It took a moment for the words to sink in. Cole Lennox? She'd never heard of the man before. Her cousin? Talib? Or Yasmin? Would Yas even know how to hire a mercenary? It didn't matter. Someone had come for her. Or had her "keepers" found a new, fun way to torment her and extort money from her royal relatives? Would this man get her hopes up, only to show her a new terror?
Cole Lennox towered over her. "You're going to fight me, aren't you? You think you don't know me, but you do. I saw you once at the palace right after I brought Tal back from his ordeal. You invited me into the drawing room and offered me tea. I need you to understand that if I have to, I will knock you out in order to save you."
Tears welled, the first she'd felt in months, and she fought them ferociously. Now that he was closer, she remembered. Lieutenant Lennox had saved her cousin from radicals, and now it appeared he was going to save her.
"They don't allow me clothes. I'm not wearing anything under this sheet." Shame crashed over her like a wave on the beach.
He shrugged out of the black shirt he wore, revealing a T-shirt. He set the shirt aside and produced a knife. Her hands and feet were free in seconds, and he was wrapping the shirt around her, carefully avoiding looking for more than a cursory glance below her neck.
Alea stood, her hands shaking as Cole Lennox began to lead her out, step by creeping step. In the distance, she heard gunfire and shouting.
"That's baby brother doing his job." He winked over his shoulder at her. "Let's get you home."
She followed Cole out, but the girl he'd met all those years ago was long gone. They could take her back to the palace, but a part of her would always be trapped here, forever tainted.
Chapter One
Bezakistan – Two years later
Alea escaped from the glittering lights and laughter of the ballroom. Everything about the evening was lovely and elegant, and she couldn't breathe. It wasn't her dress or the amount of food she'd consumed, but the press of bodies, the expectation, the terror she could never quite shake …
The warm night air caressed her skin as she closed the balcony doors behind her. The terrace overlooked the garden at the center of the palace. Normally, the doors would be open and a bar would have been placed out here, but Dane Mitchell, one of Tal's bodyguards, had decreed it unsafe for the time being. After an episode that had nearly ended in the murder of her cousins' wife a few months ago, Dane had been on a security tear. Everyone had tried to explain to him that the perpetrator, Khalil, was dead and wasn't likely to rise as a zombie to eat Piper's brains. Alea felt a smile cross her face. She'd been the one to use that argument. But Talib, Rafiq, and Kadir, ever vigilant, had signed on to the new "keep the women safe" plan.
To Alea, it felt more like the "never let the women have any fun" plan. Or a minute alone.
"Hello, Landon." She didn't have to turn around to know he stood there, strong and stalwart. She'd heard the briefest squeak of the door opening … then nothing. Landon Nix never made a sound, but sometimes little things like squeaky hinges defeated his silent grace.
"You don't have to talk. I just can't leave you alone. Pretend I'm not here."
Impossible. She turned and stared at the quietest of her three watchmen, all of whom had been hired months after her rescue. By then, she'd recovered, and Alea was beyond glad they had never seen her so weak. They had been apprised of her abduction and given sketchy details, but by the time Tal had hired them, thanks to Cole Lennox's advice, at least her body had recovered. The three guards kept her safe day and night. And had quickly become the bane of her existence.
As well as the center of her every fantasy.
Landon hovered in the corner, shadows clinging to him, making him look even more dangerous than normal. He was six foot three and leaner than the two Mack Trucks he called friends, but there was no way he was any less lethal. Her brain told her that, but something about him put her at ease in a way she wasn't with the other two. Dane was so dark and dominant. Coop was a relentless flirt-both things that scared the crap out of her. But Landon, with his golden hair and face, with his expression so often as placid as an untouched lake, was a calming presence. He never pushed her too hard to talk or demanded her smiles. When he guarded her, he simply followed and made sure she got where she needed to go. Coop and Dane either pretended to flirt with her or downright insisted that she follow their direction, but Landon just quietly did his job.