Тесса Рэдли – The Sheikh Who Stole Her: Sheikh Seduction / The Untamed Sheikh / Desert King, Doctor Daddy (страница 14)

He set the phone on the Hummer’s hood, then leaned against the car and rubbed his hands over his face. Then he swore. Heartily. In English.

When he was done, he looked at her and apologized.

“What is it?” Her heart clamored. Although she hadn’t understood a word of the conversation, she knew something was seriously wrong.

“My brother Aziz was killed,” he said. “The new well was blown up yesterday. Nobody survived.”

“The well we were going to?” She felt light-headed and decided to sit down.

He nodded, a stony expression on his face. “The fires are still burning. Emergency crews are trying to put them out and cap the well again. My brother Karim is coming with a chopper. I told him where we are.”

He picked up the tire iron he’d dropped as they’d come in, and she knew he was considering going back to fight those bandits, to find out if they knew anything about this, to take out his rage on someone.

But he wouldn’t stand a chance. She needed to distract him until he calmed down a little. She couldn’t begin to imagine what losing a sibling would feel like, but she had lost her mother at an early age, then more recently her father. She could understand the rage.

She stood and walked to him, placed a comforting hand over the one that held their sole weapon. “I’m sorry.” She stepped closer and laid her head against his chest. She could hear his heart beating madly beneath her ear. “Were you close?”

He nodded, then began talking with some reluctance. “When I was a child in the U.S., I lived with distant relations of my mother. Their sons were older, and didn’t much like the intruder they considered me. I spent a lot of time being ganged up on, or alone. I always thought of myself as the piece that didn’t belong, fantasized about my real family, how it would be when I returned. Perfect.” He gave a sour chuckle. “Then, after a while, I grew up and forgot that I’d ever wanted to come back. I suppose I was angry.”

“At your family, for sending you away?”

“Yes. My mother said she wanted to save me from danger, but she kept my twin brothers, who were born just before I was exiled. Only they didn’t call it that. Everyone said I was going to America to get a Western education. My father had sons from other wives. He could afford to send me far away to see if I learned anything useful to bring back to him. As a child, I was often dejected. Then over the years, teenage angst was added on top of that, and I convinced myself I didn’t care. And later I made a life for myself separate from my family.”

“What brought you back?”

“A call for help.” He drew a slow breath. “I thought myself so separate from them, but a call was all it took. My family and my people needed me. They needed someone to take over the company, someone who knew how to lead a large business the Western way, who could negotiate on the same level with the foreigners who poured into the country to make investments. I had this fantasy that everything would be perfect now. I’d be where I’d always belonged. It didn’t last long.”

“This place is so different from the U.S.” She could understand how someone who had lived decades away from it would have a hard time trying to fit back in.

“The same men who wanted me for my business skills didn’t trust me, viewed me as a foreigner. I wasn’t a perfect puzzle piece. I stood out. My own people didn’t trust me, because I’d been away for so long. People outside the tribe didn’t trust me, because I was half brother to the former king, Majid. The only thing that worked was my brothers.”

“They accepted you.”

“Without reservation. Despite the fact that, aside from a few brief visits, they didn’t know me at all. We were strangers, but bound by blood, and that proved to be stronger than I could ever have imagined.” Pain crept into his voice.

“You think this was an attack on your family?” He had told her other men among his relations had been killed before. In a subconscious gesture, she laid a hand on his forearm.

“It’s possible.” He dropped the tire iron and wrapped his arms tightly around her, buried his face in her hair. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I’m going to make sure that you’re safe.”

“Take me to safety then.” Sara had a fair idea that he had other plans—plans that would put his life at serious and immediate risk.

“Karim is coming for you. He’ll make sure you get to the embassy and acquire new papers. He will guard you until you leave the country.”

Tariq was going to stay and fight, do whatever it took to gain information about the attacks.

“Come with me.” She drew back so she could look into his dark eyes, her heart aching at the raw pain in them.

“I cannot.”

And she knew that no matter what she said, he wouldn’t.

“Isn’t Karim’s coming here dangerous?” she asked. “The bandits have guns. They could take down a chopper.”

“He’ll pick you up two miles north of here. I’ll take you there.” Tariq pulled away reluctantly. “When I was out scouting yesterday, I found some oil they’d had on hand for the machinery during construction. I should be able to plug the hole in the oil pan and fill it up. Even if it leaks a little, we should be able to get to our rendezvous point.”

“And then you’ll come back here?”

He nodded.

“What about the authorities?”

He opened the hood. “My half brother was not a good king,” he said darkly. “Half the people in the current government spent time in his infamous prisons. He didn’t shy away from torturing political prisoners. People in power are not fond of my family. I don’t trust the authorities.”

“You’re not your half brother,” she said as he dropped down and crawled under the car.

He pulled himself out after a minute and searched around for several slivers of wood. He grabbed the tire iron, too. “The Tihrin chief of police lost his right leg in Majid’s torture chambers. He is not going to do anyone in my family any favors,” he said, back under the car again. His voice was filled with frustration.

He banged on something. Stopped.

“Do you have anything I can wrap around the iron so it’ll make less noise?” he called.

She stripped off her suit coat and passed it to him. The muted sound was a lot quieter. Hopefully, it wouldn’t carry as far as the smugglers.

He was done in a couple of minutes and crawled out, handing her back her jacket. Then he brought an earthenware jar filled with oil from the rear of the Hummer. When had he put that there? Probably when he’d been scouring the site for the satellite dish and carrying in water for their bath.

He filled up the oil pan, checked the level, then closed the hood. “Let’s get some water, then head out of here.”

She moved toward the door, stopping to look around before she stepped out. No one was in sight, except the camel, which was licking a discarded brick about two hundred feet ahead. Nobody said camels were smart.

She and Tariq moved quickly between the buildings without talking. He was carrying the tire iron again. Dawn was breaching the horizon. As soon as daylight arrived and the bandits could look around the construction sight, they would notice the boarded up windows and come searching.

“I need to go back to the trucks,” Tariq said once they were inside the villa. “I need a gun. I almost had it when the hyena came in, and then they were all awake, every gun in hand.”

“You got out. Don’t you think that’s enough of a feat? You can get a gun from your brother.”

“We’ll need one before that. No matter how quietly we move, there’s a chance that they’ll hear. I want to be able to defend you. And if I could find a knife and slice their tires, they couldn’t follow us at all.”

And as an added bonus, the smugglers couldn’t leave before he got back. That was part of his plan, too, no doubt. She stared at him, slack-jawed. “This is insane. You know that, right?”

“Most of them should be asleep again by now.” He shrugged. “They came in late last night.” He held her gaze, his mind obviously made up.

The only thing she could do was help. “What can I do?”

“Get the water to the Hummer and wait there. If anything goes wrong, drive north.” He pointed to show her which direction he meant. “As fast as you can. Even if you miss the meeting point, Karim will find you from the air.”

He meant if they killed him. Sara’s blood ran cold at the thought.

“You’ll make it,” he said in a reassuring tone.

She didn’t want to think about having to make it through the desert without him. She didn’t want to think of him dead. He was little more than a stranger, but he had saved her life. And there was some undeniable connection between them, a zing of electricity that she couldn’t begin to comprehend. She cared about him, felt as if she knew him, a lot more than she would have thought possible, given the short time they’d spent together. Of course, she’d seen him tested more than once, watched him endure incredible hardship. That had revealed his character and strength more than several months’ worth of a casual relationship would have.

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” she said.

“Not if I can help it.” He came back to her and drew her into his arms. “I’m going to find you when this is over.”