Desert Sheikh vs American Princess (32 page)

The familiar feeling of other people's expectations slammed into on her, making her feel like she was trying to breathe in the vacuum of space. She couldn't draw anything into her lungs.

Everyone was trying to make her play this role of legendary hero. Well, she wasn't. She just wasn't.

"Noelle?" Faridah looked at her with a universe of expectations in her eyes.

Faridah. She was the worst of them, dumping piles of responsibility on her, stuff she never wanted and never agreed to. She. Just. Couldn't.

She froze. Nothing in the universe could have made her move.

Noelle
. Bonnie said her name with sympathy and compassion.
Noelle, you are okay.

I can't do this. I can't stand the way everyone is depending on me. I can't take it. Bonnie, this isn't working.

But it is. You a
re
breaking into the palace so that you can stop a wedding and find a jewel that's been lost for decades,
said the pirate princess.

She couldn't even make a response form in her mind. Numbness crept up her legs, locking her into place.

Noelle, look around you.

She did. The concerned look screwing up Faridah's face somehow made her feel a little better. And Kitoko was backing her up.

You are okay, Noelle. You have friends and allies. You aren't alone, and you are making this happen. The only one holding you back is you.

Her imaginary friend had a point. And she knew it.
 

Noelle, you can do this, but the only way is to just push though.

Yeah. Maybe. Maybe I can.

You can do this, Noelle. Do it for Kitoko and Faridah. And Suzette and Elise and Mr. Lodhi-Rajput. Do it for yourself, and do it for Walid.

The numbness didn't fade. But she did manage to put one foot in front of the other. A small victory.

But it wasn't Faridah she thought of. Or any of her friends. Or even Walid.

I believe in you,
shouted the pirate princess who lived in her head. The one she'd shoved away for so many years, and had thought of getting rid of.

Bonnie. The little piece of her who had never accepted the fate of being a rich man's daughter and becoming, well, becoming Kalilah. Bonnie, her instinct to rebel and to tackle the world and to force her will on her surroundings. Bonnie, who was the person Noelle should have been all along. Bonnie, the best part of her.

For crap's sake, she'd just knocked a guard out cold. If only she had time to change into his uniform. But the sun was sinking fast, and she had an engagement to stop.

Bonnie,
she said.
I love you. Never leave me again.

I never left you in the first place,
Noelle, said her friend.

The numbness still tingled in her useless fingers, but it wasn't her master now. With Bonnie's help, she could push though. She swept up the fallen guard's hat and shoved it on her head. "Now let's stop that ceremony."

*****

"Stop the wedding!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

It only took seconds for Walid's guards to surround her, see she wasn't a physical threat, and forgo pulling their guns in favor of just dragging her away.

Walid pushed his way through the crowd of stunningly dressed guests, followed by an aggressively pregnant redhead, who stood at his side like she belonged there.

Damn, he was gorgeous. She thought he looked a little like David Beckham before? Standing there in his three-piece tux, he looked like he was about to walk into a casino and take the house for all it was worth.

And yet... he also looked like the tux was constricting him. Like he needed to get out of it and loosen up.
 

The redhead punched Walid in the arm and mumbled something to him before stepping forward.

"Stop it," the redhead ordered the guards, in the tone of someone who expected to be obeyed. "Let her go."

Her captors looked to Walid, then did as they were told.

"It's not a wedding," the redhead said, looking Noelle over. "It's just an engagement."

"I know. But who busts in and yells 'Stop the engagement'? Didn't seem right."

The pregnant woman looked at Noelle like she was the last Balenciaga clutch on the shelf. "Okay, Walid, I don't know who she is, but I already like her better than your ex-bride-to-be. Hi." She offered her hand to Noelle. "I'm Gwendolyn Spenser-Al Kalam. We're going to be friends."

Now that Noelle got a good look at her, the redhead was familiar. She shook hands, feeling oh so underdressed in her legging jeans and swingy top. And especially with someone else's hat on her head. And her hair an utter mess from sticking it out a limo window, then shoving it into a motorcycle helmet. "We've met. Noelle Oldrich. AIDS fundraiser last year. You hid in a corner most of the time."

"Oh, I recognize you now. You were dodging paparazzi the whole night. Now, let's get this wedding stopped."

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Sheikha Farouk, shoving forward.

Noelle's stomach turned into a knot made of concrete. Oh, sure, saving Walid from himself had seemed like a good plan when she was on the back of a motorcycle roaring down the highway, but, er, she hadn't, um, actually asked Walid if he wanted to be saved. What if he liked his plan? What if she was just embarrassing herself right now?

Standing next to Walid in his tux, she looked extra crappy. There hadn't been any way to avoid the dust or the helmet hair. She whipped the stolen hat off her head.

Kalilah stepped up, joining the merry little circle that was forming. She was still in her white Donna Karan dress, looking every inch a flawless bride.

Crap. The last time she'd seen Walid, she'd rejected his kiss and his confession of... whatever it was he was going to confess to her. She'd congratulated him on his upcoming engagement and turned her back on him. But she hadn't let him turn what had happened between them into something to be sorry about, and she would never apologize for that.

He might not have the same opinion.

The tension in the moment threatened to crack the air. This was it. If he told Noelle to go, that would be the end of everything.

"We will not take this outrage." Sheikha Farouk lifted her chin in the air. Practicing her Queen Mother act?

Walid turned to her. Would he reassure her and kick Noelle out?

"So leave," he said.

"What?" The older woman's face was a mask of confusion.

"Allow me to provide you an escort." A nod to the guards was all it took to have the sheikha and Kalilah surrounded. "I thank you for the kind offer of your granddaughter, but I must decline."

"Noelle," Kalilah called out, as the guards gently guided the two from the room. "We can still make this happen."

"Bye." Noelle gave a jaunty wave. "I'm sure you'll find an outlet for that talent of yours somewhere."

"You need my money to build your pipeline," raged Sheikha Farouk.

For some reason, Walid turned to the man standing next to him. A guy who looked a lot like Walid, except years younger, probably because he didn't have the white at his temples. "Actually--"

Noelle broke in. "Walid, I know where the Palm of Askar is. That's why I came back."

Walid stepped to her, closing the gap between them. He grabbed her hands and held them to his heart. Here, in front of everyone watching.
 

Oddly, the last little bit of numb tingling faded from her fingers.

Their audience seemed to melt away, leaving the two of them alone together. Time paused for a moment. They had almost been separated forever. And now, maybe they had a chance.

"Is that why you returned?" he asked. "For no other reason?"

"Yes." She let the word hang in the balance for a moment, making him suffer in suspense. She couldn't hold back very long. "Maybe for another reason, too. But, Walid, we can sell it. Er, I mean you can sell it."

He raised her hands to his lips. But he gave her a little sideways smile. "But Noelle, the jewel is not hidden in the altar of the chapel."

"I know. Oh, did you think it was? No, you were right about the map all along. Sheikh Osman did have it drawn to hide where the treasure was, but also to tell us exactly where to find it."

"Please explain, oh lovely one," said Thale, who had apparently decided to join them.

Gwen hit Thale on the arm. Then she looked at her fist. "Why do I keep doing that? It's the hormones. I hope."

"I am pleased you have decided to take your aggression out on my brothers at least, instead of myself," said the man who had been standing next to Walid. He shared the same gold-ringed eyes as Walid. Which meant he shared Walid's DNA. "I am getting bruised."

"The important part about the map," Noelle explained, "was never the drawing. It was the text. Specifically, the part where it says, 'If you know me, you know where the jewel is.'"

"None of us knew our great-grandfather," stated Walid.

"And I didn't either. But I know you," she said.

"So, brother, where would you hide the jewel?"

Brother
. So this guy had to be Ithnan. Not really a surprise. They were practically twins--except for how much hotter Walid was, of course.

Walid looked down at her. "I like to keep all the things I love close to me. Where I can spend my life with them."

"You're going to make me cry." In fact, Gwen's eyes were already tearing up. Her royal husband offered her a monogrammed handkerchief, which she used to dab at her running mascara. "Pregnancy hormones."

"Someplace close," Noelle said.

*****

"X marks the spot," Noelle said.

Walid raised an eyebrow at her. So did Ithnan, but the opposite one. Standing together, they looked like weird mirror images. Same eyes. Same nose. Ithnan just a hair taller, Walid with the white at his temples.
 

Gwen had insisted on climbing the stairs, too, so it had taken their little group about twice as long as it should have to get to the top room of Walid's tower. The one his ancestor had been thrown into, the one where the prince in Inaya Al Hurra's legend had been imprisoned. The one where Walid came when he needed to be alone.

The one with the diamond shape inlaid into the floor in black tiles.

The eight of them stood around the shape now. Three royal brothers, one princess, Faridah--still in her baby-blue leathers--Kitoko--who had apparently decided that she did not want to be there when her supervisor woke up snarly--and Suzette--Noelle had no idea how Suzette had gotten there, but if she had to guess, she would have said in the back of a speeding limo.

And Noelle. With everyone looking to her to fix Askar's biggest problem ever.

Walid had dismissed the partygoers, who had mostly seemed relieved that there wasn't going to be a union between Walid and Kalilah today. Or ever. Several of the men had bowed over Noelle's hand, introduced their wives, and given her business cards. Like she was important. Like they would see her again.

From the light in Walid's eye when he looked at her, they just might.

Ithnan seemed skeptical. "Does this shape not merely point toward the direction of Mecca?"

"I don't know. But I know it points toward the treasure."

"And you figured this out because you know Walid so well." Gwen was the only person in the group not staring at the floor tiles. She stared at Noelle like she was a
Where's Waldo
puzzle. "Hmm. We need to do some serious talking. And I have some things to say to you, too, Walid. What were you thinking getting yourself engaged to that other girl?"

"And you have not even heard about the pirate princess who lives in her head," Thale piped up.

"You have a pirate princess in your head?" asked Gwen, while her husband looked at Walid, eyebrow raised even higher.

"I'm not insane," Noelle felt the need to say at this point.

"We could use more of that kind of insanity in this family," Gwen assured her.

"Um."
Family
. Big leap to a big conclusion there. Time to get on with it. Time to save the kingdom. And more importantly, Walid. "Kitoko, can you get a sledgehammer or something to break the floor?"

"Perhaps we could accomplish this without destroying a historic site that has existed for a thousand years," Walid suggested. "If you approve."

For some reason, Walid directed this final statement to Ithnan. Weird. It wasn't like Walid to ask anyone's permission for anything.

What was that about?
asked Bonnie.
Never mind. Can we get moving here?

"Okay, okay." Noelle was just as antsy as Bonnie. "But can you get something, Kitoko? I mean, we could send Gwen, but I think you'll be faster."

"I like her, Walid." Gwen shot Noelle a laser beam of a smile. "Can we keep her?"

"I am fond of her as well," Walid agreed. "As for keeping her, I believe that is her choice, not ours."

"Oh, I don't know." Gwen's tone was all mischief. "There's this awesome tower room here. A sturdy lock on that door..."