Chapter 10
H eather woke up, bounded out of bed, had a quick shower, and redressed in the same clothes she’d been wearing, which made her cringe but, hey, that’s what it was. She pulled a tarot card and found the Sun card staring back at her. A great omen. With a lighter heart, she walked into the main room of the hotel suite. She smiled when she saw a trolley of fresh food. “Who got to go play manservant this time?” she teased.
Rick looked up and smiled. “Me again. Sometimes the routines are just too perfect, and you get into them, and it’s hard to get out of them,” he admitted.
She heard the shower running in another bedroom and nodded toward it. “Did he get some sleep at least?”
“He did,” Rick stated cheerfully. “We both got a few hours.”
She nodded. “Anything is better than nothing right now. Please tell me that it’s a go and that we’re leaving soon.”
“It is a go,” he said, laughing at her antics.
“Great, that is fabulous news.” She sat down, lifted the lids off the food platters, rubbed her stomach, and shared, “You have no idea how much better I feel, now that I really get to eat.” She quickly served herself pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausages, then turned to Rick. “Did you eat?”
“I had some, and I’ll get some more in a bit,” he muttered. “Just trying to do the paperwork, so we can get out of here.”
“Oh, right. I suppose you have red tape to take care of, don’t you?”
“Absolutely, particularly when you don’t have the right papers. So we’re traveling under an immunity clause,” he shared, with a laugh. “When that kind of stuff happens, believe me that there’s paperwork.”
“And yet would there have been paperwork for a diplomat to fill out? Would Faheed have had to do that, or would his secretary have taken care of it?”
He frowned at that remark. “Did he travel with a secretary?”
“Yes, Ana, his secretary, helps out. Plus a manservant. His name was Bingham, and he used to do some administrative tasks too.”
“Then either of them probably handled these things as well. I don’t know if Faheed ever did very much of anything himself. He didn’t seem to be a man interested in working, or did he?”
“No, he sure didn’t,” she said, as she forked up some sausage. “Yet he was always there, always into everything, but he delegated the actual work.”
“That makes sense. It seems the richest people find others to do the work for them. Who knows what he delegated to whom. We understand a group traveled with him, and it included more people than we think.”
“There were always more people than you would think, and a lot of them switched out,” Heather shared. “I’ve been involved in some of his travels with my sister, particularly when she was going through a low period. She thought she was pregnant and wasn’t, and that started a big fight with Faheed. But, regardless of that, the other people would be there one day but wouldn’t be the next. Then you would turn around, and somebody else would have just flown in with documents or whatever that Faheed needed or wanted at the time.”
He nodded.
She continued. “For these people with access to a lot of money and power, you don’t realize how their worlds function, once they become accustomed to a certain lifestyle.… I never really understood it, but I do know a lot of people danced to Faheed’s tune.”
“Did his brother have the same power?”
Heather frowned. “Not nearly the same—at least overtly. Yet, if people had problems with Faheed, they went to Saheed. So Saheed had some sway over Faheed or just did some secret workaround to ease tensions.”
“So Saheed had no real power,” Rick concluded.
She shook her head. “I’m not sure that Saheed didn’t have power. You say he had none, but, from my perspective, he had plenty.”
“Yet he had no position of his own.”
“Ah.” She pondered that and then agreed. “That’s true. He had no position of his own and was employed by Faheed, so, in that sense, you are correct.”
“So did Saheed work for the country of Iran?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, pondering that. “Of course you’re not getting any help from the Iranian government on this, are you?”
“They would likely say it’s a witch hunt, claiming the accusations amount to nothing. That it was to be expected, since he was a virile man, and he tended to enjoy frail women, hence the problems.”
She stared at him in shock, and Rick put up his hands. “Don’t get upset or worried. I’m just ad-libbing. Did Iran say any of that? No, they didn’t. And I don’t know that they would have. I was just guessing, based on experience. Still, do we ever really know what people will do?”
“Exactly. I’m surprised to think that my sister would have come under that same umbrella.”
“And yet she would have, wouldn’t she?”
“Yes. Now that you’ve stated it so clearly, she absolutely would be deemed as frail, but I can’t say that I appreciate it. And, if Faheed’s marking me with the same brush, that would make me very angry.”
“But he isn’t, not in that sense particularly. You are anything but frail. He’s just marking you for your capital assets.”
She winced. “I do have a will in place,” she muttered.
“What’ll happen now that your sister is gone, and you can’t leave everything to her? Who do you leave it to?”
She frowned at him, then shrugged. “Charity. I’ve got a foundation being established, and a board of directors will be in place. The profits are to be sent to my selected charities.” She really hadn’t thought it through though. “It’s fairly complicated, and I haven’t gotten all the details worked out yet. However, with my sister gone, and no one else in the family to leave it to, I wasn’t sure what else to do.”
“I like the idea of charities,” Rick said, with a nod. “You just need to ensure that your board of directors doesn’t take everything for themselves first.”
Silence came, as she winced. “That is some of the stuff I’m trying to lock down. Plus I was wondering about making provisions for some staff members.”
“Would Dan be one of those?”
“No, Dan would not be one of those. Yet employees who have worked there for thirty or forty years,” she added, “are ones who I’m more concerned about.”
“I’m pretty sure Dan would be more concerned about himself.”
“I would hope not,” she murmured. “He makes a very good wage, and his options are not limited, compared to other people there.”
“Nobody makes enough though,” he stated, staring at her intently. “You do realize that, right?”
“Of course nobody makes enough,” she admitted, with that wry look. “That goes back to that whole topic of greed, doesn’t it?”
“Yep, and, for all we know, your sister was murdered over it.” Her breath sucked in hard at that, and she stared at him. He realized the insensitivity of his statement and whispered, “Jesus, I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re right. It is quite possible. I just don’t want to think about it, but that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t ignore it,” she muttered. “It’s just pretty rough to think about right now.”
“Sure, it is,” Rick agreed. “Sisters are very special, and you spent a lot of time with her, especially at the end, it seems.”
“I’m grateful for that too.” She stared off in the distance. “I might not have had that opportunity, and that would make me very sad, losing that opportunity, not getting it back again,” she muttered.
Rick just smiled. When they heard the shower stop, she looked over at him. “Do you think that somebody in my company might really be involved in some way?”
“I don’t know that yet,” Rick admitted, “but we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
She nodded. “I want to think none of them are involved, but you guys are making me very aware that the world out there is not the way I want to see it.”
“No, it isn’t, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make it better than it has been up until now,” Rick suggested. “So keep that in mind too.”
She smiled. “That was a very diplomatic answer.”
“Hey, just trying to keep you happy,” he said, with a smile.
“I get it,” she agreed, “but it still sucks.”
“Sure, it does, but you’ve come a long way, so let’s keep that going.” He hesitated, then added, “Do you use your cards to answer any of these questions?”
She sighed. “While a prisoner I tried, even when my sister was alive, but honestly, it’s the only time I worried that my cards and I were no longer on the same wavelength. I used them and could get some answers, but they weren’t defined, not as crisp as when I used them before.”
“Drugs,” he noted flatly.
Wincing, she nodded. “In hindsight, I think so. The readings are clearer now than what I was used to getting before and maybe even stronger—as in I don’t always need to pick a card to hear the answer.”
“Interesting.” Rick frowned and looked as if he would say more, but a bedroom door opened, and Royce walked out.
She smiled up at him. “There you are,” she said warmly, loving the sight of him. Something was growing between them, but she had no idea just what or if it was only on her side, but she hoped not. And maybe she was just so damn happy to have escaped and to not be alone right now. She hoped her judgment was better than that. She sent the question to her cards, pulling out her deck, and flipping the top card. Then she looked up at Royce. “How was your night?”
“I had a good night,” he said, with a smile. “How about you?”
She shrugged. “It was okay. We’re moving in the right direction now. That’s what I care about.”
Royce looked over at Rick. “Any update?”
“Yep, we’re leaving in a bit.” He looked at his phone and added, “In about forty minutes.”
“Oh good.” Royce nodded. “In that case, food first. Then we can pack up and head out.”
As she headed to her room to collect her few possessions, she glanced down again at the card she’d pulled.
The Lovers.
*
With Heather in the back seat of their newly arrived vehicle, courtesy of Terk, Rick drove, and Royce took the passenger seat. They left in the early morning hours, heading straight for the private airport. They hadn’t checked out of the hotel, but she figured the local government would know exactly what was going on. If not, they could contact MI6. As soon as they hit the airport, they quickly boarded a small plane and lifted off almost immediately.
As soon as they were free and clear and the seatbelt sign went off, she beamed at Royce. “I didn’t think we would make it here,” she exclaimed, laughing. “It’s been such a hard journey already that I figured something else would screw it up for sure.”
“We’re here, and we’re free and clear, it seems. So, all we have to do is get home and land,” he stated, with another smile.
She nodded. “When can I contact my company?”
“Not yet,” he replied instantly.
She checked his energy and determined his response was more about safety than instincts. Regardless it was the same answer. Elements were at work here that she needed to respect. She frowned. “Are you guys still thinking that it’s all connected?”
“We’re not so sure that it’s connected as much as a possible link to some proof to hold Faheed or Saheed or one of their people accountable.”
She winced. “Fine. I’ll stay off communications for now, but I do need to get into the office. I saw enough on my emails last night to know that I need to handle some important matters, and I need to do that fast.”
“I hear you,” Royce said. “Hopefully today, but it won’t be early. It may not even be by the end of the day. If things get really ugly, it may not be until tomorrow. Yet nothing we can do about it, and we don’t want to jump the gun. We need to put everything into play, keep it in play, and hope that, by the end of today, this is done and dusted.”
She smiled and settled in to enjoy the rest of their flight. “Now that would make me happy.”
Royce looked over at Rick to see his gaze going back and forth from Heather to Royce. Royce just shook his head. “Don’t even go there.” Hell, Rick had better not go there.
Royce already had enough confusion in his own mind. Something about Heather’s energy almost synergistically matched to his own. No one else saw energy in the same way he did. Maybe someone at Terk’s castle did, but Royce hadn’t met anyone who saw the energy waves quite the way he comprehended them. Yet here was someone who he could see a shift,… a sliding,… almost a melding of her energy to his. They certainly liked each other, but this was different. There was almost a fatedness to their union that made him somewhat uncomfortable. He’d always been someone in control—especially of the major decisions in his life. Yet here was something he wasn’t sure he had any sway over.
“Too late,” Rick declared, abruptly interrupting Royce’s thoughts. “Will you guys follow up on this when you hit England?”
Heather replied, “Sure, why not? He’s the most interesting man I’ve met for a long time.” Rick looked at her with a wounded expression. She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, enough with the puppy-dog eyes. We both know perfectly well you have somebody waiting for you when we touch down.”
“I do, and believe me that I can’t wait to see her.”
And that maybe was the crux of the matter for Royce. He didn’t have anyone. He was pretty damn sure that the woman he hadn’t realized he’d been waiting for was sitting right beside him.