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"Something such as protecting you. It was my fault you were in danger. It was my job to fix it. "
Khalid seemed perfectly serious, and no one around the table was disputing his statement.
"What kind of game are you playing now, Khalid?" Indignation rose inside her. "Do I look as though I'm stupid? That I'm not well aware of the attempts you make to ensure my attention is diverted? That you're hiding things from me? Perhaps if you weren't so damned evasive it might be easier to believe you. "
Black eyes flickered with impatience as she glared at him, refusing to blush at the certainty that her parents would know exactly the tactics he used.
"It's definitely difficult to tell you the truth. Your suspicious nature makes it damned hard to tell you what we suspect. " He grunted. "Nonetheless, it is exactly that, the truth. The meetings between Abram, your fathers, and myself are for an exchange of information and security concerns. Certain factions have become suspicious, though. To allay that suspicion, we meet at the club, to make sure that Abram and I never appear as though we are working together once again, as we did in the past with your godfather. "
She sat back in her chair and stared at him silently. He might be telling the truth, but none of it made sense to her.
"Why would it matter if the two of you were friends or not? You're brothers," she pointed out.
Khalid glanced at her godfather, Zach, before breathing out heavily.
"It was an impression we encouraged once I left Saudi. I cut all ties with the entire family when my brothers, Ayid and Aman, learned of my connection to the FBI and began trying to exact vengeance for it. Information I gave at the time led Saudi and U. S. forces to the headquarters my brothers had set up in Riyadh from which they planned to stage a strike against the Saudi royal family for their ties to America. That information led to an attack where my brothers were reportedly killed. They'd escaped instead. Their wives did not. I barely made it out of Saudi alive. "
Khalid managed to hold back the information surrounding Lessa's death, and his failure to protect her while, hopefully, giving her enough information to allay her suspicions. His brother's wife had been his responsibility at the time. He'd been overconfident, he'd fucked up, and she had paid with her life. How could he ever expect Marty to place her trust in him if she knew how he had failed with another woman? A woman who had trusted him to protect her?
And there was no doubt that eventually his brothers would strike again. Unless he struck first and ensured they didn't rise to retaliate once again.
Marty stared at him intently then, as did her mother. He could practically see the gears working in their heads, the information turning over, being dissected and examined.
"And you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your brothers attacked me?" Marty asked. She could feel a lack of information, missing pieces, but she couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was she wasn't being told. One thing was for certain at this point: If she didn't ask the right question, then she would never know what he was still hiding.
"There is no doubt," he assured her.
"And that's the reason you didn't move to claim me yourself?"
She watched as Khalid's gaze became shuttered. "I did that because I could not bear endangering you because of my determination to destroy the Mustafa family. "
But there was more. With Khalid, there would always be more.
"What else aren't you telling me?"
Khalid breathed out heavily. "I'm thirty-five years old, precious. I'm certain you will learn other things about me, but isn't that part of the joy of a relationship?"
She licked her lips, suddenly aware of the seriousness of his expression, the glimmer of emotion in his eyes. Could he suddenly be promising her more than just the sex? "Don't lie to me," she whispered. "It would destroy me. "
"No lies. " Sincerity filled his tone.
He was still hiding something from her, she could feel it, sense it, and Marty knew in her heart that that was a lie in and of itself. But she couldn't turn away from him. She couldn't bear the thought of losing him, not yet, not until she had to let go of him. "Marty, my life hasn't been charmed," he stated gently. "I've led a life filled with blood, and with nightmares that I often wish only to forget. Can you blame me for not wishing to air those nightmares just yet? Can I not take a moment of my life to simply enjoy my woman, rather than dragging her into a past that even I wish I had no part of?"
But she loved him. She had a right to be a part of that life. She glanced at Shayne, noticing that, like her father, he had found something else to direct his attention to. It appeared that the pattern of the wallpaper across the room had him mesmerized.
Turning back to Khalid, she nodded slowly. "If there's nothing more. "
"For now, I swear to you, there is nothing more important than just holding you. "
Marty had a feeling those nightmares now held the key to the answers she needed. The reason why a part of Khalid remained distant to her. Why she didn't have the heart of the man, as he held her heart. Zach rose to his feet and moved to the coffeepot to refill the cups he gathered from the table.
After filling cups with coffee and transferring them to the table, he retook his seat and glanced at Virginia. "We've done our best to protect her, Ginny. She might be pissed at us, but we've kept her safe. "
Marty had to smile at her mother's sarcastic, less than ladylike snort.
"Why not just tell me what was going on?" She looked between Khalid and Shayne then.
"Because we weren't certain what was going on; we still aren't," Shayne answered her. "I came here with information for Khalid, rumors that his half brothers suspected he had helped disband the cell they sent after you, and that he was once again working to destroy them. Now, I'm trying my damndest to figure out who ran you off the road and tried to shoot you, and whether or not Ayid and Aman are closer than they should be. "
