At the entrance lobby, she skidded to a halt. Two of the men were already inside, creeping from the direction of the garden. Behind them was a third figure, taller, leaner, but as intimidating as the mercenaries, in head-to-toe black combat gear. He pulled off his mask as he saw her.
George Hyde-Wallace was brazen enough to join the attack himself.
‘Still here?’ he said. ‘How tiresome you Marchants are. Always getting in the way.’
His thugs aimed their weapons at her chest. Lily froze, trying to control her terror andthink.
‘If only he’d given you up and married Aisha, as I wanted. You’d have been spared this.’ He stalked towards her. ‘Too late now. Your fate is tied to his.’
The rattle of gunfire sounded from the Royal Court. Lily’s heart almost stopped.
‘Yes. You’re witnessing a coup,’ George said, almost casually. ‘At this moment my men are at the hospital, removing your lover and his family from power. In the next hour they’ll be on a flight out and heading into exile.’
Exile. Not execution. It was a sliver of hope amidst the horror. Khaled might survive this.
‘You’d betray the family and the country that have given you everything?’ she said. ‘You’re disgusting.’
George lashed out so fast there was no time to flinch. The back of his hand smashed into her cheek and sent her sprawling sideways. Her head caught on a side table as she went down. Pain exploded in her temple...the coppery tang of blood spilled over her lips.
He grabbed her shoulders and hauled her to her knees, pushing his face into hers. ‘And you are nothing but a common harlot,’ he snarled.
Through the agony in her jaw, the near-paralysing fear and the raw ache in her heart, she summoned what courage she had to lift her head and face him. ‘Better a harlot than a filthy traitor.’
He flung her from him as if she was something foul he’d been obliged to touch. ‘I wonder how the Prince could bear to entangle himself with you. Being aware of the stain you would be on his family.’
A new anguish tore at her. Khaled knew about her parents...?
‘Oh, didn’t I mention it?’ George said with a reptilian smile. ‘I told him before he left for America. Why do you think he departed so suddenly?’
Because he’d discovered she was only good enough to warm his bed and hadn’t even cared enough to explain why.
Lily’s heart cracked wide open.
There was a shout from behind them and a lone figure appeared at the entrance to the Royal Court.
A man supposed to be on his way to a life of exile.
But instead there he stood, like an avenging angel. More beautiful than she’d ever seen him and never more out of reach.
‘Azir...’ George hissed, and a lifetime of loathing was crammed into that name.
‘As you see,’ Khaled said.
His ice-cold gaze raked the scene: Lily crumpled on the floor, bloody and bruised, George towering over her.
‘Your plot has failed and you’re finished—but touch the woman again and you’ll die where you stand.’
George’s face turned puce and veins bulged in his forehead. In a flash of movement he whipped a revolver from his belt, hauled Lily upwards, and jammed the gun into her bruised temple.
‘You want the whore?’ he said, clamping his other hand around her throat. ‘Well, come and get her.’
His two mercenaries drew in beside him. Like George, they were using Lily’s body as cover.
‘It’s over, man,’ Khaled said quietly. ‘You’ve nowhere to go. Think of your wife. Think of your sons.’
George stepped back, dragging Lily with him. ‘My sons? They were too afraid to be a part of this. What use are they to me now?’
Khaled matched his every step. Talking all the while as Rais and his men fanned out, cutting off any escape route.