by Lora Leigh
“I don’t know how long he’s known, but Jafar has known for several years. Just as he’s known that Abram and Tariq have had a lover to share each time they’ve been to the U.S.” Chalah’s gaze was curious now. “Was it you?”
Paige nearly choked on her own mocking laughter. “Khalid had a cow when he caught Abram kissing me. Do you really think I could have gotten away with anything else?”
“Knowing Khalid?” Chalah’s brows lifted. “It is rather doubtful.” And Chalah knew Khalid. Not as well as Paige did, and certainly not as a lover, but one of the young women Azir had bought Khalid years ago for a personal harem, attended the same college with Chalah, and the two girls had socialized often.
Chalah was considered a friend, as well as a cousin to Khalid, and he had made it plain more than once that if she ever needed anything then he had no problem helping her out.
Watching Chalah closely now, Paige still had a hard time believing the other girl was here, or that she seemed to be willing to help.
“Why are you telling me this, Chalah?” Paige asked wearily, not bothering to hide her suspicion now. “By your own words, the brother who has spoiled you all your life might allow you to be stoned, or murdered for giving me this information. Why would you risk that?”
“Because you would do it for me,” Chalah said softly, her honey-gold eyes filling with pain. “And Khalid would do it for me. But even more importantly, for Jafar. Because if anything happens to you and Abram, and Jafar ever realizes the mistake he’s made, then it will kill him. Protecting him from himself is the only way I can help him at this point.”
“Even if you have to face being murdered by your brother? By your uncle?” Chalah sighed heavily. “It isn’t murder here, Paige, not to these people or to this land. And not to Jafar or Azir. Betrayal isn’t tolerated, especially by a woman, and Jafar and Azir both would see it as an unforgiveable betrayal.”
“And you would risk that for me, Abram, and Khalid?” Paige asked her again. “I’m having a hard time believing that.”
Chalah wasn’t lying to her. She knew too many truths, understood the situation too clearly. But was she really trying to help, or in someway lead Abram into a trap?
“Really?” Chalah drawled as she crossed one ankle over the other and tilted her head to the side. “Why else would I return to this sun-baked wasteland but to try to help your stubborn ass? Have you really forgotten how much I hate this place, Paige?” Paige shook her head as she kept a careful eye on the other woman. “We’ve been friends for a long time, Chalah.” She sighed. “But Jafar is your brother, and I know you love him.”
“And I do love him.” Chalah nodded sharply. “But Jafar is wrong, Paige, and I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you because of him. And I feel guilty,” she whispered miserably. “I knew he was up to something when he called and asked me if I knew why you weren’t at your apartment any longer and if I had heard where you were staying. I should have called you then. I should have warned you he was looking for you.”
But would it have really changed things? Would she have taken the situation even less seriously than she already had simply because she thought she could trust Jafar?
Paige lifted her hand to rub at her temple again as she watched Chalah thoughtfully. Everything she knew of the other girl told her that Chalah was being honest. That she was simply trying to help.
“I don’t have to agree with my brother to love him, Paige,” she said regretfully. “And loving him doesn’t mean I have to let him get away with what he’s doing to you and Abram.”
“And how do you think you can help?” Paige sighed as she paced to the table and sat down wearily. “Neither of us have enough power here to protect ourselves, let alone our brothers. And you know that as well as I do. You should go home and be safe. If anything happens to you, you’re only going to make Abram feel as though it were his fault. He has enough on his conscience.”
“And you think Jafar won’t have enough on his conscience when he realizes the mistake he’s made?” Chalah hissed back at her, her expressive eyes burning with anger. “I came here to help, Paige.
To help my brother and yours, as well as Abram. I need to know what to do.” Paige’s eyes rounded in surprise. “And you think I’d know what the hell you can do?” she whispered fiercely. “For God’s sake Chalah, I haven’t been out of these rooms since the day I came here.
I have no idea what the hell is going on or how to help anyone. I don’t even see Abram until after dark, and when I do see him, he’s exhausted. So why don’t you tell me what I could do.” Chalah stared back at her in dismay. Then her jaw tightened and she stomped to the end of the couch before turning back in frustration.
“There has to be something, Paige.”
Paige gave her head a quick shake as she kept her voice low. “Go home. Go back to school. If Abram has to worry about protecting you as well as me, then it’s only going to fracture his attention further. He can’t afford that right now.”
And she couldn’t afford it. Losing Abram would kill her, especially if she lost him because of his affection, his connection—whatever the hell it was—to her.
He had come back to Saudi Arabia rather than defecting as he’d planned after the deaths of his brothers.
He’d been forced to return to Saudi Arabia as a personal favor to the Saudi Arabian ambassador to take pictures of suspected terrorists. When he’d managed to get back to the U.S., he’d had to return again because of the threat to her.
He couldn’t seem to break away from the bloody legacy his father was creating here, or the threat of death that resulted from the pleasure he found in sharing his lover sexually.
“Jafar didn’t used to be like this.” Chalah sighed in regret as her lips trembled with the painful emotion she was feeling. “He wanted to be an American. He wanted to have the freedom to do as he wished, as Khalid did, as he knew Abram did.”
“He knew Abram wanted to defect to the U.S.?” Paige asked.
“Paige.” Chalah stared back at her in bemusement. “Abram, Tariq, Jafar, and several other cousins planned to defect together. It’s been their plan since Abram’s first wife, Lessa, was murdered by Ayid and Aman. Jafar has always known his plans, because they made them together.”
“And Jafar would know exactly how to block every move Abram made.” She sighed.
“But Abram knows what Jafar is aware of,” Chalah pointed out. “It’s some sort of battle between them.” The other girl frowned in confusion. “And I can’t understand what started it or why they are at odds with each other.”
It was the same problem Paige had, trying to figure out what had changed Jafar since the last time she had seen him. She had been vacationing with her parents in Greece, three, perhaps four years before.
As she watched, Chalah’s expression turned somber.
“Jafar was a good man once, wasn’t he, Paige?” she whispered, grief flashing in her eyes for just a moment.
Paige looked away for a second wondering if she should lie, of if she should tell Chalah how she felt in regards to good men.
“Men are what they are,” she finally said softly. “They’re either born mostly good, or they’re born mostly bad, just like anyone else is, Chalah. But the bad is always there, and for most men, the good is always there as well.”
“For most men?” Chalah asked with bitterness. Paige could see the need in her eyes for an affirmation that there was a chance that her brother wasn’t mostly, or even worse, fully bad.
“Sometimes, some men are always bad,” she said gently. “And then, there are those good men, those really really good men, Chalah, who just want everyone to think they’re bad for whatever reason.”
“And then,” Chalah whispered, tears filling her eyes. “There are those really bad men who are really good at making some people think they’re good.” Paige dropped her eyes and crossed her arms over her breasts to hold back the pain she felt fo
r the other girl, to hold back her need to comfort her.
She hadn’t decided yet, was Chalah the young woman she had once known? The future pediatrician with a gentle, loving heart, or was she one of those people everyone thought was good, but who for whatever reason, knew the evil inside her personally?
She lifted her eyes as Chalah sighed heavily. “Go home, Chalah,” she said softly. “If you really want to help Abram, if you really want to help Jafar, then go home.”
“Because you don’t trust me, and if you don’t trust me, then neither will Abram,” Chalah guessed.
“It has nothing to do with trust, Chalah, and everything to do with the fact that from the sound of it, you know more than I do about the entire situation. And I think you know that if you talk to Abram, then he’s going to tell you the same thing I did. Go home.” Tears glittered in her eyes. “They’re my family, Paige. They’re all I have left.” What the hell could she say? She knew exactly how she felt. After the death of her uncle when she was still a teenager she only had her parents and Khalid left, and she’d always been aware of the crosshairs Azir Mustafa kept the family under.
She’d always been aware that any time, she could either be dead, or alone.
As her lips parted to attempt to comfort the other girl, the sound of a heavy knock on the door sliced through the room, causing both women to jump, and Chalah’s eyes to flash with fear.
A fear far stronger than she should have felt.
“Chalah, it’s time to go.” Jafar’s voice was far colder than it had been earlier.
Paige swung her gaze around to the girl, and watched in fury as a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. Slowly, she lifted her hand to the medallion on the necklace she wore, turned it around, and showed Paige the device on the back of it.
She’d seen enough television programs and read enough adventure-romance novels to know exactly what it was. An electronic listening device. And Chalah had waited until the last minute to show it to her.
Paige straightened slowly, her arms dropping to her sides as she flashed Chalah a look of promised retribution. One way, some way, she would repay her for this.
Go home! she mouthed. Now!
Because if she ever saw the younger girl again then she would ensure Chalah knew exactly how completely severed their friendship was.
Jerking the scarf around her head, neck, and finally tucking it around her face until nothing but her eyes showed, she moved with jerky fury to the door and wrenched it open.
Chalah had only just managed to pull the abaya back on and secure the mesh over her eyes when Paige found herself facing the stone-hard, pale-eyed monster that watched her with calculating eyes.
She didn’t dare speak. There were rules and punishments, consequences and dangers to uttering even one of the curses tearing through her brain now.
Hatred welled inside her, blistering hot and searing her from the inside out.
What had Jafar hoped to gain by using his sister this way?
She stood back and turned slowly to stare at Chalah.
“Good-bye,” she stated with a withering stare. A ring of finality clearly echoed as she refused to say anything more.
She wouldn’t endanger the younger girl, but if Chalah dared to return then the rules would change.
“Good-bye, Paige,” Chalah said softly, miserably. Before Paige could avoid her, the other girl wrapped her arms around her in a tight, desperate hug. She whispered, “I swear, I’m good.” Paige stepped back slowly, deliberately pushing her away as her gaze moved to Jafar once again.
He had forced Chalah, there was no doubt, but she had still betrayed Paige, Abram, and Tariq. She should have shown her the device before they ever spoke.
“Tell Abram when he returns that it would not be advisable to leave at night any longer, for either him or Tariq,” he warned evenly, his pale green eyes like glass, cold and unemotional as his gaze flicked over her. “Or, Ms. Galbraithe, for you.”
He reached past her, gripped Chalah’s upper arm, and all but jerked her from the room.
He hadn’t gotten what he wanted, and now his sister would pay for it, and Chalah knew it.
Her head was down, her shoulders shuddering as silent sobs shook her beneath the heavy shroud.
Paige prayed that the beating she knew Chalah would take for failure was the only punishment she would receive before Jafar allowed her to return to America, and to school.
Chalah had one dream, to be a pediatrician in America. But Paige doubted Jafar would allow her to keep it for long.
Pulling his sister after him, Jafar turned and strode away, his long-legged stride causing Chalah to struggle to keep up with him as they moved around the bend of the hall and disappeared from view.
Paige closed and locked the door carefully before leaning against it and letting a silent sob ripple through her own body. How close she had come to trusting the other girl and attempting to ease the pain she had felt in her. How close she had come to destroying herself, Tariq, and worst of all, Abram.
“The listening device didn’t work, Paige.”
Jerking, she turned to see Tariq standing behind her, his expression creased with anger and his own sorrow. “I detected it the second she and Jafar knocked on the door.” He lifted the device he had been working on. “I fixed it.”
She turned and wiped her eyes. “That only detects it,” she whispered painfully.
He shook his head. “I switched on a device beneath the table before I left that alters the audio signal, either analog or digital. I didn’t disable it until I saw you weren’t going to betray Abram. Then, I used the controls in my suite to allow enough out to whoever was listening to assure them that you weren’t shit, even if you knew. Perhaps, Jafar will send her home now.” He moved closer as more tears fell down her face, as she sniffed back the pain that tore through her and the disillusionment that shredded her heart.
“I hate this place,” she suddenly spat, though the sobs, as quiet as they were, roughened her voice to a rasp. “Oh God, Tariq, I hate this place.”
He stepped closer, his expression suddenly tired, and just as disillusioned as she felt. “And you aren’t alone,” he whispered as he tucked a heavy strand of hair behind her ear, his fingertips caressing her ear gently for a fragile second before they dropped away. “Trust me, Paige, in that, you will never be alone.”
Chapter 9
A day of dealing with Azir and Jafar’s paranoia as he searched fruitlessly for the only contact that could arrange extraction out of Saudi Arabia had Abram in a less than pleasant mood when he returned to his room that night.
For whatever reason, and he was beginning to suspect those reasons, Jafar had convinced Azir that Abram needed to personally handle the drilling of a new water well outside of the fortress.
That well supplied water to the dozen or so families that lived outside the fortress walls and provided the Mustafa province with the few vegetables and animals used for their meals.
The problems with lines, pipes, and generators had led to more than one worker throwing his hands up in surrender at the seemingly unending problems and delays.
Two of those settlements farmed domesticated rabbit and lamb and sold the wool and small amounts of meat to other provinces as well. They had to have that water, yet it seemed something or someone had deliberately fouled the equipment to halt the pumping of it.
There were a few local incomes that Abram had been able to provide for the province, knowing that once he left the few benefits the regime provided would drain away.
To add to the problems, Abram had learned several of the men had spied Azir and Jafar testing the ground and the fortress wall behind his and Tariq’s suites for tunnels and exits.
Azir had been searching for that tunnel since before Khalid’s mother had escaped. And no tunnel had even played a part in her ability to slip from the fortress.
The part that worried Abram the most was the fact that Azi
r was certain the tunnel was there.
There were no drawings or blueprints left to reveal or cause anyone to suspect any bolt holes other than the ones already filled in.
Entering the suite silently well after dark, he found Paige curled on the couch napping, and Tariq at the small dining table still adjusting the piece of electronics he had been working on for over a week.
Closing the door silently he watched as Tariq held a shushing finger up, rose to his feet, and motioned Abram to the connecting suite.
Frowning, Abram followed, wondering what the hell could have happened here in the suite today to cause the look of anger that gleamed in his eyes.
No doubt, it had something to do with either Jafar or Azir. The two men were beginning to irritate him to his last nerve, even more so than usual.