The Sheik's Baby Surprise (17 page)

Malik closed his eyes as he leaned against his heavy desk after Jina’s departure. “She understood!” he muttered softly. The damn woman was going to get herself killed because of that understanding. He leaned his open arms against his desk palms flat on the wood as he closed his eyes, praying that Jina wouldn’t do anything that would get herself killed. Please, just let her be safe, he prayed.

Aaron walked into Malik’s office and hesitated for a moment. “She’s gone,” he said carefully.

Malik nodded his head and pushed himself up off the desk. “Thanks. Now find the bastard who is doing this!”

Aaron nodded his head, his lips compressing as he turned around, obviously heading towards the security offices.

Three hours later, several large men walked into the private suite of rooms where Malik was slowly getting himself drunk. Stefan, Damon, Grayson and Harrison all stared at their friend with growing concern as Malik slammed back another shot of whiskey.

“What’s going on? Harrison demanded immediately.

Malik laughed, feeling better now that his friends were here. “Where is Scarlett?”

The door open and closed behind the four men and they all heard an, “I’m here,” the blond woman said as she stood in front of the four men. “And you’re drunk. Interesting turn of events.”

All five of them knew that something was seriously wrong if Malik was getting drunk. “Where is Jina?” Scarlett demanded.

Malik chuckled “Just like you to get right down to the heart of the issue, isn’t it?”

“Are you going to tell us or are we going to have to beat it out of you? Damon asked. Not that any of them would lay a hand on Malik, not when he was in this state. They preferred to administer their beatings when all of them were fully functional and could fight back. At least, that’s the way they used to do it. The only time they beat each other up now was when they were trying to have fun these days. Their boarding school fights were long past, thanks to Uncle Charles.

“Are we alone?” Malik asked.

The five other occupants of the room turned and looked at each other, startled that the man would even ask such a question. But they looked around, just to make sure. The only other person who had been allowed in this room was Aaron, the head of Malik’s security team. But he had left as soon as he noticed that Malik was getting drunk. Aaron knew about the six of them, had
,
observed their get-togethers over the past several years. The head of security knew that these six people were not a threat to each other.

Scarlett crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the man who took another slug of whiskey. “Tell us what is going on, Malik,” she said. Scarlett moved closer, her crystal blue eyes looking into the darker ones of Malik’s. She laid a hand on his arm, trying to stop him from slamming down another shot of whiskey. “Tell us what we can do.”

Malik shook his head. “Someone is trying to kill me if I remain married.”

That news startled everyone but the man draining his glass.  They all knew that a year ago, he’d been a mess when his fiancée had disappeared suddenly.  All of them had been making plans to attend his wedding and, suddenly, it was not happening. 

Now they show up and he announces…

“Does that statement mean that you’re married to Jina now?” Scarlett asked, watching him carefully. 

Malik stood up and headed over to the bottle of whiskey in the corner.  “A few days ago.”  He chuckled as he filled up his glass.  “No wedding night though!” 

He turned around but wasn’t aware of Harrison who grabbed the drink out of Malik’s hands.  “Thanks old chap.  Don’t mind if I do,” and he walked away with the glass in his hand. 

Damon smiled.  “I’ll have more glasses delivered.  Sounds like there’s a lot to catch up on.”  He walked over to the door and gave instructions to the bodyguard. 

“So where is the beautiful woman?” Stefan asked, taking a seat across from Malik.  The others all settled in for a long chat, knowing that it was going to be difficult to get the truth out of Malik in this state. 

At that moment, Aaron walked back into the room.  “Have you all been briefed?”

Scarlett sat down next to Grayson but with several inches between their bodies.  “Where are your wives?” she asked of Harrison, Stefan and Damon. 

Damon answered for all of them.  “They are meeting your plane in Athens.  They will take care of Jina for you until we get this sorted out.”

“Need Jina and Lika,” Malik growled furiously, wanting to pound his fist into the wall because his newly discovered family was not here, under his roof and under his protection. 

There was silence in the room as the others tried to figure out who Lika is.  Scarlett leaned forward, her eyes narrowing.  “Malik…” she started to say.

Fortunately, Aaron was much more aware of what had just been implied and he shook his head.  “Lika is his six month old daughter,” he explained. 

Even more stunned silence! 

Scarlett was the first to recover and she jumped up and ran over to give Malik a hug. “That’s awesome news!  When do we get to meet this little lady?” she asked. 

The others all laughed as well, offering their heartfelt congratulations. 

Malik’s face was grim.  “She’s gone.  Jina is gone.  I had to send them away.”

Aaron once again stepped forward and explained the situation.  He tossed the pictures onto the table and all heads but Malik’s leaned forward, Scarlett gasping in horror while the others turned furious. 

Grayson and Damon stepped away from the group. The two men mumbled a few words to each other, then nodded. Scarlett lifted her phone to her ear and gave instructions. Several moments later a new man stepped into the room, a large suitcase in his hand.

Malik saw Aaron looking into the room, concern in his eyes. Malik shook his head. “It’s okay Aaron. These men are safe. Go get me the information that I need.”

Once again, Aaron nodded his head and stepped away from the door, giving orders to the guards outside to let no one else into the room unless His Highness approved it.

Grayson nodded to the man with a suitcase. “Do your stuff,” Grayson said to the man.

The man nodded his head and opened the suitcase, immediately getting to work. Grayson walked over to the others, nodding his head and silently giving a message. “So our friend wants to get drunk. Why don’t we help him?” But the silent message in Grayson’s eyes contradicted that statement.

Instantly all the others understood what was going on. Damon, Stefan and Harrison lifted their glasses towards Malik. “To your freedom,” they all said.

A moment later, the stranger in their midst walked over to Grayson and handed him something. Grayson looked down at the small disc in his hand, understanding exactly what it was. He stretched out his hand to show the others what he was holding. The others nodded their heads and continued talking, teasing Malik about his newfound freedom. The others watched Malik carefully, thinking that he might have had too much to drink in order to carry on the subterfuge. But their friend rallied, shaking his head in stunned reaction to the evidence in front of him. “I can’t...”

Damon interrupted, “What about that woman that we saw last month?” he said, his eyes relaying a message as they slid over to the door that had just been closed. “She might be a good option,” he said.

Malik’s eyes narrowed. He glanced to the doorway, then back to Grayson’s hand that was still open and holding the microphone. “I doubt it. My head of security is a bit wary of women coming into the palace right now. And I think that I have to agree with him. Not that there isn’t something that we can do about my predicament,” he said. Malik’s head shook again, his eyes still not believing the evidence in front of him.

The man walked over and dropped another one in Grayson’s hand and all of them stared in stunned silence once again.

After a few more moments, they all came back to their senses and realized that they should be talking. Grayson carefully placed the two small listening devices on the table in front of them while each of them sat down and started talking. The conversation seemed as if it was about nothing, but these men and Scarlett knew each other well enough that they could read between the lines and understand what was being said without the specific words. It was almost as if the six of them had their own code.

As they seemingly chatted about inane subjects, the man placed two more of the bugs on the table and kept on working. After about a half hour, the man turned around and nodded, indicating that he was finished with this room.

Grayson nodded back to the man. “Thanks for your work. I don’t think that Malik will be needing your services at this point, but keep in touch. Maybe Malik can refer you to Aaron, the head of his security team.”

The man silently nodded his head and walked out of the room. The remaining occupants of the salon stared at each other. They all knew what had to be done. The only questions remaining were how they were going to do it.

Malik stood up and rubbed his hand over his face, shaking his head with both fury and confusion.

“I think I need to go for a swim.” A moment later, Malik walked out of the salon and disappeared into his private suite. The others all nodded their heads in agreement. At that point, they too stood up and walked out. Over the years, during their visits with to the palace, they had each been assigned a private suite, the same one each time they visited. So when they separated down the long hallway, their clothes had already been unpacked and stood waiting in the appropriate rooms. They each donned a bathing suit, grabbed a towel and walked out of their suite, ready to meet up and go for a swim.

Everyone met poolside at the back of the elaborate palace swimming area. The pool at this palace would be the envy of any five-star resort in the world. There was a lazy river and palm trees as well as an area for swimming laps. To the sides there were several different Jacuzzi areas and even a beach section so that little kids could wade into the water in a safer environment.

The objective now was not exercise. After finding all of the listening devices in the private salon, a place where no other communication devices should be found.  The six of them dove into the water and met in the middle of the pool.

“Go change your clothes!” Grayson grumbled when he noticed Scarlett’s black, two-piece bathing suit. The material covered all of the essential places and, in other people’s minds the bathing suit might be conservative.  But in Grayson’s eyes, her bathing suit revealed way too much to his starving eyes.

Scarlett glared up at the obnoxious man. “We have more important things to discuss than your ridiculous, puritanical ideas on what a woman should wear while swimming.”

Damon, Stefan and Harrison chuckled, but they settled down as soon as they caught Malik’s serious expression.

“What were you able to find out?” Malik demanded.

Grayson pulled his eyes away from Scarlett, rubbing his face with frustration and trying not to let his body react.  He was in a damn pool!  His reaction would be pretty obvious!

“My team looked into Aaron first, but found that he was clean.  We then looked at a couple of the guards who were assigned to Jina a year ago.  One of the men has some sketchy details in his background.”

Damon stepped in at that point.  “After Aaron was cleared, my men talked to him about this other guy.  His name is Musef and he was brought onto the security staff two years ago.  Nothing ever happened before last year.  But that’s when he was able to afford a new car.  Nothing outrageous, so it didn’t raise any flags.”

Harrison moved the water around his body as he said, “Aaron and my security team are watching Musef and a couple of others that he seems to be working closely with, trying to find out who they are meeting. I don’t think that Musef is in charge. He’s just the one that is trying to manipulate you.”

Stefan agreed. “My team is providing backup for the surveillance.  While we’re inside the palace, my team will be working with Harrison’s to try and determine who’s at the heart of all this. In the meantime,” he turned and looked at Scarlett, “you’re going to go through the rest of the palace with our guy and find any other devices, correct?”  He turned to the others.  “Malik has asked Scarlett to redecorate the palace.  It’s going to be a thorough change of décor.” 

Scarlett smiled, ignoring Grayson’s growl, and nodded her head.  “Oh, you’re going to love what I’m going to do with your suite, Malik.  And now that I have a little girl to decorate for, well, you just wait and see!  It’s going to be amazing!”

Malik chuckled, having complete trust in her style.  And her idea to pass off the “sweeper”, the man who can find the other listening devices, as one of her assistants, was brilliant.  “I’m glad you use your powers for good and not evil,” he teased.  Turning to Damon he asked, “Any idea on the origin of the pictures?”

Damon nodded his head. “I have my technical team working on that.  One of them is definitely photoshopped.  I have a guy looking at the others.  He’s checking the pixels, trying to determine how the images were created.”

Malik’s shoulders relaxed slightly.  He knew that this group would take care of things.  “Okay, so we all know what we’re doing.” Malik looked around at all the men, as well as Scarlett, an enormous sense of gratitude overwhelming him. These five people had dropped everything that they were doing simply because he called them and said that he needed help. He hadn’t even taken the time to tell them what kind of help he needed. They just showed up.