The comfort of the car didn't do anything to settle the heat bubbling inside her. Oh, that stupid man! And then her cell phone rang. She glanced at the number, almost hit Ignore, but she might as well have it out with Daddy, too.
"What?"
Aldrich Leeland's voice came over the phone, his drawl slow. "Nice way to greet your father, Ginni. Just heard from Hank. He's saying we've got a disaster on our hands."
Ginni swallowed hard. She took a deep breath. "Daddy, when are you gonna decide I can handle myself?"
"Maybe when you prove it."
"An' how am I ever gonna do that with you sendin' your dogs after me?"
A long silence followed. Ginni bit down on her lower lip. The urge to dump everything into her father's lap nibbled at her. He'd know how to keep Sheikh Ahmad happy and how to get a deal done with Zahkim and Leeland Enterprises. In the process, he'd unhitch her from Nasim as well, and that's what stopped her.
She didn't want her marriage undone.
That thought left her frozen, phone to her ear, and her heart hammering.
She was in love with Nasim. She knew it down to her bones. She'd fallen for him sometime in the past couple of days, and the trouble with that was she wasn't sure Nasim saw her as anything more than a problem—just like Hank and her Daddy did.
Oh, what was she going to tell him? Oh, hey, Daddy, I think I've started a war?
Sucking in another breath, she tried to pick her words carefully. "Three days. I'll call you back, and if it's not all sweetness and light, I'll let you know. But I'm never gonna learn much of anything if you don't give me the chance."
His voice softened. "Baby girl, I just hate seeing you unhappy. That's all."
"I know. But it's been a long time since I was a baby or a girl, and sometimes it takes a stretch of unhappy to get to the other side. Mama's always talking about needing rain to make rainbows."
"Trouble is, lotta times, rain comes along with hurricane winds, and good luck finding much of anything to put back together after that. You got your three days."
"And Hank?" She sta
rted chewing on her thumbnail.
"I'll call him home. Don't think the desert suits him anyways."
She pumped a hand into the air and ended the call. Then she pushed a hand into her hair. Three days. What in tarnation was she going to do in three days?
The limo pulled up to the palace entrance before she'd managed to calm herself. Ginni stared up at the white marble, the turrets, the ornate carving. For an instant, she was tempted to ask the driver to take her anywhere else, maybe out to some place she could walk off her anger. But she had ideas about what she needed to do. Next thing that came with them was to figure out how to meet up with Sheikh Ahmad to put those ideas into action.
Heading inside, she made her way to her room, left her purse and the few things she'd bought in the city. She walked out onto the terrace. The gurgling of the fountains in the garden pulled some of the tension from her shoulders. She needed something to eat, she decided. Heading downstairs, she made her way into the garden, looking for someone to point her to food.
Instead, she found an older woman sitting in a shady spot at a round table, a teapot and pastries in front of her. The woman looked up. She wore black robes but without any veils. Gray streaked her black hair, which she wore pulled back into a bun. Kohl lined dark eyes, and the woman had an assessing stare.
She smiled, however, and gestured to one of the other chairs. "You must be Virginia. Please, will you join me?" She spoke careful, lightly accented English.
Ginni hesitated, but the tea smelled like licorice, and those pastries just needed to be eaten. She sat down. "Call me Ginni."
"I am Sheikha Amal. That would be the wife of a sheikh. Or former wife. My husband once ruled Zahkim. I'm Tarek's grandmother."
"His mamere?" Frowning, Ginni asked, "Does that make us—?"
"Family. Yes." She poured tea and gave Ginni another of those direct, assessing stares. Ginni found the dark eyes unnerving. This woman was like Mama times ten. She sipped her tea. Amal offered the plate with the pastries, and Ginni decided hunger beat out trying to act like some kind of princess. She devoured three of the pastries—and, lordy, but they were good. Amal chatted about the weather—the heat, the lack of rain, the flowers in the garden. Ginni mumbled answers around her pastries.
The second cup of tea had her sitting straighter and deciding she might as well dive in. "You don't think much of me."
She got another direct stare, but it came with the fragment of a smile. "I am withholding judgment. You are at least not as bad as Jasmine Hadad. That was going to be a disaster of a marriage. When were you born?" Ginni rattled off her birth date. Amal nodded. "Gemini. A good match for Nasim, but we should have your chart done."
Rattling her tea cup into its saucer, Ginni leaned forward. "Yeah, that'd be fine. But it's more the future that's got me worried. Nasim's in trouble, it's my fault, and I have to make it right." The words tumbled out in a flow.