The Sheik's Safety by Dana Marton

Author:Dana Marton
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

THEY RODE THE BETTER PART of the night before they reached their destination, Hawk held back by the weight of two people and their supplies. A car would have been faster and more practical, Dara had thought as they rode, but understood Saeed’s wisdom once they walked into the cave. The opening was large enough to allow Hawk in, leaving no telltale sign of their presence that could be seen from outside.

He turned on a flashlight and panned it around. Rocks, rocks and more rocks. She watched as he picked up one from a knee-deep pile in the corner and set it aside. Then another, then another. She went to help him.

“Rest,” he said.

“You know, women are not really the weaker sex.” She kept on working.

He turned to her and she could see the dark shadow that settled over his face. “They are strong. But still they should be protected.”

His voice was hollow, and she got the idea that he was no longer talking about lifting rocks. And the question flew from her lips before she could stop it. “What happened to your wife?”

He went back to working, disassembling the rock pile methodically, stone by stone.

Fine. If he didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t have to. But she couldn’t help wondering if he had been very much in love with her, if he was in love with her still.

“She was hit by a car,” he startled her by saying.

And it sounded so ordinary, as if it were almost unreal. She had expected a scorpion bite or a snake or an overly hard childbirth in the desert without medical help.

“We were in Tihrin. She was shopping for clothes for Salah. She stepped out in front of a speeding car,” he went on. “Didn’t see it from her burka. They don’t allow much peripheral vision.”

Didn’t she know it. The few times she had to have the thing on drove her crazy. And suddenly she was angry for the death of the woman of whom a moment ago she was jealous. She was angry for Saeed’s loss and for Salah’s.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He nodded and went back to work.

When he was done, she looked at the exposed slab, about three feet by two. He tried to push it out of the way, but it didn’t budge. He sat on the floor, wedged his body against a side wall, pushed with his feet. The large stone moved aside a fraction of an inch.

“If we could move it just a little more we could get a rope behind it and have Hawk pull it,” she said as she grabbed on to help.

He nodded and pushed again.

Even with help from the horse, it took over half an hour to move the stone.

Dara peered into the dark narrow shaft open before them. She’d once spent two days in the rat-and-snake infested sewers of Baghdad. She really didn’t care to repeat the experience. “You first,” she said, and when he crawled forward, she followed him.

After ten yards or so, they came out into an open area, about eight by eight and half as high.

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