Stolen By The Sheikh (Interracial Romance) (2 page)

Chapter 3

There were more gunshots, yelling voices, and the sound of a vehicle screeching to a halt in front of the house. This was followed by pounding on the front door, and when no one answered, the sound of shattering glass. Dani’s body shook as she listened to the strange voices emanating from her father’s living room. Men were yelling at each other in Arabic as they ransacked the house. She could hear them overturning furniture and the contents of drawers and cabinets crashing to the ground, but it was the eerie quiet that followed the chaotic noises that struck terror in her heart.

In the deafening silence, she could track the men by their footfall. Her hearing seemed to have become superhuman. Her breath caught in her throat as she heard them coming closer, and then stopping in front of her bedroom door. Whoever was on the other side tried to open the door, but it was locked. For a brief moment, she thought that perhaps they would give up and move on, but this irrational hope was obliterated by one swift kick and the sound of splintering wood as the doorframe gave way. Dani held her breath as the footsteps thudded outside the closet door, and then it creaked open. She saw the looming shadow of a man with an AK-47, and he turned to his side and yelled over his shoulder, and suddenly there were three of them, and they were yanking aside the suitcases and boxes.

With a bloodcurdling scream, Dani yelled out, “No! Please! Please don’t hurt me. Please…”

But her pleas fell on deaf ears. The men grabbed roughly at her arms and jerked her to her feet. For the first time, it occurred to her that she was naked, and she tried desperately to yank her arms free from their grasp in order to cover her breasts. This made the men laugh hysterically, and one of them gave her a swift smack on the ass, her sharp yelp of pain and surprise making them laugh even harder. They dragged her out of the closet and one of the men started rifling through her dresser. He threw her a sundress, and the two thugs gripping her forearms let go long enough for her to pull it over her head.

They then marched her out the front door, with two men holding onto her, and another following behind with his gun pointed at the back of her head. They shoved her into the backseat of a battered old truck, flanked on either side by her kidnappers, and no chance of escape. Their nefarious colleague got behind the wheel and revved the engine. Looking over his shoulder, he glared menacingly at Dani, a finger pressed to his lips, and hissed, “Quiet.”

She was surprised to hear an English word come out of her captor’s mouth, and she wondered if at some point she might be able to use this to her advantage. Was she being held hostage for ransom money? Maybe she could convince them that her father would gladly pay for her release. He didn’t have a lot of money, but he was resourceful. Dani knew that he’d do whatever it took to have her returned to him safely. She just had to wait for the right opportunity to tell them.

They rolled slowly through the base, and Dani found it odd that everything was so quiet. If there were only three of them, surely a base full of soldiers with nearly unlimited weaponry should have been able to take them down almost effortlessly. Her father couldn’t have been the only one to have heard the gunshots and responded. Yet it was like a ghost town. Where the hell was everyone? What had they done?

Dani never got an answer to her questions, as she was too terrified to ask them aloud, but as they approached the guard booth, a sickening feeling washed over her. Her stomach was leaden, and her blood felt like ice water running through her veins. As the truck’s headlights illuminated the guard shack, Dani began to sob. The small building’s window was shattered, and there was blood everywhere. She saw two soldiers dead on the ground, and one slumped over inside the shack, the back of his head missing.

The men laughed quietly as she wailed, idling beside the carnage to make sure she got a good, long look. Then one of them slapped her face and shook her by the shoulders. He whispered, “Shut up now. Not another peep, or you’ll be joining your friends.”

As she fought to get her sobbing under control as quickly as possible, a black hood was placed over her face and secured around her neck. She was then pushed onto the floor of the truck, and one of the men tossed a blanket over her to conceal her presence. The truck jolted and jostled, banging down decrepit roads for what felt like forever, painfully bouncing Dani against the floor and the men’s shins, and by the time it finally slowed to a stop, she was so sore that she could barely straighten out her body.

Her captors dragged her out of the truck, placing her on her feet. They didn’t remove the hood, so she tripped and stumbled, completely blind, as they led her towards whatever dreadful fate they had in mind for her. Several times during their walk, the men would stop to talk to others, and she was certain that they were discussing her, although she couldn’t understand a word. They talked and laughed so casually, they could have been discussing the weather or a sporting event. It was hard to imagine that anyone could be so casual about committing murder and kidnapping, but perhaps these pastimes were as common for them as football or mowing the lawn would be for most of the men she knew.

After some time had passed, they stopped walking, and the men were addressing someone they were standing before. They spoke to him in Arabic, but he answered in English. “Well? Remove the hood! Let me see what you’ve brought to me!”

The hood was yanked off, and Dani blinked, her eyes adjusting to the light. When her vision came into focus, she was face to face with a handsome Middle Eastern man. He looked vaguely familiar to her, and then she realized that he looked like a slightly older version of the soldier she had found so beautiful. He flashed her a smile, his perfect white teeth gleaming. She glanced around the room, and realized that she was in some sort of palace. The ornate marble and tapestry décor epitomized wealth and opulence, and she wondered now if she was part of a political ploy.

After giving her a long, hard once over with his eyes, the man turned his attention back to his goons. “So tell me, where did you obtain this lovely creature?”

One of the men laughed, “Sheikh Abdul, she comes from the U.S. Army base.”

The Sheikh’s eyes narrowed and he rubbed his temples. “And tell me, how exactly did you manage to pull this off?”

Another man spoke up, “We first spotted her at the bazaar earlier in the day. We knew that she would be to your liking, but there was no opportunity at that time. So we waited. We followed her father back to the base, and then we waited until it was late enough that nearly everyone would be asleep before returning. When the time was right, we made our way onto the base and drove until we found the car we had trailed. Sure enough, she was there.”

With a terse nod, the Sheikh asked, “Was there any… collateral damage?”

Unable to stop herself, Dani furiously sobbed, “They murdered at least three innocent people. I saw the bodies!”

One of the captors interrupted, defensively spitting the words, “There were only three. We did not set out to kill anyone, and we only killed those we had to. We killed the first when he went for the alarm button in the guard shack. The other two came running as we were disabling the base-wide communication system. They would have shot us if we hadn’t shot first.”

The Sheikh clucked his tongue, half-heartedly admonishing his henchmen. “Gentlemen, that was unnecessary. With a bit more planning, I’m sure you could have found a way to get her here without causing death. Perhaps you need more training if this was the best you could do.”

The men, deflated and looking for all the world like chastised children, stared at their feet and mumbled apologies. Dani thought that now was her chance. It might be the only one she got. She dropped to her knees and implored Sheikh Abdul to let her go, explaining that her father loved her very much, and although he didn’t have much money, she was sure that he’d find a way to come up with however much was necessary.”

Sheikh Abdul pressed his fingertips together, staring into her eyes, then gestured around the room. “My dear, why would I want your father’s money? Does it look like I have any shortage of my own?”

Weeping and begging, Dani gasped, “Then what? What do you want? What are you going to do with me? Oh, please, please let me go home. I just want to go home to my daddy.”

The Sheikh’s long, slender fingers reached out and gently brushed her hair off her face. He sighed heavily, then shook his head, like he was shaking off a thought he’d rather not have. “I’m sorry that you miss your father. In time, you will come to love it here, and you will forget all about him. You haven’t been brought here as a hostage. I seek a special woman to become my first wife.”

Chapter 4

As the meaning of his words began to sink in, Dani felt as though the world was crumbling around her. How could this be happening? Things like this didn’t happen in real life, not to people like her. She had done everything right. She had been a good student, a good daughter, never breaking the rules, never taking unnecessary risks… She had even endured being teased by all of her friends because she avoided dating in order to make sure that nothing would screw up her plans for the future. And for what? Only to have it all fall apart in this horrible country, because of this horrible man. She thought of college, and all of the guys she would have dated. She thought of falling in love eventually, getting married, and starting a family. So many dreams destroyed in a single night.

The Sheikh was telling her that now it was time for her to be taken to her room so she could “settle in,” and that he would be in to see her shortly. Addressing his goons, he said, “Take her to her room. She needs some time alone to compose herself and get used to her new life.”

The men took Dani’s arms, taking care to handle her much more gently than they had before the Sheikh was present to witness their behavior, and led her through a maze of hallways, and up a spiraling staircase. There were at least two dozen doors in the upstairs corridor, but they stopped in front of the third. One of the men pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door, revealing a bedroom that was truly fit for a princess. It reminded Dani of something out of an Arabian Nights fairytale.

As she stepped inside, the men let go of her, and one of them cleared his throat and said, “Sheikh Abdul will be in to see you in a little while. Until then, you have your own bathroom, so feel free to freshen up if you’d like. You’ll find clothing in your dresser. In fact, you’ll find just about anything you could need in this room. It is all yours, so feel free to look around. You have a television, and should you need something to eat, you can call the kitchen at any time and they’ll bring up whatever you’d like.”

He smiled when he noticed Dani eying the phone. “It doesn’t call out. There’s a list with the various extensions you may need. The kitchen, the maid, your personal servant, who will act as your personal shopper and will tend to anything else you may need, and your husband’s line. That should cover everything, yes?”

Dani nodded without looking at the men, and as she stood in the middle of the room, feeling completely bewildered and lost, they left. She heard the deadbolt click into place as they locked her in, and then she was all alone. A breeze caught the curtains, and she hurried towards the open window, thinking perhaps they had overlooked an escape route. Even if she would have fallen to her death, she would have preferred it to staying here. She yanked back the gauzy fabric and found herself looking through metal bars. Her lip trembled as she stared out at the palatial grounds. The sky was still pitch black, but she could see slices of her surroundings where the security lights illuminated the ground. It was massive, resembling a country club more than a backyard. To her dismay, she noticed that her new yard was patrolled by armed guards.

Despite the overwhelming fear, Dani was curious about her surroundings. She poked through the cabinets and drawers in the bathroom, then started going through the dresser. The drawers were full to bursting with a brand new wardrobe, and she was shocked to find that everything from the bras to the pants were exactly her size. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up at this discovery. Had the Sheikh specified the exact measurements of the girl he wanted his goons to kidnap? And how would they have been able to tell at a glance that she met the specifications? The whole thing was so bizarre that she wondered if she was losing her mind.

There was no time to contemplate her sanity, though. Once again, a key was turning in the deadbolt, and her bedroom door swung open to reveal the Sheikh. He swaggered into the room, shutting and locking the door behind him. Dani’s eyes widened as she realized the real reason for his visit. He was already unbuttoning his shirt as he approached her, and she tried to rebuff his advances by turning her body away from him.

Sheikh Abdul was having none of it. He forcibly spun her around and kissed her so hard that her lips felt bruised. She clenched her jaw as he tried to force his tongue into her mouth. Enraged by her refusal, he picked her up and threw her onto the bed. He yanked off his belt and doubled it up in his fist. The veins in his neck bulged as he thundered, “You have much to learn, you spoiled brat. I don’t know how you were raised, but you do not call the shots in this house. I am the Sheikh, I make the rules, and you follow the rules. That’s all you have to do, and you will have a wonderful life with me. Should you choose to defy me, I will put you in your place until you learn. Do you understand me?”

Trembling in terror, Dani nodded her head emphatically, whispering, “Yes. Yes, I understand. Please don’t hurt me. I’ll do whatever you want.”

The Sheikh smirked as he peeled off his shirt and unbuttoned his pants. She could see his erection bulging through his underwear. He yanked Dani’s knees apart and started to lower himself on top of her. He hiked up her dress, and looked pleased to discover that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. As he ran the back of his hand of her smoothly waxed mons, he noticed that she had closed her eyes, and tears were streaming down her face as her shoulders shook.