CHAPTER 8
I wasn’t sure how I’d come to be riding a four-wheeler through the Arabian Desert sands, but I was having too much fun to care.
We’d left the city far behind us, invisible to the naked eye from the roll of dunes. Even from my current vantage point I saw no sign of the tall buildings anywhere along the horizon. Below the dune, others moved along like ants towards our destination, a Bedouin encampment in the middle of the desert. I’d grown tired of playing follow the leader and, in a spontaneous moment, had scaled a nearby sand dune. It had been steeper than I first thought, but not so bad that I was afraid.
The desert sun shone directly into my eyes as I crested the dune, and I stopped atop the sandy ridge. The ATV rumbled beneath me as I surveyed the landscape stretching out to the horizon. Never before had I seen anything like it; the hills of sand, contrasted by the blue skies above, took my breath away.
My wakeup call that morning had been quite the surprise. Given what had occurred the previous day, I would have thought we’d be under lock and key, or at least confined to the hotel. So it had been surprising when Lucas showed up at my door, inviting me with a big grin on his face to have a desert safari.
There was no way I was saying no to a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
We’d gotten a late start, thanks in part to the security detail that was coming with us. Rashid seemed excited to give us this gift, but I could tell the men guarding him had their doubts. Amyrah was nowhere to be found; I hadn’t heard from the girl since the previous night. My guess was that her overprotective brother had her under constant guard, locked away in his ivory tower.
It would have been nice to have her here with me. I wonder if you ever get used to these kinds of views?
Twin rumbles came from the hill behind me, and I turned just as Jeremiah and Lucas rode up and stopped on either side of me. I rolled my eyes, remembering I had my own overprotective goon squad.
“You shouldn’t leave the group,” Jeremiah said. “We may not be safe out here.”
“Oh, lighten up little brother.” Lucas grinned out from beneath a ratty ball cap at Jeremiah’s answering scowl. “Admit it; you just don’t like having fun.”
Being between the two men was like wrangling a pair of kids. Lucas seemed determined to goad his brother, and wasn’t above using me as bait. At the hotel, I’d been hustled to the car by Lucas before Jeremiah even appeared, and had watched through the window as the two men bickered. I wasn’t sure who the victor was but both men entered the car, sitting on either side of me. Any attempts on my part to lighten the mood through conversation didn’t work, so I stayed silent as we drove out of the city.
Nobody had told me what to expect, so when we pulled off the road onto a side road, I was confused. Our cars bumped along a road that was little more than a trail between dunes, usually with large sand drifts that lifted one side of the car higher as we rolled over them. I was jostled between the two men, which didn’t help my mood any, and was relieved when we finally stopped near the small fleet of ATVs and camels.
I’d then been given the task of choosing which mode of transportation we’d take to our next destination. The camels didn’t look all that appealing up close, so I’d opted for the machines instead.
“You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”
I grinned at Lucas, feeling a little self-satisfied. “What, afraid a girl’s going to beat you at manly sports?”
The scarred man laughed. “I’ll race you then,” he taunted, “first person back to the group.” Without waiting for my reply, Lucas gunned the engine and turned his ATV around in record time. He took off down the hill, the paddle tires spraying us with sand.
I revved my engine, then paused when I saw Jeremiah’s face. He was scowling at the horizon, and after a moment looked over at me. His gaze softened, but his mouth and jaw remained tight.
“You didn’t want to come, did you?”
My statement was pure conjecture, but he nodded. “We aren’t safe out here,” he said over the rumble of the motors. “I don’t know why Rashid or Lucas would agree on an outing like this.”
The exact same thought had been bouncing around my head all day. We were isolated out here, caught in the middle of nowhere. "Lucas said the trip had been given as a gift, and we'd be rude to say no."
"That's what he told me, too." Jeremiah scowled at the sandy view. He looked uncomfortable, which was something I didn't equate with the big man. I knew it wasn't our impromptu mode of transportation; he rode the quad easily, even through the more technical areas I'd gone around. He was always in control, keeping an iron fist on his life, but the last few days had stripped him of that.
"So why did you come?" I asked, genuinely curious.
For a moment I wasn't sure he was going to answer me. His gaze didn't waver from the horizon where the sun was closing in on twilight. Finally he spoke. "Right now, Rashid controls everything. Because Lucas took all of my equipment, I don't have any access to my own network so can't do my own research on our host, my brother's "friend". I don’t know how to feel about accepting his help when I don’t know anything about the man.”
“Lucas seems to trust him.”
“Yes, another fact stacked against the man.”
I blew out a breath, silently commiserating. For someone so used to controlling every aspect of his life, this had to be a major blow.
Finally Jeremiah turned to me. “What happened when he took you?”
My heart froze. I swallowed hard, staring at the horizon. “I translated for one of Lucas’ deals. Got Shanghaied, almost killed by a deranged saboteur.” I shrugged, although my heart wasn’t in it. “You know, the usual.”
“That son of a bitch.” I felt Jeremiah’s eyes on me. “I should never have left you alone in that house like I did.”
My chest hurt, the desire to tell him everything strong enough to bring tears to my eyes. Oh God, what have I done?
“You guys coming or what?”
Lucas’ voice drifted up the dune, snapping us both from our thoughts. Jeremiah glared down the hill as I looked away, blinking back tears. Without looking at the man beside me, I turned the quad around atop the dune and headed slowly down the sandy surface.
“What took you so long?” Lucas asked as I reached the bottom. When I didn’t answer, his grin turned brittle along the edges. “Did my brother say something to you?”