by Lynn, Sophia
“Pretty little thing. Very pretty,” Christensen said, drawing closer.
When he moved, he didn’t crowd her like she was prepared for him to do. Instead, his long arm snaked out, and he snagged her wrist, drawing her stumbling into his body with a sharp cry.
“Yes, just keep quiet, Tyler. This is for… for your own good. Show the men to keep their damn hands off of you, right…?”
Somehow, she ended up on her back on the narrow bed, Christensen kneeling over her. He reached for his clothes, and that was enough for her to strike.
With a scream that seemed to echo through the trailer and the very mountains themselves, she jabbed upward at him. The knife sank into… something, and then Christensen threw himself backward, screaming with fury.
Bailey couldn’t figure out how badly she had hurt him, and at the moment she didn’t care. She threw herself across the trailer to the door. To her relief, Christensen hadn’t locked it behind him, and she threw it open, stumbling into the free air.
She had taken two steps to freedom, but then she yelped as he stumbled forward, grabbing her by her long brown hair.
“Come back here, you little bitch, you fucking cut me…”
She turned around, ready to fight, to claw, to do whatever she had to to get away while knowing that it was likely futile. He grabbed her, but when she clawed at him, he pushed her to the hard ground. Bailey gasped with pain, feeling a hard thunk against her temple. For a moment, her vision swam, but then it righted itself again.
Suddenly, there was the quick thunderous smatter of gunshots.
Christensen swore, and in his distraction, Bailey managed to twist away and run into the darkness. She veered away from the sound of the gunfire, into the darkness of the desert. It was miles to get to the village, but it was her only chance. The only ones with guns in this part of the desert were Christensen’s team, poachers, and bandits, and if they caught her…
She pelted into the darkness, moving as fast as she could. For a moment, she thought that the thunderous pounding was the beating of her own heart, but then, with dread, she realized it was hoofbeats. She was running fast, but she was no match for the horse, which gained on her with every stride.
The horse pulled up alongside her, and then with a sharp cry, the rider leaned over the side, wrapping an arm around her torso and lifting her straight up.
“No, no!” she screamed, struggling against his grasp, but he threw her over his hard thighs, holding her in place with one hand.
“Stay calm,” said a voice in English. She was shocked to realize that she recognized the voice. “You’re safe, stay calm, little darling…”
It was the man from the village earlier. He had read her note, and somehow, he had found her. The shock combined with the blessed relief of being finally safe was too much.
Bailey fainted dead away.
CHAPTER TWO
In the same hospital where he had watched his father die, Dario now sat next to a tiny girl who slept soundly in the white bed. She looked almost doll-like under the white covers, so small and frail.
At some point, a nurse had come in to clean her up, washing away the grit and blood from the wound on her temple.
“It could have been much worse,” the doctor had assured him. “She might have a small concussion, and she is definitely malnourished and exhausted, but she should be fine. She’ll likely wake up sometime today.”
He wasn’t sure whether he was relieved or not that she was still out like a light when he returned in the late afternoon. Dario had a dozen things to do, but right now, all he wanted was to sit by her bedside.
He could feel the night’s effects on him as well. He slumped down further in the chair next to the bed, his eyelids starting to droop.
“Well, if you’re going to sleep, I should as well,” he murmured, feeling himself drift off.
“You can have the bed if you want,” said a soft voice.
He jerked up to look into that same pair of vivid gray eyes that had stuck in his memory. She sat up in bed, holding her hospital gown around her.
“Where am I?” she asked. When she spoke, she winced, reaching for the bump at her temple. Before he could think about what he was doing, he reached out to grab her wrist before she could touch it.
“You’re at the hospital in Jabal,” he said. “You fainted during the raid on Christensen’s camp, and we brought you here.”
He could see the memories coming back to her, and he could see the moment when she realized who he was.
“You’re… you’re the man from the village! You picked me up on your horse…”
“I did,” Dario said with a slight smile. “In the middle of everything, I saw you running into the desert. I went to get you, but then you fainted on me and… well, here we are.”
“Thank you,” she said. Her words were quiet, but he could feel the depth of her gratitude in those eyes. Could she keep anything a secret with eyes like those, he wondered.
“You’re welcome. I am merely sorry that you became engaged in such an operation.”
She winced.
“I needed the money,” she said, her voice small. “My mom, well, we don’t do so great, and the offer sounded like it was magic, like it was everything that I might have… well. I know better now.”
He nodded sympathetically.
“I understand,” he said, standing. “Now that you are up, I can go notify the people at your embassy. We can get things straightened out for you.”
The smile she gave him, even with the white bandage taped to her head, was tremulous, but as beautiful as the dawn.
“Thank you again,” she said softly. “My name is Bailey. I would really, really like to know the name of the man who helped me out so much.”
He grinned at her from the door.
“Dario,” he said, and for some reason, he didn’t say any more.
*
Things were never simple, Bailey realized. For two days she stayed in the hospital, antsy to get out. She was terrified of the bills she was racking up, before one of the nurses kindly told her that they were being covered by the state. That was fine, but then when she tried to check herself out, she found that she was not able to do so.
It was about then when she had realized that the embassy had never appeared, and the fear from being in Christensen’s camp came back.
When she had demanded to speak with the embassy, a large and stern military official had come to speak with her. He was nothing like Dario, who had treated her with such kindness; he was perfectly blunt.
She could either continue her convalescence at the hospital, or she could be taken to a detainment area.
“Detained?” she had sputtered. “What for?”
“You are under investigation for the crime of attempting to remove priceless national treasures from the country of Jabal, part of the Christensen case. At the moment, your role in the case is unclear, and you are staying put until that role is understood.”
“My role…?”
“Or do you intend to call Sheikh al-Nejem a liar?” he said coldly. From the look on his face, that would be a very bad idea indeed.
“Who?” she blurted out.
The man looked at her, obviously impatient and ready to be done with her.
“You told him you needed the money and that you were involved. Obviously, this must be investigated further, before you can be cleared.”
She stared at him, feeling as if the world had turned upside down. The words he was saying made sense in and of themselves, but together, they felt like nonsense.
“Are you talking about Dario?”
If anything, her outburst made the official look at her even more coldly.
“Yes. Dario al-Nejem, First Among Ten Thousand. The Sheikh of Jabal.”
Bailey’s mouth went dry. She couldn’t match it up. The highest law in the land could not be the man who had rescued her, could not be the man who had sat by h
er bed.
The official left the room, leaving her lost in her thoughts and pondering what her fate might be.
The next few days passed slowly. The bruise on her forehead faded until it was a mere smudge, and the pain went away before that. Soon she was pacing restlessly in her room. They allowed her to send a message to her mother telling her that she was fine, but beyond that, she was not allowed her phone.
A day after she saw the military official, a representative from the embassy came to see her.
“You were breaking the law,” the woman said, not without sympathy. “You came to this country to work with criminals.”
“But I didn’t know,” Bailey said for what felt like the thousandth time.
The woman shook her head.
“Jabal, like many other parts of the Middle East, has had many sacred treasures taken from their shores. They are protective to say the least, and they do not tolerate theft in this regard.”
Bailey swallowed, on the verge of tears.
“What’s going to happen to me?” she asked.
The woman sighed.
“We’re not quite sure yet,” she said gently. “The wheels are turning, however, and I believe that most would rather just let you go. Just sit tight and don’t cause trouble, all right? We’ll figure something out for you.”
The days dragged out until she thought they had forgotten her utterly. Perhaps this was her punishment, to stay in a small hospital room, overlooked and forgotten until she went insane.
Finally, almost a week after she had seen the representative, a woman she had never met before showed up with a shopping bag for her.
“All right, Miss Tyler, you need to get changed. We’re leaving the hospital now.”
For a moment, she thought she was being told to change into prison coveralls, but then she looked down and realized that she was being given robes of the kind worn in the countryside. When she put on the dark robes and the headdress, she felt as if she was being muffled in fabric.
“What’s going on?” she asked, keeping her voice as calm as she could. “Where am I going?”
“You are going to the excavation site close to the Sinn mountains. Things will be explained to you there.”
It occurred to Bailey that she could dig in her heels, protest, kick and scream. The idea of being taken back to the scene of one of the worst nights of her life was terrifying. Instead, she swallowed her protests and dressed as the woman waited impatiently.
“Does… does the American embassy know where I am going?”
The woman nodded.
“They have been apprised, and they will be in contact with you later.”
With that, Bailey had to be content. The woman ushered her down to a waiting car outside the hospital. Bailey was slightly shocked at the number of people walking around, living their lives, checking their phones and getting food from the falafel stand. Her life had felt so intense for so long that she couldn’t even remember what normalcy felt like. She envied them immensely.
The car took them to the edge of town, where she was transferred to a jeep. The driver settled her comfortably into the back, which was something of a comfort, before he started driving.
It took almost four hours to get to the site in the desert, and though she was comfortable and given food and water, Bailey couldn’t stop the stab of fear going all the way through her. What was happening?
She could tell they were back at the excavation site, but a huge change had come over it. The trailers had been replaced by state-of-the-art mobile homes, and at the center of it, improbably and quite gorgeously, was an enormous brocade tent.
“What’s going on here?” she asked, but the driver only shook his head.
“Not for me to tell you, I’m afraid. Here, I’m to show you to your mobile home.”
He took her to a small but comfortably appointed mobile home, where she found all of her things she had thought lost forever waiting for her. After that, there was nothing for her to do but wait.
Almost an hour later, there was a knock on her door. Bailey had spent the last week with people making free with her personal space, and for a moment, she barely knew that she was meant to allow them in. Cautiously, moving as if there were some kind of dark beast waiting for her, she opened the door, and there stood Dario.
Since they had seen each other, she had somehow convinced herself that he couldn’t be that handsome, that she was simply overwhelmed because he had saved her life. Now that Bailey was confronted with the man face-to-face, she realized that had not been an exaggeration or a hallucination.
Dario was an exceptionally handsome man, tall enough that she had to tilt her head back to look at him, muscular enough that it made sense he had been able to lift her on his horse so easily. Dressed casually in the fatigues, boots, and white tank top that were worn by so many off-duty soldiers around the world, he was almost breathtakingly handsome.
The only problem was that now she knew who he was.
She didn’t see the tentative smile or the bright hopeful look on his face. Instead, she dropped her eyes and dipped down in the half bow that was so common in this part of the world.
“Your highness,” she said, her voice low.
“No, that’s not necessary,” he said. To her surprise, he took her shoulders, straightening her up. Bailey looked up into his dark eyes, shocked at the simple humor there.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
It had been so long since someone had asked her permission for something, she hesitated a moment before she gave it to him.
“I’m not sure that I can stop you,” she said, stepping aside.
When he walked into her trailer, Bailey wondered with a slightly wry humor how she had never noticed before that he was a sheikh. He walked in as if he owned the place and everything in it. When he glanced at her with the same kind of proprietary gleam, she could feel the anger that had been fraying at the back of her mind start to slip.
“How are you finding your accommodations?” he asked, and it was a simple enough question. If she had been a visiting dignitary or scholar, it would have been fine. However, she was not.
“I’m finding them a little confusing,” Bailey said bluntly. Dario looked slightly taken aback by her bluntness, and right now that suited her just fine. Let him see what happened when he kept her in the dark too long.
“Ever since I woke up, I’ve had no idea what is happening to me. At first I thought I was going to go home, and now, for some reason, I’m in the Sinn mountains again. No one is telling me what is happening, and… and…”
Dario waved his hand as if he could make all of her frustrations disappear. She prickled at being shushed like a child, but for the moment, she subsided. Whether she wanted to or not, apparently, she needed to hear what he had to say.
“Your position after what the press is calling the ‘Christensen affair’ is murky,” he said. “I am not sure if you know, but most of the people involved in that particular bit of banditry are currently awaiting trial with the possibility of very long prison terms ahead of them.”
Bailey refused to let herself flinch. Instead, she met Dario’s eyes with iron resolve, waiting to hear what he had to say.
“You’re different,” he said. “Going through some of the records, it seems as if Christensen had issues getting an academic of your caliber out to Jabal. He’s been turned down by every one of them that he contacted, until he decided to dispense with appealing to greed and simply decided to lie.”
Bailey did flinch at that. When she looked back at how she had been brought on, she knew that there was something wrong. She knew that Christensen wasn’t telling her everything, but she had convinced herself that it was simply a part of getting her first big job in her field. That little voice had started screaming ever since she made it to the Sinn mountains with Christensen’s convoy, and she wasn’t sure it had ever stopped.
“So on one hand, we have a bunch of ro
bbers who were looking to steal my country’s very history, and on the other hand, we have a press that is baying for them to receive the justice that they so richly deserve.”
Bailey wondered if she should drop to her knees and kiss his feet now. She wondered if she should beg for her life, or try to sweeten her plea by appealing to his ego. She did nothing. Instead, she only lifted her chin slightly, waiting to see what her fate would be.
“And here, in the Sinn mountains, we have an academic who was caught up in a web of lies that was designed to strand her in one of the most desolate mountain chains in the world.”
“Oh, what do you do with a problem like Bailey,” she muttered, and Dario smiled a little.
“What indeed. I think I should tell you openly that your embassy is interested in your release but wants desperately to avoid challenging Jabal. What was finally decided was signed off by the American embassy quite quickly.
“Some of the press sees you as an innocent victim, while others are painting you as robber queen who wants nothing more than to despoil the history of Jabal. So, it has been decided that you will work this dig for a while, under the custody of the person in charge of the dig, and doing what it is, after all, you do so well. This will placate the people who believe that you deserve some kind of punishment, and it will soothe those who want you out of harm’s way.”
Bailey stared at him, her hands clenching hard. Just a few hours ago, she was in one of the most modern cities in the world. She could have taken a cab and gotten on a plane that would have had her back on American soil in a day or less. Now she was… right back where she had started.
“You can’t be serious,” she said finally.
When he raised his eyebrows, her temper snapped so hard she was surprised it wasn’t audible.
“What are you—”
“Don’t you understand? They blindfolded me to bring me here! Christensen on more than one occasion threatened to make sure I wouldn’t make it home if I didn’t do exactly as he said! I thought I was going to die here… and now you’re telling me that there’s nothing I can do but work here some more?”
