“We’ll table the convo about Apollo till after.” Pike indicated to a screen. “Put her on the wall.”
An attractive older woman in a coral kaftan and soft brown hair appeared, her dark eyes searching the screen. “Hello?” Her finely drawn brows tugged together as she leaned in.
Navas stood and moved to the middle of the room so his face was front and center where the camera hit. “Princess.”
Yasmina drew back as recognition slid through her olive skin. “Juan,” she breathed, her entire visage relaxing beneath a smile.
“Yasmina,” Navas said, his tone tender, sweet—entirely contradictory to the known and wanted mercenary. How had a guy like that ever leveled up enough to rate a princess? “Good to see you.”
“And you.” She brushed a wavy strand from her temple. “Does this mean you are going to find Nouri?”
“We will get her back, Yasmina.” Conviction coated his words as Navas bobbed his head toward the team. “I pulled in some favors.”
Pike adjusted to the merc’s right and folded his arms over his chest. “Ma’am. Pike Auberon, CEO of Omen Tactical Group. Can you tell us exactly what happened the day she was taken and what you know so far?”
“Of course,” she said quietly.
Owen definitely saw the likeness between Leighton and her mom. Still kinda jacked with his brain that they were both legit princesses. A princess had been in Soph’s barn, a few meters from him. Whack.
“We were out shopping,” the princess began, “Nouri—Leighton—went to try something on and never came back. Nobody saw her leave. We searched everywhere for her, but could not find her in the shopping center. We had security footage pulled, but the cameras in the storage area and back alleys were not working.”
“That right there is what I call convenient,” muttered Brick.
“It is proof of who did this,” she said gravely. “The al-Zahranis are the second richest royal family in the world—trillion-dollar worth. Unlike the Northern and Southern kingdoms, the Central Kingdom is notorious for throwing money around and controlling industries. They think they can buy anything—even people.”
“They sort of can,” Brick said under his breath, earning dark looks from Pike and Navas.
“I still have connections at Omnia Palace,” Yasmina went on, “and they confirmed Nouri is being held there. Like a prisoner in a cell.”
“You have connections?” Pike unfolded his arms. “Think they could?—”
“No,” the princess said emphatically, then softened. “Sorry. My title afforded me a modicum of respect, however, asking anything more than a simple question—like is Nouri there—puts them at risk. If they are discovered doing anything for me, not only will they die, but their families will be slaughtered for betraying Faruq. It is a price I will not ask of them.”
Pike didn’t like that but seemed to process and proceed. “How long has she been gone?”
“Eight months,” Yasmina said.
Pike frowned at Navas, and even Owen could read the disappointed inference—how had a man let his daughter go missing for eight months before trying to get her back?
“Do not blame him,” the princess said. “It was several months before I could even confirm she was there. Of course, I asked immediately, but at first, they could not find her.”
“And then, I wanted to confirm for myself,” Navas explained. “Took weeks to work myself into a position to get actionable intel. When I saw Nesto Bruzon leaving the palace, I knew help was needed.”
Staring at the man, Pike rubbed his jaw. “What’s their endgame?” Next to the table, he hiked a leg and perched on the edge. “Why are they even interested in her? I get Bruzon has a vendetta against Navas, but…a young college student?”
Yasmina exhaled heavily and looked aside—at someone offscreen, it seemed. “Me. Faruq would punish me for fleeing him and Omnia Palace.”
“Why’d you flee?”
“It is a long story,” Yasmina said somberly, then took a sip from a teacup. “My mother, Queen Saffiyah, had given birth to three girls and was quickly losing the favor of then-king Nasir, despite modern science proving it is the man who determines a baby’s gender. But they are cruel and relentless at Omnia. Too stressful. My mother feared for her life. So she took all three of us girls to Tahiti for a year, hoping distance would cool his temper.”
“And it did not…” Pike supplied.
“No,” she said with a sigh. “For all four of us girls, that time in Tahiti was life-altering. One night while there, some missionaries invited us to a tent revival. We went, more out of curiosity or to mock than to hear about their faith—which shames me to admit—but as I listened…what they said made sense. I felt something deep in me burning. My mother said she heard Jesus calling her.” She motioned to her ear. “We were at the revival every night, and they gave my mother a Bible when she asked Jesus to forgive her sins. At our condo, we read from it every night.”
“Bet Nasir loved that.”
She laughed, giving the same tilt of head that Leighton had done that night in the Neeley barn. “I do not know how he learned about it all, but he was furious. What we had done was unforgivable,” she said with an airy laugh. “He ordered us to return to Omnia and even sent guards to bring us back. There in the receiving room, him on his throne, we were forced to our knees. Ordered to renounce Isa or he would kill us.”
