My Desert Rose

by Kalia Lewis

  "Yes, now let's go and finish this. We have about five minutes before Captain Azab has the engine shut down, which will bring the guys outside running to the building." For the first time since she'd woken in the Captain's room, she felt hope soar. They just had to hold it together for a few more minutes until Tariq arrived.

  Katie went first and opened the door to the restroom. Suddenly, she stopped still in her tracks. Captain Cecil was standing with a gun to the head of the man who'd been looking after them, waiting for her to emerge. Quickly, she shoved at Miriam behind her and pushed her back around the door out of sight.

  "So, we meet again, no?" he said in his thick accent.

  Katie's vision tunnelled into a single point of fury and her breath came in short gasps. This was the one person she really hadn't wanted to bump into again. The man with the gun to his head was looking at her with confusion in his eyes. He'd obviously been taken by surprise. "Let the man go, Cecil," she said sharply.

  "It's Captain Cecil, and I no take orders from any woman!" He spat on the ground in front of her.

  She jumped back a little from the froth on the floor. "But if you shoot him, his friends will hear the gun go off and come after you." What? Was she an idiot? If there was such a thing as a devil on her left shoulder and an angel on her right, the devil would be jumping up and down shouting, 'Shoot the man, they'll come and you'll be saved'. The angel would probably answer with, 'No, save the man, go with Cecil and Miriam will sneak out and let Azab know'. Katie shook her head. The whole episode of the last few hours was clearly sending her insane.

  Cecil must have thought about the implication of her words, as he proceeded to knock the man out with the butt of his gun and drop him to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Turning the gun on her, he aimed it between her eyes. "Now, you come with me," he grunted.

  ****

  Tariq had never been so primed for action in his entire life. It had taken them nearly four long hours to reach the ship, which meant that Katie had been a prisoner for eight hours. A lot can happen in eight hours. Since that last kiss in their room it felt like she'd been slowly slipping through his fingers. This wasn't how he'd wanted it to work out. Yes, he'd needed her to take a few photos and get the proof, but not to be put through this ordeal. Another problem, which had also been added to his conscience, was that Miriam was aboard too.

  A slowing of the engine brought Tariq's thoughts back to the task at hand. They were currently trailing behind the ship with all their lights and radar signals switched off. They had about one hour before sunrise and every minute the sky was getting lighter. If they didn't act now, they would be discovered, resulting in an armed shoot-out. This would only give the pirates leverage with their captives and time to call for back-up.

  All dressed in black, he put on his breathing equipment and signalled to the men. The team consisted of Rob's thirty military trained professionals, who were currently moving stealthily through the waters to board the ship by the guide ropes. Once his father had informed Prince Saud over the phone about their suspicions of Hassan and Amira, he'd instantly provided a superb boat and back-up men. Saud had also accompanied them in outrage of his sister's deceit. Once this was over, he'd promised Tariq that he would turn the world upside down to find her.

  Reaching the guide rope, Tariq pulled himself up and slunk over the top.

  Let the show begin.

  From the inner pocket of his waterproofs, he pulled out a taser gun. The men had been instructed with a 'no death unless absolutely necessary' rule. Everyone was going to pay for their despicable crimes through the right channels and spend their miserable lives in a Yemeni prison.

  Coming up behind his first culprit, he tasered him in the neck and watched as he fell convulsing to the floor, eyes wide open. Bending down, Tariq quickly gagged him and tie-wrapped his wrists and ankles together before moving on.

  Half of the team made swift work of the men outside in the tanker areas. The other half collected the pirates together in one place, keeping an eye on them. Finally, Tariq reached the building. There was a fire escape to the side, so he climbed the stairs to the door. It was locked. If he was to break the glass at the top of the door, it would bring attention to his position. Instead, he fished in his pocket for his tools and pulled out a glass cutter. Using it on the pane, he cut out a large square and then dropped the piece of glass backwards into his palm. Setting it down, he put his arm through the glass and opened the door.

  The sign on the wall said, 'Level Two.' Cocking his ear to the air, he heard a slight muffled noise on the floor above. Moving up the stairs with his back to the wall, he emerged out onto a corridor. The noise came again. Someone was around the next corner and they were coming towards him. Preparing to take them by surprise by knocking them sidewards, he heard a little cry. It took his brain no time at all to register that the sound was female. Instead of barging at the form, he grabbed it as she rounded the corner and he immediately put a hand over her mouth. Two petrified eyes stared back.

  "Miriam," he whispered. Absolute elation at seeing her pulsed through him and he took his hand from her mouth.

  "Tariq," she sniffled.

  "Yes, honey, it's me."

  Miriam threw herself at him, now sobbing openly.

  "Hush now, we don't want to alert anyone," he soothed.

  Miriam nodded. "We set Captain Azab free and he's helping us, but the nasty, mean man has Katie."

  Tariq's heart threatened to stop beating. "Where does he have her?"

  "I don't know," she wailed. "She pushed me back into the washroom to save me and I was just leaving to follow them, but when I came out, I couldn't find her."

  In that moment, his heartbeat kick-started back up into overdrive and swelled. Katie's actions had saved Miriam. He did a mental recap. There had been no movement on the floor below, so he had probably taken her along the corridor and down the other end.

  "What's down there?" Tariq nodded to the other end of the corridor.

  "That's the way we came up and if you keep going down the stairs you hit the store rooms below, but Captain Azab has already secured those rooms?"

  "What about if you go up?" He tried not to rush her for answers, but he was acutely aware that every second now counted.

  "It leads to the bridge and the roof, but Captain Azab should be in the bridge by now."

  Then it hit him and he knew exactly where she was. "Damn it, he's got her on the roof!"

  One of Tariq's men was coming up the stairs. "Miriam, I want you to go with this man, he is our friend and he's going to take you a safe boat. I want you to wait there for me, okay?"

  She sniffled into her sleeve. "I can't leave her Tariq."

  Tariq hugged her. "Let me bring her to you. Would you let me do that?"

  She nodded. "You promise?"

  "With all of my heart." Kissing her on the cheek, he released her to his team member and made his way along the corridor. An unconscious man was slumped against the wall outside the restrooms. Recognising him as one of his sailors, he bent down and checked his vitals. He was alive. "You'll have a sore head when you wake up," he muttered under his breath, before making his way up the stairs to the roof. On the way, he did a quick glance in the bridge room and found Captain Azab on the phone.

  Just as he reached the door to the roof, he felt the engines below come to a grinding halt. Good move Azab. Now it wouldn't matter if his boat came into view, as Saud would make sure everything was secure.

  Hunkering down, he turned the handle and opened the door to the roof just a fraction. Listening intently, he could hear murmuring. One voice was low and gravely and the other was high. That was Katie's voice. A rush of adrenalin shot through him. If she was speaking it meant that she was still alive. The thought of her being anything but had not been an option, but that tiny seed of doubt that he'd been unconsciously carrying now dissolved. His Katie was beyond that door and he was coming to get her.

  ****

  Katie was fuming. At f
irst Cecil had tried to find a room to take her into, but he soon realised that the building was being retaken by the freed captives, so he'd dragged her to the roof. If she hadn't given Azab the handgun she'd have shot him in the goolies by now. There are some people who just don't deserve to live. There's no soul in them, just endless evil. The excuse of being abused as a child is not a good enough reason to abuse another. In this moment, Cecil had been given a choice, and he'd made it clear which path he wanted to walk, the one where she was to be his victim to the games from his twisted mind.

  His left hand currently had her by the hair and he pulled her back into his body, grinding his crotch into her butt. In his other hand, the gun was positioned at her temple and he was breathing his stale breath all over her neck. They were not far from the edge of the roof.

  "Nobody gets away from Cecil, especially no woman. It's time to pay me some respect, bitch."

  Ugh! He really believed that he was owed respect? Inside, she was seething mad. All her life she'd felt like she'd been on the run from those perpetrators who had broken into her home and destroyed all that she'd loved with one stroke of a knife against innocent skin. It felt like this struggle between her and Cecil was somehow more than a man controlling her with a gun, more than being overpowered by a male force. It felt like a culmination of her whole life. This was it, he'd either have to throw her off the roof or shoot her, as she'd be damned if she was going to show him one tiny speck of respect. Turning slightly, she looked evil straight in the eyes.

  The fierce courage in her stare must have stunned him for a second, as he let go of her hair, allowing her enough room to take a step forward, but before she could take any further action, his arm snaked out around her neck and pulled her back.

  "You're going nowhere until I say so. What you are going to do is take off all your clothes."

  His arm dropped from her neck to her chest and he squeezed her right breast, hard. The pain was so bad that tears filled her eyes and one flowed over and down her cheek. Was this really happening? Where was Tariq? Panic was threatening to overthrow her courage and she did the one thing she hadn't done for twenty-two years, she prayed. The answer came as a burst of orange rays rose from the horizon and into the sky. A new day was dawning, giving her a sign from its vibrancy and magnitude that today was not the day that this beast was going to break her soul. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a black form moving around the door of the roof.

  Tariq.

  Something calmed inside of her and she knew without a doubt that whatever the outcome, she was no longer alone with the force of evil that had ripped open her life as a child, stealing all the goodness out of it. Trying not to make a single move towards Tariq, she could make out his hand signal from the corner of her eye, telling her to get down. How the hell was she supposed to do that with a great big paw on her breast and a gun to her head?

  Tariq's blood was at boiling point. His whole body was screaming at him to charge at the animal manhandling Katie, but he knew that the impact would send them all over the edge of that roof. Aiming the taser gun, sweat trickled down his forehead and frustration gnawed at him. There wasn't an opening for a clear enough shot without the risk of hitting Katie, giving the bruiser enough time to pull the trigger. Guilt was also eating away at him. If he hadn't taken her from the wedding in the first place, she wouldn't be in this position now. If he'd looked hard enough, he would have found another way to deal with the problem, but the simple truth was that he'd wanted her and the rest had just been an excuse to have her. Now look what he'd done. The one person who'd lit up his world was fighting for her life. Right now, he wasn't proud of himself and the second they got out of this mess, it would be time for some serious talking.

  Moving against the wall, his objective was to go round the back of the monster and taser him from that angle, but the rising sun was making him stand out like a beacon. Catching her eye, he gestured for her to get lower. How she was going to do it when this maniac had her in his iron grip he didn't know, but he was starting to get desperate.

  Cecil was pulling at her, trying to turn her around and she knew that one more step in Tariq's direction, he would see him and Tariq would be a sitting duck. A wall of resistance settled in her feet like lead and she refused to budge. Not this time buster. No-one was going to take down any more of the people that she loved. That thought caused her heart to hitch in her chest. When had she gone and fallen in love with Tariq? This was not the moment to ponder on that discovery. She needed to take some form of action or they'd both be toast. Remembering a technique that Wade had taught her and Annabelle as children, she lifted up her foot and found Cecil's shin behind her. Using his body to lean against and give her leverage, she grated her foot hard all the way down his shin, removing a layer of his skin.

  "Argh, you bitch!"

  The shock caused him to loosen his hold as he went to grab his shin with the hand that he'd snaked around her. Immediately, she moved to the side and dropped to the floor, giving Tariq the perfect shot.

  Cecil's gun clattered to the ground next to her and she turned to find him convulsing violently. Before she could prevent it from happening, he had fallen over the edge of the roof. A loud boom followed as he landed on a container far below.

  Pulling herself to her knees, she began to violently shake and a sob started low in her belly as it worked its way up into her throat. A hand on her arm caused her to turn.

  "Tariq?" she wailed.

  Dropping the taser gun, he knelt down beside her and took her into his arms. The rapid beat of her heart against his chest made him ache inside. "I'm so sorry, baby," he said gently as he rocked her shivering body against him. An almighty force of love rose up and hit him from within, knocking the breath from out of his lungs and he knew there and then that his world would never be complete unless she was in it.

  Now kissing her face over and over, he gently took her cheeks in his palms, looking deeply into the distraught blue of her eyes. "I...I nearly lost you. I love you, little moheet." A feeling so new and raw overwhelmed him. The floodgates of his soul had opened and there was not a damn thing he could do about it. Lowering his lips to her cold ones, he kissed her so deeply and desperately, trying to translate how he felt about her through his touch.

  Katie held onto him for dear life. His words had seeped through her bone-chilling shock and made her heart soar. All she needed right now was him, was this moment, but she was also exhausted and deeply distressed. "Miriam," was all she managed to get through her chattering teeth.

  "She's safe," he whispered, as he broke the contact between their lips.

  All the tension left her and her whole body sagged against him. "Please, take me home," she said wearily against his neck as she curled up against him. Without another word he picked her up and made his way to the door.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tariq stared out of his office window at the expanse of the blue ocean, observing the movements of a bird as it swooped into the swells for food. It had been a week since the rooftop incident and Katie was still refusing to see him. When he'd carried her from the roof and onto Saud's boat, she'd refused to move from her curled up position against his chest. On the journey back to Socotra, she'd remained in his arms and slept like a baby, but the second they'd docked and his mother had hugged her, she'd broke down again. It hadn't been a pretty sight as she'd sobbed loudly and pitifully while his mother soothed her. Any attempt he'd made to touch her had been met with a rebuff, and that had hurt.

  At the house, the doctor had given her a mild sedative to ease the shock. When she'd finally come around and regained her faculties, he'd received a message to say that she'd prefer it if he stayed away for a while. It was killing him. On top of that, she'd cancelled the wedding with no reason as to why. Okay, so now the job was done and they didn't have to go through with it, but he'd held onto a tiny piece of hope that she wanted to build a proper marriage as much as he did. The fact that she was the first woman, outside
of his relationship with his mother and sister, whom he'd declared his love to, was enough proof to him in how he felt about her. Obviously, he'd miscalculated everything.

  The adjoining door to their suite, which he wasn't allowed to enter, opened and Miriam came in.

  "How is she today?" he asked her, as he moved to half sit on the edge of his desk.

  Miriam nervously bit her lip. "Well, the bruising is much better, but she's so sad Tariq. She just cries all the time."

  "Why won't she let me see her? I can help her?" Pain laced his voice.

  Miriam shook her head. "She says you'll only confuse her mind and she needs to work it out on her own."

  Tariq sighed in resignation. If he could just hold her and talk to her, maybe he could get her to see that they had a future together. "Did you tell her about her father?" The one thing he could give her was due to arrive in ten minutes. Maybe if she could connect with something she thought she'd lost, it would ease her heart.

  Miriam nodded. "But it's as though she doesn't believe it."

  The door opened again and this time his mother joined them. Ashen-faced and exhausted, she was still in trauma over Hassan and Amira's involvement. In all of his thirty-five years, he'd never seen his mother get angry. Fiery yes, but not angry. When he'd met her on the docks a week ago he saw how anger had entered in with the realisation that she could've lost all of her children. It was a difficult pill to swallow and Hassan was yet to receive his mother's wrath. Maybe once she'd said all that was brewing inside of her to Hassan, she would find some peace.

  Selina spoke softly, "She's resting now in the lounge waiting for Sheikh Turan to arrive." They stood in silence for a moment before she continued, "Tariq, why didn't you tell us that you'd kidnapped Katie, forced her to marry you under the guise of helping you and then put her in a life and death situation?"