Page 34 of Her Ruthless Protector

Kane watched as everyone left Max’s room. Cullen was the last to leave. The look he gave Kane was clear.

Exterminate the bug up Max’s ass.

Kane sat down at the chair that Cullen had just vacated.

“What’s on your mind?” Max asked as he stood up and threw his notepad on the desk in front of Kane. Kane couldn’t help but notice it had nothing but drawings on it, no notes.

“You’ve got talent,” Kane said as he pointed to the tablet.

“Not the right kind to get me into the Eurovision Song Contest.”

“So, you do know the correct name.”

“Lucky guess.” Max ran his hand over his short-cropped hair. “Look Kane, I’m tired and I want to go to bed. Can you just cut to the chase?”

“Sure. What’s got you in such a piss poor mood?”

“Maybe it’s all the rich food I’m eating at the Al Bustan Palace.” Max sighed. He went back over to his bed and sat back down.

“Okay, here’s the deal. I talked to Gray. We’re worried about some of the bullshit going on with the suits back home. Ambassador Hoag has done a good job acting as an intermediary trying to keep communication open between the U.S. and the Sultan of Oman, but the people back home are pretty pissed that Oman’s buying into the thought that the U.S. would turn on them.”

Max elbowed his pillow in an attempt to get more comfortable on the bed and then stared up at the ceiling. “Gray and I figure that there is someone in the Sultan’s inner circle that has to be feeding him this crap. Someone who is a member of al-Qaeda trying to stir the shit so that Oman feels friendless, then when some kind of major attack goes down on their soil, they’re going to be quick to blame the Saudis or the UAE, and us by association. Especially if al-Qaeda doesn’t publicly take the blame for this.”

“So besides ferreting out Saif al Fadi and Hamza al Libi in Afghanistan, Gray’s thinking there is a mole in Oman that we have to sniff out?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what Liam and Captain Hale brought up to the bastards in D.C., and they got nowhere. Gray had to force this out of Liam, but basically they were told we weren’t statesmen, or the brains, we were just the brawn.”

Kane snorted. “Last I heard it’s upwards of a half a mil to get us trained to do this job. I seem to remember a lot of that time spent with books and taking classes.”

“Nah, you just were on your belly with a gun,” Max replied disgustedly. “What really chaps my hide is that if you gave these guys and gals a globe without the countries’ names written in, they couldn’t point out Oman.”

“Max, Max, Max. It’d take ‘em five minutes to find it even with Oman written on the globe,” Kane laughed.

“Point taken.”

“I know that they might have heard bullshit from the brass, but what else did Liam tell Gray?”

“He asked if Wyatt could be pulled out of Afghanistan so that he could introduce him to Ambassador Hoag. Liam is going to try some of that there statesmanship, whether the brass likes it or not.”

There was a long pause as Kane took in all the things that Max wasn’t saying. “Does Liam think he can penetrate the Sultan’s inner circle?”

“Doubt it. But knowing Liam, he’s got something up his sleeve.”

“If he puts one foot wrong, his career will be on the line,” Kane cautioned.

“Do you want to know the truth?” Max asked.

“Always. It tends to keep me alive.”

“This last year there have been a couple of things that have chapped Liam’s hide. He’s toed the line, but if it puts his men at risk, he’s not going to give a damn about his career.”

Kane wasn’t surprised.

“Now can you tell the rest of the Ladies in Waiting that I’m fine and they can stop worrying?” Max asked.

“Yep. This way they’ll all have sweet dreams.”

Max snorted.