Desert Rogues Part 2

by Susan Mallery

  “We’ll be waiting.”

  Reyhan hung up the phone and considered his options. While he had been willing to keep his bargain with the chiefs up to a point, the rules had now changed. If Fadl was stealing—or worse, sabotaging—then he and his friends had to be stopped. Being young and sons of chiefs would not protect them anymore.

  He called his assistant into his office and made arrangements for his meetings to be rescheduled. Once he’d reserved the helicopter and told the pilots where they were going, he walked to his father’s offices. The guards there waved him inside, where he found the king on the phone.

  “Reyhan,” his father said cheerfully when he’d hung up. “What brings you to me this fine morning?”

  “Will has detained Fadl, Bihjan’s son.” He quickly recounted what his security chief had told him.

  King Hassan didn’t look happy. “Have they moved from making threats to acting on them?”

  “That’s what I plan to find out. Will is going to invite Fadl’s friends to join him in custody. We’ll send a team in to search their camp. If they’ve already sabotaged replacement parts we should find evidence. Regardless, all the equipment will be inspected.”

  “Which means shutting down production for a few days.”

  Reyhan had already done the calculations. “We’ll be back online at the end of the week.” He shook his head. “There is also the possibility this was Fadl’s plan all along. To get caught in such a way that we would have to shut down. But I won’t take the risk. All the wells will be inspected.”

  “What are the international ramifications?”

  “Minimal. We’ll issue a statement saying we’re running scheduled inspections, and production for the next month will be increased to make up the difference.”

  The king raised his eyebrows. “But the inspections aren’t scheduled.”

  “They are now.”

  “Good point. When do you leave?”

  “As soon as we’re done here.”

  “I’m sure Emma will enjoy the trip.”

  Reyhan stared at his father. “You can’t be serious. I am not taking her with me.”

  “Of course you are. You already have their leader in custody and will soon have the rest of his men. She won’t be in any danger. If you’re truly concerned about her standing out, have her put on native dress. I’m sure she’ll look especially fetching.”

  Reyhan glanced at the sleeping tabby on the sofa in the corner and thought about throwing the creature at his father. But he recognized the stubborn look in the king’s eyes and knew he didn’t have a choice. Take Emma. It was a ridiculous request, and he refused to acknowledge the sudden pleasure he felt.

  He left his father and headed for his rooms. At least Fadl’s activities had been more passive than violent. Reyhan wouldn’t have to worry about Emma walking into the middle of a gunfight.

  He steeled himself, vowing not to react when he saw her. She sat on the sofa, reading and looked up when he entered.

  “I have to go into the desert,” he said. “I’ll be gone a day or two. The king has suggested you accompany me.”

  Her green eyes were wide and unreadable. She looked both hurt and broken. As if her spirit had received one too many mortal blows.

  That was his doing, he acknowledged shamefully. He’d been the one to reject her over and over. He reached for the phone and pressed three buttons. As he waited for his call to be answered, he wondered if there was some way he could explain so that she would understand and see this wasn’t about her. Not really. His actions were about himself. Then he admitted he doubted that information would be of much comfort to her.

  He made his request, hung up and returned his attention to her.

  She hadn’t moved, except to close the book. “Are they for me?” she asked, referring to the traditional garments he had ordered.

  “Yes. I’ll need you to wear them while we’re at the camp. I don’t expect any trouble, but regardless, they’ll keep you safe.”

  “You don’t want me to go with you,” she said flatly.

  “What I want isn’t important.”

  “It is to me.”

  He stood behind a club chair and rested his hands on the back. “This is business. There has been an arrest. I’m confident everything will go smoothly but as I am not completely sure, I would prefer you not be there.”

  “So this is only about keeping me safe?”

  He nodded.

  “I don’t believe you. Wanting me to stay is about more than that.” She rose and faced him. “I want to speak to the king and tell him you find my presence intolerable. There’s no reason for me to stay here and both of us to be tortured. I don’t believe that’s his purpose. Once he knows there is no hope for a reconciliation, then he’ll agree to the divorce and you’ll be free of me.”

  As she spoke, she squared her shoulders and met his gaze with a confidence that impressed him. The frightened little girl she had been was completely gone and in her place was a self-sufficient woman.

  She stood before him, offering him his freedom and all he wanted was to pull her close and claim her as his own forever. He longed for her with a need that defied description and still he would let her go.

  “When we return,” he told her, “we will both talk to the king.”

  Light faded from her eyes, as if the last flame of her spirit had been extinguished. Reyhan wanted to move closer, to touch her and tell her his reasons were not what she thought, but he stayed where he was and dug his fingers into the back of the chair.

  “I guess I should pack a few things,” she said tonelessly. “What do I wear under the robes?”

  “Whatever will be most comfortable. The days are hot, the nights cool. Jeans or slacks will give you freedom of movement.”

  She nodded and headed for her bedroom. He retreated to his quarters where he quickly collected a few belongings. By the time he returned to the living room, the traditional robes had been left on the sofa.

  Emma didn’t recognize the woman in the mirror, but she didn’t know how much of that had to do with the yards of fabric that covered her from head to toe and how much had to do with her bleeding to death from the inside out.

  Reyhan wanted her to leave.

  She supposed she’d known there were problems and that he didn’t want to sleep with her again, but that was a far cry from having him practically jump with joy at the thought of never seeing her again. She’d hoped to shock him with her suggestion that she speak with the king and ask to leave sooner. Instead he’d agreed with her plan. He was going to get everything he wanted and she would spend the rest of her life in love with a man who didn’t want to be with her.

  Emma didn’t know exactly when she’d fallen in love with him, or if it had been with her, buried for the past six years. Did it matter? More important than the how or when was the reality of losing Reyhan for a second time.

  He escorted her to a helicopter. Nervous excitement at flying in one for the first time eased some of her heartache. She strapped herself in and picked up the headset Reyhan pointed to. When the engine roared to life and the rotors began to move, she understood that the headset was the only way they would be able to communicate.

  “We’re going about a hundred miles into the desert,” he said into his microphone. “To the western edge of the central oil fields.”

  She could see his lips moving and hear the sound coming through her speakers. The helicopter rose.

  Emma clutched the armrests as the aircraft zoomed up and forward, moving dizzyingly fast. The sensation was very different from a plane, but not unpleasant. She watched the edge of the city disappear under them, then there was only the vast stretches of nothing.

  “A young man was arrested today,” Reyhan said. “He was stealing replacement parts for the oil rigs. We’re not sure if he planned to sell them on the black market or sabotage them and put them back into inventory.”

  “Faulty parts could create an economic and ecological disaster.
”

  Reyhan nodded approvingly at her grasp of the situation. “Exactly. His friends are being rounded up and will also be arrested. The man we caught, Fadl, has been unwilling to tell us what he’s up to. I want to talk to him and see if I can convince him to cooperate.”

  She remembered what Reyhan had said about the nomads’ need to be free. “Will he go to prison?”

  “Probably. It depends on the seriousness of his crime. In this case, simply stealing would be a relief to everyone.”

  “An odd reality.”

  He smiled. “How true.”

  She turned away because she didn’t want to smile back. She didn’t want to feel that things were once again well between them. How could he act as if nothing was wrong?

  She stared out the window and reminded herself that he had made it clear from the beginning that he wanted her out of his life. She’d been the one to forget that and try to change the rules. Was it his fault he hadn’t agreed?

  “There is a small camp of nomads by the oil station,” he said. “They are friendly and you will be safe in their company. Even so I will assign two men to stay with you. Just in case.”

  “That’s fine. Are there any cultural rules I should keep in mind?”

  “No. Simply be yourself and they will adore you.”

  As I do.

  He didn’t speak the words, but Emma heard them. They hung in the silence between them as loud as the engine. She looked at Reyhan, but he was staring out of his window and she couldn’t see his expression.

  A trick of her own imagination, she told herself. Nothing more. Her feelings for him weren’t going to change anything and she had to remember that.

  They touched down about an hour later. Emma saw the low buildings clustered together and the oil rigs beyond. To the left, a dozen or so tents were pitched close to the bubbling oasis. Reyhan had told her the pool was fed by an underground spring.

  He climbed out of the helicopter first, then held out his hand to assist her. She took it and instantly felt the warmth of his fingers. Weakness invaded her, a weakness she had to learn to control and eventually conquer.

  In time, she promised herself. She would heal in time.

  Reyhan entered the interrogation room and stared at the young man sitting there. Fadl was all of eighteen, slightly built and sullen looking. The youngest son of a powerful chief. While he would not have inherited all his father’s wealth, he could have made a good life for himself with the tribe. Instead, he’d chosen to take what he wanted.

  “You have crossed me,” he told the young man. “You knew that your father didn’t want you harmed or arrested. He thought you would come to see the error of your ways. But I am not a foolish old man who still indulges a spoiled child. I am Prince Reyhan of Bahania and now we will play by my rules.”

  Fear flickered in Fadl’s eyes. “That’s a load of bull. You can’t hurt me. You promised my father.”

  Reyhan allowed himself a small smile. “I agreed to let you run around and play at being a man until you broke the law. Which you did by stealing parts. Now the deal doesn’t exist and you are mine.”

  The young man squirmed in his seat. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Good. I will enjoy putting you in prison. Because of you, the oil rigs must be checked for sabotaged parts. That will cost my country hundreds of thousands of dollars. As I know you have no funds of your own to compensate me, I will take what I can out of your hide.”

  Fadl visibly paled. “How did you know that’s what we were going to do?”

  Reyhan kept his expression impassive. He’d guessed correctly. Now he simply had to get the details from the boy and let Will deal with damage control.

  “What made you think you could succeed?” Reyhan asked. “You know nothing of the oil equipment. You certainly haven’t worked the rigs.”

  Fadl shifted in his seat. “I don’t want to go to prison.”

  “You don’t have a choice. The question on the table is for how long. Please me and I will make sure your time there is almost pleasant. Annoy me and I will find a particularly uncomfortable place for you to call home.”

  There were several seconds of silence. In the end, fear won.

  “It wasn’t us,” Fadl admitted. “Not really. A bunch of us were at a bar in El Bahar and we were trying to come up with a plan. This guy approached us. He said he’d been listening and that we were amateurs. If we wanted to make some big money, we needed to hire professionals. So we did.”

  Reyhan’s blood ran cold. He crossed to the door, pulled it open and yelled for Will to join them.

  Fadl told them everything. The name of the man whom they’d hired, how many associates he’d brought into Bahania and how much Fadl and his gang were to pay them.

  “We haven’t put back any bad parts,” Fadl said frantically. “They’re all in our camp. You have to believe me, Prince Reyhan. I swear. We were just after the money and this seemed like an easy way to get it.”

  Reyhan stared at him with loathing. “See if you feel that way after your stay in prison.”

  Emma wandered around the oasis. Her bodyguards kept far enough away that she was able to forget about them. As she’d seen before on her outing with her parents, there were children playing and filling the afternoon with the sound of laughter. Several small dogs tumbled over each other in a game only they could understand. Women clustered together sewing and cooking and sending glances her way.

  A little girl of about seven or eight ran up to her and offered a plate of dates. Emma smiled her acceptance and bit into one. Soon another little girl joined them, then another and another.

  “I can’t eat all these,” Emma said with a grin as she touched the closest girl’s smooth dark hair. “But thank you for offering.”

  A little boy tugged on her sleeve. She bent down to his level and he pulled on her head covering. She reached up and slipped it down to her shoulders. All the children gasped at the sight of her red hair.

  “I know. Not the usual thing,” she said happily.

  A girl reached out to touch it, then shrank away. Emma laughed.

  “It’s all right. It doesn’t burn.” She stroked her hair herself, then took the girl’s hand in her own and brought it to the side of her head. The child touched her lightly, giggled and touched her again. The other children crowded close.

  “My, my, my. Aren’t you a pretty lady?”

  At the sound of the male voice, the children scattered. Emma stood and turned, only to come face-to-face with two tall, armed strangers. Her bodyguards were nowhere to be seen.

  “You’re American,” she said, trying not to betray her nervousness.

  The man closest to her grinned. He had close-cropped blond hair and a tattoo of a snake on his forearm.

  “Good guess,” he said and stepped behind her. Before she could make a move, he had grabbed her and pulled her close, then pressed a knife to her neck. “And you’re our prisoner.”

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Will demanded as he paced in front of Fadl. “You hired a man you met in a bar. Didn’t it occur to you that he wasn’t just a military consultant? Didn’t you think you were getting in over your head?”

  Fadl looked miserable, young and scared. “He said if we didn’t do what he wanted, he’d kill us.”

  Reyhan stared at the boy. “You wanted to get caught,” he breathed. “You need our help to get out of this mess.”

  Fadl nodded frantically. “Prince Reyhan, please. They’re out of control. You have to help me. Help all of us. We’re sorry. We didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

  “Of course you did. But now you’ve got a tiger by the tail and you don’t know how to keep it from eating you.” He looked at Will. “This is your area of expertise.”

  “I’m on it,” his security chief told him. “I’ll call in a team from El Bahar and—” he glanced at Fadl “—elsewhere.”

  Reyhan knew Will meant the City of Thieves, a secret city in the middle of the desert on th
e border with El Bahar and Bahania.

  “I know the head of security there,” Will continued. “Rafe Stryker and I have worked together before.”

  “Good.”

  Will started to leave, but before he reached the door, a man burst into the room. He ran to Reyhan.

  “She was taken by two Americans. They shot one of the men guarding her and knocked out the other. They have Princess Emma.”

  Reyhan went very still and very cold. He looked at Fadl. “If she is harmed in any way, the desert will run red with your blood.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “So how many millions are you worth, sweetheart?” the man with the tattoo asked as he pushed Emma into the back of a truck.

  The gag in her mouth made it impossible to speak, so she could only glare her rage.

  “I didn’t know Prince Reyhan was married or I would have planned this better,” the man said with a grin. “Guess I just got lucky today. Don’t worry. No one wants to hurt you. I thought those unhappy kids would be our ticket to the easy life, but they turned out to be all talk. When it came right down to doing the dirty work, they got scared. Said they didn’t want to blow up any oil wells. So I figured I’d wasted my time. Then you came along.”

  Emma wanted to shriek her outrage. She couldn’t believe this was happening. If she could just get her hands loose she would claw her kidnapper’s eyes out.

  Her anger pleased her. It meant she wasn’t going to be immobilized by fear. She had to stay strong so that when the time came she could escape.

  The man fingered a strand of her hair. “I’m guessing your old man is going to pay through the nose to get you back in his bed.”

  A knife flashed. Emma jumped back but not before her capture sliced off a lock of her hair.

  “Just so he knows I’m not bluffing,” the man said, and slammed the door.

  She found herself alone and in darkness. The hum of a motor and cool air blowing over her told her there was an air-conditioning unit. At least she wouldn’t die of heat exhaustion.