She squeezed a lemon wedge into both cups of tea. Sana accepted hers with shaky hands.
“Oh, silly me, are you hungry?” Regina purred, and tried not to cringe when Rasid laughed. “Fortunately, I made you cookies.” Another plot point fromDouble-O Trouble—secret messages hidden in fortune cookies. She took one of the thick, cake-like tea cookies out of the box and waved it at her.
Sana’s eyes brightened. “Lucky and fortunate,” she said.
Message received.
Regina laughed as she dropped the cookie back on top of the others. “Too bad you can’t have your cookie now. I’ll send them along with you back to your cell and you can have a cookie later as you remember our meeting.” She quickly flashed the double-O sign again before folding her fingers and Sana gave her the slightest nod. “Because I want you to remember how wonderful your father was for letting you meet me.” Regina stood and loomed over Sana, who set her cup aside as she looked from Regina to Rashid and back again.
Regina darted forward and grasped Sana’s chin, turning her head upward and forcing her to stand up.
“I know the truth about you, Sana,” Regina added, holding the princess’s gaze, willing her to understand what Regina was really telling her. “You were willful and disobedient and you are being punished. But I will be in charge of your fate from now on. Remember that when you bite into the bitterest lemon cookie. You won’t know when I’m coming for you, but trust me, I will.”
She shook Sana’s face and pushed her back down into the chair. Rashid laughed and clapped his hands. Regina thrust the box of cookies into Sana’s lap and turned to Rashid.
“I’m bored with her. Send her away. I’d rather spend time with you.”
Rashid’s eyes flashed. He signaled to his guards. Right before they got to her chair, Sana made a quick circle with her fingers. The guards picked Sana up and half-carried her to the door. She clutched the box of cookies all the way out of the room.
Regina laughed once they left. “The cookies are totally inedible. She’ll probably try anyway and be sick for a week.”
Truth, at least for the bitterest cookie, the one that, like a fortune cookie, had a message tucked inside printed on edible paper telling Sana about the rescue in the works.
Rashid stood and crossed the room. “You are magnificent.”
“Thank you. Next time, take me to her cell where I can beat her in private. I had no idea she was here in the palace or I would have begged you to let me before now.”
Rashid shook his head. “It has become too risky keeping her here. I wanted you to meet her before I send her away.”
Regina pretended to pout. “But why?”
Rashid grabbed Regina and pulled her close, chuckling. “You are like a spoiled baby deprived of her toy. People are talking, little queen. It is best if Sana goes to a more remote place in secret.”
She grinned even if she didn’t feel it. Jeremy’s plan of spreading rumors of an attempted rescue had made Regina uneasy—what if Rashid saw through her attempt to meet Sana as part of the plan? But he hadn’t, judging by the way the crown prince groped her now.
“When does my toy go away? Can I see her one more time before then? Or perhaps you can take me to her once she moves. My hand already aches to slap her insolent face.”
His eyes lit up and Rashid kissed her hard. “She leaves the day after tomorrow. And no, you can’t.” He gripped her wrist and her heart stopped. She’d misjudged him, misjudged the entire situation. He knew what she was up to, had played her when she thought she was playing him. Now she would disappear right along with Sana.
But he kissed the inside of her palm instead. “I’m too busy these next few days to watch you play. We’ll arrange another time. At my discretion.” He gave her a warning look. “Remember that even if Sana’s fate is in your hands, yours is in mine. Even as I worship you, you will learn to obey me in all things.”
She let herself shiver, passing it off as desire. “Yes, my prince. Of course.”
NINE
Lachlan, age 33
Far from the glittering heart of the city, Lachlan stubbed out his cigarette against a dirty concrete wall and waited for everything to go wrong. He wondered first how much time they had before their mission became too dangerous to accomplish, and second, how a man could despise his daughter so much that he’d condemn her to death after torturing and beating her.
Lachlan had read Sana’s description in the report from Regina and it sickened him. She’d been starved and beaten. And now, her father was sending her out into the godforsaken desert ahead of an incoming sandstorm that promised to be one for the record books. All over the news, reports were coming in about the hellacious storm and advising people to seek shelter. The sky was already turning that odd color between blue and brown as the wind picked up, hurling fistfuls of loose sand across the alley between the autobody shop where Loch stood and the marketplace still under construction. The city was constantly extending its fingers into the desert around it, growing like a cancer built on slave labor. Just past the construction was a row of barracks housing Pakistani and Indian workers promised good jobs and instead finding their passports confiscated upon arrival and workdays that sometimes lasted twenty hours. But even they were hunkered down ahead of the coming onslaught of sand.
And Prince Rashid was sending his daughter straight into the heart of the storm.
Well, he thought he was. But that’s where Lachlan and his team came in.
Lachan went over the new rescue plan for the thousandth time in his head. He and his men were in place near the far edge of the city and they were ready. Regina had come through for them. She’d confirmed the princess was alive, was being held against her will, confirmed that she was about to be moved, and Regina had gotten the message to her that she was not forgotten.
Lach stepped back into the doorway facing the alley, waiting for word of the SUV carrying the princess. It was early morning in the normally bustling city, just prior to rush hour, but thanks to the weather, most businesses were closed and people were home. The city streets were bristling with surveillance cameras. Because of those cameras, the plan was for Lachlan’s team to ambush Sana’s SUV in the desert outside the city where there was no surveillance, overpower the guard with her, and sneak Sana out of the country.
