“Our people seem to be perfectly happy.”
Not all of them are. Issam thought again of the shelter. The last time he had visited the fort, it had been barely habitable—something military troops could use for a period of time, but not a place he’d want his nephew to live in.
“We need to make an effort.”
Kyril turned to face him. “You’ve done a fine job. Everyone is safe.”
“They’re not, and you know it.” Issam struggled to keep his expression neutral, though he could feel his face heating up. “We—I—almost lost Inan at the mosque, and he was only standing on the sidewalk. Now you’ve got him in the middle of a wide-open field.”
At that moment, as the coaches and referee blew their whistles again and again to no avail, Inan and another boy both ran full-tilt for a free ball and straight into each other. The collision was so hard that both of them toppled into the grass. Issam’s heart skipped a beat, but Inan hopped up a moment later and went after another ball.
“It’s practically inviting an injury. And you know as well as I do that this kind of place—people would attack. They would attack because everyone knows that children’s games are supposed to be about goodwill. And fun. There’s nowhere to hide at such an event.”
He pulled out his phone and started typing out some notes about his plan for enhanced security. “We have to make this situation more efficient. Safer. Cleaner.”
Kyril reached over and took the phone out of his hands.
“What are you doing?”
His older brother’s eyes were calm. “Listen to me.” Issam tried to snatch his phone back, and Kyril held it out of reach. “Life is messy. As hard as you try, even if you try with everything you have, you’ll never be prepared for everything. Nothing will ever be perfectly safe.”
“How can you say that? You’re a father.”
“I can say that because I’m a father.” A new brightness came into Kyril’s eyes. “Do you think I wouldn’t lay down my life for Inan? I would. If I could, I would make sure he was never hurt. He would never have to suffer. But that’s not life.” Kyril raised his hands helplessly. “That would ruin him.”
“What are you possibly—”
“It makes us who we are, Issam. Experiencing the world. Taking a few risks. Not stupid risks. No. Not if we can help it. But falling down is a part of life, just like getting up. Inan fell plenty of times when he was learning to walk, but if I hadn’t let him, he would never have learned how to pull himself off the floor.”
This didn’t make Issam any happier. In fact, it made him angry, and he scoffed at Kyril. “Marriage and children have made you soft. And relaxed. All of you.” He was, apparently, the only one who understood the dangers of life.
Kyril stabbed a finger at him, though he looked like he might laugh. “You need to realize that happiness is not the enemy. Do you know what the enemy is?”
“I’m not sure you do.”
“Paranoia is the enemy.” The truth rang like a bell in Issam’s mind, and he wanted to clap his hands over his ears. But Kyril wasn’t finished. “You should slow down and enjoy your pretty fiancée before—” Kyril turned to check on Inan again. The coaches had corralled the children back into some semblance of a game.
“Before what?”
“Before she realizes she doesn’t need you in her life. Not if you’re going to pin her down and steal the joy from it.”
15
Mackenzie blinked once, then again, into the candle in the center of their little dining table in Issam’s private dining room. Her eyes burned at roughly the same temperature as that candle. As it turned out, there was not much time for sleep when one was planning a wedding and doing semi-covert information gathering at the same time.
Her conversations with Sahr had opened Mackenzie’s eyes. All along, she’d had a network of powerful, influential women at her fingertips, and it had been hidden behind floral arrangements and favors. She’d spent every meeting since then learning all she could about the women’s various connections, sussing out as much additional information about the women’s shelter as she could.
She was beyond excited to share it all with Issam.
Mackenzie had spent more than a few midnight hours staring up at the ceiling or tapping notes into her phone, and she finally had all the threads together. There were several interesting legal arguments they could use when it came to occupying the fort, and telling him those would easily lead to the necessary course of action for actually supplying it—and keeping it well-maintained and running.
She had it all planned out. When Issam arrived for dinner, she’d wow him with all the progress she’d made with the wedding plans. She had, after all, been meticulous in making sure every meeting she had was bookended with forward progress. Mackenzie never left a meeting without another item checked off the wedding planning to-do list. And that would make Issam even more willing to listen to her about the women’s shelter.
Mackenzie stifled a yawn behind her hand. It was too early to be tired, but here she was, waiting for a sumptuous meal with her beyond-handsome fiancé and trying her best to stay awake.
“The candlelight makes you irresistible.”
Mackenzie stood with a smile, turning directly into Issam’s arms. “I didn’t hear you come in.”