Desire In The Desert: Sheikh's Rule

“Is it Ed?” Zafir asked in a strained voice.

“That’s what Tara tells me,” Emir said, holding anger back with an iron will as he gave Zafir the coordinates. “How soon can you get here?”

Zafir promised he’d be there soon with Talib, and that they were minutes away. Emir almost sighed. If he lost Kate now, before she knew how he felt about her... The thought trailed. She didn’t know that those intimate moments were about more than just lust. It had all been too soon and too fast, and yet it had been like a lifetime. In such a short time, he felt like he’d always known her and, unbelievably, he’d fallen in love with her.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was that they had her, that she was in danger. The thought was killing him as much as the knowledge that there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t leave Tara, for they would be looking for her soon, unless somehow they thought Kate was the trade-off. His thoughts were jumbled. He couldn’t think clearly and he needed to get it together and get it together now. Kate as a trade-off was a thought he couldn’t discard and one that made him every bit as sick as them having his sister.

“She came just in time,” Tara whispered as he sat beside her. “He was crazed. Thought I was Mother.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it was Ed. He wasn’t who I remember. He would have raped me if he’d had much longer.”

Or worse, Emir thought as rage rolled through him as he listened and he wanted to kill. He took a few breaths, stilling his emotions. He needed to get through this calmly. After all, Tara wasn’t out of danger yet.

Where was Zafir? Emir had to go after Kate and in one crazy moment he considered taking Tara with him.

“Ridiculous,” he muttered.

“Em. You’re scaring me,” Tara said.

Emir looked at his sister and guilt ran through him. She’d been through hell. “It’ll be okay, kid. I promise,” he said. “Zafir will be here any moment to get you out of here.”

“You care for her, don’t you,” she said in a quiet voice. “Kate.” She said the name as if testing it out. After all, Tara had only learned the name of her rescuer a few moments ago. “She’ll make it, Em, she has to.”

Has to. Tara’s words echoed in their rightness, for he didn’t know what he’d do if she didn’t.

He took her hands in both of his. “He didn’t hurt you? You’re certain?” He had two reasons to kill the man now, he thought ferociously. Kate and Tara. It was odd, there were others, but to him it was Ed who had betrayed his family.

“No.” She shook her head. “But I never knew... I can’t believe... I mean, he loved Mother. He was crazy for her. I mean nutcase crazy. And it made me think about their accident. His face was burned...” She looked at Emir. “You don’t think...?”

“Let’s talk about that later,” Emir said as he thought of the unspeakable act Ed had perpetrated on the House of Al-Nassar. He didn’t need to bring down his family, he’d dealt them a crushing blow broadsiding the family, destroying its heart, and no one had known, until now.