Captive- Veiled Desires

by Cartharn, Clarissa

But she raised her palm and cut him short. “Wardak is good. But it is not the United States. Adam, take her back. If there is a way you can do that, then go back to America. Have a good life with your wife and your child. Give them the happiness we will never give our own children here. You have a chance most of us are dying to get.”

  “Anaa,” he whispered, shaking his head.

  “We will forgive you, son. We all love you too much to hold anything against you.”

  Mateen rubbed his jaw as he stared down at the woman cowering in the corner of the room. She was pretty but not near enough as Nora.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Hayley,” she let out with a tremble.

  He shook his head. “It’s a terrible name.”

  He crooked a finger at her, indicating her to stand up. She slid up the wall, her fear evident in her eyes.

  “What are you doing in Kashmir?” he asked.

  “I teach. I’m a volunteer.”

  He nodded his head. “You pity the children. So you’ve come to infest them with your so-called evil Western wisdom.”

  “Please,” she begged. “I didn’t mean to insult anyone. I only wanted to help.”

  He crooked his head at her and smiled. “You can certainly help.”

  He fisted her hair and dragged her to the bed. She fell with a cry, pleading for mercy. He smirked and threw up her skirt.

  Mateen pulled his shirt down and stormed out of the room.

  “Parviz!” He shouted for his assistant.

  The man immediately stumbled into the corridor and hastened over to him. “Yes, Mateen.”

  “Get rid of her,” he ordered as he rubbed his temples.

  Parviz peered into the room, and at once noticed the blood stained sheet and her severely bruised face. “Is she…?”

  “She’s dead.” He paced up and down the length of the hallway. “This won’t do, Parviz. Nothing is working. She didn’t work.”

  “She was a foreigner, Mateen, like you requested.”

  “But that fact did nothing for my cock!” he growled. “No, no,no…” he muttered to himself. “It isn’t these whores I want. I need her. Only her.”

  “You want Nora Jennings?”Parviz uttered in disbelief.

  Mateen glared at him. “Is there another I’ve been fucking tortured about?”

  “But Mateen, she is Adam’s wife now.”

  “She was mine first!” he screamed. “And Adam stole her from me. He married her and didn’t even invite me to the wedding.” He clenched his fist. “Adam turned on me, his own brother for a whore.”

  Sweat beaded Parviz’s brow and he dabbed at it with the loose ends of his turban. “Mateen, Adam will protect his wife. If you go against him, he will retaliate. That’s gonna divide the group. There will be an all out war between the members of Darul-Ilhaam, itself.”

  Mateen moved his jaw back and forth in thought. “Maybe it’s time we create factions and find out where the loyalty lies.”

  Travelers bustled with their luggage to and fro. Announcements kept ringing through the air in Russian and then English, while Amy watched another aircraft taxing the runway through the large viewing window.

  “Are you ready to do this?” Jake asked.

  Amy nodded. She was scared. She was traveling to a war torn country which was more than often listed as one of the most dangerous countries for women to travel to. A shiver ran up her spine as her glance turned towards a clock on a wall.

  “We have thirty minutes left to board the plane to Kabul,” Jake said, taking note of her glance. He grasped her palms and pulled her into his arms. “Amy, don’t go. Go back home. Please.”

  “I can’t.” She trembled against his chest. “I can’t lose you too.”

  He cupped her head and forced her to look up to him. Her cheeks were stained with her tears and she couldn’t stop shivering against him.

  “You’re scared,” he whispered. “And damn it, it’s alright to be scared. I am too. But honey, if you leave with me now, I’ll… worry so much about you. I can’t protect you like I’d want to while we’re in Afghanistan. There are limitations to what I can do to make sure you’re safe, and I don’t feel easy about that. Let me look for Nora, ‘cause I could never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

  “And I couldn’t if something happened to you,” she whispered back. “I know it could probably be the worst decision I’ve ever made, but you’ve got to admit, Jake, there are things we can do together we could never possibly achieve on our own. Besides, we have the protection of the military for three months. We would never get another opportunity such as this again.”

  “And I suppose if I disagreed, you’d just go on without me.” He sighed, leaning his brow tiredly against hers.

  “She’s family, Jake. My family. And that means I can’t give up on her.”

  He brought her left palm to his lips and kissed her fingers. “And that’s why I’ve fallen in love with you.”

  She pulled in a sharp breath. What was he saying? “Jake, I…”

  “You don’t have to repeat them to me,” he whispered. “I don’t expect you to. I’m merely telling you how I feel about you. But there is one thing I’m hoping you will do while we’re in Afghanistan.” He slipped a wedding band onto her ring finger. “Let’s get married.”

  Nora marveled at the green hills of Wardak and her tears stung her eyes. She would never have expected that scenery would affect her so much. She leaned against the window of her new bedroom, staring at the vast yellow fields of rapeseed blooms. If she had her camera, she would have gone clicking into the wilderness of such beauty. She sighed. There was just something about rapeseed fields which captivated the soul, urging one to be as bright, wild and carefree as they were.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Husna said excitedly as she carried on with her task to unpack her luggage. “There is even apple and peach orchards, mulberry and many different fruits, Khor. You will love this place. Adam lala planted many things.”

  “I’m sure.” Nora smiled. “It is indeed beautiful.”

  “You sound sad, khor,” Husna said, lifting up her eyes to look at her briefly. “You miss lala.”

  “I suppose. I miss the opportunity of being able to strangle him,” she added slowly.

  Husna shook her head amusedly. “You are lucky that your husband like you very much. Not all us women are blessed with love like yours.”

  Nora raised her brow, observing her with interest. “How did you do it, Husna? How did you marry a man you hardly met? And yet now you talk so lovingly about him.”

  “I love him now, yes. Not like before.” The woman nodded as she went about her business. “But you have no choice. In this country, love is a crime. Women and men cannot love each other before they marry. It is thought as great sin. It is sad, yes… but it is culture too.” She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “We have to follow culture.”

  Nora watched her keenly. She had been wallowing in her pity all this while, drowning in her sorrow for the circumstances she was caught in when there were women like Husna who didn’t know a life any different from suffering. She perked her lips in thought. She maybe a victim but she was no longer going to play the victimized. She was going to spend the rest of her days in captive, enjoying the most of it if she could help it.

  “Husna,” she said, ambling over to the woman organizing her wardrobe.

  “Hmmm,” Husna sounded, thoroughly engrossed in her task.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Where, khor?”

  “Leave that,” Nora ordered. “Do it later. Let’s go to the orchards. Let’s eat all the apples and peaches we can. And then I want to run through the beautiful fields of yellow rapeseed.”

  Husna chuckled when she saw the cheeky glint in her eyes. “You gone… mad, khor.”

  “Perhaps, I have gone insane. And at this moment, I just don’t care,” she said, already heading towards the door. She was going to claim her freedom- from this place
, from this sorrow, from Adam and from the spell he had seemingly trapped her in.

  Amy flexed her fingers, studying the little sparkle of light reflecting in her simple wedding band. He had slipped it on her and she had never protested. Did she want this? She bit her lips. There was a sweet ache in her chest and she loved it.

  She glanced over at the man sleeping beside her. Undeniably, she had grown fond of him. And she couldn’t think of a life without him in it. Was this love?

  She sighed, her eyes drifting over the rest of the sleeping passengers in the plane. The whirring of the engine filled her ears. She couldn’t see much outside her little window. It was dark, and other than the occasional mutterings and the flight attendants on their usual patrol down the aisle, not much else stirred in the aircraft.

  Her anxiety knotted in her stomach. This was as peaceful as it would probably get for a long time. Once they would land, she and Jake would not only be pitted against forces to find Nora, they would be fighting to survive as well.

  Jake threaded his fingers through hers. “Sleep,” he murmured. “You will need it.” He brought her wedding band to his lips and kissed it. “I’ll buy you a proper ring when we get back home.”

  She smiled. Yes, she would love that.

  Adam crouched near the banks of the small lake, watching the ripples the wind made over the surface of the water.

  He didn’t like the loneliness he had once cherished before Nora marched into his life. He wanted her back, but under the circumstances he couldn’t find one good reason to keep her by his side. He had been a fool to think he could treat her like any one of his missions. She had captivated him the instant they had locked eyes together at Dal Lake. And when he had seen her in that prison in Paktika, he had floundered between killing Mateen on touching her and counting the incident as a sign of fate bringing them together.

  A cloud of dust in the distance caught his attention and he stood up, bracing his gun against him. But then he recognized the army green vehicle driving towards him. It was Basel and his pulse raced to find out how she had been.

  He was proud of his achievements in Wardak and a secret part of him wanted her to see that. He hoped this would impress her. He also had wanted more than just success in his mission. He had labored to truly give back to his people and his Wardak farm had managed to accomplish just that. The poor farmers he had employed to manage his farm had learned that there was still hope in building a dream despite the chaos about them.

  When the vehicle came to a stop before him, he surprisingly managed to restrain his ego without leaping at the man and asking about her.

  “I found out you were here at the lake,” Basel said as he slammed the door behind him. He narrowed his eyes and turned towards the horizon from which he had come. “That’s a quite a long walk you’ve taken from the compound.”

  “I needed to think,” he mumbled, anxious to hear about her. But he was damned if he was going to lead Basel on about it.

  “And I suppose the garage didn’t suffice?” Basel asked cheekily.

  Fuck it. “How is she?”

  Basel grinned. “When I left her, she had a bright smile on her face as she strolled through your fields of rapeseed.”

  “And there were guards watching over her?”

  He nodded. “Don’t worry. I gave specific instructions to have her guarded at all times. She should be fine.” And then he screwed his mouth to a side in thought. “But are you?”

  Adam pulled in a deep breath, his hands on his hips as he studied the sky. Could he ignore the question? “If she is fine, then I should be okay.”

  Basel looked away, although Adam was sure he wasn’t utterly convinced with his answer.

  “Have you heard from the Zawahiris yet?” the man asked instead, trying his best to change the subject.

  “No.” Adam rubbed his brow. “It’s not like them to not retaliate. If they are as quiet as this, they’re up to no good.”

  “You don’t think they’ve learned their lesson and given up on the opium trade?”

  “Saeed Zawahiri has netted a fortune with opium. I doubt he will be ready to give up on such a lucrative business only because I busted up his son’s ego.”

  Basel sighed. “I could hope. Anyway, I’ll give instructions for the men to stay on alert until we get a more detailed feedback of their activities.”

  “We have women and children to protect, Basel. I would hate for anything to happen to them only because we slackened on our defenses.”

  Basel put an assuring arm on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll cover all the grounds with the men.”

  The sound of a car horn echoed through the vast desert and the two men immediately stiffened. Whoever was at the wheel was hooting it repeatedly and with an urgency that alerted them at once.

  “Did you expect a party?” Basel muttered under his breath.

  “It’s Tahir,” Adam said as he began walking towards the vehicle.

  The car skidded to an abrupt stop and the driver poked his head out of the window to shout at them. “It’s Mateen. He’s at the property and he’s been asking the women about Nora khor.”

  Adam’s temples pulse rapidly. His heart pounded heavily, drowning his ears with its anxious beating.

  “Adam?” Basel said, his voice shaking him out of his ire-filled daze.

  “Get back to the property!” Adam commanded Tahir as he raced towards Basel’s vehicle. “Keys!” he screamed at Basel.

  Basel tossed him the keys and hopped into the passenger side.

  “What’s going on?” he asked as Adam shifted the vehicle into gear. “Why is Mateen asking after your wife?”

  Adam jaw tightened. He had never told them the truth about Nora. As far as they knew, it was the same lie he had told those Pashtun rebels in the desert. “I got her before Mateen did and now he’s pissed.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  How much should he reveal to the one friend he’d always trusted and relied on? He narrowed his eyes as he focused on getting back to the property as fast as he could.

  “Adam?” Basel pressed on.

  “Mateen had kidnapped Nora to rape her. And I married her before he could.”

  Basel grew rigid, his jaw clenching with rage. “If he touches Nora, I’m killing the bastard this time, Adam. Don’t you try and stop me.”

  Adam was silent. Not if he killed him first.

  HAPTER 19

  Hayat scuttled up to Adam’s vehicle as it zoomed into the driveway, almost at the risk of being run over by it. He banged on the hood of the car with urgency and raced up to the door.

  “You just missed him. He’s gone!” he said, his panic still evident in his voice. “I think he’s heading towards Wardak.”

  Adam clasped the wheel of his car tightly, his mind teetering between protecting his wife and protecting the defenseless women and children in his care.

  Basel clasped Adam’s arm. “Go and protect your wife. I’ll be here to protect Darul-Ilhaam in case the Zawahiris take this opportunity to attack.”

  Adam didn’t need another invitation. “Thanks, Basel.”

  The man jumped off the vehicle and banged the hood of the car. “Go now!”

  Nora tied a scarf around her head, smiling at Husna as she followed suit.

  “You’re ready to do this?” she asked the woman who had gradually nestled into her heart.

  “Khor, I never pick apples before,” Husna said excitedly. “At least, not this much.” Her eyes widened at the trees laden with fruit. “They are beautiful.”

  “They are, aren’t they,” she replied, marveling at the trees herself. “Don’t worry; I’ve never done any fruit picking myself. But today’s a good day to start like no other.”

  She picked up a basket and began picking at the fruit closer to the ground.

  Husna glanced at her with a slightly worried look on her face. “Maybe, you should put basket down. Not good for baby.”

  Nora chuckled. “I give you my word,
Husna, I will be fine. And if there was a baby, it would be just as fine too.”

  “If lala know you working hard outside in sun, he will not like,” Husna grumbled, shaking her head.

  “Well, your lala did a lot of things I did not like at all. And keeping me captive happens to be just one of them.”

  “Captive? I not understand.” Husna cocked her head to the side with interest.

  Nora arched her eyebrow. What exactly did Husna know about her? “Did Adam not tell you where I came from?”

  “Yes, you come from America. You marry lala because you want Pashtun husband and learn Pashtun culture again.”

  “Again,” Nora murmured under her breath as she shook her head. “Did Adam tell that story now?”

  The hell with Adam. She eyed the mountains in the distance. She was certain she would find someone who could help her if she managed to scramble beyond those fields of rapeseed. But she would need Husna and her guards to trust her to roam free for a while. And as soon as they did that, she could head for those hills and never come back.

  But no matter how much she wanted her freedom, her mind kept returning to the days she spent with the man she called her captor. A part of her wished she could have both, Adam and her freedom. However, reality told her that that could never be possible. Adam was a Pashtun now, thoroughly immersed into the culture of the natives here. He was a dominant man who would always want his women subjected to him. And the only instance in which he would ever allow her any control over him would be in their bed. She had learned fast that Adam had enjoyed her taking control of their love making, and the mere memory of her straddling his thighs that fateful night, his cock deeply injected into her pussy, her legs wound around his hips as he would thrust up into her, wet her core.

  But was it enough to keep her from running away? I shouldn’t be an idiot. Adam doesn’t love me. And this is not where I belong. Her lips began to tremble and she bit her lower lip to steady her shivering self. She was reduced from the modern independent career woman she used to be to… this. What was this? When had she settled into being the submissive wife? She barely could recognize herself anymore. In a few more years, she would totally lose her identity.