Page 1 of The Innocent Carrying His Legacy

CHAPTER ONE

‘SHE’SSTILLTHERE,SIR.’

Sheikh Nazir Al Rasul, owner of one of the most powerful and most discreet private armies in the world, and a warrior to his bones, gave his guard a hard stare. The guard was young, a boy still, but he wore his black and gold uniform with pride and his shoulders were squared with determination.

Admirable. But Nazir had left strict instructions that he wasn’t to be disturbed. He’d just returned to Inaris after a particularly delicate operation involving putting down a coup in one of the Baltic states and, after two days of no sleep, he was in no mood to have his orders disobeyed by wet-behind-the-ears guards.

Nazir lifted his chin slightly—always a warning sign to his officers. ‘Did I say I was to be disturbed?’ He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.

The young soldier blanched. ‘No, sir.’

‘Then explain your presence. Immediately.’

The boy shifted on his feet.

Nazir stared.

With an effort the boy stilled. ‘You said to let you know if anything changed.’

Nazir was tired and so it took a moment for the statement to penetrate. And then it did.

The guard was talking about the uninvited guest who’d turned up outside the gates of Nazir’s fortress. That wasn’t unusual—many people made the trek to his fortress in the middle of the desert. They braved the terrible rumours he’d put about on purpose to discourage visitors, wanting either to join his army or seek his assistance, or request his tutelage. He was a master in the art of war, especially physical combat, and his expertise was well known and sought after.

He refused everyone who turned up at his gates, which, alas, didn’t stop people from turning up.

However, they were usually male. This time it was a woman.

She’d appeared several hours ago along with a local guide, who should have known better.

Nazir didn’t let anyone into his fortress and he didn’t want to start now, and so he’d given his guards strict instructions to ignore the woman. Usually people went away after the first couple of hours. Waiting outside the gates in the brutal desert sun was a more effective deterrent than any number of dogs or weapons.

Irritation settled in Nazir’s gut, but he ignored it. A good commander never let either his emotions or physical discomfort affect him, and Nazir was a good commander. No, he was an excellent commander.

‘What’s changed?’ he demanded without any discernible change of tone.

The guard hesitated a second. ‘Well...ah...it appears that she’s pregnant, sir.’

Nazir stared, this time not taking it in at all. ‘Pregnant? What do you mean she’s pregnant?’

The guard opened his mouth. Shut it. Lifted a shoulder. Then seemed to collect himself and stood straighter. ‘She asked for water and a...sun umbrella. Because she was pregnant, she said.’

Nazir didn’t blink, not even at the mention of a sun umbrella. ‘She’s lying,’ he said flatly. ‘Do nothing.’

‘Sir. She had...uh...’ The guard made a curving gesture in the region of his stomach. ‘We could see it on the camera.’

Nazir had had two nights without sleep. He’d just overseen an operation that had required some delicacy, and he already had requests for his services from the governments of two nations, in addition to a number of private enquiries, and what he desperately needed right now was sleep. Not to deal with yet another idiot turning up at his gates wanting God only knew what. Especially a pregnant idiot.

‘Do nothing,’ he repeated. ‘Letting her in will only encourage more of these fools. And as to her being pregnant, that’s easy enough to fake.’

‘Sir, she’s asking for you by name.’

Nazir was not moved. ‘Yes, they all do.’ Though admittedly, that did not include pregnant women. The likelihood of him siring a child was, after all, close to zero since he was always careful when it came to sex and even then he didn’t indulge himself often. Giving in to those baser, more physical instincts made a man soft.

Voices drifted down the echoing stone hallway and then came the sound of running feet. Another young guard appeared, looking excited. He came to a stop outside Nazir’s bedroom door, clicked his heels together smartly and stood at attention. ‘Sir,’ he said breathlessly. ‘The woman has fainted.’

Of course she had. It was clearly too much to ask that he had an uninterrupted couple of hours’ sleep. Clearly it was also too much to ask that his men ignore her. They didn’t get much in the way of female company, it was true, but if all it took was one woman turning up at the gates to generate this much excitement, then it was apparent that either his men needed more and harder drills, or some leave was in order.

It was also apparent that he was not going to get any sleep until the issue with the woman had been dealt with.

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