Destined for Power Read Free Page B

stepped from the private jet that had flown to Atlanta to pick her up. With every step she took, she fell deeper into the past she had tried to forget. The solitary figure in black who stood in the night waiting for her was the man who had made her who she was today. He had picked her up, dusted her off, and given her a way to forget Reid and her father.
    He didn’t move as she walked toward him. His slightly tanned Middle Eastern skin and black hair with a sprinkling of gray blended into his black suit as he stood in the shadows waiting. He didn’t smile, but one of the world’s most dangerous men didn’t need to.
    “Twice in one year,” Mallory quipped. She’d seen him the previous summer while on a job in Hung Island, Georgia, eight years after they had last seen each other.
    He simply raised an eyebrow in response.
    “You know how to sweep a girl off her feet with your pretty words. Now, why did you summon me to Kentucky?” Mallory asked.
    “I have come across some information I thought you would want.”
    “I gave up the cloak-and-dagger world a long time ago, Ahmed.”
    Ahmed Mueez didn’t bat an eye. He knew she would give in. No one said no to the Prince of Rahmi’s head of security and lived to tell about it. It didn’t matter that he was retired, married, and father to a young girl now. From what she had heard, his wife was just as much a badass as he was. She felt sorry for the men who would come calling on his daughter as she grew up. Ahmed was beyond good-looking. He was “blessed by the devil,” as her grandmother used to say. He was dark, mysterious, and sexy as hell. The price you would pay for a night with someone like him was more than her good Southern delicacies could bear to think of.
    Mallory let out an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. Tell me more.”
    “Nabi, the man who replaced me as head of security, is an expert digger. He came across some information that affects you directly. There is a world summit in Europe tomorrow. The who’s who of the international political and charitable scene will be there. It’s the Prince of Stromia’s pet project and whatever he wants, he gets. It’s a summit on renewable energy followed by a huge charity gala for saving endangered species that night.”
    “It’s been a decade since I’ve been in Stromia. The Playboy Prince was what, twenty-seven then? I’ve read he hasn’t changed at all. But he gets lots of action by playing the charity card.”
    “So, you’ve been keeping up with the world news, have you? I thought you said you were out of the business.” She heard a hint of amusement in her former mentor’s voice.
    “Just staying current in politics.”
    “Good. You’ll need it. Mallory Westin, international party girl, needs to reappear. I need you to get information on Prince Liam and everyone he deals with.”
    Mallory shook her head. “I left that life behind me.”
    “I’m not the only one asking. President Nelson is requesting this as a personal favor.”
    “The election is just a couple months away, and then she won’t be president anymore. Why does it matter to her?”
    “Because she doesn’t want an assassination to ruin her legacy,” Ahmed stated.
    “Whose assassination?”
    “We don’t know. One of the presidential candidates.”
    “My father is running for president with Ambrose Childs as his VP. Is he in danger?” Mallory asked. Her body was frozen in place. She didn't want to care. But no matter how much she hated him, he was still her father.
    “We don’t know. It could be one of them, or it could be someone from Easton Graham’s campaign. The governor and Senator Malcolm Orson are neck and neck in the polls with your father and Ambrose.”
    Mallory blinked. Her mind was running a mile a minute. “So, either my father and Ambrose are in danger of being killed, or someone was hired to kill Easton and maybe Orson as well?”
    Ahmed nodded. “The information Nabi found points to this summit as the payoff to