Treasure of Eden by Sharon Linnea

Author:Sharon Linnea [Linnea, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: thriller, Action/Adventure
ISBN: 9781933608068
Publisher: Arundel Publishing
Published: 2011-06-16T12:00:00+00:00

January 26, 2007, 12:32 a.m.

(1 day, 9 hours, 58 minutes until end of auction)

Judean wilderness west of the Dead Sea

Israel

* * *

Yasmin heard her father’s voice calling her from outside the tent. She sat up at once, surprised and happy, and ran to the door. Her father stood, tall and handsome beneath the full moon. He held in one hand a dress, of blues and greens, covered with coins and precious jewels that shimmered in the moonlight.

“For you, my little one,” he said. “My gift to you. A wedding dress.”

Yasmin felt her chest fill with hope and happiness. She opened her arms to run to him. She couldn’t move. The tent flap was open–she could feel the desert breeze. There was nothing by her feet to trip her, and yet she couldn’t move.

“Father,” she called.

“Don’t you want it?” he asked, and he began to fade away.

“Father, yes, yes! Don’t go!” Yasmin called. She felt something warm on her neck, and batted it away with her hands. But it remained.

She opened her eyes, and she was still in her tent on her mats in the dark. And the Monster was next to her, his breath hot on her face.

“No!” she said, and she began to struggle.

“Shut up, you little whore,” he said, and he was holding her so she couldn’t move, and climbing on top of her.

And then from the darkness beyond came another voice.

“No,” said her mother. Her voice was quiet but like steel. “No. Not the night before her henna night. No.”

The Monster looked up, ready to say something dismissive to his wife, to cow her.

But she spoke again. “You will never touch my daughter again. You will never again beat my son. Because if you do, I will go to the council. I will tell them what you do. Not only in this tent, but beyond. I will tell everything.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” he said. “You would be called a liar. You would end up forsaken and alone.”

“Even if they thought that of me, perhaps they would not believe that my daughter, the wife of the Hajj, is a liar also. Perhaps they would not believe that my son, the nephew of the chief, is a liar. But even if they did, we would be better off alone.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Touch either of them again and you will see what I dare,” she said. “Now go to bed.” And Yasmin’s mother turned away.

Yasmin waited a moment, hardly daring to breathe.

Finally the Monster rolled off of her, and moved heavily to his mat.

And Yasmin lay in the dark, and tried to think of nothing but the colors of the wedding dress her father would bring her, if he could.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.