My Desert Rose (19 page)

Cecil must have
thought about the implication of her words, as he proceeded to
knock the man out with the butt of his gun and drop him to the
floor like a sack of potatoes. Turning the gun on her, he aimed it
between her eyes. "Now, you come with me," he grunted.

****

Tariq had never
been so primed for action in his entire life. It had taken them
nearly four long hours to reach the ship, which meant that Katie
had been a prisoner for eight hours. A lot can happen in eight
hours. Since that last kiss in their room it felt like she'd been
slowly slipping through his fingers. This wasn't how he'd wanted it
to work out. Yes, he'd needed her to take a few photos and get the
proof, but not to be put through this ordeal. Another problem,
which had also been added to his conscience, was that Miriam was
aboard too.

A slowing of
the engine brought Tariq's thoughts back to the task at hand. They
were currently trailing behind the ship with all their lights and
radar signals switched off. They had about one hour before sunrise
and every minute the sky was getting lighter. If they didn't act
now, they would be discovered, resulting in an armed shoot-out.
This would only give the pirates leverage with their captives and
time to call for back-up.

All dressed in
black, he put on his breathing equipment and signalled to the men.
The team consisted of Rob's thirty military trained professionals,
who were currently moving stealthily through the waters to board
the ship by the guide ropes. Once his father had informed Prince
Saud over the phone about their suspicions of Hassan and Amira,
he'd instantly provided a superb boat and back-up men. Saud had
also accompanied them in outrage of his sister's deceit. Once this
was over, he'd promised Tariq that he would turn the world upside
down to find her.

Reaching the
guide rope, Tariq pulled himself up and slunk over the top.

Let the show
begin.

From the inner
pocket of his waterproofs, he pulled out a taser gun. The men had
been instructed with a 'no death unless absolutely necessary' rule.
Everyone was going to pay for their despicable crimes through the
right channels and spend their miserable lives in a Yemeni
prison.

Coming up
behind his first culprit, he tasered him in the neck and watched as
he fell convulsing to the floor, eyes wide open. Bending down,
Tariq quickly gagged him and tie-wrapped his wrists and ankles
together before moving on.

Half of the
team made swift work of the men outside in the tanker areas. The
other half collected the pirates together in one place, keeping an
eye on them. Finally, Tariq reached the building. There was a fire
escape to the side, so he climbed the stairs to the door. It was
locked. If he was to break the glass at the top of the door, it
would bring attention to his position. Instead, he fished in his
pocket for his tools and pulled out a glass cutter. Using it on the
pane, he cut out a large square and then dropped the piece of glass
backwards into his palm. Setting it down, he put his arm through
the glass and opened the door.

The sign on the
wall said, 'Level Two.' Cocking his ear to the air, he heard a
slight muffled noise on the floor above. Moving up the stairs with
his back to the wall, he emerged out onto a corridor. The noise
came again. Someone was around the next corner and they were coming
towards him. Preparing to take them by surprise by knocking them
sidewards, he heard a little cry. It took his brain no time at all
to register that the sound was female. Instead of barging at the
form, he grabbed it as she rounded the corner and he immediately
put a hand over her mouth. Two petrified eyes stared back.

"Miriam," he
whispered. Absolute elation at seeing her pulsed through him and he
took his hand from her mouth.

"Tariq," she
sniffled.

"Yes, honey,
it's me."

Miriam threw
herself at him, now sobbing openly.

"Hush now, we
don't want to alert anyone," he soothed.

Miriam nodded.
"We set Captain Azab free and he's helping us, but the nasty, mean
man has Katie."

Tariq's heart
threatened to stop beating. "Where does he have her?"

"I don't know,"
she wailed. "She pushed me back into the washroom to save me and I
was just leaving to follow them, but when I came out, I couldn't
find her."

In that moment,
his heartbeat kick-started back up into overdrive and swelled.
Katie's actions had saved Miriam. He did a mental recap. There had
been no movement on the floor below, so he had probably taken her
along the corridor and down the other end.

"What's down
there?" Tariq nodded to the other end of the corridor.

"That's the way
we came up and if you keep going down the stairs you hit the store
rooms below, but Captain Azab has already secured those rooms?"

"What about if
you go up?" He tried not to rush her for answers, but he was
acutely aware that every second now counted.

"It leads to
the bridge and the roof, but Captain Azab should be in the bridge
by now."

Then it hit him
and he knew exactly where she was. "Damn it, he's got her on the
roof!"

One of Tariq's
men was coming up the stairs. "Miriam, I want you to go with this
man, he is our friend and he's going to take you a safe boat. I
want you to wait there for me, okay?"

She sniffled
into her sleeve. "I can't leave her Tariq."

Tariq hugged
her. "Let me bring her to you. Would you let me do that?"

She nodded.
"You promise?"

"With all of my
heart." Kissing her on the cheek, he released her to his team
member and made his way along the corridor. An unconscious man was
slumped against the wall outside the restrooms. Recognising him as
one of his sailors, he bent down and checked his vitals. He was
alive. "You'll have a sore head when you wake up," he muttered
under his breath, before making his way up the stairs to the roof.
On the way, he did a quick glance in the bridge room and found
Captain Azab on the phone.

Just as he
reached the door to the roof, he felt the engines below come to a
grinding halt. Good move Azab. Now it wouldn't matter if his boat
came into view, as Saud would make sure everything was secure.

Hunkering down,
he turned the handle and opened the door to the roof just a
fraction. Listening intently, he could hear murmuring. One voice
was low and gravely and the other was high. That was Katie's voice.
A rush of adrenalin shot through him. If she was speaking it meant
that she was still alive. The thought of her being anything but had
not been an option, but that tiny seed of doubt that he'd been
unconsciously carrying now dissolved. His Katie was beyond that
door and he was coming to get her.

****

Katie was
fuming. At first Cecil had tried to find a room to take her into,
but he soon realised that the building was being retaken by the
freed captives, so he'd dragged her to the roof. If she hadn't
given Azab the handgun she'd have shot him in the goolies by now.
There are some people who just don't deserve to live. There's no
soul in them, just endless evil. The excuse of being abused as a
child is not a good enough reason to abuse another. In this moment,
Cecil had been given a choice, and he'd made it clear which path he
wanted to walk, the one where she was to be his victim to the games
from his twisted mind.

His left hand
currently had her by the hair and he pulled her back into his body,
grinding his crotch into her butt. In his other hand, the gun was
positioned at her temple and he was breathing his stale breath all
over her neck. They were not far from the edge of the roof.

"Nobody gets
away from Cecil, especially no woman. It's time to pay me some
respect, bitch."

Ugh! He really
believed that he was owed respect? Inside, she was seething mad.
All her life she'd felt like she'd been on the run from those
perpetrators who had broken into her home and destroyed all that
she'd loved with one stroke of a knife against innocent skin. It
felt like this struggle between her and Cecil was somehow more than
a man controlling her with a gun, more than being overpowered by a
male force. It felt like a culmination of her whole life. This was
it, he'd either have to throw her off the roof or shoot her, as
she'd be damned if she was going to show him one tiny speck of
respect. Turning slightly, she looked evil straight in the
eyes.

The fierce
courage in her stare must have stunned him for a second, as he let
go of her hair, allowing her enough room to take a step forward,
but before she could take any further action, his arm snaked out
around her neck and pulled her back.

"You're going
nowhere until I say so. What you are going to do is take off all
your clothes."

His arm dropped
from her neck to her chest and he squeezed her right breast, hard.
The pain was so bad that tears filled her eyes and one flowed over
and down her cheek. Was this really happening? Where was Tariq?
Panic was threatening to overthrow her courage and she did the one
thing she hadn't done for twenty-two years, she prayed. The answer
came as a burst of orange rays rose from the horizon and into the
sky. A new day was dawning, giving her a sign from its vibrancy and
magnitude that today was not the day that this beast was going to
break her soul. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she caught
a black form moving around the door of the roof.

Tariq.

Something
calmed inside of her and she knew without a doubt that whatever the
outcome, she was no longer alone with the force of evil that had
ripped open her life as a child, stealing all the goodness out of
it. Trying not to make a single move towards Tariq, she could make
out his hand signal from the corner of her eye, telling her to get
down. How the hell was she supposed to do that with a great big paw
on her breast and a gun to her head?

Tariq's blood
was at boiling point. His whole body was screaming at him to charge
at the animal manhandling Katie, but he knew that the impact would
send them all over the edge of that roof. Aiming the taser gun,
sweat trickled down his forehead and frustration gnawed at him.
There wasn't an opening for a clear enough shot without the risk of
hitting Katie, giving the bruiser enough time to pull the trigger.
Guilt was also eating away at him. If he hadn't taken her from the
wedding in the first place, she wouldn't be in this position now.
If he'd looked hard enough, he would have found another way to deal
with the problem, but the simple truth was that he'd wanted her and
the rest had just been an excuse to have her. Now look what he'd
done. The one person who'd lit up his world was fighting for her
life. Right now, he wasn't proud of himself and the second they got
out of this mess, it would be time for some serious talking.

Moving against
the wall, his objective was to go round the back of the monster and
taser him from that angle, but the rising sun was making him stand
out like a beacon. Catching her eye, he gestured for her to get
lower. How she was going to do it when this maniac had her in his
iron grip he didn't know, but he was starting to get desperate.

Cecil was
pulling at her, trying to turn her around and she knew that one
more step in Tariq's direction, he would see him and Tariq would be
a sitting duck. A wall of resistance settled in her feet like lead
and she refused to budge. Not this time buster. No-one was going to
take down any more of the people that she loved. That thought
caused her heart to hitch in her chest. When had she gone and
fallen in love with Tariq? This was not the moment to ponder on
that discovery. She needed to take some form of action or they'd
both be toast. Remembering a technique that Wade had taught her and
Annabelle as children, she lifted up her foot and found Cecil's
shin behind her. Using his body to lean against and give her
leverage, she grated her foot hard all the way down his shin,
removing a layer of his skin.

"Argh, you
bitch!"

The shock
caused him to loosen his hold as he went to grab his shin with the
hand that he'd snaked around her. Immediately, she moved to the
side and dropped to the floor, giving Tariq the perfect shot.

Cecil's gun
clattered to the ground next to her and she turned to find him
convulsing violently. Before she could prevent it from happening,
he had fallen over the edge of the roof. A loud boom followed as he
landed on a container far below.

Pulling herself
to her knees, she began to violently shake and a sob started low in
her belly as it worked its way up into her throat. A hand on her
arm caused her to turn.

"Tariq?" she
wailed.

Dropping the
taser gun, he knelt down beside her and took her into his arms. The
rapid beat of her heart against his chest made him ache inside.
"I'm so sorry, baby," he said gently as he rocked her shivering
body against him. An almighty force of love rose up and hit him
from within, knocking the breath from out of his lungs and he knew
there and then that his world would never be complete unless she
was in it.

Now kissing her
face over and over, he gently took her cheeks in his palms, looking
deeply into the distraught blue of her eyes. "I...I nearly lost
you. I love you, little moheet." A feeling so new and raw
overwhelmed him. The floodgates of his soul had opened and there
was not a damn thing he could do about it. Lowering his lips to her
cold ones, he kissed her so deeply and desperately, trying to
translate how he felt about her through his touch.

Katie held onto
him for dear life. His words had seeped through her bone-chilling
shock and made her heart soar. All she needed right now was him,
was this moment, but she was also exhausted and deeply distressed.
"Miriam," was all she managed to get through her chattering
teeth.