Chapter 41
“Good afternoon, Senator King,” Khal greeted the man.
Nathan preened as he nodded towards the taller man. He knew not to bow to Sheik Al-Sintra, but it was hard to avoid. Even after years of meeting royalty and world leaders, Sheik Al-Sintra was an intimidating figure of a man.
“Your Highness,” Nathan replied, puffing up his chest with importance. Not many people were granted a private discussion with Khal. “I’m honored that you would take time out of your busy day to meet with me.”
“Of course. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you ever since I heard about you from my assistant. Your request for time with me was intriguing, coming out of the blue.”
Nathan eyed the chairs behind them, but remained standing. He knew better than to sit unless sitting was offered. Royalty had different rules. But the mention of his assistant was the precise opening that he’d been looking for.
“Speaking of your assistant, I was wondering if I could see her. I suspect that your assistant and my lovely fiancée might be one and the same.”
The large man’s dark eyebrow lifted at that and Nathan launched into the speech he’d perfected on the plane. “Tasha O’Connor and I had an argument about a year ago. She’d been badly hurt and she wanted to find a place to heal and recover.” He adjusted the knot of his tie. “I was more than happy to offer my country home to her, which is where I thought she’d gone.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Women. They are so flighty, am I right?”
Khal shoved his hands into his pockets. “I haven’t found Tasha to be flighty in any way. She’s always come across as intelligent, observant, and determined to do the right thing at all times.”
Nathan tried not to show his irritation, but this conversation wasn’t going the way he was expecting it to flow. “Well, Tasha was badly hurt by someone who was trying to get to me.”
“Why is that?” Khal asked.
Since that wasn’t the question Nathan was expecting, it threw him off. “Why was someone trying to get to me?” He chuckled. “Well, because I piss a lot of people off.”
“Yes, I can imagine,” Khal replied flatly, eyeing Nathan dubiously.
Nathan touched his tie again. “Regardless, I was hoping to bring Tasha home. I have everything ready for our wedding. She’d been planning our wedding ceremony since before the…uh…incident that put her in the hospital. I hope that I’ve got everything exactly the way she wanted it to be for her big day.”
“I doubt that.”
Nathan blinked at the man, startled. Then he chuckled. “You’re right, of course. Women can be so finicky. If they don’t do it themselves, then it won’t be exactly the way they’d hoped it would be. However, I still think that Tasha will be pleased. I was eager to marry her before she went to a quiet place to recover. Now, I’m even more excited to make her my wife.”
“That’s going to be a problem, Senator.”
Nathan was starting to feel awkward standing here like this. Why the hell didn’t the bastard suggest that they sit down? What the hell was wrong with the chairs? The chairs would make a perfect publicity photo and he was eager to send pictures off to his contingent of reporters. They would splash the photo all over the news, making him look more important. The polls had dipped by a couple of points yesterday. Nathan still held a healthy margin in the polls, but a photo with Sheik Al-Sintra would explode all over the media.
“A problem?” he quipped, adding a chuckle in an effort to ease the tension creeping into his shoulders. “Why is that a problem? I have a plane waiting, ready to bring Tasha back home.” Then he realized. “She’s a beautiful woman, isn’t she? But she chose me first.”
“Did she?” Khal asked blandly.
There was a noise outside the double doors that startled Nathan and he glanced towards it just in time to see Tasha step into the room.
She looked…stunning! Wearing a pale blue sheath dress and matching heels, her glorious hair piled on top of her head, she looked…regal. That’s when Nathan knew that Tasha had charmed Sheik Al-Sintra. Was she sleeping with the guy?
“Tasha!” Nathan called out, eager to claim ownership. “You look fully recovered. I’m so glad.”
Tasha stepped back and several guards moved forward, each wearing a menacing glare. Nathan jerked backwards, his palms stretched out to ward off the attack. “Sorry!” he said with a laugh. “Just eager to greet my fiancée properly.”
The guard stilled, one of them looking to Khal for guidance.
That’s when Nathan saw her reach out. Nathan was about to take her hand when another, larger hand clasped her fingers. Nathan watched with increasing dread as Tasha sidled up to Sheik Al-Sintra. The man even put his arm around her waist. What the hell was going on?
“Tasha?What…why?”
“Stop it, Nathan,” Tasha snapped. “Do you honestly think that, after you beat me within an inch of my life, that I would willingly go back with you?” She snorted and shook her head, the lights glinting off her hair. “Please, Nathan, I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t willingly put myself in jeopardy again.”
“I didn’t…!”
“Don’t!” she interrupted, her eyes narrowing on him. “Don’t you dare try and gaslight me by pretending you didn’t beat me. Your fists were bloodied the following day. I have no idea what excuse you used to explain your mauled hands to the press, but it won’t work on me. You beat me because you found out that I have evidence of your crimes.”
His eyes narrowed. Nathan felt a rush of fury unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. “So you become some man’s slut? That’s not going to save you! I will–”
A sharp pain shooting through his jaw stopped him cold. He stumbled backwards, cupping his cheek and looking around to figure out what just happened. He saw Sheik Al-Sintra glaring at him, his hand still curled into a fist.
“Don’t you ever insult my wife again!” he snarled.
Nathan immediately realized how badly he’d miscalculated. Now the whole scene started to make sense.
That’s when Tasha approached him. She looked calm and serene, so Nathan didn’t anticipate the abrupt knee to his groin.
“That’s for beating me!” she hissed and stepped back.
Nathan stood there for a long moment, the pain so intense, he couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. Then he crumpled to the floor, holding his balls in both hands. For a long moment, he didn’t move.
That’s how the press found him and Nathan couldn’t even stand up. All he could hear was the clicking of cameras and the questions being yelled at him. But the questions didn’t make sense. His focus was entirely on the pain radiating through his body.
When he finally blinked and looked around, it was to see that he was in the room with only the press. Sheik Al-Sintra, Tasha, and even the guards were gone. To the reporters in the room snapping thousands of images of him writhing on the floor, it probably looked as if he’d done this to himself.
Nathan closed his eyes and willed the pain to go away. After several minutes, he stood up, trying hard not to clutch at his aching testicles.
Damn that bitch! She’d set this all up to make him look like a fool! Well, he’d get back at her. As soon as he flew back home, he would destroy her! He’d tell so many lies about her that she wouldn’t know what hit her! He’d make up so many stories that she’d never be able to work again.
That’s when the other man’s words finally got through his rage. Tasha was…married? To Sheik Al-Sintra? Holy hell! That would mean…!
She wouldn’t, he thought as he waddled out of the room, walking stiffly past the reporters and the guards. He ignored them, his gut warning him that he was in more trouble than he’d realized.
Back at his hotel, he returned to the suite he’d rented for this trip. “I need…!”
He was alone! Where the hell was his staff? There was a deep, echoing silence in the room and Nathan looked around. It was even dark outside of the windows.
That’s when the lights inside went out. And then he felt it. The blows to his face and his abdomen were brutal and seemingly unending. Nathan tried to block them, but because they were coming from every direction, and he couldn’t see, he couldn’t anticipate where they would fall on his body. In the end, he dropped to the floor, curling up into a ball.
Eighteen hours later, Nathan hobbled down the long hallway of the airport terminal. His private jet had been forced to leave the airport, so Nathan had taken the first flight out of Lativa on a commercial flight. He’d even had to fly economy and, the only saving grace in this embarrassing debacle was that his face was so bruised and swollen that no one on the flight recognized him.
He remembered Tasha’s face when he’d first seen her in the hospital over a year ago. Thankfully, Nathan hadn’t been beaten so badly that he’d required medical attention, but his lip was split, his eye was purple and swollen shut, and there were bruises covering his back and abdomen.
Still, it wasn’t as bad as what he’d done to Tasha. He smiled faintly, thinking about that night. The bitch had done this to him. She’d somehow arranged for him to be beaten in retaliation for what he’d done to her.
Good job, bitch. Now, she was going down! He was going to humiliate her so badly, that old bastard she’d married would have to divorce her. He’d hire actors to talk about how they’d slept with Tasha and done things to her that not even a whore would allow.
“Senator King!” someone called out to him. Nathan lowered his head, not wanting to be recognized. Too late!
The quiet of the late night terminal was shattered by the crowd of reporters, who must have been alerted to his presence.
Trying to straighten, he pulled his jacket closer.
“Senator King, do you have any response to the video that was released this morning?”
Nathan froze, the fake story about how he’d tried to protect a woman from getting mugged to explain his bruises evaporated out of his mind. Videos? Had Tasha really done it? Nathan would have sworn that the bitch wouldn’t dare release the videos.
“Senator, any response to the promise of more videos to come?”
Holy hell! She’d done it! The bitch had truly done it! He was going to kill her! Right after he fixed this election!