“You were easier to deceive than your brothers, but you all came around.”
She stared into a face that was barely familiar, into eyes that were filled with hate, and at a man that it was now clear she had never known. She willed herself to not shrink back, to not show weakness, for in her gut she knew he wanted that as much as he wanted the money.
He reached for her as she twisted away, but it was impossible to escape. The rope that held her only allowed her to move so far.
His knuckle ran down the side of her face. “You never wanted me, did you, despite everything? It was always him.” He looked at her as he dropped back on his heels and stood. “I can keep you forever. He will never find you and I will bleed him dry.” He ran a thumb along the ridge of her collarbone. His touch was chilling despite the fact that two layers of cotton fabric lay between him and her.
“My brothers...”
He looked at her with angry, confused eyes.
“You call your sons, brothers?”
Tara’s sleep-deprived brain didn’t have an immediate comeback. She fought not to shrink back as the horror returned and her brain made sense of what he had said. Again, he thought that she was her mother. He’d slipped back into his mad delusion where she became her mother. A chill ran down her spine and she forced herself to look at him.
“He’ll never agree,” she said, not giving names, meaning her brothers and especially Emir, and leaving it open to his interpretation.
“Then you, my dear, must die. Not now,” he said as she looked at him with all the panic she was feeling. “I, of course, will shed tears. But there’s really no other way.”
She shivered as the chill of the day and the thought of the inevitable night combined with thoughts of her potential destiny, and all of it settled harsh and heavy in her heart.
Tuesday, September 15, 3:00 p.m.
The village of El Dewar was long gone. The clouds had moved in and the sky was ominous-looking, and the wind was again picking up.
Twenty minutes later they’d stopped for a quick break and were just about to head back to the Jeep when a billowing cloud of sand to the northwest caught Emir’s attention. The buzz of an approaching engine followed and he met Kate’s quizzical look.
“More than likely, a dirt bike, from the sounds of it,” he said.
But it was the unmistakable sound of a gunshot and a thud of a bullet hitting metal that had them diving to the sand.
“Whoever it is, they’re targeting the Jeep,” Kate said in an undertone as if silence mattered.
There was nothing to say. Emir knew stopping had been a mistake. The dunes had provided camouflage and there’d been no one else around, or so he’d thought. But in trying to provide privacy for Kate he’d inadvertently made them vulnerable. There was nothing to do now but deal with the consequences.
They needed to somehow get back to the Jeep. Right now, it was too far away to be of any help. They’d have to use the small dune beside them for cover. Emir motioned with one arm but Kate was already moving that way, her gun in her hand, keeping as far down as possible as she moved. They didn’t return fire, for they didn’t want to alert their attacker to where they were. So far whoever it was had only fired at the Jeep. There was still a chance that whoever was shooting hadn’t spotted them yet, hadn’t realized they’d left their vehicle.
Emir moved forward, head down, trying to keep himself between the shooter and Kate, but she refused to be anything but an equal participant. Exactly as he’d expect from any of his agents, but as much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, Kate was different.
Another shot, this time to their left and over their heads. It was clear now that the shooter knew they weren’t at the Jeep. Suddenly there was silence. Emir frowned. With both hands on the Glock, he shifted to his left, motioning Kate to follow.
They were now maybe twenty feet from the Jeep.
A bullet hit the dune just behind them and kicked up a small cloud of sand. Kate motioned with her hand that she was going to move right and along the dune.
Emir nodded as he covered her progress. But suddenly they weren’t alone. The roar of the bike engine bore down on them as it flew over one dune, coming closer, only sixty feet away. He fired at it, kicking up sand and causing the biker to swerve right and away from them. Emir fired again and this time the driver lost control. The bike toppled, skidding on its side as the driver landed on his feet, his rifle in the sand behind him. They needed to get to the Jeep and they had a minute or less to do it before he was back on his bike.
Kate fired once, twice, but the angle was wrong—a dune protected him.
“Run!” Emir commanded unnecessarily as they both ran, keeping low and moving fast. They launched themselves into the Jeep.
“Go!” Kate yelled. It was another unnecessary command for he had the accelerator to the floor. The Jeep sped forward, pelting sand behind them as they flew over a dune, swerving back and forth to avoid any shots from the biker.
Kate turned and fired multiple times.
“We want him alive, if possible,” Emir shouted over the roar of the engine and knew that the odds were slight that that was going to happen, especially if they both wanted to come out of this alive.
She nodded and, oddly, despite the intensity of the situation, despite the fact that their attention was fixed on their attacker, she turned and smiled at him.
Damn, he thought. She was enjoying this.
The biker was catching up. The bike swerved around them, dodging Kate’s shots, and a bullet cracked the back side window. Plumes of sand kicked up from the bike and masked their attacker’s identity.
Another dirt bike roared over a dune just behind them. Now there was one bike in front and one behind. They had a fifty-foot gap between them and their assailants on either side.
Kate dropped the empty magazine, reloaded her Colt M-1911 and took aim at the second biker. She fired and a quick glance in the rearview mirror said she hadn’t been lucky. The bike was still hot on their tail. The driver’s face was hidden behind a red cloth that covered his face and protected him from the sand that billowed up around him.
“He’s not wearing a helmet,” Kate muttered. She took aim and fired once, then twice. “We’ll be able to take him out that much easier.”
Emir had one hand on the wheel, while with the other he held his Glock. It was almost impossible to steer and aim, but he took a shot at the first biker—at least he could keep him off balance, having to react, giving Kate a chance to line up a better shot.
The second biker was swerving now, seeming to lose control. They were still bracketed between two attackers.
“Hang on!” Emir shouted as he veered right and the Jeep sailed across the desert sand, the wind seeming to howl around them. But neither bike was stopping. Instead both bikes changed direction, one heading in a diagonal path straight at them and the other tailing them but quickly coming up on the other side.
The first biker was again ahead of them. But as he lifted his rifle to fire—the bike skidded sideways and the rider was thrown. He was up on his feet as Kate took aim and fired again. Emir fired a second shot. Sand kicked up around the biker and then he was at the bike. He lifted the rifle, aiming at them as Kate fired, and the rifle snapped out of his hands, slewing along the sand.