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Abby threw him a look. ‘Seriously, what is the worst that can happen? At least we’ll have a story to tell over dinner when we get home.’
‘Guys.’
They all turned to look at Jez, who grinned broadly as he stabbed a finger towards plumes of dust in the distance. ‘They’ve come back for us!’
Abby sighed and wiped the moisture from her forehead. ‘Thank God!’ She frowned at the sound coming from the direction of the fast-approaching vehicles. ‘What was that?’
The young man shook his head, looking as puzzled as Abby felt. The two older men exchanged sharp glances, Rob turning to her. ‘Maybe you should get back inside, Abby, love.’
‘But—’ This time the sharp cracking noises were louder and Abby felt her initial relief at being found slip away, replaced by the first flurries of fear as she stared at the approaching dust cloud. ‘Was that gunfire?’ she whispered.
‘We’re fine,’ Jez said, shading his eyes. ‘We’re in Aarifa... It’s safe as houses. Everyone knows that.’ Another volley of gunfire cut across his words. He glanced at Abby. ‘Maybe just to be on the safe side you should go inside and keep your head down...?’
* * *
The pure-bred Arab horse picked his sure-footed way through a darkness that was profound, a thick, velvety blackness against which the flowing white robe of his rider stood out.
Rider and animal, at full gallop, moved in harmony across the sand, slowing only when they reached the first rocky outcrop. At a distance, the column of rock seemed to rise vertically from the ground, but in reality the spiralling path to the summit, though not one recommended to someone without a head for heights, was a series of shorter ascents punctuated by relatively flat sections.
The highly bred horse was panting by the time they crested the summit and paused, the animal drawing air through flared nostrils, the rider waiting for the usual sense of peace this spot gave him.
Not tonight though.
Tonight, even the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree panorama—incredible any time of day but especially magnificent at night, set against the backdrop of a velvet sky sprinkled with stars—failed to penetrate or lift Zain Al Seif’s black mood. The most he could claim was the relaxing of a little of the tension in his muscles as he drank in the view, the illuminated ancient walls of the palace with its towers and spires making it visible for miles around. Tonight, however, there were more lights than usual, lights that spread into the old town, built within the shadow of the citadel walls and extended beyond into a geometric pattern created by the brightly illuminated tree-lined boulevards of the modern city with its tall, glass-fronted buildings.
There were a lot more lights tonight because today the city...the whole country, in fact...was celebrating. There had been a wedding. A royal wedding.
And the world loved a royal wedding, Zain reflected, his sensually sculpted lips twitching into a cynical curve. On this occasion, the world minus one.
He couldn’t escape it even here.
The horse responded to Zain’s tight-lipped curse with a snort that was loud in the stillness. His mount, picking up on his own mood, began to paw the ground and dance around in circles that would have sent a less experienced rider catapulting over his head.
‘Sorry, boy...’ Zain soothed, patting the spooked animal’s neck, an action that sent out a puff of the red dust that clung to everything in this desert. He waited for his horse to calm down before dismounting, an action he performed in one supple, well-practised action, his boots making no sound as he landed lightly on the uneven stone surface.
Releasing the reins, he took two steps forward and stood on the edge, not noticing the dizzying drop into blackness as his deep-set electric-blue eyes were drawn to the city’s lights. As he stared the faint smile that had curved his lips disappeared, those same lips flattening into a grim line. His dark, angled brows drew together in a parallel line above his hawkish, narrow nose as he embraced a fresh surge of self-contempt.
He deserved to feel like a fool, because he had been a fool. A complacent bloody fool.
Yes, he’d had a lucky escape but that was the problem—he’d needed luck. He prided himself on being such a great judge of people but the beautiful bride being toasted by an entire country and assorted foreign dignitaries had totally fooled him with her act. The only positive he could see in the situation was that his heart had not been involved. His pride, however, was another matter and it had taken a serious hit.
Of course, now Zain could see the clues, but during the pleasurable six-month affair he had remained oblivious even when he had crossed his own self-imposed very clear line; the progress towards it had been so insidious he hadn’t heard the alarm bells when he had started thinking of what they shared as a relationship... Who knew where that could have led?
Luckily, he never had to find out, because Kayla had got tired of playing the waiting game and when she received a better offer she took it. Zain, still under the illusion they were playing by his rules, had never for a moment suspected that lovely...lovely, poisonous Kayla had been playing him.
She had turned up at his apartment in Paris earlier than expected after her trip home to Aarifa to see her family. He’d been pleased enough to rearrange his schedule so they could spend the afternoon in bed. Afterwards, as he lay in bed, his attention was divided between the laptop propped on his knees and Kayla, who had dressed before taking a seat in front of the mirror and beginning to repair her make-up.
‘You really don’t need that,’ he’d said offhandedly.
They had been enjoying a discreet affair for six months and he had never seen her without her make-up. On the admittedly few occasions they had spent the night together she always vanished to the bathroom before he woke, emerging looking flawless, a silent signal there would be no repeat performance that morning as she didn’t want her hair mussed or her lipstick smudged.
She had turned to him at his words, lipstick in hand and a hardness in her smile he had not seen before. ‘Sweet of you to say but,’ she paused and applied a second layer of red to her lips before standing up and strolling back to the bed, ‘although I was prepared to pretend to like art and opera and even be interested in supremely boring politics for you, I’ve never been prepared to settle for the fresh-faced look you seem to like in your women.’
The shrillness in her laugh had made him wince, so unlike her usual placating style designed to stroke his ego.
‘No-strings-attached sex...did you really believe that was all I wanted? Do you really think we met by accident, that I took that awful pittance-paying art-gallery job because I want a career? Oh, well, at least it wasn’t a complete loss. I certainly never had to pretend with you when we were in bed...’ The concession emerged on a deep sigh. ‘You know, I’m really going to miss this.’
Zain, still processing the contents of her confession, had not yet reacted as she sat down on the edge of the bed and trailed a red fingernail down his bare, hair-roughened chest, but his lips curled in distaste now at the memory.
‘I thought I owed you...’ she paused ‘...well, nothing actually, but I figured one more time, for old times’ sake, wouldn’t hurt. My family are formally announcing my engagement to your brother next weekend, so I’m afraid, darling, we won’t be able to do this for a while. Don’t look so shocked! It is kind of your fault. All I ask is that you try and look a teeny bit heartbroken at the wedding. It would make your brother’s day.’
Now, alone in the desert, Zain felt his lips curl into a thin-lipped smile. He might not have inherited his father’s physical characteristics but it seemed that he had inherited a genetic predisposition to be blind to women’s faults. Then the smile vanished as he scanned the moon-silvered landscape and pushed away the self-contempt.
Acknowledging a weakness meant you could guard against it.
His father had lived the last fifteen years of his life consumed by a combination of self-pity and pathetic hope, not accepting the reality of a situation. It had been the man’s downfall.
It would not be Zain’s.
He stared out into the darkness as the scene in his head continued to replay with relentless accuracy.
‘Of course, I’d prefer to marry you, darling, but you never did ask, did you?’ Kayla had reproached with a pout, the truth of her anger showing for the first time. ‘And I put so much effort into being perfect for you. Still, once things have settled we can pick up where we left off in bed, at least, so long as we’re discreet. And that’s the beauty of it all—Khalid isn’t...well, let’s just say he’s in no position to object, as I have enough dirt on him to...’
Zain abruptly closed down the conversation playing in his head.
People wrote bucket lists of things they wanted to do before they died. At nine, practical Zain had penned a list of things he would never do while he lived. Over the years, some had fallen by the wayside—he’d actually grown quite fond of green vegetables, and kissing girls had proved less awful than he’d thought—but others he had rigidly stuck to. The primary one being that he would never allow himself to fall in love or get married—he was determined never to repeat the mistakes his father had made.
Marriage and love had not only broken his proud father as a man but also had threatened the stability of the country he ruled and the people he owed a duty to. Watching the process as a youngster, Zain had been helpless to do anything, the love and respect he once felt for his father turning to anger and shame.
The situation could have had more serious consequences—not that his father would have cared—had the sheikh not been surrounded by a circle of courtiers and advisors loyal to him. Somehow, they had shielded him and managed to maintain the illusion of the strong, wise ruler for the people.
Zain had not been shielded.
He shook his head, aware that he was indulging in a pastime that he would have been the first to condemn in others, and he didn’t tolerate those who lived in the past.
A movement in the periphery of his vision interrupted his stream of thought.
Head inclined in a listening attitude, Zain turned his head and stared hard through the dark towards where the invisible border between Aarifa and their neighbour Nezen lay.
He was on the point of turning away, deciding he’d imagined it, when suddenly it was there again...a flash of light that could be a flashlight, or possibly headlights. The light was accompanied this time by a distant sound that drifted across the moonlit emptiness... It sounded like voices shouting.
This time, lights stayed on. Definitely headlights.
He sighed, feeling little enthusiasm for rescuing what would inevitably turn out to be some damn idiot tourist—they averaged about ten a month—with no respect for the elemental environment. Zain loved the desert but he also had a healthy respect for the dangers it presented.
He sometimes wondered if the deep emotional connection he felt with the land of his birth was made stronger by the fact that, growing up an interloper, he’d had to prove his right to belong.
Things had changed, though sometimes an overheard comment or knowing glance would make him wonder just how much.
Admittedly, no one called him names these days, no gangs egged on by his brother threw stones, excluded him or simply beat him up, but scratch the surface and the prejudices were still there. His existence continued to be an insult to many in the country, especially those members of the leading Aarifan families.
He was more of an annoyance than his mother, who at least was living on another continent. It would have been easier in many ways if he had been a bastard, but his parents had married, not letting a little thing like his father’s already having a wife and an heir get in the way of true love.
Love...!
A growing noise of distaste vibrated in his throat as, with a creak of leather, he heaved himself back into the saddle and turned the horse. That word again. In his mind it was hard to be sane and celebrate something that people over the centuries used to justify...well, pretty much anything from bad choices to full-scale war!
Love really was the ultimate in selfishness.
He didn’t have to look much farther than his own parents to see its destructive power—there was no doubt of his father’s enduring love for his mother, but it was as if their love story had been perfectly designed to increase tabloid turnover.
The sheikh of a wealthy middle-eastern state—married to a wife who had already given him an heir—had fallen for the tempestuous Italian superstar of the opera world, a diva in every sense of the word... Zain’s mother.
Despite its progressive reputation, setting aside a wife was not unheard of in Aarifa—in fact, there were circumstances, even in these more enlightened times, when it would be positively encouraged, and even by the discarded bride’s family if brought on by the need for a male heir, especially when that heir would one day be the country’s ruler.
But Zain’s father had already had an heir and the wife whom he dishonoured by setting her aside came from one of the most powerful families in the country. The humiliation of the sheikh’s betrayal of the family with impeccable lineage was compounded by the unsuitability of the bride Sheikh Aban al Seif took in her stead, and the fact that the unsuitable bride had won over all her critics with her charm and smiles.
A nation had loved her and then fell dramatically out of love with her when she had walked away from her husband and eight-year-old son to resume her career.
The irony was that her humiliated, proud husband, the leader who had never dodged making tough decisions, the man known for his strength and determination, had not fallen out of love despite her betrayal. He’d have taken her back in a heartbeat and both his sons knew this, which perhaps accounted for the fact that they had never been what anyone could term close.
And in many ways, just like their father, Khalid was stuck in the past. His eyes still shone with pure malice when he looked at the half-brother whom he still held responsible for every bad thing that had happened to him and his mother. He still wanted whatever Zain had, be it success, accolades or, now, the woman on his arm. Ultimately it was about depriving not possessing and, once he had whatever it was he coveted from Zain, Khalid usually lost interest.
Would he lose interest in Kayla now he had her?
Zain shrugged to himself in the darkness. It was no longer his concern.
CHAPTER TWO (#ue1deef32-c2f9-5481-af0d-ca4083691d58)
ZAIN HAD COVERED half the distance to the stranded vehicle when he came across signs that made him slow, stop and, after circling, finally dismount to investigate.
He lost the attitude of disgruntled resignation with which he had embarked on the task as he studied the impressions of tyre tracks that stood out, dark in the moonlight. He picked up one of the shell casings that littered the area, holding it in the palm of his hand for a moment before flinging it away and leaping back into the saddle.
It took him ten minutes before he reached the car that stood with its headlights blazing. He yelled out a couple of times before the three men hiding inside revealed themselves, the drift of the hissed exchange between them suggesting to Zain that his ability to speak English without an accent made him friend not foe in their eyes.
Having halted the garbled explanations they all started to share, he demanded they speak one at a time and he listened, struggling to hold his tongue as he heard them describe what was a list of ineptitude that was in his mind approaching criminal, but there was a limit to his restraint.
‘You had a woman with you, out here?’ He could not hide his contempt.
‘We didn’t plan to get stranded, mate,’ the older man, who was nursing a black eye, said defensively. ‘And we told Abby to hide inside the cab when that mob drove up, but when they started laying into Rob,’ he nodded towards the taller man and Zain noticed the wound on his hairline that was still seeping blood, ‘she jumped out and laid into the guy with—’
‘It was her bag. She hit him with it.’
‘And then they hit her back.’
‘Was she conscious when they took her?’
It was the oldest man who responded to the terse question. ‘I’m not sure but she didn’t move when they chucked her in the back.’
The youngest, who looked little more than a boy to Zain’s eyes, began to weep. ‘What will they do to her... Abby, what will they do to Abby?’ he wailed.
The older man laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘She’ll be all right, son. You know Abby—she’s tough, and she can talk her way out of anything. She’ll be all right, won’t she?’ he repeated, throwing a look of appeal at Zain.
Zain saw no need to wrap up the truth. ‘They’ll keep her alive until they’ve assessed whether she’s worth money.’ It had been two years since the last border raids from Nezen. His father’s defence minister, Said, would be alarmed when he heard about this new incursion by the criminal gangs who lived in the foothills.
The brutal pronouncement drew a strangled sob from the boy.
* * *
What happens if I die here—who will pay off Nana and Pops’s debts? You’re not going to die, Abby. Think!
She lifted her chin and blinked, flinching as the yelling men riding up and down on camels fired off another volley of bullets into the air.
She’d lost consciousness when they’d thrown her in the truck and when she’d come to she’d had a sack over her head—a situation that had escalated her fear and sense of disorientation to another frantic level. What time was it? Where was she and what was going to happen next?
She still didn’t know the answer to either question and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know any longer.
She stiffened, her nostrils flaring in distaste as one of the men grabbed her hair in his filthy hand and tugged her towards him to leer in her face. She stared stonily ahead, only breathing again once he had let her go and moved away.
Ignoring the panic she could feel lapping at the edge of her resolve, she lifted her chin. Think, Abby. Think.
The effort to make her brain work felt like trying to run in sand, an apt analogy considering that the gritty stuff coated everything.
She clenched her jaw and ignored the pain in her cheek from where one of her captors had casually backhanded her when she’d tried to stop them beating Rob. She had to work out what she was going to do and how much time she had lost while she was blacked out. It seemed like another lifetime that the jeeps loaded with men wielding guns had surrounded their broken-down four-wheel-drive but it couldn’t have been that long ago.
It was still dark but the surrounding area was lit up not just by a massive bonfire, which was throwing out enough heat to slick her body in sweat, but also by the headlights of upwards of twenty or so cars and trucks parked haphazardly, enclosing the dusty area on three sides.
She pulled surreptitiously on the rope around her wrists but they held tight. Though her feet were unbounded and she was tempted to run, she doubted she’d get far. It would take only seconds for the half a dozen whooping men who rode back and forth on camels to catch her.
And where would she go?
There were no women.
Abby had never felt more isolated and afraid in her life. She had never known it was possible to feel this scared, but, though initially the fear had made her brain freeze, it began to work with feverish speed and clarity as one of the men who had dumped her down came across and said something in a harsh voice.
She shook her head to indicate she didn’t understand but he shouted again, and then when she didn’t react he bent forward and dragged her to her feet, pushing her forward until they reached an area where a dozen or so of the men were gathered in a half-circle.
When she pulled away from the group the man towing her pushed her hard in the small of her back and produced a long, curved, wicked-looking dagger. Expecting the worst, she fought against tears as he pulled her arms. Then the tears fell—partly in relief and partly in pain—as he sliced through the cord that held her hands behind her back.
She was rubbing her aching wrists when he began to speak, addressing the men gathered around and pointing at her. Someone shouted something and he grabbed her hair, holding it up to the firelight and drawing a gasp from the men with greedy eyes all fixed on her.
She cringed inwardly, her skin crawling at the touch of the eyes moving over her body. Desperately conscious of her bare legs, she wanted to pretend this wasn’t really happening to her, but it was. The sense of helplessness boiled over as she stood, hands clenched stiffly at her sides, shaking from a combination of gut-clenching fear and anger.
The man beside her spoke again, and as other yells echoed in answer she realised what was happening—she was being auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Outrage and horror clenched in her as she began to shake her head, trying to yell out and tell them that they couldn’t do this. But the words shrivelled in her throat, her vocal cords literally paralysed with fear.
She closed her eyes to shut out the nightmare of the leering faces, opening them in shock when the man beside her tore open her blouse to the sound of applause from the watching men as it gaped, revealing her bra.
