He pulled her towards him and then started down the steep, turreted stairs while Ammar made useless noises of protest.
‘Wait—what about my things?’
‘I will buy you whatever you need.’
A shiver of apprehension rippled over her skin. What exactly was she agreeing to?
‘What am I to tell the Sultan?’ Ammar demanded, sounding both furious and wretched.
Rico turned, his hand still encasing hers. ‘You may tell the Sultan,’ he said in a low, sure voice, ‘That Princess Halina is with the father of her child, where she belongs, and where she will stay.’
Ammar’s mouth opened silently and Halina had no time to ask questions or reconsider her choice as Rico led her out of the palace with sure, confident strides.
‘How on earth did you get here?’ she demanded as he strode through the courtyard and then out the front gates.
‘I bought an SUV.’
‘And how did you get Ammar to open the gates?’
‘I told him who I was.’
‘You mean—?’
‘A billionaire with considerable power and the father of your child.’ He turned back to subject her to a dark glance. ‘He saw reason quite quickly. Why did you not tell me, Halina?’
‘Not tell you?’ Halina repeated in disbelief. ‘As if—’
He cut her off with a slash of his hand. ‘Now is not the time. We need to get back to Rome.’
‘Rome,’ Halina repeated faintly. ‘You’re taking me to Rome?’
Rico gave her another scathing look. ‘Of course. Where else would we go?’
‘I... I don’t know.’ She felt dizzy with everything that had happened so quickly. She didn’t even know what questions to ask, what answers she was ready to hear. Why had Rico taken her? What was he going to do with her?
They’d reached Rico’s SUV parked a short distance from the palace behind a cluster of craggy rocks.
‘You know,’ Halina said shakily as Rico opened the passenger door and she climbed in, ‘Ammar will radio my father and he’ll send out guards to find us. To take me back.’ Her father would be furious that after everything she’d been kidnapped after all. And Halina knew he wouldn’t leave her alone once her baby was born. He’d take away her child and then marry her to whomever he could find that was politically suitable and willing to take damaged goods.
‘I am not worried about your father,’ Rico dismissed.
‘Maybe you should be,’ Halina tossed back. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten how impossibly arrogant he was. ‘Considering he is a head of state and he will send out trained soldiers who know this terrain far better than you do.’
‘True, which is why I will not be traversing it,’ Rico informed her shortly. He swung into the driver’s side and then pulled away, choking clouds of sand and dust rising as the tyres peeled through the desert. Halina pressed back against the seat, every mov
ement jolting right through her bones.
‘Where are we going, then?’
‘North, to Kalidar. I have a helicopter waiting at the border.’
‘A helicopter?’ Halina stared at him in disbelief. ‘How did you arrange such a thing? How did you even find me?’
‘I told you that if you were pregnant you would be my paramount concern.’
‘Yes, but...’ Halina shook her head slowly. Rico’s steadfast determination shocked, humbled and terrified her all at once. What else was this man, this stranger, capable of? The father of her child. ‘Where will we go after Kalidar?’ she asked numbly.
‘I told you, Rome. I have a private jet waiting to take us there in its capital city, Arjah.’ Rico’s face was set in grim lines as he navigated the rocky terrain. ‘We should be at the helicopter within the hour.’