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The rest of the day Nina stayed on my mind, and it didn’t take much for me to figure out that I wanted to see her again.
“Thisisanabsurdplan,” I said to my handler while on the phone later that evening. “I’m to meet the sheikh. I have brokered thousands of deals for the CIA before. Why do I need a wife to make this one work?”
Ryan was in my home office with me, and he pretended to be focused on the tabloid in his hand, but I knew he could hear everything I said. He was the only living soul who knew this tiny detail of my life, but he still didn’t know quite enough.Some information isn’t meant to be shared ever,but Ryan had been useful in gaining some info on celebrities for the CIA in the past, and I had come clean with him about my undercover attachment to the institution back then.
Only thing was, he didn’t know what I did exactly.
I dropped the call with a frustrated sigh and began massaging the back of my neck. “More talk about wife, family, and trust,” I complained, almost sounding like I was whining. “How do I find a wife in three nights?”
“You can hire someone,” Ryan suggested as he flipped through to the next page. “I hear that’s a big thing now.”
“Hire? I don’t trust anyone to take them to Jeddah with me.”
“What about Candace? You’ve been seeing her for some time now, haven’t you?”
“She’s a reporter working for Page Six. Why would I take a reporter to see the sheikh? It’ll give access to too much exposure.”
“What about Juliet?” he asked, and I frowned because the name didn’t sound familiar at first. “The redhead?” Ryan asked to remind me, and I gasped.
“Oh—Julian,” I corrected. “She’s out of the country, and we broke up.”
“Ouch, I thought you had finally found the one,” he teased.
“There’s no one, Ryan, you know that,” I reminded him as I got up from my executive chair, loosened my tie, and then walked around to join him on the couch.
I picked up the empty glass from the center table, poured myself some of the brandy, and then sipped from the glass. “Some of us aren’t as lucky as you are to find true … true love.”
“When you say it like that, it sounds like it’s a terrible thing to be in love,” Ryan said with a smile as he picked up his glass too. “But it’s a wonderful thing. You’ll find out once you start to feel it.”
I arched a brow at him and asked, “Have you reconciled with your wife yet?”
Ryan’s smile turned sly, and his eyes gleamed. “Oh yes, we reconciled well,” he answered in a suggestive tone before bursting into a short laugh that I joined. “Of course we reconciled. Sarah is the love of my life. I can’t stay upset with her for long.”
“Good for you, my friend,” I said as I got on my feet and patted his shoulder. “Right now, I need a drink while I wallow in thoughts of what to do next. Finding a wife, traveling to Jeddah … Things like this make me wish I never left the service in the first place.”
“Being a billionaire suits you better than being in the Navy trust me,” Ryan said, then flashed the tabloid in his hand at me. “Look at this picture. Billionaire Jack Muller shares three secrets to his success. It looks more like you’re sharing secrets to have you charm your way into everyone’s heart,” he joked.
I chuckled and shook my head before grabbing my coat from the stand in my office. “Let’s go to the club,” I suggested. “I drink better when I’m there.”
Ryan and I drove to “The Cartel,” one of my many successful chains of establishments here in Denver. When we arrived, the place was bubbling as a bartender came to serve us in the VIP section. While I enjoyed the loud music and let it drown my thoughts, my mind continued its quick search for answers to my predicament.
The sheikh I was to meet was the most-notorious known leader in Jeddah. Zayed Al-Mufti had been on top of the CIA’s list for years, and he was a distrusting man who had found and murdered some agents sent in the past to infiltrate his cartel.
I had met Zayed once, and I knew how fierce he was. My approach had been to befriend him first, since he was friends with another good Arabian politician of mine. Sheikh Zayed had been on my radar for three years now, and it was finally time to get the deal done.
“I just texted Nina to meet me here for some drinks. She’s on her way … I’d like to see the look on her face when she gets here and sees you’re here. She could never stand you even in the past and it’s always so funny.”
Our drinks had arrived, and I enjoyed the strength of the martini while sipping and relaxing on the chair. I crossed my legs in front of me and looked at Ryan. “You always like to do that to her, and I take the brunt of it. Why is it so funny that you like to put us in the same space when she can’t stand me?”
“Because she’s my sister, and it’s fun to see her slice you with words.”
“She really has a way with words,” I agreed with a smile as a familiar warmth entered my heart just from thinking about Nina.
Ryan knew nothing about that night with Nina yet, and I wanted it to stay that way because I knew that as casual and lighthearted as my friend was, he did not joke with his little sister. Nina was the one thing that could cause trouble between us.
And Ryan is the only one on my side. I can’t lose that.
“Either way, it’s fun watching you two go at it,” Ryan continued, and as he kept talking, my mind zoned off for a bit as a crazy thought slid in.
