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Her fingers clenched tighter on his arm, the need to run overwhelming her now. Each of those charges were punishable by stoning for a woman, though only the charge of treason held such a punishment for Abram and Tariq.
She could feel him against her, the tension in his body mounting as he extricated his arm from her grip only to wrap it around her shoulders and pull her to him.
The pounding came again.
“Three. ” Abram began counting off. “Two. ” As he spoke he turned her toward the back of whatever cave, cavern, or room they were hidden within.
A second later the loud, raucous sounds of a heavy metal band began to scream through the room.
Paige jumped, only barely managing to hold back a cry of surprise at the shrill music. In the same d, Abram’s arms tightened around her and they were rushing headlong into a darkness barely lit by the penlight Tariq held out before him.
“What the hell happened?” Abram snarled as they began to run through the stone corridor that she was certain had to run on forever.
“I don’t know what the hell happened,” Tariq hissed back. “I was with our contact arranging extraction when he got the call that the Matawa were moving in on the fortress to arrest the three of us, and that Jafar couldn’t be found. Azir contacted them from what our contact, Yassir, learned and he rushed me back to the cave entrance. From what we were being told as we ran for the caverns, Azir called them in and informed them of the charges. He’s also having an ‘arrest on sight’ order placed against Khalid, Paige’s mother, and her father if they enter Saudi Arabia. It’s a fucking mess, and I still haven’t figured out how Azir arranged it. ”
Azir, Abram’s father. He had found another way to betray his son.
“He has minor influence with the Matawa,” Abram growled. “He’ll be able to keep the order in force only until the authorities in Riyadh hear of it and bring it before the king. But until then, they can do exactly that; kill on sight. ”
He didn’t even sound breathless or tired and Paige knew her legs would have already given out on her.
She tried to draw enough air into her lungs to keep from collapsing, her heart racing hard and fierce as Abram all but carried her at a dead run.
“Did you complete the extraction plan?” Abram’s voice was lifeless, all emotion stripped from it now.
“Extraction was all but complete when the call came in. Yassir managed to call in emergency extraction at that point,” Tariq informed him. “We have three hours to reach the pickup point in the mountains. If we’re not there, then they leave without us. I talked to the commander of the rangers myself and he intends to make damned certain nothing stands in the way of that information getting into their hands, but he’s not willing to watch his men die to get it. Did you get the files?”
Had any of them had time to get anything?
“On my back,” Abram bit out. “My pack holds everything we’ve gathered over the past year. Don’t worry; extraction won’t leave without us, Tariq. They need this too damned much and they know it. ”
He had made certain he wouldn’t become a casualty to politics or indifference in the plans made to pull him and Tariq, and now Paige as well, out of Saudi Arabia.
“Jafar had Chalah driven to the desert airstrip where a private Learjet made a quick stop and picked her up before heading out again, earlier9;t worry;ening. That’s where we suspect he is, on his way back from the airstrip,” Tariq reported, as Paige swore there was no end to the tunnel.
“At least she’s out of here,” Abram bit out roughly. “Having my friends endangered in this war Azir has been
waging against us is going to get him killed. ”
And she could hear the certainty in Abram’s voice that he would be the one to kill his father.
“What I’d like to know is why the hell Jafar was so damned intent on getting her out of here tonight,” Tariq questioned, his voice harsh.
“Why hasn’t he kept her here, as Azir has been pushing him to do?” Abram asked in return. “God only knows what either of them have planned. ”
“There are horses waiting in the cavern, and we should arrive at the extraction location just in time if we’re damned lucky,” Tariq stated as they rounded yet another curve in the tunnel.
“Is there any way they can find the hidden door in Abram’s room?” Paige whispered as the fear clenched her stomach and trembled in her voice at the thought of being followed.
“Azir has searched that room and every other room in the castle for the doors to the tunnels he’s already closed in. He still hasn’t found some of those. Many of the tunnels veer off in several different directions with the ones leading to more strategically located rooms accessed by more than one hidden stone door and tunnel, like a damned underground maze with no map,” Abram told her. “This particular corridor empties into an old mine. It’s easily millennia old and the exit is no more than a narrow slit in a wall surrounded by fallen boulders. If it were going to be found, Azir would have done so by now. ”
They hadn’t slowed. Both men kept a steady pace that never slackened, one Paige couldn’t have had a hope of keeping up with if it weren’t for Abram’s arm locked around her waist.
Still, she was breathless, tired, and fighting to keep up just enough to keep him from having to slow his pace. She felt helpless, weak, and unable to fight enough to even participate in her own escape.
“Why did Azir turn you into the Matawa?” She gasped as she struggled to help Abram keep her on her feet. “What was the point?”
“The hell if I know,” Abram growled. “It’s at least two more weeks before the emissary is due to arrive and Azir has to have me there to give that vow, not under arrest, awaiting death, or dead. It served no purpose. ”
