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There was no sense in denying the truth. Dec nodded. “Yessir. I do.”

“And she loves you.”

“She does.”

“And you want to be together.”

Dec nodded a third time.

“But that wasn’t why you disobeyed orders and rode off with her, was it?”

“No. No sir. It wasn’t.” He looked at Black. “She was in terrible trouble. She still is. She was a pawn in an ugly game, an American citizen snatched from American soil—”

“Snatched? As in taken against her will?”

“Yessir.”

Black sighed. He picked up his phone and told his aide he wasn’t to be interrupted. Then he nodded at Dec.

“Tell me everything, Sanchez. Start right at the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”

So Dec told him.

He began with what Annie had divulged to him about the death of her parents and the takeover of the government by her uncle Cyrus. He spoke of the warning not to return home that had come from one of her father’s advisors. He explained her quiet, anonymous existence in Santa Barbara.

He spoke calmly until he got to the part about two men entering her apartment, kidnapping her and flying her back to Qaram.

When he reached that, Dec could alm

ost feel the rush of adrenaline in his body.

He got to his feet, paced as he talked, as he related her imprisonment by her uncle, her uncle’s plans to invade the oil-rich kingdom of Suwaith on Qaram’s southern border, his bargain with the king of Tharsalonia that Tharsalonia would not oppose Qaram’s invasion if Annie were given to him as his wife.

“So Annie Stanton was to be used to give Qaram’s ruler carte blanche in an invasion of a sovereign nation, and the only reason that didn’t happen was because bandits kidnapped her for sale to the terrorist Altair Amjad,” Black shook his head. “I can see why she wasn’t eager to be sent back to Qaram.”

“Yessir,” Dec said. “No way could I let that happen. There was no time to consult with you or—”

“You were in possession of information vital to our national interests, especially the planned invasion of Suwaith. You surely know we have interests and commitments there.”

“Oil,” Dec said bluntly.

“Oil,” Black agreed. “And the fact that Suwaith is a fairly stable nation in an area known for its instability. Didn’t you think any of that would be important to report?”

“Yessir. Of course I did. But first I had to get Annie—the princess—out of harm’s way.”

“And you reached this conclusion, how?”

“My mission was to get her to safety. And as I saw it, that meant keeping her from being returned to Qaram.”

“Because?”

“Because, sir, it was the right thing to do.”

Silence filled the room. Then Black got to his feet again.

“In other words, you realized that returning the princess to her uncle would enable him to move forward with his plans to use her to form an alliance with Tharsalonia.”

Dec nodded. True enough, but that hadn’t really factored into his decision. He wasn’t going to lie about it just to protect himself.