AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her pulse stuttered. She only hoped he had some kind of plan. Anything to get her out of this mess before it was too late.
Estelle and Raheesha began to converse in low voices, when the driver shouted, “Quiet!”
Thwick. Thwick. Thwick. Thwick.
Arabelle closed her eyes at the familiar and escalating noise, hope a shaft of light that poured right through to her soul.
She forced her eyes back open, the red flashing lights in the night sky all too visible as two helicopters approached.
The driver accelerated with a curse. “How the fuck did they find us?”
Estelle’s voice shook. “We took all the back roads!”
“Shut up!” the driver barked. “Check your weapons.”
The closest helicopter swooped so low it had to be just a few yards above the SUV’s roof, the noise and force of its rotors shaking the vehicle. The driver cursed again and swerved, almost running off the goat track of a road and into the rocky embankment to one side.
Raheesha quickly checked his gun, then dragged Arabelle close and murmured thickly, “If we die, you die.”
There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t make matters worse. Instead she kept silent and her eyes on the road ahead. It was only when the helicopter dropped onto the too-thin strip of road and faced their way with a blinding spotlight that the driver snarled out some Arabic curses and slammed his foot on the brake.
Estelle looked behind them, her eyes wild and voice panicked, “We can’t turn back. The other helicopter has landed behind us!”
“They’ve closed us in,” the front passenger growled in heavily accented English.
Estelle’s eyes shone. “They’ll kill us all.”
Raheesha put his arm around Arabelle’s neck, his grip tightening. “Not before I kill Mahindar’s precious sheikha.”
She was wheezing for breath when the driver roared, “Don’t kill her you fool, not yet! We might need her.”
“Wedon’tnegotiate,” the man said in the front passenger seat. “Not with—“
“Shut your mouth.” The driver glowered, his eyes merciless. “We do whatever we must to survive. If any of you try to be a hero I’ll shoot you myself. Got it?”
They all nodded in deference to the driver, and Arabelle’s mind ticked over. He was clearly in command. But who was he in relation to Ramirez? Was he one of his advisor’s? A high-ranked soldier?
He clearly wasn’t someone she wanted to fuck with because his authority was absolute, even with his gang of rebels.
Though one of her eyes was almost sealed shut thanks to her rough handling, Arabelle’s good eye saw the helicopter door opening and the silhouette of someone climbing out. He half-bent beneath the rotors as he walked. Then he straightened and strode unhurriedly toward them.
Like he had all the damn time in the world.
Mahindar.
That he was fully robed made him look all the more impressive. And even with his keffiyeh headwear she’d now recognize him anywhere. He was a sheikh through and through. Power fairly radiated from him.
Her pulse accelerated. If she’d once thought of him as the devil she’d swear he was now her avenging guardian angel, hell bent on retribution. She shivered. He was looking out for his own, and she was most assuredlyhis.
Even the driver paled in comparison.
“What should we do?” Estelle whimpered, her shaky hands barely keeping a grip on her gun.
“You will all wait here.” The driver snapped off his seatbelt and opened his door. “Sit tight for now and don’t do anything unless I signal otherwise. You know the drill.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Mahindar had never experienced such a violent need for vengeance. That his wife—sheikha of his peaceful country—had been taken from the very palace and home where she was meant to be safe, had sent wave upon wave of emotions running through him. Rage. Fear. Guilt. Then all three simultaneously.
