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Because if she ever saw the younger girl again then she would ensure Chalah knew exactly how completely severed their friendship was.
Jerking the scarf around her head, neck, and finally tucking it around her face until nothing but her eyes showed, she moved with jerky fury to the door and wrenched it open.
Chalah had only just managed to pull the abaya back on and secure the mesh over her eyes when Paige found herself facing the stone-hard, pale-eyed monster that watched her with calculating eyes.
She didn’t dare speak. There were rules and punishments, consequences and dangers to uttering even one of the curses tearing through her brain now.
Hatred welled inside her, blistering hot and searing her from the inside out.
What had Jafar hoped to gain by using his sister this way?
She stood back and turned slowly to stare at Chalah.
“Good-bye,” she stated with a withering stare. A ring of finality clearly echoed as she refused to say anything more.
She wouldn’t endanger the younger girl, but if Chalah dared to return then the rules would change.
“Good-bye, Paige,” Chalah said softly, miserably. Before Paige could avoid her, the other girl wrapped her arms around her in a tight, desperate hug. She whispered, “I swear, I’m good. ”
Paige stepped back slowly, deliberately pushing her away as her gaze moved to Jafar once again. He had forced Chalah, there was no doubt, but she had still betrayed Paige, Abram, and Tariq. She should have shown her the device before they ever spoke.
“Tell Abram when he returns that it would not be advisable to leave at night any longer, for either him or Tariq,” he warned evenly, his pale green eyes like glass, cold and unemotional as his gaze flicked over her. “Or, Ms. Galbraithe, for you. ”
He reached past her, gripped Chalah’s upper arm, and all but jerked her from the room.
He hadn’t gotten what he wanted, and now his sister would pay for it, and Chalah knew it.
Her head was down, her shoulders shuddering as silent sobs shook her beneath the heavy shroud.
Paige prayed that the beating she knew Chalah would take for failure was the only punishment she would receive before Jafar allowed her to return to America, and to school.
Chalah had one dream, to be a pediatrician in America. But Paige doubted Jafar would allow her to keep it for long.
Pulling his sister after him, Jafar turned and strode away, his long-legged stride causing Chalah to struggle to keep up with him as they moved around the bend of the hall and disappeared from view.
Paige closed and locked the door carefully before leaning against it and letting a silent sob ripple through her own body. How close she had come to trusting the other girl and attempting to ease the pain she had felt in her. How close she had come to destroying herself, Tariq, and worst of all, Abram.
“The listening device didn’t work, Paige. ”
Jerking, she turned to see Tariq standing behind her, his expression creased with anger and his own sorrow. “I detected it the second she and Jafar knocked on the door. ” He lifted the device he had been working on. “I fixed it. ”
She turned and wiped her eyes. “That only detects it,” she whispered painfully.
He shook his head. “I switched on a device beneath the table before I left that alters the audio signal, either analog or digital. I didn’t disable it until I saw you weren’t going to betray Abram. Then, I used the controls in my suite to allow enough out to whoever was listening to assure them that you weren’t shit, even if you knew. Perhaps, Jafar will send her home now. ”
He moved closer as more tears fell down her face, as she sniffed back the pain that tore through her and the disillusionment that shredded her heart.
“I hate this place,” she suddenly spat, though the sobs, as quiet as they were, roughened her voice to a rasp. “Oh God, Tariq, I hate this place. ”
He stepped closer, his expression suddenly tired, and just as disillusioned as she felt. “And you aren’t alone,” he whispered as he tucked a heavy strand of hair behind her ear, his fingertips caressing her ear gently for a fragile second before they dropped away. “Trust me, Paige, in that, you will never be alone. ”
mbp:pagebreak/>9
A day of dealing with Azir and Jafar’s paranoia a
s he searched fruitlessly for the only contact that could arrange extraction out of Saudi Arabia had Abram in a less than pleasant mood when he returned to his room that night.
For whatever reason, and he was beginning to suspect those reasons, Jafar had convinced Azir that Abram needed to personally handle the drilling of a new water well outside of the fortress.
