It was ironic that the things he had so feared—falling for Rita, having children with her—in the end had paled in comparison to the damage he had done simply by speaking.
And yet as bumbling as he had been in his communications with Rita, he knew he was right to not shake his concern regarding his father.
He would sort things out with her later, in the lifetime they had ahead them, even if it meant he had to spend the whole of it making her fall in love with him.
His father he would deal with now.
In T minus ten minutes.
In moments, he would go on national television and bring shame to his family name. He hoped he would also restore honor to it, taking his father down in the process.
The space between the conclusion of his broadcast and his father’s arrest would likely be the most dangerous for Rita and the children, and he had doubled palace perimeter security to coincide with the timing.
He had told Rita—she refused to go anywhere safer, of course, but Rafida was to send him updates regarding his wife’s status.
No updates had arrived, but he had sent in the extra guard after waiting a generous amount of time anyway.
He wanted her and their children safe.
Twenty-seven minutes later, the same number as Rita’s age, Jag noted, he stepped out of the bright television lighting and offstage.
Like his exhibition, the broadcast had gone off with a hitch.
The grand finale of his plan had been set in motion.
There was no telling how far his desperate and enraged father might be willing to go until the special services caught up with him, but his reign of manipulation and control was over.
Unfortunately, the answer arrived a few moments later, with the message that came through from the head of security.
Rita had stepped out for a moment of air in the courtyard and disappeared.
They were searching for her, the team leader assured Jag, but he could have told them not to bother.
He knew where she would be, and what he would have to do to get her back.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
FORTHESECONDtime in her life, Rita was face-to-face with her father-in-law.
As far as evil villains went, her father-in-law appeared frail and weak.
But as he had just successfully kidnapped her from her own home despite a crack security team, she recognized that it was probably time to revise her opinion.
Long past, really.
She also recognized that she had perhaps taken the threat he presented for granted.
She had not truly believed the man could be cruel enough to harm his own grandchildren. She could admit that to herself now, as she was uncomfortably tied to a chair in the center of his private balcony.
Admitting that also meant admitting that perhaps Jag had meant what he said when he tried to leave her at Jana, and that it might actually have been the only place he could think of that would be safe for her and their children.
Of course, while these were important truths to discover, they paled in comparison to the necessity of escape.
Her babies were depending on her.
“So this is why he disappeared with his whore,” her father-in-law said, stroking the thin beard that graced his chin, eyeing her growing bump.
But hiding her pregnancy was no longer her top priority. Keeping her babies alive and getting away from her father-in-law was.