Sheik's Rescue

by Ryshia Kennie

  * * *

  SHE TURNED AROUND and walked past him. Zafir watched her and really wished he hadn’t for his gaze couldn’t help going down to a perky butt that... That was twice he’d been caught by that part of her anatomy. He needed to pull his gaze away, to take his thoughts from the soft, rounded... It took everything he had.

  Curves.

  He wrapped his palm around the back of his neck as if a stranglehold massage would stop his thoughts. But his hand was only hurting his neck and doing nothing to stop the overwhelming awareness of her as a very attractive female. He wasn’t sure what would help, but physical pain wasn’t doing it. He dropped his hand.

  He was unable to drag his eyes from her. Her figure curved in all the right places. He wanted to run his hands over her. He wanted to do so much more.

  He couldn’t.

  He pushed the thoughts from his mind. They had a case to solve and a client to protect. He turned around, heading for the bedroom. He knew she’d gotten information from Stan, but after what he’d learned, he thought it was time they both sat down and had a long talk with him.

  “Damn!”

  Jade turned from the kitchen window and as she did, he met the question in her eyes. He stood in the doorway of their client’s room, his fists clenched, all thoughts of passion or attraction forgotten.

  “He’s gone.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jade pushed past Zafir. The window was open; the blinds were rolled crookedly. A gust of wind knocked them back and forth. They hit the wall with a dull clunk, waited a second then two and then clunked again. It was like each clunk was reminding them of the danger. Her heart pounded so hard it hurt. Her mind screamed that this could not be happening again. She took three calming breaths. It didn’t change the fact that he was gone.

  Oddly, she didn’t blame Stanley. They’d been here for too long; he’d been cooped up too long. He was tired of it. He’d told her about his disappointment and, at one point, even his heartache at not being able to take the photographs he planned. He’d also demanded to go home. But he’d given his promise, and that meant something to him, she knew that. He’d made that quite clear in the beginning.

  “He’s left a note,” Zafir said. He held up a scrap of paper that looked like it had been torn from the cover of the magazine he’d been reading. “It says he won’t be gone long. Don’t bother looking for him.”

  “Don’t bother looking for him?” she repeated, not sure that she’d heard right. “What is he thinking?” She couldn’t believe that it had happened again. What had she needed to do, chain him to the bed? “We screwed up. Stanley’s no ordinary inexperienced guy.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Inexperienced, yes. But we didn’t factor in that he’s royal,” she said. “He has royal attitude. He thinks he can do things for himself, that he has that right.”

  “According to this note, he’s left to do what he came to do,” Zafir said. “He cites some advice you gave—as in manning up.” There was a grim twist to his lips. “You said that to him? Don’t you think that the lingo for one is rather, well, sexist?”

  “Unfortunate wording. But it was just in the context of a long conversation, not as something he should do now,” Jade said, striding toward the door. “I didn’t expect...” She shook her head. “I told him that he needs to learn to be independent, it was part of manning up...” Sometimes she just talked, the words alone calming, and with Stanley that’s what she’d done. And the truth was that they’d spent a lot of hours together, alone. She admitted now that there may have been things she’d said that would have been better left unsaid. But there was no going back.

  “We don’t have time to waste,” she said. “We need to hit the street and get him back.”

  She strode back into the bedroom. She sensed or maybe just hoped that there was something else, something they’d missed, some clue. She stuck her head out the window.

  She looked up and down the street, but there was no sign of Stanley. The only thing that was clear was the silence and the fact that the sun was just beginning to rise.

  She looked at her watch. It was 5:45 a.m. Stanley had been gone less than an hour, because he’d come out to get a glass of water an hour ago.

  “I should have seen this coming. I spent the most time alone with him.” She gritted her teeth, pushing back from the ledge, but she was still reluctant to leave the window as if there was a clue there they’d missed.

  “He had his camera with him,” Zafir said.

  She turned around. “How do you know that?”

  “The dresser is empty except for his photography magazine, and that’s where he kept it.”

  “I’m betting he wants a good picture of the aftermath of the storm at daybreak. I’m betting this is also his way of showing us that he can be independent. Take care of himself.” She backed out of the room. “Could it be as simple as that?”

  “So he jumped out the window to do so?” Zafir looked at her disbelievingly as he followed her out of the room. “Really? I think it’s more likely he’s going to leave town.”

  “Let’s skip the airport run for now. He’s had no time to book a flight, and I have his passport.”

  “You do?” he said with a smile. “Brilliant.”

  “Besides, my gut says that his intention is innocent. He likes to take photos in the early morning. Considering my earlier conversation with him, I don’t think he’s left never to return. He’s not stupid. He’s already felt what it was like to be shot at and to be on the run. I think he plans to come back. In fact, I’m positive. He knows he needs us.”

  “Convince me of that,” he growled.

  “There isn’t any time. There’s a good possibility that whoever tried to kill him in Jackson is here in Casper. This isn’t a big place.” She grabbed her jacket and headed for the door. “For now we go with the simplest option. That he’s only taken his camera to take pictures. The best place for that, if you don’t have a vehicle, might be the park that’s not that far away.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Zafir said. “When I find him I’m going to...”

  “Do nothing,” she warned. “Unless you want him to bolt for good.”

  “Wait,” Zafir said. “Before we go anywhere, I just want to say that this would have happened no matter what either of us would have said or done. Stan is stubborn. He’s also a grown man.”

  “You’re trying to tell me that it’s not my fault?” she asked. She shook her head. “Thanks for that, but I wasn’t blaming myself. I know he makes his own choices. We can only guide him. We can’t make him follow instructions. Besides, this happened on both our watches.”

  A hand on her shoulder spun her around. Before she knew what had happened he was kissing her, hot and so sensual that she could only sink deeper into the kiss. It ended as quickly as it began. “Let’s go,” he said.

  Zafir pushed the outside door open, and a rush of cold air met them.

  Daylight was still just a promise. The snow reflected the glare of the streetlights and prevented the street from being completely dark. It was snowing again, and the flakes were sharper, colder as they bit and stung, and were quickly dashing away any evidence Stanley might have left behind.

  Zafir looked up and down the street, but there was no sign of Stanley.

  “He can’t have gotten far. He has no transportation, and it’s not as if there’s a cab waiting outside,” he said. In fact, the street was silent, the nearby houses still in darkness.

  “He’s gone to the park,” Jade said. “I’m sure of it. He was determined to take pictures. He loves this time of day, or at least daybreak.” They were walking toward the Pathfinder. Zafir opened the driver’s door.

  “There’s nowhere else,” she said. “Let’s just hope he’s alone.”

  There was no one
on the street, and yet as the night thinned, it seemed that the danger only settled even deeper around them.

  She clutched her gun as if it not only offered comfort and protection but answers. They didn’t know who threatened Stanley’s life. They only had theories but no facts. She was very afraid that Stanley had just walked into the trap of whoever wanted him dead.

  “Stan might be naive and problematic, but one thing he’s not going to be is injured or worse. Not on our watch,” he growled. “If I have to tie him to my side.”

  “That might be our only option,” Jade said, but already there was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Let’s move.”

  She took three steps and had her hand on the door handle. “If I’m wrong, the other option is exactly what you said, that he’s halfway to the airport,” she said. “He is resourceful.”

  “I trust your instincts. But I draw the line at resourceful,” he said. There was an edge of humor in his voice. “He leaned pretty heavily on you at the airport,” he said as he pulled out. “And he can’t fly without his passport.”

  “Need I remind you that he’s slipped our radar for the second time.”

  The look he gave her might have leveled a lesser person, but Jade had faced that and more in her lifetime.

  He turned a corner and the Pathfinder slid as he pushed it just a little faster than conditions allowed. He steered it easily out of the slide without losing any speed.

  They passed through a newer residential area where the snow-covered front lawns and houses with attached garages, front porches and bay windows all looked alike. There was no movement on the street; everything was quiet. Like the earlier block, the occasional house light was on; otherwise there was nothing. She had her eyes trained on the road, looking for Stanley or a sign that he had been here. But there was nothing to suggest that Stanley had come this way at all.

  “You’ve got to agree,” she said, “socially inept or not he’s proven himself to not be a stupid man.”

  “I never thought he was. But I know what you mean. With the information we have at hand, we could never have expected what’s transpired so far. It all seemed laid-back and easy, and to be fair, it was presented as such by Prince Rashad who contracted us in the first place.”

  “A false presentation. Neither Stanley nor this situation is any of that,” she said, thinking of all she’d learned about Stanley in the time she’d known him.

  Ahead of them was the park. It was five blocks from the safe house. It was the only place within walking distance that was good for nature shots, the kind of photography that Stanley loved.

  Zafir had turned off the lights before he pulled the Pathfinder over and parked. They were a half block away, a safe distance not to call attention to themselves.

  Jade had been holding her gun with one hand. She put both hands on the Colt as if that were somehow reassuring. But in a way it was—she had a love affair with her gun that no one understood, at least no female in her life. She’d always had different interests. Her mother had once said that she’d make a better son than daughter. It was true, except physically, and that was the part that made this job a challenge. She didn’t have the physical size of a man, and thus she had to rely on her wits, her self-defense knowledge and her skill with her gun.

  “Ready,” Zafir growled, breaking into her thoughts. “Hopefully this is where...”

  “I see movement,” she cut him off. “To the right. It’s hard to tell. We’re going to have to get closer. It could be anything, a stray dog...” But that seemed unlikely considering the neighborhood they had just driven through. It was a neighborhood where the dogs were designer and contained, not stray and unpredictable.

  A flash of light streamed in a thin line across the snow and then was gone.

  “A camera flash,” she guessed, and gripped the door handle with her free hand. “A good chance that it’s Stanley. We need to go in.”

  “Not yet,” he said. “I have a hunch.”

  Orders again. She gritted her teeth. She wasn’t tolerant this morning. Maybe it was the fact that Stanley had managed to slip their protection for the second time. Maybe it was just because her head hurt from lack of sleep. But something felt like it was going to snap. She bit back what she wanted to say. This was no time for nitpicking. This was time to keep it together, to work together.

  She ran her thumb along the barrel of her gun while her eyes swept the park. She glanced over to see that he had his gun in his left hand. But the casual way he was posed indicated that he wasn’t so sure that the flash they’d seen was Stanley or that there was danger.

  She wasn’t so sure.

  “Look,” she said with a motion to their left. “We need to go, he’s not alone.”

  The sun was rising and they could see Stanley just inside the park entrance. But it was the movement to his left, too distant to be clear, that had Jade concerned.

  The unidentified man moved to Stanley’s right. The sun was higher. There was enough light now for him to cast a shadow.

  “Whoever is behind him means business. He’s got a gun.” She rolled down the window, prepared to lean out and shoot if necessary.

  Both hands were on her gun, the weight of it almost a caress against her palm. Oddly a fleeting thought ran through her mind that the gun was a promise, a promise that it would not let either her or Stanley down. She leaned out through the open window, ready to go, to take it to the wall, shoot, kill, if necessary.

  “We’ve got to go in,” she said, knowing that the chances were slim that they could reach him unnoticed.

  There was a glint of metal where the other man had slipped to the edge of a grove of shrubs. All they needed was for Stanley to turn. That could be deadly for him. But whether he turned or not, it didn’t matter. The other man could only be after Stanley. She could see no one else in the park. It was a matter of time before he took him out.

  Stay focused, she thought, as if somehow her thoughts could reach him. Don’t turn, whatever you do, don’t turn. She was afraid that if he turned it would trigger an attack. Right now the man shadowing Stanley seemed content to do just that.

  “Hang on,” Zafir said.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Providing a distraction.”

  He started the engine, the sound getting the attention of the men in the park, but before either could move, he’d gunned the engine and the Pathfinder spit snow as the tires spun. He let up on the accelerator enough to get traction. The vehicle bounced over the curb and into the park, moving fast enough that the two men had no chance to react immediately. Once they did, Stanley froze. The man shot at them, cracking the windshield.

  “Down!” she screamed at Stanley. She was hanging as far out the window as she dared. She shot at the thin, dark-haired man holding the gun. The man who appeared to be stalking Stanley.

  Missed.

  “Get down,” she screamed at Stanley again.

  Stanley dropped into a crouch, his hands over his head as she fired again.

  The other man shot once, twice.

  Zafir slammed on the brakes. As the vehicle jerked to a stop they were both out, using the doors for protection.

  Meanwhile, Stanley was on his knees and then crouched down and moving. He dived behind a hedge and was out of sight and immediate danger.

  The other man had moved far enough away, using a grove of bushes on the opposite side, that it was hard to get a clear shot. As they moved from the vehicle to the cover of nearby trees, he bolted into the open, stopped, and then turned to shoot wildly at them.

  Gunfire echoed through the park.

  Something threw her off balance and she almost fell.

  “Are you okay?” Zafir was there, covering her as he stood over her, gun in hand.

  “I...” She looked down, expecting to see a guns
hot wound, blood—there was nothing. Only her jacket sleeve was ripped open. Otherwise, she’d been lucky. “I’m okay.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Zafir nodded. “I’m going after him. Get Stan out of here.”

  He grabbed her other hand and pulled her to her feet.

  As Zafir took off at a lope after Stanley’s attacker, she went over to where Stanley stood hidden in the midst of a thicket of shrubs.

  “I can’t take any more,” he blurted out. “Why didn’t you tell me that my own relative wants to kill me? My very own cousin. I can’t believe this.”

  “Truthfully, we weren’t one hundred percent sure until now and if we’d told you, I thought you’d demand to go home.”

  “You were right, and you wouldn’t talk me out of it,” he said quietly. “Uncle needs my help. I don’t know what is going on but I don’t like it not one bit. If I’d known, but I didn’t recognize him until I was flat on my belly in the bush, watching.”

  “You were safe...”

  “Was I?” He cut her off. “My cousin Mohammed comes out of nowhere trying to kill me. Why is he here?”

  She had him by the arm. “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Something’s very wrong. What’s going on?”

  “Let’s get you out of here.”

  “I’m going home. I don’t care what I promised.” His lips were taut, and his eyes looked haunted. “I can’t take any more,” he whispered again.

  She dropped his wrist and instead put an arm around his waist, as if somehow that would both comfort and contain him. “It’ll be all right, Stanley.”

  He pulled away from her. “All right,” he spat. “You call this all right. I’ve been shot at, hunted down like...” he stammered. “My cousin came out of nowhere and wants me dead.” He laughed. The sound was dry and humorless. “Not that that is a surprise. He’s hated me all my life. But why is he here?” His voice shook. “This is insanity. Craziness.”