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“For you maybe.”Step.“Not. For. Me.”
“Fine.”
Holly wasn’t prepared for the shove from behind simultaneously to the blade at her throat moving away. She stumbled, then fell heavily, the camera striking the ground hard. Hamid drew her gently to her feet and she withheld a sob. She wouldnotcry.
Pain she could handle. But if her Nikon was damaged in any way…
“You’re with me now,” he soothed. “Everything will be okay.”
She nodded jerkily, then pulled out of his arms and scrambled for her camera. She cradled it in the palm of her hand, checking it over. Hamid would deal with the brigand now. She had her whole career on the line if her camera was broken.
Oomph.
She twisted around, her eyes widening at seeing the brigand and Hamid fighting. Though Hamid was clearly the better fighter as he ducked and weaved and threw punches, he was also no longer armed while the brigand wielded the same, big ugly blade he’d had pressed against her throat.
She couldn’t risk Hamid getting stabbed and dying on her. A sob built at the base of her throat. A world without Hamid in it was like a world without an ocean.
It was reflex to stand with the camera’s strap in her hand, then whirl with the camera flying around too before it hit the brigand with acrackagainst his temple, sending him unconscious to the ground.
She stood stunned and disbelieving at the parts of her camera that had flown free at the impact, her brain hardly able to compute what she’d done. As her precious camera fell from her grasp, Hamid was there, lifting her against his chest and taking her into the tent.
Chapter Ten
Holly couldn’t help but stare up at Hamid as he laid her on the sleeping mat, and she was only vaguely aware of the other women scooting back out of the way. She probably looked like a drowned rat with her tangled red hair falling in a sodden mess down her back and her underwear barely covering her.
“You didn’t need to do that,” he said softly, tenderly.
“I couldn’t let you die.”
His smile was gentle, the very antithesis to how she’d imagined he’d act. “I was never at risk, my little flame. I’m well-versed in defeating my enemies.” He took a shuddering breath. “That you put yourself at risk for me has me torn between fury and selfish glee.”
She blinked. “You put yourself at risk for me, too.”
He nodded. “I did. But I’m trained for combat. You’re not.”
“Because you’re a sheikh and I’m a woman?” she asked bitterly.
His gaze hardened a little. “You don’t like that I’m someone in power?”
She hated inequality of any type, most especially a man in power while a woman was considered powerless. Just like her parents. Her dad had always been the dominant figure, her mother yielding to him in every way.
She didn’t get a chance to answer. One of the shrouded women touched Hamid on his arm. “I am happy to give you anything you desire.” She turned to her friends. “We all are.”
Hamid flinched and pulled his arm away. “Thank you, but I don’t require any of your services. You are all free now to decide your own future. Leave with the man who made you submit to him, or accept a small offering to get you started again in a your new life, and I’ll have my helicopter pick you up and take you home.”
It was clear Stockholm syndrome was a real thing when only two of the six women stepped forward, the others wild-eyed and uncertain. But one-by-one they stepped forward and agreed to their new start.
One of Hamid’s men stepped into the tent carrying a number of small cloth bags. He passed them to Hamid, who then pressed a bag into each of the hands of the women. “There is enough money inside each of these for you to restart your lives. If you get into trouble, there is also a number on a card you can contact.”
The approachingwak-wak-wakof helicopter blades punctured the silence and the women appeared scared and grateful all at once as they were herded out by Hamid’s man. A couple of the women babbled their gratitude and Hamid smiled and took it all in his stride.
Holly crossed her arms, ignoring the racket of the helicopter landing, and the sand that it blew against the tent. Only once the last woman had disappeared through the flap did Holly ask, “You’ve been able to communicate outside the desert all this time?” She despised how wobbly and hurt her voice sounded.
He nodded. “I have.”
“Yet you never thought to tell me.”
“You never asked.”
