“Yes. It took me a while to work out the details that will hand everything I own and control over to others without causing the businesses to collapse or the people populating them to go bankrupt or lose their jobs—”
She barged in on his explanation, panting now, almost raving. “But that is not a solution! That…this…is a catastrophe. You’re sacrificing everything that you are!”
“And I’m so relieved this is over. It’s not a sacrifice, by the way, just a tiny price to have you and our baby. But you don’t have to worry. I’ll rebuild my success and my fortune.”
“I’m not worried about that.” She stamped her foot, feeling her brain overheating, her body shaking apart. “I’m making more money all the time and I have enough for both of us, which you can use as capital to rebuild your empire. What I am is devastated at the enormity of the sacrifices you just offered—your name, your family, your country, everything you’ve worked for…”
And he dared chuckle. “So what? I have a wife who’ll support me.”
She gave a chagrined shriek. “You…you…” Words shriveled to ashes in her mouth. Only one hope remained. “They’ll say no.”
“Oh, no, they won’t. If we’d stayed one more minute, we’d have been flooded in the drool of their eagerness to grab my assets. I’m worth far more to them dead and gone, figuratively speaking, than alive and begetting children of their blood.”
And she grabbed him by the arms and shook him. “Go back right now and say you take it all back! You tell them that you—”
He hugged her off the ground, ending her tirade. Before she could twist out of his arms, he buried his face in her neck. “I’m not repeating my father’s mistakes, ya galbi. He gave up his only chance at love, married women he could barely tolerate for the sake of his kingdom and throne. But I’m giving away replaceable things, just giving the tribes what they want so I can be what I want to be. Yours. It doesn’t matter what else I am.” She squirmed in his arms, sobbed, and he only pressed her closer. “I’ll always remain who I am, in my heart, to my loved ones. As for my success, it might have been in part due to my status before, but now I am formidable in my own right with my knowledge and experience. Even if I never attain the same success or wealth again, what does it matter when I have the ultimate treasure—you and our baby?”
She at last made him put some distance between them, took his face in her trembling hands. “But you’ll always have us, no price needed. Divorce me, Shaheen, give them the marriage they want. Both I and our baby will be yours forever, no matter what.”
“Okay, Romeo and Juliet, move it.”
Johara jerked as a hand clamped her arm. It was Amjad. He was also holding Shaheen’s arm. Before either of them could say anything, he dragged them back into the council hall.
In the middle of the floor where they’d stood minutes ago, he stopped and stepped in front of them.
“All right, venerable lords, listen carefully.” The noise again dissipated at Amjad’s terrifying growl. “You always called me the Mad Prince, and now’s your chance to find out just how crazy I am. All you have to do is vote against Shaheen, and I’ll make each and every one of you and your spawn into the next five generations sorry to have ever been born.”
“I second that.” Harres came forward to stand beside Amjad.
Shaheen’s younger half brothers, Haidar and Jalal, joined the lineup, forming a barricade of towering manhood and power in front of her and Shaheen.
“Third and fourth, here,” Haidar said for both him and his twin. “You might be all-powerful tribal lords here, but let us remind you we are not just the king’s sons. Each of us packs more power in the world at large than you can probably imagine.”
“You don’t want to make enemies of us.” Jalal’s face was reminiscent of Amjad’s cruel handsomeness, a younger and even more reckless version of Amjad’s demon evidently incubating inside him.
Harres gave his younger brothers a look of approval. “So to sum up, if you vote to exile Shaheen, if you touch a cent of his assets, we will all be your enemies until the day you die.”
“But, if you free him and apologize for all you’ve put him through,” Haidar elaborated, “you’ll have our…gratitude.”
Amjad gave a loud, irreverent snort. “Yeah. And you do want to see me grateful, I assure you. You will love it.”
Harres nodded. “So either join us in the twenty-first century, forget the blood-mixing rituals and do business through more…lucrative means, or…piss us off. Your choice.”
With that, the brothers turned and started to walk out.
Shaheen pushed at them. “I won’t let you do this—”
Amjad grabbed Shaheen’s arm, dragged him along, hissing, “Ever heard of a strategic withdrawal, Romeo? Walk with me.”
Once outside, Amjad flicked a hand at the guards and they all scattered. Then he hooked his hands low on his powerful hips, twisting his lips at Shaheen. “What’s wrong with you? We were driving a bargain in there. You don’t outbid your team.”
Harres gave a harsh laugh. “And the greedy blowhards are having mini heart attacks in there, thinking of all they could milk out of our carte blanche.”
Shaheen shook his head, adamant. “I won’t let you do this. This is my responsibility.”
Amjad rolled his eyes. “Bored now.”
Harres turned to Haidar and Jalal, sent them back into the hall to find out the council’s verdict.
Once they left, Johara realized he’d sent his younger brothers away so that he could talk freely. “I only wish we could tell the council they actually owe you, and more so Johara, more than they could ever repay, for giving us the first solid leads to abort the conspiracy that would tear apart the kingdom they’re squabbling over pieces of.”
Haidar and Jalal came back almost as soon as they’d gone in, their faces spread with cynical smiles.
“That had to be the fastest decision in the history of the kingdom,” Jalal chuckled. “Money sure talks, and talks big.”
Amjad slapped him on the back. “Shut up and spit it out.”
Jalal smirked at him. “They release Shaheen of his vows, demand no punishment. And to ‘give peace a chance,’ they’re ‘willing’ to negotiate a ‘suitable’ compensation.”