Page 24 of Dalla’s Royal Guards (Second Chance #3)

Sixteen

“Are you sure this is where he said to come?” Nasser asked in a skeptical tone nearly four hours later.

“I don’t like this,” Musad muttered, gazing across at the hotel.

“We should call Raja,” Nasser muttered. “To hell with it. I am calling Raja. He can send in the military.”

“No! Please…” She reached forward and laid her hand on Nasser’s arm. “Harlem said he would meet me here. He… doesn’t know about you two. If you are worried, you can watch over me, but I must meet him alone. This is too important to me.”

Dalla looked across at the hotel, staring at the people entering and leaving. She nervously fingered the leather strap on her quiver. The drive through the capital city of Simdan had offered a bittersweet glimpse of a country caught between scars and survival.

Dima’s streets pulsed with life, even as its buildings bore the cracked skin of civil war.

Bullet holes marred faded murals. New concrete rose beside skeletons of crumbling structures.

Steel scaffolding embraced history’s wreckage like ribs stitched with progress.

Roadside vendors hawked fruit and grilled meats beside pop-up tech shops and refugee-run cafés.

Battered mopeds wove between electric taxis.

A donkey pulled a cart of neon-lit lanterns behind a luxury sedan with tinted windows.

Hope rose from the dust.

Dalla had watched it all in silence while the city rolled past her window like a mirage that she could almost touch. The world had changed a lot since her last visit.

The silence in the car broke when Musad shifted in the front seat and turned to face her.

“You’re certain about this?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“Yes.”

“He didn’t say anything else? He just said to meet him here? Are you sure it was even him?” Nasser added, his voice edged with concern.

“It was him,” Dalla said, leaning forward between the seats. “I know it was. His voice—” Her throat tightened. “I would know it anywhere.”

Musad exchanged a look with his brother. “I agree with Nasser. We should contact Raja Hadi. At least let him know what’s happening.”

Dalla turned to them both. “Musad… no. No one can know about Harlem. Not until I’ve spoken with him.”

“Then we’ll be with you,” Nasser insisted.

“You can watch from a distance,” she allowed, her tone brooking no argument. “But if he sees you hovering, he might leave. And if I lose him again…” She swallowed the rest.

Reluctantly, both men nodded.

Musad shifted the SUV into drive and pulled into the underground parking lot beneath the New Simdan Hotel.

LED lights cast an ambient glow, lighting the area.

The tires of their SUV squealed against the pavement as Musad maneuvered it into a tight space between a rental van coated in desert dust and a luxury sedan gleaming as if it had just come out of a car wash.

Dalla stepped out, straightening her spine. She spotted the cameras tucked into dark corners. A family of four glanced over at them before stopping to stare at them with a wary gaze.

“You might want to leave the bow and quiver in the car,” Nasser murmured, noticing the stares.

Her gaze flashed to her longbow and quiver before returning the family’s wary gaze.

Her weapon didn’t exactly blend in among tourists hauling wheeled suitcases and weary business travelers checking their watches.

Dalla met the curious stares with a cool, unflinching gaze.

The woman in the family nudged her husband and whispered while the two teen boys’ mouths dropped open before they began talking in low, excited voices that echoed in the cavernous garage.

“She looks just like that Viking chick from DW,” one boy blurted.

“She looks like the poster we saw at the airport. You know… that desert lady who saved two kingdoms a bazillion years ago. I wonder if she was the model for it,” the other commented.

“Are they having one of those dress-up conventions here?” the father asked.

“Ohhh man, that’d be epic!” the oldest teen laughed.

Dalla arched a brow when Nasser and Musad snorted out a laugh as the family disappeared inside. She glared at them before she slid her longbow and quiver back into the back seat.

“It was not a bazillion years ago,” she muttered with a sniff.

“I think we might need to go shopping if we want to blend in,” Musad said, coming around the car.

Dalla fingered the clothes she was wearing as they walked toward the doors where the family had disappeared.

She studied the small box Musad stepped into with a wary glance before Nasser pressed a gentle hand to her lower back and she stepped forward.

Heat flared inside her when she felt him rub her back before he dipped a little lower.

Her breath hissed audibly, and she turned to face him as the doors closed. Her hands shot out to steady herself when the box moved. Nasser’s hands had moved to her hips while Musad caressed her buttocks.

“You two are not playing fair,” she hissed.

“I prefer to think of it as playing with fire,” Nasser murmured. He turned as the doors behind him opened and stepped out.

Dalla blinked at the sudden change. Her eyes flashed around the box in confusion before she stepped out. She turned to study the box again before the doors closed.

“How did it do that?” she asked, frowning up at Musad.

“How did it do what?”

Dalla waved her hand at the box. “We were just in the car park… then we stepped into that box, and now we’re here? How did that happen?”

Musad chuckled and shook his head. “No, it’s an elevator. It takes visitors to different levels within the hotel. The car park is below us.”

“Ah. I have seen only one such device before. Well, not quite like this one. It was more of a cage with wires and pulleys. I did not like it before,” she commented with a shudder, turning back to look around the foyer of the hotel.

The lobby was a mix of tired grandeur and hopeful remodeling—chipped columns, fresh paint, and exposed wires coiled behind hanging tarps.

A broad marble staircase led up to the mezzanine, where someone played a haunting tune on a piano.

A toddler screamed in delight as she raced down the hallway, pursued by a laughing father.

The scent of perfume and sweat clung to the air, barely masking the fragrance of cleaning solution.

Musad walked up to the front desk while Dalla and Nasser remained in the background.

“Two nights,” Musad told the clerk. “In-suite if you have one.”

Minutes later, Musad returned and handed a keycard to Nasser. Dalla frowned when he said he would return shortly.

“Where are you going?”

Musad glanced at her and smiled. “To find us something to wear that doesn’t reek of cave smoke and gunpowder. It will help us blend in better if we don’t look like we’ve been in a battle.”

Her lips twitched. “I like the clothing of this time. It will be nice to wear something softer. Do you promise you aren’t sneaking away to call this Raja’s army?”

He leaned close, his voice dropping. “I promise I’m not secretly negotiating with the Simdan king or buying us weapons—at least not the usual kind: I will buy you undergarments that will drive us all crazy.

And some other clothes because they are necessary.

But I will hurry back to you, Dalla. You have my word.

” She leaned into his hand when he touched her cheek with a tenderness that made her breath catch.

“I’m sure Nasser wouldn’t mind helping you get cleaned up while I’m gone.

I’ll help you get dressed when I return.

” He winked, and she stared after him as he walked away.

Her lips twitched with amusement when she saw the subtle look he passed to Nasser that contained a wealth of caution and encouragement—their years together allowing them to have silent conversations and understand each other perfectly.

Nasser smiled impishly as he stepped closer to her until she could feel the heat of his skin through her clothing.

“Whatever will we do to pass the time,” he teased.

A shiver ran through her at the promise in his voice.

He wrapped his arm around her and guided her toward the metal box again.

Three other people entered before the doors closed.

Nasser didn’t release her once they were inside.

Instead, he caressed her hip, rubbing his thumb in a pattern that was driving her insane.

Her mind was replaying the last time they had made love.

What would it be like to have them individually?

The thought sent a silent tremor through her. It was mind-blowing when the three of them came together. Would the same passion and fulfillment be there with one of them missing?

The door opened and closed twice before they finally reached the top floor. She breathed a sigh of relief when the doors opened and Nasser pressed his hand against the small of her back as they stepped out.

“You’re quiet,” she murmured as they walked down to the end of the corridor.

“I’m thinking.”

“About what?”

His lips twitched. “How many ways I’m going to make love to you.”

“Oh.”

“I’m hoping the bed is big enough to do everything we want.”

Her grin was slow and wicked. “And if it isn’t?”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to get creative,” he said with a wicked grin.

The flush of heat that seared through her surprised her. She ran her eyes over Nasser’s back to his ass and back again. She wondered what he had in mind… and wondered if he would mind if she was just as creative.