Resisting the Sheik's Commands by Elizabeth Lennox

Author:Elizabeth Lennox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Elizabeth Lennox Books (www.ElizabethLennox.com)
Published: 2019-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

The closer they got to the capital city, the more desperate the people and the landscape became. People didn’t seem to be working. They meandered, loitering on the street corners. Ilara even saw a drug deal happen, right out in the open. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that there hadn’t been drugs around before she’d gone off to study, but she was fairly certain that the illegal activities hadn’t been so blatant!

And why hide it? There were no police officers around! The people wandering around on the street seemed to turn away, pretending the drug deal wasn’t happening. Or perhaps issues like this were so commonplace that it wasn’t a surprise any longer.

Beyond that, trash piled up against the base of buildings and in the dumpsters, spilling out of the trash bins. It seemed as if it had been several weeks since the trash pickup trucks had come through, which meant that everything smelled horrible. Rotting food and human sewage permeated the air, stinking up the streets.

Ilara looked around, shocked and overwhelmed with everything that needed to be fixed. This was a desperately sad state, she thought as Jabril maneuvered the Jeep through the streets. A few heads turned to watch them drive by, but for the most part, no one paid attention to them.

Coffee shops, that had once been places of social gatherings and conversation, were now shuttered, leaving only street vendors selling coffee. But no one was buying. Probably because no one could afford the displayed prices which were about ten times what they should be. Gas pumps were abandoned, which didn’t make sense. Ditra wasn’t an oil exporting country, but there had been enough oil and a small refinery on the coast to energize the country. It was one of the advantages of living here in Ditra – free electricity and cheap gas for cars.

But then again, there were no cars on the road. So, no need for the inexpensive gas that used to drive the country. No markets where the farmers could bring their produce, no boutiques to buy a pretty dress for a weekend gathering.

“This is worse than I’d anticipated,” she whispered through numb lips, unconsciously leaning closer to Jabril.

“We’ll get things cleaned up around here,” he promised, his voice rough and hard with the same emotions that were swamping her.

She squeezed his hand. “I don’t know where to start.”

“First things first,” he began in his most reassuring voice. “Get into the palace and call your high council together. Let them know that you’re married and fully ready to take control of Ditra.”

She pulled her eyes away from the window and the devastation. “Do you think it will work?”

“We will make it work,” he said, his voice grim. “The alternative is military force and no one wins in a war.”

She swallowed her panic, determined to make this work.

They stopped about two miles from the palace and connecting government buildings, pulling into a parking garage that had very few vehicles in it. The cars

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