"I must take you to the airport, miss," he told her. "You will be getting on a plane back to your home."
She hit another button and the privacy screen went down. "No, no, you don't understand. Hey, aren't you the guard from that day Walid told me he was kidnapping me?"
The guard-slash-driver blushed.
"It's okay, buddy," she assured him, getting to the edge of her seat and resting her chin on the ledge of the window that opened into the front seat. "But you owe me one, so take me back to the palace and we'll call it even."
"I cannot grant your request, miss."
Desperation hit her like a wall. She had to do something. It was all on her, but somehow, she was going to make it happen.
She scanned for options. Strangle the driver with his seatbelt? Could she pretend to have a gun? Offer him money? If only she actually had some...
"Please buckle your seatbelt, Miss Oldrich."
"Will you stop the car if I don't?" she asked, the words tripping out as fast as they would come.
"No, miss. But it is safer in case of an accident."
She whipped out her cell. She stumbled over the passcode twice, then took a breath and got it on the third try. Yes! She had one bar. And one percent juice. She needed to dial fast--but who could she call?
Before she came up with a number, the screen went dark.
Damn it. Now the driver was her only chance.
"You don't understand. I can save him. I can save everyone."
"I cannot grant your request." His calm tone made her even wilder. Why couldn't he understand that she could make everything better if he would just turn the car around?
"I will hang you from the yardarm, you scurvy land-lubber of a flea-infested cur."
She saw a pair of confused eyes reflected in the rearview mirror. "Nonetheless."
She tried another tactic. Probably also doomed to fail. She stuck her nose in the air. "Do you know who I am?"
"Noelle Oldrich, miss. A woman who is going to the airport."
And, prompted Bonnie, who else?
A pirate fucking princess, she answered.
"This is a kidnapping. I don't want to go the airport. I want to go back to the palace."
"The palace you spent three weeks trying to escape from," pointed out the driver. Then he started muttering in Arabic.
"Yeah, but now I have to get back by sunset. The engagement is at sunset." The Askari sun was dipping dangerously low now. She had half an hour, maybe, before Walid did something idiotic.
She stabbed at a button on the door. The window came down, hot wind blowing into the limo. As soon as she had enough space, she stuck her head out. Like a crazy person.
"Hey!" she shouted at a passing silver Mercedes. "Hey, stop this limo. Walid is about to do something really stupid and we can stop him."
The woman at the wheel of the car glanced at Noelle, then shot her gaze straight forward and hit the gas, leaving the insane blonde behind.
A black BMW coming up behind decided to move over two lanes instead of one to pass. Grit and dust from the road kicked up, getting in her eyes and making them water.
"Help!" she yelled anyway. "I'm not crazy. Your king needs me before he does something dumb."
The window she'd stuck her head out of inched up with a mechanical whir.
"Erp," she said. "What are you doing?"
"I will close the window, miss. I swear I will."
"You are the worst driver ever," she told him as ducked back inside the car before she got guillotined. "Walid would be grateful if you helped me. Just take me back."
"No," he stated. And the privacy screen between them started to go up.
"Wait," she called to him as the last inch closed her off from the only person who could help her. "Wait, no. I'll be good."
The screen sealed tight, and she punched the back of the driver's seat. Did he feel it? Probably not. Did it make her knuckles hurt? Yup. Worth it? Oh yeah.
Her stomach sank. What else could she do? Nothing, that was what.
Noelle! cried Bonnie.
Right. Right, Noelle thought. I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to give up. We'll do whatever we need to do to make this right. To rescue Walid.
Yarrgh! That's the spirit!
Okay, so when we get to the airport, we run. We'll figure something out from there, she told Bonnie.
At least she could get herself arrested, she thought. Okay, the idea of Askari prison terrified her, but if she could somehow get a message to Walid from there...
If she knew his phone number, that was.
A low rumble sounded, a faraway noise that she felt under her ribs. Far away, but getting closer.
She whipped around in her seat to look out the tiny back window of the limo.
What she saw was... weird.
A little baby-blue dot and a larger black dot. Both were getting bigger, coming nearer. Fast.
Within a few seconds, the dots were big enough to identify. It was very definitely Motorcycle Chick Barbie, with Harley-riding action.
Um, okay.
Harley Barbie was riding hellbent for baby-blue leather. She was dressed head to toe in the stuff, a skintight outfit the color of Askar's sky at noon. Behind her on the seat bobbed another helmet, connected to a larger person who was hanging on to Barbie's slim waist with all they had.
The bike roared up to the window of the limo. The two people seemed to look in at her, but since the windows were all mirrored, no way could they see her.
Harley Barbie gave a little wave. Her passenger tried the same maneuver. Her female passenger, Noelle realized, since it was hard to miss those boobs. Boobs she thought she recognized. But the passenger couldn't manage more than a finger-lift before she grabbed at her driver's waist again.
Could it be? Was that possibly... No.
Yes, yes, yes! Bonnie shouted.
The driver was Faridah. On a bike in another candy-colored outfit, and looking totally comfortable there.
Were they going to help her? Or were they just glad to see her go?
The bike passed the limo, zooming away.
No, come back! Bonnie cried.
And then the limo slammed to a stop, brakes squealing.
Her chance.
She took it.
Even though they were on a highway, she flung open the door, ready to dash between cars. She checked the road--thank God, no one coming for miles. She hit the pavement, ready to run for it. But what she saw made her pause.
The bike had been parked on the highway, and the limo had stopped just inches away from knocking it down.
The passenger--yup, Suzette--had her helmet off and was scowling at the driver. The big guy looked like he was ready to cry, and was pleading with Suzette--oh, she just had to be his auntie--in Arabic.
Harley Barbie stood in another lane. Her blue helmet turned toward Noelle.
Noelle gulped. Was she here to help, or was she still mad?
If she was still mad, well, Noelle couldn't blame her.
Faridah had believed in her, had taken a chance on her, and Noelle had treated her like crap. Yeah, okay, Noelle was trying to escape captivity at the time, but what she'd done was hurtful.
No one had ever believed in her the way Faridah had. It had been weird and uncomfortable. It had been an intense kind of pressure that Noelle had never felt. Here was a person who expected things from her, who wanted her to be an adult with responsibilities to other people.
Her father had taken all that away from her, had put her in a bubble-wrapped ivory tower and never let anything happen to her. Faridah had done the opposite, and Noelle hadn't been ready for it.
She was ready now. But first, she owed Faridah the world's biggest apology.
Okay, she thought, let's do this.
Both women took a step toward each other at the same time. Barbie lifted the helmet off and shook out a waterfall of gleaming coffee hair that came well below her shoulders.
They met in the middle of the road,
a dotted yellow line between them, cutting off one lane from the other.
"Faridah," Noelle started. "I'm--"
"No," the younger woman said. "Do not apologize to me. I did not come for that. I came to set things right and tell you I was wrong. I know that you are a normal person and that stories like the ones about Inaya Al Hurra are not real. I know there is truly no magic in the world. I know that reality is harsh and faith is not often rewarded. I know that believing in something does not make it true. I understand the pressure I put upon you and how that must have made you feel. I understand that Walid has made the choice to marry Miss Kalilah for Askar."
Faridah paused--and just as Noelle was about to speak, she went on. "I am not stupid. I am realistic. I can face the truth, and the truth is that life is not a fairy story. We just came to say this. And to say goodbye one last time, as I know you can never return here."
"Are you done?" she asked.
"Yes." Faridah lifted her eyes from the pavement. "Do you forgive me?"
"Absolutely," she declared. There would be a lot more on that later, but for the moment... "Now, let's go get the treasure, rescue the prince, and save the kingdom."
"What?" Faridah's eyebrows practically knotted in confusion.
"I'll explain on the way. You're driving," she informed Faridah. "Suzette, I need your helmet."
*****
Noelle's heart beat like a hair metal drummer on crack. The Askari sun was inches from the horizon as Faridah pulled up to a smaller palace gate, behind a white Jaguar being inspected a tall African woman with close-cropped hair, wearing the Askari guard uniform Noelle knew so well.
Actually, the uniform wasn't the only thing Noelle knew. She recognized the woman in it, the same woman who had approached her outside the U.S. embassy. Kitoko, wasn't it?
They had to get to Walid before he signed those papers. If he signed, he would follow through with the marriage. He kept to his commitments, and if he committed to this, he'd be married to her for life. Kalilah might have plans to divorce him--no way would he put up with that.
But Noelle could save him from that life. She could save everyone.
Faridah pulled off her helmet, but Noelle didn't follow her lead. Kitoko would recognize her for sure. The guards who had kept her in the palace now had orders to keep her out.
Faridah nodded at the woman. "Kitoko will permit us entry. There is no need to hit her on the head and take her uniform."
Why did everyone think Noelle was going to do that? Just because it had been done in every kidnapping-slash-escape movie ever didn't mean she had to.
"I guess you know all the guards. She owe you a favor?" Noelle asked, still not sure about taking her helmet off, but trusting Faridah.
"Many favors. She is my sister."
"Oh." She looked at the tall, dark, uniformed Kitoko, then the shorter, lighter, girly princess Faridah.
Faridah rolled her eyes. "I am adopted."
Right. So, that meant... "Kitoko is Suzette's niece too?" And biologically, Faridah wasn't. Or maybe she was?
Whatever. It really wasn't any of her business.
"She's cute," Noelle said. Although "cute" wasn't quite the word for a chick who looked like she could bench-press The Rock. "She won't get in trouble, will she?"
Faridah looked over her shoulder. "No, because when you save Walid, you will also save her job."
For a second, a wave of fear and pressure shivered through her. What if she didn't succeed, didn't get there in time, couldn't convince Walid to listen? Or if the Palm wasn't where she thought it was after all?
She shoved all that aside. If this didn't work, she'd try something else.
That's what a pirate princess does, Bonnie declared.
"I'm going to save everyone," she told Faridah.
Kitoko signaled the other guard, sitting in a glass-enclosed booth. The guy hit a button, parting the metal gates. She waved the Jaguar through and nodded to Faridah.
"Identification, please," said Kitoko, extending an elegant hand. Her formal tone warred with the smile that toyed with the corner of her lip. "Please state your business in the palace."
Faridah handed over her state ID. "We are here to break in to the engagement ceremony and see that our king does not make the most terrible mistake of his life, one that will affect Askar for decades to come."
Kitoko froze, then took a second look at Noelle. "That is the king's--" Here she used an Arabic word that probably didn't flatter Noelle's relationship with Walid. "I cannot allow you in."
"Kitoko," Faridah said. "You know what is happening is wrong. We can stop it. You know she is not merely the king's mistress, but Inaya Al Hurra reborn."
Noelle clenched her jaw to keep anything stupid from coming out of her mouth. Like the fact that she wasn't Walid's anything anymore, that she wasn't their legendary heroine, and that she was probably wrong about being able to find the Palm.
When the tall woman, after an endless moment, nodded, Noelle let out a stale breath. Wait, she'd been holding her breath? She sucked in fresh air. They could make it now. Everything was going to be okay. Except for the creeping doubts, she was pretty sure everything was going to be okay.
But when Kitoko signaled the other guard in the glass booth, the gates didn't open. Probably because the booth was empty.
"What is this?" demanded the barrel-chested man who had come out of the guardhouse and was now storming toward Kitoko.
"Kitchen workers," she answered.
"I have worked in the palace for many years, Maimun." Faridah crossed her arms. "You know me."
The guy called Maimun started rattling off Arabic, and it didn't sound friendly. First he reamed out Faridah for a while, then he turned to Kitoko.
Kitoko kept a calm tone, but Maimun's got higher and louder. The argument was clearly over Noelle, since Maimun kept jabbing his finger her direction.
Finally, he grabbed Noelle and wrenched her off the bike. With his beefy hand clenched around her bicep, he kept yelling at the other women.
"Excuse me, sir," Noelle said. "Would you mind bending down?"
Maimun bit out a single syllable at her, then turned back to his tirade.
She dropped her voice low. "I really need you to bend down."
"What you wish to say?" he yelled. "I cannot hear you."
"A little lower," she whispered.
He bent down, trying to make out what she was saying.
"Thank you," she said, clanging her motorcycle helmet against his head as hard as she could.
The big man went down.
"Sorry. But it seems to be traditional," she told the unconscious, khaki-colored lump.
Faridah and Kitoko stared at her.
"What? Had to be done," she explained. "Kitoko, open the gate. Get a move on. We really need to make this work now."
"Should I take his gun?" asked Faridah.
"No way," she told her friend.
"You could change into his uniform," Kitoko suggested.
"No time," she said.
Faridah screwed up one side of her mouth, and Kitoko stopped in her tracks as if she was doing something shockingly out of character. What was that?
The two of them side-glanced at each other, a dictionary of communication happening between them in one little look.
Yup, those two were definitely sisters.
The familiar feeling of other people's expectations slammed into on her, making her feel like she was trying to breathe in the vacuum of space. She couldn't draw anything into her lungs.
Everyone was trying to make her play this role of legendary hero. Well, she wasn't. She just wasn't.
"Noelle?" Faridah looked at her with a universe of expectations in her eyes.
Faridah. She was the worst of them, dumping piles of responsibility on her, stuff she never wanted and never agreed to. She. Just. Couldn't.
She froze. Nothing in the universe could have made her move.
Noelle. Bonnie said her name with sympathy and compass
ion. Noelle, you are okay.
I can't do this. I can't stand the way everyone is depending on me. I can't take it. Bonnie, this isn't working.
But it is. You are breaking into the palace so that you can stop a wedding and find a jewel that's been lost for decades, said the pirate princess.
She couldn't even make a response form in her mind. Numbness crept up her legs, locking her into place.
Noelle, look around you.
She did. The concerned look screwing up Faridah's face somehow made her feel a little better. And Kitoko was backing her up.
You are okay, Noelle. You have friends and allies. You aren't alone, and you are making this happen. The only one holding you back is you.
Her imaginary friend had a point. And she knew it.
Noelle, you can do this, but the only way is to just push though.
Yeah. Maybe. Maybe I can.
You can do this, Noelle. Do it for Kitoko and Faridah. And Suzette and Elise and Mr. Lodhi-Rajput. Do it for yourself, and do it for Walid.
The numbness didn't fade. But she did manage to put one foot in front of the other. A small victory.
But it wasn't Faridah she thought of. Or any of her friends. Or even Walid.
I believe in you, shouted the pirate princess who lived in her head. The one she'd shoved away for so many years, and had thought of getting rid of.
Bonnie. The little piece of her who had never accepted the fate of being a rich man's daughter and becoming, well, becoming Kalilah. Bonnie, her instinct to rebel and to tackle the world and to force her will on her surroundings. Bonnie, who was the person Noelle should have been all along. Bonnie, the best part of her.
For crap's sake, she'd just knocked a guard out cold. If only she had time to change into his uniform. But the sun was sinking fast, and she had an engagement to stop.
Bonnie, she said. I love you. Never leave me again.
I never left you in the first place, Noelle, said her friend.
The numbness still tingled in her useless fingers, but it wasn't her master now. With Bonnie's help, she could push though. She swept up the fallen guard's hat and shoved it on her head. "Now let's stop that ceremony."
Desert Sheikh vs American Princess Page 22
