My Desert Rose (16 page)

Hassan cleared
his throat. "It's quite simple really brother. I've grown up in
your shadow, always deemed as the second son, the one with less
value. Father proved it when he gave the majority of the company
shares to you on your initiation day into the business, but when it
came around to my initiation, I was called into a meeting with you
both and presented with a measly amount. I've never forgiven you
for that."

Tariq was
shocked. "But, Hassan, you weren't that interested in the oil
business!"

"That changed
when I married Amira. She showed me just how little I was getting
compared to you. Well, not anymore. You either sign or die, which
is it to be?"

Tariq couldn't
believe that this man standing in front of him was the same person
that he'd grown up with and shared so many happy memories with.
"Hassan, just think about it for a moment. If you shoot me, how do
you think you'll get away with it?"

Hassan laughed
bitterly. "This gun belongs to a pirate friend of mine, who has
also kidnapped your wife. Unfortunately for you, the papers will
read how you were shot in the process of your wife being kidnapped
by pirates. Of course, I'll play the devastated brother and as for
Katie, well, she's being enjoyed by the pirates as we speak."

A loud roar
echoed throughout Tariq's mind. "If she's so much as touched, your
life won't be worth living," he ground out in absolute fury. What
Tariq felt in this moment was not fear. It was the power of
injustice. Glancing around, he realised that there was nowhere to
run to. The gun had been lowered and was now aimed at his heart.
The only regret and pain he really felt deeply about was losing
Katie. If Hassan pulled the trigger and shot him, then he'd leave
this planet without having had the chance to explain his feelings
to her. There was nothing like facing death to help you put things
into perspective. The one thing he could thank his brother for in
these moments was seeing how he didn't just want Katie in his life,
but that he wanted to make a life with her. There was a huge
difference between the two.

The door behind
Hassan slowly opened and Tariq could make out the form of Murad
sneaking in. Without focusing on him fully, Murad gave him a sign
with his two fingers, showing him when to drop to the floor. All he
needed was a few more seconds of time. "Tell me Hassan, what's
Amira's part in all of this?" he asked as calmly as he could,
although he felt like grabbing his brother and beating the living
daylights out of him.

Hassan scoffed.
"I knew you were an idiot when you turned her down, so I consoled
her and she turned to me. Her business skills surpass even yours
and together we'll have it all. We'll have el-Tayeb and Saud's
wells and own a huge chunk of the world's oil. Do you know how
powerful that would make me?"

Tariq knew
there and then that his brother didn't have the mental capacity to
scheme this big. He'd only been a pawn in Amira's game and now he
knew who was responsible for the deaths of his men. Disgust turned
his stomach. "You're a fool brother, you've been had."

Hassan went
almost purple in the face. "Don't bother signing the fucking
papers!" he yelled in rage. "It's better that you're completely out
of the picture." But before he could fire the gun, the sound of
another one cocking against Hassan's back echoed around the room
and Murad gave the sign to Tariq.

Tariq
immediately dropped to the floor, away from Hassan's firing range,
should he have a reactional pull of the trigger.

"Put down the
gun Hassan."

In all the
years he'd known Murad, he'd never heard him sound so cold. He knew
the guy was a martial arts expert, but he'd always seemed so gentle
and unassuming. Something in his voice reminded Tariq of street
fighters.

Hassan's gun
fell to the floor and Murad kicked it over to Tariq. "On your knees
and put your hands behind your head."

Hassan dropped
to his knees and began to cry like a baby.

Tariq stood up
and kicked the gun into the corner. He didn't want to touch it. If
it hadn't been for Murad sneaking up behind Hassan, he would have
possibly been dead within the next few minutes. The higher powers
that be had obviously decided that this moment was not his time of
death and Tariq was relieved beyond measure.

The office door
swung open again and his father, Prince Saud and Rob walked in. The
shock on his father's face was indescribable. Once he knew the full
story, there would be no way out for Hassan and they all knew it.
Before this day was over, he'd be on his way to a Yemeni prison,
escorted by the police. The fact that Amira had thought up the
whole plan to shred Tariq's reputation to pieces and bring his
business to a grinding stop made him shudder.

The real hurt
of their deception was the lives that had been lost. Hassan only
needed to have approached him about the company's shares and Tariq
would have gladly made the changes. Tariq knew that if he were
dead, Hassan would own nearly three-quarters of the business. This
is what had driven Amira into her scheming, that and her anger at
being rejected by him.

Amira was still
out there. According to Hassan's babblings while on his knees and
faced with their father, she'd had a helicopter ready for her
flight into Somalia, where there was a holding area for the storage
of stolen oil. Rob was already on his phone, directing a small
military team over there. Amira would be next and by the look on
Saud's face, it wouldn't be long before she was found. Tariq
shuddered again at the implication of her punishment. Prisons were
one thing. Powerful, wealthy, royal Sheikhs were a law unto
themselves.

Tariq pulled
Saud to one side. All he needed now was to find Katie.

Chapter
T
welve

Miriam had been
sitting in the tiny cubbyhole for hours now. The small space had
required her to sit on her legs on a shelf. It was some sort of
linen store. On the one hand, she was so frightened of being found,
but on the other hand she was livid.

Earlier, she’d
followed Amira’s limo to the docks using Tariq’s little red car.
Five years ago, Tariq had taught her how to drive around the
grounds of their house, but this was the first time she'd ventured
out onto the road. Not wanting to be seen, she'd even driven
without turning any lights on and that had scared the living
daylights out of her, especially while driving around those
bends.

It wasn’t that
she was being defiant, she was just angry with Amira for not
letting her come and be with Katie and Tariq. Amira was always
bossing her around and spoiling things, but not this time. After
parking the car across the road, she’d watched Amira and Katie
board the ship. When the driver had left, she’d sneaked aboard,
past the great big mean looking bouncer guarding the door. Just as
she’d made it to the top of the stairs, she’d seen the back-end of
a fight between Amira and Katie and she’d hid in the cubbyhole
opposite.

There was a
vent on the door and she could see Amira with her to back to her
saying something to Katie and giving her that awful witchy laugh.
The last thing she saw was Katie fainting and Amira leaving,
locking the door behind her. Miriam was about to come out when the
big bouncer guy from downstairs came up carrying a chair and parked
himself in front of Katie’s door. Panicking, she didn’t know what
to do, so she had to think what Tariq would say to her if he were
here. He would tell her to be quiet and to remain still.
Remembering her mobile phone, she reached into her pocket, wrapped
it up in a towel and switched it off, hoping that the beep didn’t
alert the guard, but luckily he now had his eyes closed.

Keeping her
breath steady, as even a little cough would alert him, she tried
not to move a muscle, waiting for when he would leave. A few hours
later, it was the rattling of the handle and the banging on Katie’s
door that had her looking through the vent again.

The guard
jumped to his feet and banged back on the door in warning. "If you
know what's good for you bitch, you'll be quiet. The Captain's
going to be real happy to see you!" Then he turned and hastily made
his way down the metal stairs.

Miriam sneaked
out of her hiding place and made her way over to the door
opposite.

****

Katie had never
been so furious in all of her life. Wanting to throttle someone
slowly and watch the life seep out of them was not a great mental
space to be in. What Amira had done was despicable. Katie had woken
from her drug-induced haze about ten minutes ago. It had taken her
a few moments to remember what had happened. Not only was her mouth
dry, but her whole body ached like hell. Standing up and looking
out of the small window gave her the biggest shock of all. No port
lights, just endless black night and ocean. They were at sea. It
was this reality that frightened her the most. That sense of being
out of control of her situation. Within a five-day period, she’d
been kidnapped twice, but this scenario felt very serious. Tariq
had never given her any reason to feel as though her life was in
danger, but this was peril at its highest level.

Picking up the
phone on the desk, she found a tone. Who could she call? She didn’t
have Tariq’s mobile number, house number or even his office number.
Annabelle was on her honeymoon and was letting all calls go to her
messaging service. Her aunt and uncle were possibly on a flight
home from the wedding in Texas and Wade had just started at his new
offices. His new numbers were on her mobile, which was still in a
guest room in Texas! Suddenly, the tone went dead and a voice spoke
in heavy English.

"Who is calling
from the Captain’s quarters?"

Katie sighed in
relief. "Help me, please. I’ve been duped into boarding this ship
and we need to go back to Socotra."

The line went
silent and then the voice laughed. "Ahhh, so Mrs el-Tayeb is awake.
The Captain will be along to see you shortly." With that, the line
went dead.

Slamming down
the phone, Katie tried the door handle and found it to be locked.
She pounded on the door only to be told to be quiet by another
heavy accent from the other side and that the Captain was on his
way. What that meant turned her stomach. Knowing how they were
capable of raping and murdering men, she shivered at the thought of
what they'd do to a woman. She was contemplating her next move when
she caught a small voice and a tapping from the other side of the
door.

"Katie, it's me
Miriam!"

Katie's heart
leapt. "Miriam? Is that really you?"

"Yes, the guard
has left and I don’t how long we have before he comes back and my
phone has no signal."

Shock and then
elation fired through her. "Listen, Miriam, the Captain is on his
way to see me and I don’t want him to catch you too. I’m going to
have a better look around for something to pick the lock with, so
stay out of sight until I call your name, okay?"

"Okay, but this
is very bad Katie, I think we're now at sea and Amira is a really
mean person."

"It’s okay
Miriam, we’re going to get out of this and then we’ll tell Tariq
everything. Now, go and hide until you hear me call you."

About five
seconds later Katie heard footsteps on the metal stairwell. This
was it. Live or die she wasn’t going down without a fight. There
had not been enough time to find something to pick the lock with or
even arm herself with a weapon, so hand combat it would have to
be.

The door burst
open and a huge African man entered wearing army pants and a khaki
T-shirt. His head was bald and his neck was so thick it was almost
an extension of his head. Big bad eyes stared at her. They were
brown, but not of the chocolate variety like Tariq's. These were
more like pits of sewage. Wearing army boots and a gun holster, his
militant training was obvious and she began to feel hope slipping
away.

"I am Captain
Cecil," he bellowed in a heavy English accent. It was the same guy
who’d spoken down the phone and he had a slight lisp.

Katie didn’t
know whether to laugh or cry at his name. Seriously, here was a
duplicate of Mr T from the A-team with the name of Cecil. It just
didn’t fit with the physique. "Well, Captain Cecil. You're holding
me against my will," she replied, as she stood with her hands on
her hips.

"Yes, I am." A
leering smile broke out on his face. "And now I have a woman
spitting fire at me in my room." He nodded at her. "Cecil likes a
woman with fire. They are much more fun to break."

A cold sweat
broke out down her spine. "Why are you doing this?" she
demanded.

"Because I get
a lot of money to make you disappear. But first, we play a few
games with you. Like a cat and a mouse, no?"

"Who paid you
to do this?" She wanted to kick his nuts to the other side of the
universe, but first she needed a few answers.

"I will tell
you because you're never going to escape me to repeat it, but it
was your very own brother-in-law, Master Hassan and that booty wife
of his." He greedily licked his lips. "Amira is a fine woman, makes
Cecil a very happy man, just like you’re going to do. I have some
excellent plans for you."

Ugh, she
couldn’t think of anything more vile than his great big hands
pawing at her body. Not moving an inch, she planned to allow him to
get in close before elbowing him in the gut and grabbing that gun.
The only other issue she had was the bruiser guard behind him, who
was standing in the doorway.

Cecil loomed
closer and reached out to grab at her breast, tweaking it hard.
Rage so stark threatened to burst forth from her lungs. What was it
that made a man think he could just disempower a woman and touch
her against her will?