position. She waited, sniffing the air. Five minutes passed before she could smell nothing but the fire. Whoever the smoker had been, they’d either put it out or moved away. She had to take her chances and hope it was the latter.
She got down on her hands and knees and crawled the remaining distance as the tunnel twisted before she saw another flicker of light. There was a palm tree growing up against the rock, partially hiding the opening. She could see the snap of flames about fifty feet away and as she looked down there was a movement. But she couldn’t make out anything in the dark. She squatted back on her heels. As she contemplated what to do next, the night sky cleared and the moon shone bright and revealing. She looked down and met the terrified eyes of Sheikka Tahriha Al-Nassar.
Kate put her fingers to her lips and the woman nodded while avidly watching her. She pointed at Tara and then back at the tunnel where she crouched so that it was clear what she wanted her to do and where she wanted her to go, once she managed to free her. It was a backup plan, nothing else. So that if anything happened to her, as long as she was untied, Tara could still get out and to safety.
Kate looked toward the campfire and saw that there were three men. She could hear their voices and laughter and, as the flames danced, she could also see that they were sitting with their backs to her. The tricky part would be getting Tara free, for they could see in the moonlight as easily as Kate could.
She slid down the path that wound steeply from the tunnel to the hill. She kept low and used her feet to control and steer her way while remaining hidden from the men by the shrubbery growing up against the hill.
With a bump she was on her butt on level ground and the only thing that stood between her and discovery was a grassy bush and another palm tree. She looked over and Tara was watching her. Kate shook her head and the woman looked away.
She could see that Tara’s hands were tied behind her back and secured to the trunk of a palm tree. She could also see that they’d only used rope. They obviously hadn’t expected much resistance and she hadn’t expected that it would be that easy. She fished the knife she always carried out of her pocket. It couldn’t be called a pocketknife but it couldn’t be called a hunting knife, either. All she knew was that it could slide through any kind of rope with ease.
She held her breath, watching the men. They were caught up in their conversation, and none was paying attention. She’d be in the open for a minute, the time it took to get to Tara. She just needed Tara to back up against the palm tree. She waited until the woman glanced at her and she motioned to the tree. Tara moved until her back was pressed against it.
Smart, Kate thought. So far she was following every cue with ease.
Kate moved in swiftly, keeping low to the ground. Within a minute Tara was free and Kate had given her whispered directions and she was off.
Kate turned on her heels, moving to face the kidnappers; it only took a second but it was enough. As she went to follow Tara she was grabbed roughly from behind.
“What are you doing?” the male voice snarled in Arabic.
“Run!” she yelled at Tara and saw her scramble up the last few feet and disappear into the tunnel.
His grip on her arm was so tight Kate bit her lip against the pain as he twisted her around.
“Where’s the sheikka? Where is she?” he roared, his face half hidden by a shaggy beard, his eyes wild, not focusing on her as his hand bit into her arm.
Her other arm was free and with it she quietly moved to reach her gun without drawing his attention to what she was doing.
But as he looked up toward the tunnel, he yanked her arm hard, ramming it up between her shoulders and making her bite back a shriek of pain, causing her other hand to drop from where she had been inching toward her weapon.
“Get her back! Get her now!” he shrieked into her face.
“Run, Tara!” Kate screamed and it was the last thing she did as her captor’s fist connected with her jaw.
“Zafir, I’ve got her.”
Emir gave his brother little time to express his relief or to explain the circumstances. The connection was tentative and could break at any moment. He looked over to where Tara was guzzling the contents of a water bottle. Other than being stressed and dehydrated, his baby sister was fine.
“They’ve got Kate,” he said through clenched teeth. He would have gone in with guns blazing but that wouldn’t have done Kate or Tara any good. “I need to go in after her but I need to get Tara out of here, to safety, first.”
“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.
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