Mila had spent years being invisible. She spoke only when spoken to, and most of the time the person wasn’t actually speaking to her, but to her employer. It wasn’t as if she had never had a boyfriend. She had one in every country she grew up in. The past few years were filled with married diplomats who hit on her. They were only concerned with feeling the power over any woman they wanted. Zain was different. They had talked, laughed, and kissed. And man, could he kiss.
Mila went to unhook her bra when the sounds of sirens tore through the night. She tried to look out the window to see what had happened, but the sounds of the sirens were heading away from Keeneston. With a nervous feeling of dread, she slowly walked to her bed and picked up her phone.
You’ve reached Zain. Leave a message.
Mila sank to the bed with worry. Her fingers shook as she dug around looking for Veronica’s number.
The phone was answered on the second ring.
“Veronica, it’s Mila Thiessen. I think something has happened to Zain.”
Zain blinked his eyes open and saw stars. Red, white, and blue stars flashed on the nearby cows. This was strange. It felt as if his neck was on fire and he had the headache to end all headaches.
“Zain, can you hear me?”
“Cody?” Zain mumbled as he blinked at the cows.
The new deputy’s face came into view as he sliced the airbag away with a knife. “I was worried about you. An ambulance is on the way. I called Dr. Emma at her home. She’ll be here before the ambulance arrives from Lexington. What happened?”
“There was someone in the road. They laid out a spike strip so fast that I couldn’t avoid it. My tires blew and I careened off the road. I almost hit a tree but missed it. Then the airbags went off and I guess it knocked me out for a minute.”
Cody nodded as he took notes. “You shot through the fence and into the cow pasture. Security from the farm called me to report your car had been hit and sent me the GPS location. I didn’t know all of your cars were monitored 24/7.”
“They are. So, I’m not imagining the cows?” Zain asked as a cow poked his head into the passenger window.
“Nope.”
“Did the fence knock me out? “
“No, the cow you hit did. Don’t worry; the cow appears better than you. Did you see anything else about this person? Man? Woman? Build?” Cody asked as another car slowed to a stop.
“No. They were dressed in black and had a baseball cap on. I could tell they were average weight. They were bent over, so I can’t even tell you how tall they might have been. Nor can I tell you if it was a man or woman. Did you get anything off the spike strip?”
Cody shook his head. “It’s not there. They cleaned up after themselves.”
“How bad is the car?” Zain asked as he heard another person approaching.
“The front is smashed up and the windshield is done. Here’s Dr. Emma,” Cody said as he stepped back, and Emma’s curly brown-and-gray hair came into view. Emma was married to former Deputy Noodle, who had just retired from the sheriff's office. Cody had taken his place on the force. Emma was an ER physician in Lexington and served as the unofficial town doctor.
“Cody,” Zain called out before Emma could start her exam. “If he or she meant to do me harm, then why not finish me off when I was unconscious?”
Cody’s lips flattened as he thought. “I’ll look into it. Here’s Nabi. I’ll discuss it with him. And I believe your parents are right behind them. Who drives a white sedan?”
“Veronica,” Zain said as he closed his eyes. Was everyone from town going to be here?
“Zain!” He heard his mother yell the second her door opened somewhere behind him.
“How long was he out?” Dr. Emma asked Cody as she flashed a light in his eyes with one hand and took his blood pressure at the same time.
“I got the call seconds after impact and was here in under eight minutes. He was already waking up when I arrived,” Cody said before Nabi pulled him away.
“How is he, Emma?” his father’s worried voice called. He saw his parents hovering behind her.
“I’m fine. Just took a hit from the airbag. And a cow.” Zain tried to reassure them as Veronica’s worried face came into view behind his parents. She whispered something into her phone.
“I want to take him into Lexington for X-rays and a CT scan. He has a burn on his neck from the seatbelt and a burn from the airbag above his eye, but otherwise everything else appears to be okay,” Emma told the group huddled around the car.
Veronica spoke into the phone and then hung up. “Kareem and I will take care of everything if you need to stay in the hospital,” she reassured him as his parents peppered Emma with questions.
Zain groaned as he moved to get out of the car. The seatbelt left bruises, and he had a fierce headache but was fine otherwise. “I’ll be there, Veronica. Don’t worry.”
“I will fill in for whatever Zain needs to miss,” his father said as he stepped over to help Zain stand up.
“Thanks, Dad, but I’m fine. And it won’t look good to have my father fill in for me as if I can’t do it myself. Not with Surman looking for any weakness they can exploit. Do you think they could be behind this?” Zain asked as Emma worked on cleaning his burns.
Nabi came over with a determined look on his face. “I’ll find out. However, we don’t have much to go on. We’ll check the rooms of the staff already here to see if we can find the spikes.”
“Don’t you think the countries would have issue with that?”
Nabi’s lips quirked. “Maybe if they knew about it. Tomorrow morning they’ll all be at the farm.”
Zain gave a single nod of his head in approval—not that Nabi was asking for it. It would have been done one way or the other. His security team would take this personally. There hadn’t been a threat made against the royal family since before Zain was born. The fact that someone had gotten this close to killing him was going to change everything.
By the time the ambulance had arrived, Ahmed and half of the security force were there and combing the scene with Sheriff Marshall Davies and State Trooper Matt Walz.
“I’ll lead the ambulance so I can be his admitting doctor,” Emma said as she got into her car while Zain reluctantly got onto the gurney.
His mother climbed into the ambulance along with Ahmed. Veronica hurried to his side. “I’ll take care of everything if you’re late. Also, Mila called worried about you when she heard the sirens. I’ve updated her. She told me to tell you she was thinking about you.”
“Who’s thinking of him?” Dani called from the ambulance.
“All of us,” Veronica said smoothly as she gave Zain’s hand a squeeze and let him be loaded in the back of the ambulance.
*
Mila had barely slept. Veronica had let her know Zain was all right but going to the hospital for X-rays and a CT scan. However, she hadn’t heard anything since then, and she was in a near state of panic. She tried to tell herself she’d only known Zain a short time, that her heart shouldn’t be breaking with worry, that he shouldn’t mean so much to her. But that was all for naught. He meant that much to her even though their future appeared limited to the three days of the summit. So Mila got dressed and walked to the café. She hoped to force herself to eat before she caught a ride to the farm to meet with the chancellor a couple hours before the summit began. Mila only wished she’d be able to see Zain alone for a few minutes to make sure he wasn’t too badly hurt before the opening meeting.
Mila had met some of the other interpreters that morning, and it was clear from the narrowed looks she was getting that they had already circulated the fact that she was hanging with the locals, including Zain. Wonderful. She would have to start her job out by informing the chancellor of this, subtly, so he wouldn’t hear it from another dignitary.
Staff and interpreters were already sitting at the outside bistro tables as Cassidy and Poppy hurried to serve coffee, tea, and breakfast to them. As they finished, they stepped up to the first car in a long line of cars on Main Street and drove off to the farm.
“Mila!” Poppy called out. “There are no empty tables, but Sienna’s brother Carter has room at his table if you don’t mind sharing. He may even be able to drive you to the summit.”