Captive- Veiled Desires (11 page)

Something snapped inside him. His rage seared through his veins. He’d had enough of her pleadings and cries. He rose abruptly from his chair and pulled her roughly out of hers. He grabbed her elbow and dragged her out of their bedroom.

“No! No! What are you doing?!” she begged. “You’re hurting me! Stop! Stop!”

He dragged her all the way to the middle of the courtyard and threw her aside. She trembled, looking fearfully at the men gathering about them. They were garbed in their ethnic Pashtun shirts and pants. Her eyes widened in fear. She had seen terrorists dressed similarly on TV.  Their guns were strung behind their backs and their beards made them even more menacing than they already were.

What is he going to do to me? Kill me? Gang rape…

Her legs quivered at the mere thought. Her body went limp as she fell to the ground, shivering with fear.

“Adam?” one asked.

But Adam growled at the men with an ire that paled even them. The men immediately dispersed, standing at a distance, watching them.

“You wanted me to let you go,” said Adam. “So, go.”

She looked up at him with disbelief.
This can’t be happening. Was he really…?

“Go!” he roared.

Move, Nora. Move! Run!!

She scrambled immediately on all fours on the dust in the courtyard. She picked herself up, racing clumsily towards the entrance.
Before he changed his mind! Please, God, don’t let him change his mind.

She tripped and fell, grazing her knee. She sobbed, quickly glancing behind her. But he hadn’t followed. He was still standing there, where she had left him, watching her silently.

She stood up and raced out the entrance.
I am free. I am free. Free, free…

The mid-day desert heat bore down on her. Hot breeze scalded her skin. The dryness in the air parched her throat. Common sense told her to turn back. At least, they had food. They had water. At least, she could have survived until she was rescued.

Her eyes narrowed, squinting at the horizon. Desert sand blew into her face, cutting her skin, and she lifted the neckline of her dress up to her nose, holding it steady there as she stumbled further on. Her hair blew wildly about her and she brushed it away roughly with her other hand.

Her breaths grew short and quick. She saw nothing for miles. There was nothing but sand.
Surely, there must be life beyond this barrenness
.

Nora turned around hesitantly. The little cluster of houses she had hastily raced away from lay in the distance below her like white specks in the red sandy desert, enticing her to return.

I can’t… I must go on. I have to go on. Someone will help me. Someone will find me. But I can never go back. Not now! Not ever… never to that man!

Adam wiped the grease off his mechanical tools as he organized them neatly into his boxes. Basel watched him quietly.

“Aren’t you going to go after her?”  he asked after a little while.

“She was the one who was so desperate to leave,” Adam replied nonchalantly, blowing out a ball of dust caught in his wrench.

“The sun is almost at its peak. A Western woman would never survive the heat of the arid Registan Desert. If you leave her out there, she will never make it alive. Hell, it would be hard for any man lost in those dunes, let alone a woman.”

“There’s nothing I can do about that. She ran the moment I let her, didn’t she?”

Basel let out a tired puff of air. “I don’t know what happened this morning, Adam. Last night you were looking up eagerly at her window like some overly smitten lover and today you tossed her out as if she was worth nothing. All I know is that if you leave her there to roam that desert, you’ll never see her alive again.”

Adam didn’t answer. His eyes grew cold and stern as he continued to neaten his tool boxes.

“We have everyone watching us,” Basel continued. “Word has already spread that the leader of Darul-Ilhaam is now married. What would someone think of Darul-Ilhaam if they heard the leader’s new wife split before he had even consummated the marriage?”

Adam frowned, glancing at the man across him over his brows.

“Oh, don’t bother taking the piss at me,” Basel warned. “It is true, isn’t it? We have more than a dozen witnesses who can vouch that you slept in the hall with them on the night of your marriage. And in the morning, your bride took off without as much as a protest.” He put his hands on his hips, pacing the width of the garage. “We have a lot to risk right now, Adam. We have the Americans to deal with. And then with treacherous bastards like Hafiz Sajadi and Mateen in the organization who will gladly pick on every one of your failures, to point out you’re not the right leader for Darul-Ilhaam, they will split the organization. They will turn our people against you. You can’t afford to let your new wife be another reason they’ll use to stand against you.”

Adam shook his head. “There is little I can do if she doesn’t want to come back.”

“Fine. But sort it out between yourselves as to how she can leave you without endangering your leadership. Leaving her to languish in the savage Registan Desert though, is not the way to go about doing that. Do you know the extent of wrath this will create in the Western media if they even heard that you left her to die there? You yourself said we almost have the Americans eating out of our palms. Why risk it now?”

Adam banged his toolbox shut, his breaths growing short and shallow as he tried to retain the anger raging inside him.
She wanted to leave! She wanted to go!
“I did all I could for her. There is nothing more I can do.” His words fell out with bitterness mingled with regret. He was angry that she had left. It mattered to him. After saving her… not once had she thought about him.

“But Adam…”

“I said I ain’t going after her!” he roared, suddenly losing his temper. He stood by a car, threading his fingers through his hair in frustration.  He didn’t want to anger Basel. He knew he meant well. After all, he was one of only a few trusted friends in Darul-Ilhaam. “Please… Basel. Just leave it be.”

“She’s your woman Adam,” Basel said slowly. “You weren’t able to keep her from leaving and that’s bad enough. But now you’re telling me you won’t go and look for her?”

My woman… mine.
He repeated the words in his head.
If she were mine, she would never have left. I would never have let her.

He turned around looking at the palm trees cloaking the desert from his view. She would never have known what she was racing into when he had permitted her to flee this morning. All she had seen were the lush trees of the little oasis nested in middle of the vast arid desert of Registan. The greenery had deceived her. Unbeknownst to her, there were relatively only a few people who had survived the savagery of the desert sands without the bare essentials.

Murmurs at the door alerted him. Basel strode up to the two women standing by the door.

“Husna?” Basel said, surprised to find the women actively seeking them out. They would usually keep to their duties. If they ever had a message to deliver to the men, they were usually through a man of their family. In such a restrictive community as theirs, there was always the threat of retribution for women flirting with men.

The women stared at each other, urging one another to break the news.

“What is it, Husna?” Basel asked.

The woman licked her lips and whispered in soft undertones, glancing fearfully at Adam standing by the window.

“Umeed-war?
” Basel repeated with slight surprise.

Adam looked over harshly at them. He had heard the word. But who? What were they saying?

Basel nodded at them, assuring that he would take care of the matter. They pleaded one last time before walking away hastily back into their sheltered lives.

“What’s going on, Basel?” Adam asked, frowning deeply.

“Did you know?” Basel asked, anger seeping into his voice. “Surely, you must have. Is that why you wouldn’t spend the night with her last night?”

“What are you talking about? Tell me clearly what it is you want to accuse me of now.”

“She is pregnant! She’s with child, Adam! It’s all clear now why you married her in haste… why you didn’t want to go to her on your wedding night. What is it? Have you changed your mind about the child? You don’t want to raise a mixed breed? Is that why you’ve thrown her out?”

Adam balled his hands into a fist.
She is pregnant?
He didn’t know which angered him more. That she was pregnant with another man’s child or that she hadn’t told him. Rationality reminded him he wasn’t privy to either of those details. He had only met her a week ago. Yet, his jealousy speared through him.

“I don’t believe this.” Basel shook his head with disappointment. “I never expected this from you, Adam. God have mercy on you should anything happen to her or the baby. Well, if this is how you’re going to be, then I am left with no choice but to get her back. I wish though, you’d stand up like the man I know you are and do it yourself.”

HAPTER 9

She stumbled through the sand. Her feet dug into the dunes as she trudged further on. The wind cut her face; the sand flying past her stung her flesh.

Her mind was determined to push on. But her body was beginning to grow weaker with each step.

There must be people who travel these deserts. If only I could just make it past these dunes…

In the distance, she caught sight of firmer grounds and she let out a breath of relief. It was almost like her prayers were answered.

Her heart raced as she gathered up fortitude to end her plight on the sands. There was hope. American soldiers were more likely to patrol those lands than these wretched dunes. Hell,
someone
had to travel through them!

She had long left Adam and her prison behind her. And even though her throat hurt from her thirst for water, she was glad she hadn’t given in to her fear and returned to him. She would rather die in these deserted sands trying.

I’m almost there! Just a little more!
She almost cried with joy.

And even though she reminded herself to remain steady, her body wouldn’t abide to her commands. She raced towards the parched lands, her feet digging in deeper into the sands, stumbling her. She tripped and rolled down the side of the hill, landing to the bottom that skirted the ends of the dunes.

Her body was scraped and sore, but she didn’t care. She had crossed yet another threshold in her flight from her captives.

She picked herself up and staggered towards firmer grounds. A shimmer of light caught her eye. Was that water in the horizon?

The shimmering light reminded her that she hadn’t had a drink in hours. She licked her lips to moisten them and it stung the cracks in them. She let out a tiny wince.

She looked hopefully into the horizon. If she could make it to the lake, she could survive the desert. It didn’t seem too far. She could make it before sunset. She had to, she thought as she squinted earnestly at it.

Amy turned the key in the lock of Nora’s apartment. She had always kept a copy of her key but rarely had she the need to use it.

She flung the door open anxiously. The guy over the phone had told her she needed some written consent from Nora to enquire further on her travel movements. Perhaps, Nora had left a written consent and then had forgotten to give it to her. Perhaps, she had left something that could be used as a written consent. Either way, she needed to find it to attain full disclosure on Nora’s whereabouts.

She tripped over a waste paper basket as she stepped into the room.

“What the-?” she swore under her breath and then let out a gasp.

The room was messed up as if someone had ransacked it. She stood in the centre of it, looking about her in shock. Her heart began to pound heavily.
Did Nora get robbed?

A chill ran up her as it dawned upon her that she may have stumbled into the middle of a robbery. Her ears strained for any noise but she heard nothing. She tip-toed through each room, carefully looking for any signs of the intruder who could still be lurking in the apartment.

The lake! It’s too far. It shouldn’t have been this far.
Nora looked earnestly into the horizon. The waters shimmered in the bright sunlight, taunting her. Her head began to spin and she was feeling nauseated. A lump of spit clogged her throat and she retched, trying to hold it down.

She turned around to measure how far she had walked since she had left the dunes. Her heart sank. She was exactly where she had thought the lake was. She had been deceived by a mirage. There was no lake.

Her legs began to cramp and her stomach constricted. She cried out from her pain. Her knees buckled and she fell to the dusty ground. She crouched, pulling her knees to her chest as she wept. Was this it? Was she at the end of her luck?

She didn’t know how long she lay like that, watching the lake disappear into the sunset. She was tired. She had no more strength to move or cry. Her body began to tremble from the cold settling around her. She tugged her body into a tight ball. If she was to die, she hoped it would be soon.

But then she heard footsteps scramble towards her. Someone grabbed her head and laid it on his lap. He opened his canteen and trickled water into her mouth. She spurted it out at first. The water was salty and disgusting. But it was water and just a little had given her life. She gladly opened her mouth for more and the man braced his canteen as she drank eagerly from it.

She lifted up her eyes to thank him, but her face darkened instead.

“No… no,” she murmured. “No!” she sobbed as the man gathered her into his arms.

“Did anyone notice which way she went?” Basel asked the other men standing by the stable doors.

They huddled together, arguing with each other as they confirmed her directions.

“Towards the dunes?” Basel shook his head. She was certainly doomed if he didn’t get to her fast enough. The dunes were more dangerous than the parched lands of Registan. If she took a wrong turn, she could be roaming the sands for days. Those wretched sands stretched endlessly.

He silently swore under his breath. He wished she had taken the flatter plains so he could have taken a vehicle. He hated riding those spitting animals. In all his years he had spent with camels, he had yet to grow accustomed to riding comfortably on them.

“Haidar, get me a camel,” he ordered one of the boys. “I’ll be waiting in front of the house.” The boy raced off into the stables immediately.

Basel strode towards the house to collect some blankets for his saddle. He spotted Adam emerging from it instead, carrying his desert kit and his own bundle of blankets.

Basel raised his brow. “What’s going on, Adam?”

“What do you think?” Adam grumbled. “I’m going to collect my wife.”

Basel tried to stifle the grin tugging at the ends of his mouth. “The boys told me she went that way,” he said, pointing at the dunes.

“I know. I had Tahir follow her when she headed towards the sands.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I was angry!” he spat out and then added quietly. “I didn’t want to talk about her.”

Haidar brought the camel to him and knelt it down. Adam threw his blankets over the saddle and secured it.

“I’ll try to be back by sunset,” he told Basel. “I’ll send Tahir first when I catch up to him.”

“Where are you going, Nora?” he whispered to himself as he watched her through his binoculars.  “There’s nothing there. No one travels these desolate sands.  Come back.”
Come back … to me.

He sighed and placed the binoculars back into its case. He was growing soft on her. Was he taking his marriage vows a little too seriously? He shook his head, swiping a tired hand over his face.  He was only breaking her spirit, he told himself. She would give up sooner or later. And when she did, he would drag her back to his bedroom- where she belonged.