Several hours later, a cold, untouched cup of tea at her elbow, she realized that she’d only been reading about his policies, the changes he was making and accolades about what a fabulous leader the man was. She didn’t believe any of it!
The man was a criminal and, the more she read, the more convinced she was that the man was trying to hide something. No one was this good, this altruistic. The man was just better at hiding his illegal activities.
She smiled as she considered what Brianna would say about her line of thinking. The woman always saw the best in everyone, never believing anyone did anything wrong. Even when someone from their old neighborhood was arrested, she would come up with excuses as to why they were really good people “inside”. No matter how many times Rachel and Nikki tried to argue with her that some people were simply inherently evil, she refused to believe it.
“Power corrupts,” Nikki whispered to herself as she stared at a close up of the mysterious sheik. “Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.”
Chapter 3
“What am I doing?” she whispered to herself as she adjusted the maid’s uniform, tightening the apron. “Think of Brianna!” she told herself. “Brianna is probably scared and wondering how she’s going to get out of this man’s clutches.”
She pushed the cleaning cart down the hallway, her knees wobbling. “He’s not even here,” she told herself. “He’s down in the conference room with a bunch of big wigs discussing oil prices or buying another country.” She took a deep breath as she turned the corner.
There were two body guards standing sentry outside the doorway. When they saw her approach, one of them lifted his hand, talking into his wrist. She looked him right in the eye and flashed her newly minted security badge. Hopefully, the guy wouldn’t look too closely at the badge because she wasn’t so sure it would pass a close scrutiny. She’d snagged the badge out of the employee locker room only twenty minutes ago, along with the maid’s uniform she was currently wearing.
It wasn’t like she stole anything, she told herself. She’d just borrowed the uniform. And the badge had been sitting on the bench, completely unattended. In a way, she was helping out the maid who had misplaced her badge. If someone less ethical had swiped it, the prince or sheik or whatever he was called, might be in more danger. All Nikki wanted to do was search the penthouse suite and see if Brianna was inside, trying to get out somehow.
Surely this was crazy, she thought as the man looked at her with a strange light in his eyes. He said something into his wrist then turned to nod at the other guard. Was that a smile they passed to each other? Surely body guards weren’t allowed to smile, she thought as she was waved into the suite. Body guards needed to maintain an aura of meanness – otherwise, people might not respect them as tough, kick-butt-and-take-names-later kinds of guys.
She shook her head as she closed the door behind her. This wasn’t the time to be worrying about body guards and smiles. If they wanted to smile, what did she care? It seemed strange to her, but she hadn’t done a whole lot of research on the character traits of a body guard. She had to search the suite and get out as fast as she could. Preferably with Brianna in tow.
But as she looked around, Nikki was stunned at how large this place was. Of course, it was the penthouse suite. But good grief! It wasn’t just one floor. There was a magnificent spiral staircase off to the left and an enormous sitting room, baby grand piano, a dining room that looked like it could seat…she had to count the chairs…twelve people! Not to mention all the doors that obviously led to somewhere.
Shaking her head, she pushed the opulence aside. She didn’t have time for this. “Get going girl!” she told herself.
Leaving the cleaning cart in front of the doorway so she could search more effectively, she started out with the nearest doorway, opening and closing everything. The closets here were larger than her bedroom in her house! She couldn’t imagine how much one night in this place must cost. Door after door, she methodically searched the suite. There was a library, an exercise room, a smaller parlor area, a solarium, an outdoor pool complete with outside dining area and a veritable forest of plants, a game room with a massive pool table…how much space did this man need?
There wasn’t anyone on the first floor, nor even any indication that someone had been here. She quickly raced up the stairs and stopped cold when she saw the stunning bedroom. The bed was huge! But besides that, two full walls were floor to ceiling glass that looked out onto the beautiful Washington, D.C. skyline. She could see the Capital Building as well as the Washington Monument and even off in the distance, National Cathedral. She stood there for a long moment, just amazed at the incredible view. Then she shook herself and forced her mind to come back to the present. Brianna!
She raced from the bathroom to the closets once again, through three other bedrooms, all of which had their own bathrooms as well. But no Brianna! Beautiful clothes, perfectly tailored suits…but no Bri.
Leaning against the bannister, she bit her lower lip, trying to decide what to do. Obviously Brianna wasn’t here. Had she completely gone off the deep end? Had she misinterpreted the look at the press conference yesterday?
Bri was beautiful and sweet and kind. But surely women threw themselves at this guy. He wouldn’t need to kidnap her and hold her prisoner. Except for that memo Bri had photographed. Nikki wasn’t sure how, but her gut was telling her that Bri’s disappearance had something to do with that memo. And this man knew what was going on.
She had no other evidence though. She couldn’t even go to the police with such flimsy accusations.
She ran a hand through her curls, trying to figure out her next move.
Obviously, her next move needed to be getting out of this man’s suite. She couldn’t get caught in here.
And then she heard the noise! A door?
No! The man was scheduled to be in a meeting for…she glanced at her watch…another hour. This must be one of his minions, she told herself and forced her feet to move forward. “Just pretend like you do this all the time. You’re just a maid replacing the towels. Just a maid.”
She walked down the stairs, trying to pretend to be casual about her presence in the suite. She could do this, she encouraged silently. “Just be casual.”
She made it all the way down the stairs and halfway across the room when the deep, sexy voice stopped her.