding her.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Piper told her hostess. “And I promise to actually eat this time.”

She’d lost some weight, but Hannah was right, it was time to start living again. And that meant answering her sister with something more than a terse note that she was fine. If she didn’t talk to Mindy soon, her baby sister would likely show up on the James’s doorstep. Mindy had been worried ever since the news had come out that the sheikh’s concubine had left the country, but Piper hadn’t been willing to talk.

She closed the door to the guest bedroom and sat down at her computer, ready to tell her sister to call her, but Mindy’s name wasn’t the one that appeared.

It was Tal’s.

Piper stared for a moment. It had to be a mistake, a nasty joke. She thought about closing the computer and ignoring it, but her phone signaled a text coming through.

Again, it was Tal.

After weeks of silence, he’d finally decided he needed something from her? She clicked on the text message.

Piper, my love, forgive a stupid man.

Piper sniffled, sudden tears pricking in her eyes. She took in a long breath. He wanted closure. By text? He was still a stupid man. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to forgive any of them. Eventually, yes. But they wanted a clean slate now. They had used her for their own ends, and when they no longer needed a bride, they had simply disposed of her. At least that was how it looked.

But had they really? A little nagging voice kept at her. If they wanted to truly dispose of her, they wouldn’t be paying two private detectives to watch her twenty-four seven. They wouldn’t have carefully shipped back all her clothes. There wouldn’t have been such a special gift in the packages.

A first edition of Charlotte’s Web signed by E.B. White. Her favorite childhood book. The one she’d lost to the bank auction, now replaced by men who said they no longer cared about her.

Had they done it to assuage their guilt? Perhaps. Or maybe they’d needed a little closure of their own. Either way, the time had come to let them go in peace. She carefully texted back, tears clouding her eyes. All is forgiven. I wish all three of you much love in your lives. And thank you for the book.

There. Now their final communication to each other could be pleasant, polite.

Rafe, Kade, and I are getting married soon. We want you to be at the wedding.

She stared at his message for a minute, those words a stab in the heart. They couldn’t be serious. After everything they had gone through to change the laws, they were turning right around and marrying someone? Had they been in love with this other woman all along? Piper couldn’t help but wonder if they had used her to protect their new bride.

The phone trembled in her hands as she replied.

Think I’ll pass. Don’t contact me again.

So much for polite.

She tossed the phone onto the bed, her hands shaking with rage. She heard it ping once more, but she refused to answer him again. Ever. She would get rid of that phone. They were bastards, and for some reason they seemed to need to hurt her.

A knock came on her door. Piper wiped her eyes. “I’ll be right there.”

Another knock.

No one seemed to sense her need for space today. As frustration bubbled inside her, she crossed the floor and yanked the door open, ready to give whoever was on the other side a piece of her mind.

Tal, Rafe, and Kade stood in the hallway. Tal’s hand was raised to knock again, but he lowered it slowly as he looked at her.

She felt her heart skip, her pulse jump. They were here, standing right in front of her. Why? Joy at seeing them again was completely crushed by penetrating rage. What game were they playing now?

“What do you want?”

“We want to come in, habibti.” Kade’s eyes took in every inch of her. “Please. We need to talk.”

There was no way she was letting them near her again. “You can talk from a phone. You seem to know my number.”