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It was foolhardy maybe, putting her safety at risk. But Hamid was in far more danger than she was. Her pulse raced. He was in the thick of things.
She floated on her belly toward the water’s edge, doing her best to stay low and out of sight. Scanning the oasis, she pushed to her feet into a crouch and waded the rest of the way to shore, where she grabbed her camera from the tree then headed back into the water toward the reeds.
She wasn’t a fighter, never would be, but she was well-versed to being witness in a war zone. Her experience had conditioned her enough to not be completely terrified by what was happening now.
In fact she was calm and focused as she pushed between the reeds and found a spot where she was hidden yet could see a good portion of the camp and what was happening.
It wasn’t until she pressed the camera’s viewfinder to her eye that the desert landscape really came to life. The brigands had to be twenty or thirty strong, though going by the half-a-dozen figures sitting on camels further back who were wrapped up like many-layered presents, she guessed the women didn’t count as fighters.
The first wave of desert savages had already dismounted from their camels and now lay prone and bloodied on the sand. The second wave sprinted toward Hamid and his men with large knives and swords. Hamid lifted his gun into the air and released a warning shot, but the brigands continued onward.
Click. Click. Click.
It took everything she had not to shake from nerves and adrenaline. These were history making photos!
Hamid lifted his gun, aimed and fired.
One of the brigands went down clutching his knee with a gargled scream. Then another and another. There were five men on the ground when their comrades attacked Hamid and his men. It as quickly apparent they were seasoned fighters who made the brigands look like children learning how to fight. It took less than ten minutes for it to end while the last of the brigands lay wounded and moaning on the sand.
The girls on the camels looked at one another as though in disbelief, but otherwise they waited passively for whatever might happen next.
Holly couldn’t press the shutter button fast enough. The scene unfolding was mesmerizing! These girls clearly believed they couldn’t do anything without a man’s say so and simply accepted whatever fate—what the men here—would do to them.
She continued to take pictures as Hamid looked over each of his men. None had serious injuries, just scrapes and scratches compared to the brigands on the ground. He instructed his men to take their enemies into the shade and tie them up and treat their injuries, then he and Essam approached the women on camels.
One of the women bowed and cried out, her eyes glinting somewhere between fear and awe. Hamid commanded the camels to sit and they did so with outraged bellows.
Minutes later the six women dismounted and followed Hamid and Essam cautiously toward the tent Holly had shared with Hamid. She continued clicking away even as her mind raced. Were these women going to take over their tent?
Theirtent? It was Hamid’s tent, not hers. She was just a visitor passing through. That he was a self-professed womanizer with six extra females to choose from meant he’d probably return her home sooner rather than later.
She should be happy!
Her hands shook a little as she looked through the viewfinder and magnetized the partially hidden faces of the women. They looked young. She didn’t doubt they were pretty, too, possibly even beautiful.
The brigands had probably stolen them because of their looks.
She was lucky that Hamid and his men knew how to fight or she, too, might be part of the posse of women sitting on camels before being passed around from man to man like a prime piece of pussy for all to share.
Her stomach cramped along with her finger on the shutter. But she still managed to take some more photos as the women stepped inside the tent—the fabric door swishing shut behind them—and out of sight. But not before Hamid glanced in her direction, his taut face relaxing at seeing her.
She managed a couple more shots of Hamid’s men as they dragged the wounded across the sand and into the shade where they were tied up, then she had no more energy left to give.
What was Hamid going to do with these women? What about the men who were tied up? They were clearly not going to kill them if they were attending to their injuries. She could even now hear one of Hamid’s men muttering observations as he checked each prisoner and had them lined up in order from worst hurt to least so that he could work on those who needed him most.
Did Hamid not only have a chef but a medical doctor or nurse too?
She was so deep in though she didn’t sense someone behind her until it was too late. A wet hand slapped over her mouth before a dark voice whispered, “Say one word and you’re dead.”
The sharp prick of a blade against her neck emphasized just how serious the brigand was, the warm trickle of blood on her flesh warning her to do as he said.
“Get out of the water,” the brigand demanded coarsely.
She nodded, sucking in a breath when the blade nicked her deeper and more blood spilled free. It took everything she had just to keep her camera out of the water and force her leg muscles to cooperate as she pushed through the reeds and sandy bottom, the brigand sticking behind her.
Hamid stepped out of the tent, his eyes locking onto hers. He froze at the brigand restraining her, but she could see the fury pulsing deep inside as Hamid asked him, “What do you want?”
“I want my women back. And I want all my men released.”
