"There wasn't any press because it wasn't a photo op," her sister said firmly. "It was an intelligence-gathering mission. I can't know what they need unless I talk to them myself and they can't know that the sheikh and I care unless we walk in, hand in hand, and show them. Talib understands that I won't be a figurehead who only poses and looks pretty and gives birth every now and then. He, Rafe, and Kade picked me and they can't change me. I'm going to do what I can to help my people."
"Piper, you could have been killed." The thought brought tears to her eyes.
Piper wiped them away with a tender swipe of her fingers. "It's good to know you care, but I'm going back in a few days. I'm helping to build temporary shelters. I won't leave those displaced people to the butchers of this world and I won't turn them away because they weren't born here. They've survived so much. I think I'm more scared when my husbands go than I am for myself."
"Yes, because you would be devastated if anything happened." And yet her brothers-in-law wouldn't hide and protect themselves. It went counter to who they were as human beings. Tori wanted to beg her sister to never go back, but she knew it wouldn't work. Piper was who she was. If she believed in a cause, she wouldn't back down, especially if someone needed her.
Suddenly Tori's life seemed the slightest bit shallow. She helped pretty people do pretty things and hide all the ugliness under the surface. She'd chosen a profession that masked the real issues of the world in glitter and glitz. "I understand why you didn't take the press with you, but having a campaign around the refugees could bring light to their plight. It could do them good."
"I know. I have someone working on it."
"Why wouldn't you ask me?" She was afraid she knew the answer.
"I don't know how you would handle walking through those camps. You hold yourself apart, and they need people who are open."
She did hold herself apart. Tori knew it now. She erected walls so she would stay safe.
Piper risked her life for people she didn't know. Tori wouldn't even risk her heart for three men she loved.
Love. She was starting to wonder if she even knew what the word meant.
"I've put something in your suitcase," her sister said. "After I packed up the old house, I sold it with all the furniture. I thought I'd cleaned out everything personal, but apparently I missed some nook in Dad's office. It's crazy but the people who bought the house have been trying to find me. Imagine their surprise when they discovered I was now a queen. Such a nice family. They could have sold those things to tabloids for a fortune, but they wanted us to have them. They sent me a box last month. I found Dad's journal and two old photo albums. I want you to spend the next month studying your childhood with adult eyes."
Her father had kept a journal. She knew that. She'd assumed it had been lost after he died. "I would love to read it. I don't know how much time I'll have though with moving and settling into a new job. I'll try to read it before I come back for Sabir's birthday."
Tori needed time and space to process things. Maybe in a few weeks she could write to one of the Thurston-Hughes brothers. Or all of them. Maybe they could find a friendship eventually. She couldn't stand the thought of never seeing or talking to them again.
Or never feeling their hands on her body, warm breath caressing her flesh.
The night air suddenly seemed warmer than before and she wondered if she would spend the rest of her life longing for them.
"Oh, I think you're going to have plenty of time." A secretive smile crossed Piper's face. "I really hope you can understand that we have traditions in Bezakistan that must be honored."
"Of course." She'd sat through many a bizarre dinner because ritual demanded it, though she refused to eat the fried goat balls everyone seemed crazy about. "I always try to honor my in-laws' traditions."
"Ah, but now they're your traditions, too. You see by Bezakistani law, you aren't merely an in-law. When I married my husbands, you became their sister. It's why they issued you a passport. Therefore, you have dual citizenship."
She understood that. It's one reason she had the right to travel here freely. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say that while I had no real say in what's about to happen, I'm kind of glad. I never got this part. My men were sneakier than yours. Yours are taking the traditional, more aggressive approach." Piper stood in front of her, smoothing down her clothes. "Do you want some gloss? This occasion is usually marked with some photos."