Sheikh's Scandalous Mistress by Jessica Brooke, Ella Brooke

her curtain.
    He was dressed all in black, including the balaclava mask he wore so all she could see of him was his eyes. Surging forward, he lunged for her. She tried to dodge him, but her body wasn’t as nimble as it had been before, and she miscalculated her damn added weight around the middle. As she dodged, she tripped and fell hard onto her tailbone. Pain lanced through her like a shot, and she screamed.
    She heard Margery across the apartment yell and started rushing for her. Then there was a crash and a shout from her as well that made Amanda’s heart pound even harder. Getting to her feet, she rushed as fast as she could to the door, hoping she could outrun her mystery attacker. He leapt over her bed as if it were nothing.
    She tried to rush out the door, pulling at the knob frantically so she could escape out into the living room and help her still screaming friend. Instead, a sharp pain slammed into her back and she shrieked as all the air was pushed out of her lungs.
    “I…” she rasped, having to wait until the air came back to her. “Who are you?”
    A thickly accented voice answered her. “You didn’t think that you could keep digging into our business and not pay, did you, puta ?”
    Her eyes were wide and she wanted to scream. This was it, ending up just like her mother. “Please, I’m pregnant.”
    He pulled out a bowie knife and held the massive serrated edge to her throat. “I don’t care. If my boss hadn’t requested your ass right now, I’d kill you here. You cost us far too much trouble.”
    “Margery.”
    “We’re tying her up. We don’t need her,” he said. “It’s more hassle than it’s worth to dispose of a body, but I wish the boss didn’t want you so badly,” he said, grazing the blade over her skin until she felt blood well up on her cheek. “We’ve all wanted a shot at you, and soon maybe we can convince him to let us have it.”
    “No! You can’t!” she said, kicking at him, even as adrenaline flared through her body. She managed to get his shin. Her triumph was short lived because then there was a sharp pain in her temple as his fist struck her.
    Then there was only darkness.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Nine
     
     
    “Sir, the newest earning reports from Ali Babba’s are in,” Mafir said, setting the sheaf of records on his desk. “I think you have a lot to be proud of. The revenues are astounding and the property, from what I’ve been able to dig up, seems to be doing better than ninety-five percent of the casinos and other resorts in town.”
    “The servants’ scuttlebutt?” he asked, his tone maudlin.
    Although, it felt like everything was maudlin these days. Ever since Amanda had fled from his life, it was as if his senses were muted. Everything tasted like sand, everything smelled dull and uninteresting. It felt as if his world were only in grayscale. It didn’t make sense. He’d never once felt that connected to another human being. But then again, it wasn’t about the physical passion that had brimmed between them for a short weekend. It was about the honesty. He had a feeling that Amanda didn’t often talk about her insecurities with her reporting career and that, at first, she’d had no intention of telling him about Senator Jackson and her investigation. Yet she had. Similarly, he never talked about Farana—that pain was forever an open sore in his heart. With Amanda, everything had seemed possible, even baring his soul.
    But her sudden departure and the firestorm of press and gossip that had followed wasn’t what bothered him most. He’d had two of his best security agents watching Amanda and her new roommate, Margery Simmons, very closely. His lover had been quick to brush off the possible threats from a senator as powerful as Jackson; she was far too sure that he would only stick to ruining her reputation. Amir didn’t believe that, not in his heart. He’d known too many power-hungry leaders in his time,