Page 27 of The Sheik's Kiss

Mandy nodded, grateful for his help. As she followed the man out of the suite, she realized that she had no idea what time it was. Late, she suspected, glancing at the angle of the sunshine streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows. Good grief, she’d overslept, but perhaps that was to be expected since she’d spent most of the night…Wow! She’d made love…umm…had sex…with Zahir! And it had been amazing! No, better than amazing!

She pushed the thoughts aside, focusing on getting out of the suite. "I'll just...head back to my room and get ready for work."

The man nodded and bowed slightly with a politely blank expression as she made her way to the door.

Out in the hallway, Mandy breathed a sigh of relief. However, the beautiful mosaics that decorated the hallway seemed to mock her. Even as her body thrummed with satisfaction, Mandy knew that she’d done something…not wrong. No, that wasn’t accurate. There was no way could she describe last night as “wrong”. It had been magical and incredible! And yet, it couldn’t happen again. Zahir was looking for a wife among a list of beautiful women with impressive pedigrees. Mandy was just an accountant with a blue collar family background.

Still, she wouldn't regret last night. Yes, her heart would ache. But the memories of being in Zahir's arms would remain with her for a lifetime.

With a heavy sigh, Mandy forced her feet to take her back to her suite. "Time to find him a wife," she whispered to herself as she stripped off her clothes and headed for the shower. She'd dress very conservatively today. Although, why she'd bother, Mandy wasn't quite sure. Zahir's assistant and all of his bodyguards had seen her coming out of his bedroom this morning. By now, probably the whole palace knew where she'd spent the night!

Humiliation washed over her with that realization, and she sighed. Lowering her gaze, she stared at her computer screen, refusing to look up even when Raven entered the room.

“Already hard at work, eh?” Raven called out cheerfully.

Mandy barely nodded. “His Highness asked me to look into a few more people,” she replied.

Raven nodded and sat down behind her desk and Mandy lost herself in the numbers. She checked bank accounts and invoices for the first agency head, spending hours going through every piece of data she could find. When the top officials from that department were cleared, she started on the next. And the next. Her fingers flying over the keyboard.

“Do you want to get some lunch?” Raven asked.

Mandy didn’t hear her. She was looking at ten different invoices, trying to figure out what each of them were for and wondering why they didn’t make sense.

Raven hesitated, but finally left to grab a sandwich from the palace’s employee cafeteria.

Hasan muttered several epithets as he looked at the flashing warning message on his computer. “Who the hell hacked into our system?” he yelled to his assistant.

Jacob rushed into the room, coming to stand behind his boss’ desk. As soon as he saw the flashing, red message, he swallowed hard past the lump of panic in his throat. “That can’t be!” he whispered with increasing dread. “I set up a firewall, sir! I created several levels of protection to maintain secrecy!”

Hasan's fingers flew over the keyboard, trying desperately to keep up with the flurry of code scrolling across the screen. Jacob watched with growing fear as his boss cursed and muttered under his breath, sweat beading on his forehead.

Suddenly, the screen went black, and Jacob gasped in horror. But before he could say anything, the computer hummed back to life, and a new message blinked onto the screen.

"Hello, Hasan," the message read, "I hope you don't mind me taking a little peek around your system. I must say, you have some very interesting files."

Hasan's jaw tightened as he read, and Jacob could see the anger burning in his eyes. Without a word, Hasan began typing furiously, his fingers tapping out a response.

"Who are you?" he wrote. "What do you want?"

The response was immediate. "I think you know what I want," the message said. "I want to know how much money you stole from Sheik bin Aristi and the Sidrina government!" Hasan's heart pounded in his chest as he read the message. How did this person know about the money he had stolen? He had been so careful to cover his tracks, to ensure that no one could ever discover what he had done.

But, it seemed that his past had finally caught up with him.

He quickly typed out a response, his fingers shaking slightly. "I don't know what you're talking about," he wrote. "I haven't stolen anything."

There was a moment of silence, and Hasan held his breath, waiting for a response. Finally, the message blinked onto the screen.

"Don't lie to me, Hasan," it read. "I have evidence of your theft, and I will bring that evidence to Sheik bin Aristi today."

Hasan's mind raced as he tried to think of a way out of this situation. He couldn't afford to be exposed, not now when he was so close to finally achieving his goals!

Mandy sat back, her fingers shaking as she stared at the screen. She’d done it! She’d caught him! The man Zahir was looking for was Hasan Isfara!

The invoices alone hadn’t been enough. They were just the start. But after hacking into the department’s computer system and seeing all of those unexpected firewalls, she knew that something was wrong. Something bigger than simple embezzlement.

Now, she had evidence! Now, she had him.

Gathering up her printouts, she hugged the pile to her chest and rushed out of the room. She needed to speak with Zahir immediately. Not his guards. She still wasn’t sure if they were part of this operation…or even what the whole operation was. She only had a bunch of odd invoices and a panicking department head.

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