Page 37 of Passion and Deception

“Interesting. Could you give me details?”

She shrugged. “That’s not the important part of the explanation, Ramit.”

He tilted his head in acknowledgement. “Fine. Please proceed.”

She almost laughed at the formality in his voice now. “We didn’t just get back at the members who cornered us or pinched us, trapped us in awkward places around the club,” she continued. Then grinned, an unconscious twinkle to her dark eyes now. “We listened. The club members are rich, entitled, unethical jerks, who think that they should be able to manipulate people without regard to the legality of their actions. They don’t even care that they are breaking the law because they know they can wiggle out of whatever legal consequences might threaten them.”

“I’ve noticed that among many of my peers as well.”

She sighed. “I don’t think that a person can become a billionaire without breaking a lot of laws.” She shifted Nadia to her other breast, ignoring the awkwardness of revealing her body so she just plowed forward with her point. “And my experience listening in on various conversations between company leaders validates that opinion. Their morals are…” she shook her head. “I don’t think they even have morals. From what I have heard and witnessed, they will happily lie, cheat, and steal in order to crush any kind of competition.”

“I know that there are some unethical leaders out there, Maggie. But I’m not one of them. I think once you get to know me better, you’ll understand that I genuinely put the benefit of my people at the crux of every decision.”

Maggie shrugged again. “Yes, well, now you know why I was upset when you walked into the club a year ago.” She looked down at Nadia, stroking her soft, fuzzy head. “When I met you at the museum, I thought you were someone I could believe in. I thought you were just a normal guy that I could…have feelings for. Not like those men from the club.” She lifted her eyes, staring right back at him. “I was wrong.”

“You weren’t wrong!” he snapped back, then stood up, impatiently running a hand through his hair. “And I’m going to prove it to you.”

She smiled gently at him, then adjusted her clothing as Nadia nodded off, her belly full. Thankfully, the little darling always took a mid-morning nap and didn’t seem to be overly concerned about the voices around her.

Ramit turned to look back at her, his eyes fierce with determination. “Maggie, I know that you don’t believe me, but I’m going to prove it to you.”

She stood up, gently cradling Nadia in her arms. “How?”

He looked down at the baby then at her. “First, I need to get both of you to safety. Will you trust me that far?”

She gazed thoughtfully out the window, then glanced up at Ramit. “Are we truly in danger?”

“Yes,” he replied without hesitation.

Maggie sighed, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll go with you. But I’m warning you, I’m not easily convinced.”

He didn’t respond. Instead, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. “We’re coming out. Is the car seat installed?” After a pause, he nodded. “Good. Be ready to move. I want the plane in the air as soon as we’re strapped in.”

Ramit ended the call, then turned to look at her. “Let’s go.”

She pulled back, startled that he wanted to leave now. “Ramit, I can’t go right now! I need to pack a bag for myself and for Nadia!”

“You don’t need to pack anything. There are supplies on the plane for both of you and more at the palace. I instructed my staff to ensure that everything was ready for your arrival.”

“Ready for us? How?”

He put a hand to the small of her back, gently urging her out the front door. But before he opened it, he looked down at her. “As soon as I open this, I need you to hurry out of the house and into the vehicle. I’ll be right behind you. Strap Nadia into the car seat quickly, but we must keep moving, no matter what happens.” He paused and looked at her carefully. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” she replied, swallowing back the terror his words generated inside of her. This was real? There was a genuine threat? Was this world truly so crazy that someone would harm an innocent child?

Mentally, she rolled her eyes at herself. Of course people were cruel enough to harm a baby. She’d overheard one of the executives of an investment company talking about how he shut down production of a baby food factory simply to ramp up the scarcity of the product. When the factory was re-started, the price of the product had doubled. Since there was no competition for it, they were able to get away with it.

So as soon as the door opened, Maggie carried a sleeping Nadia out of the house and dove into the big, black SUV. The door to the vehicle closed as soon as she was inside and the driver started moving within moments. Maggie secured Nadia into the car seat, a feat that wasn’t very easy since the little baby had been startled awake and wasn’t happy about the change to her normal routine.

As they wove through the busy highways of Philadelphia, Maggie wondered if she’d made the right choice. Had she just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire?

Chapter 25

Ramit walked into his apartment and looked around, a deep sense of satisfaction washing over him as he noticed Maggie and Nadia’s things scattered around. His family. He’d married Maggie within a half hour of returning to the palace yesterday. She’d been so frazzled, he wondered if she even remembered the ceremony.

It didn’t matter. Maggie was his. His wife! The records for his daughter were already fixed and submitted to the palace records room and an announcement of his daughter’s birth was released to the news outlets. The country was celebrating his marriage and his daughter’s birth, and everyone seemed to have accepted that he’d done it in secret in order to protect his family.

Ramit didn’t understand his intense need to marry Maggie. On the surface, it was all about legitimizing Nadia’s place in his country. But deep down, he knew it was more significant.

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