The Sheik's Furious Bride (Love By Accident) (3 page)

Chapter
2

Isla pressed her
persistent
alarm,
desperately
wanting just a few more
precious
minutes of sleep.  She’d slept so poorly the night before and all the
wedding
festivities yesterday had taken a toll on her.  She just wanted a few more minutes
to sleep
.
  Was that really so much to ask? 

Her feet still ached from standing so long and her new shoes had been merciless.  As her mind continued to resist sleep,
she wondered what her mysterious stranger would think if he caught her
walking
through the palace in fluffy slippers.  She smiled and pulled her pillow close, her mind drifting to the thought that maybe this is what it would be like to pull his body close so she could curl up in her sleep next to him. 

She reached over and pressed the snooze button, not wanting to lose the delicious feeling of curling up next to her stranger’s muscular body. 
But the alarm didn’t stop when she pressed the snooze button.  Darn thing!  She sat up and looked at the numbers.  It was only four thirty in the morning!  She didn’t need to be up until seven o’clock and she hadn’t gotten into bed until just after midnight. 

She looked around at her darkened bedroom, pushing the soft sheets out of the way. 
What was that
infuriating
sound? 

And then she woke up enough to figure it out, springing out of bed to grab her
beeping
cell phone. 
She rubbed her eyes, trying to eliminate the haze of sleep so she could focus
on the small screen that was trying to give her some information
. 
The text message was clear.  “Zone five is up. 
Center of the universe.”

Isla didn’t wait any longer.  She ran into her closet and changed, pulling on her black leggings and black jacket with a hood.  Her backpack was already set to
go,
she just needed to get out of the palace. 
That would be a
n extremely
tricky endeavor if she hadn’t found a
secret
way out several years ago.  She’d originally left the palace in disguise during the day, just to have a few hours of freedom from the restrictions of palace life and being the daughter of the sheik. 
Initially, s
he’d just visit
ed
the marketplace, or walk
ed
through the museums, do
ing
anything that normal people might do.  But one day, she’d come up with the idea of actually helping people.  She’d read so many medical books, pouring through the information
and was always fascinated by how the body worked
and healed
. 

So instead of just wandering about the capital city aimlessly, she started looking for a group of people, men or women with specific skills who could go out and find people who needed help.  They would then combine their areas of expertise to make a difference, to help the people who couldn’t get help anywhere else. 

Sometimes, it was just smuggling medicine across the border, paid for with
her own
money and never stolen, but medicine needed to go through so many official channels and so much of it was siphoned off by those who claimed to be officials.  Those ‘officials’ would sell off the medicine on the black market
whereas
her way brought the medicine directly to the people who needed it the most. 

She never dispersed medicine, only giving it to qualified doctors who were trustworthy and dedicated. 
S
he only performed minor medical attention.  She was sort of like a paramedic who could help people just until she and her team could get the person
trained
medical treatment. 

She wished she’d been allowed to attend medical school.  But she didn’t dare ask for something so outrageous.  Rashid would never allow it anyway, so she hadn’t wasted her breath. 

She carefully moved the cover of shoes that hid the secret
passa
g
e
way.  Not even the servants who
cleaned her room knew of this opening and she was careful to maintain its secrecy. 
Opening the trap door, she slithered into the tunnel and down the ladder, careful to close the door as soon as she was through
and make sure it was sealed shut with the lock bolted on her side
. 

Within five minutes
of her leaving her bedroom
, she was outside the palace walls and gave the signal
– a small pen light flashed three times in the direction of the palace kitchens
.  A black van
immediately
pulled up and she
quickly
jumped in the side door.  The van was already speeding up by the time she had both feet on the floorboards while someone else slammed the door shut. 

There was a team of five people in the van but no time for greetings. 
As soon as she was seated, a map was pulled out and the information on the situation relayed to the team. 
They went through the details they knew about so far, questions asked, answers given.  Meanwhile, they drove through the night towards the border
to Silaria
. 

As they approached the target area, Isla picked up her pack and went through the contents, ensuring that she had everything she might need. 

Tonight, it was a gang war that had started brewing a few days ago after the death of a member.  One side accused the other of murder, the other side called back that the deceased had been on their turf.  The battle lines had been drawn up years ago when Silaria was at war for power. 
El-Hamin
still hadn’t
used
his
formidable
might to quell these kinds of problems in the border towns, and often the power vacuum manifested itself in these little fiefdoms where a cruel
, petty
tyrant claimed power.  

This was one area in which she wished
El-Hamin
would just put his army down and get rid of the problem.  She’d patched up several innocent bystanders in the dark of night because of these
nasty
bullies
and she was sick of it.  Women and children, farmers who were just trying to get their crops to market,
small businessmen
or women
who wanted to make a living for their
family,
all of them were impacted by these
turf
battles. 
El-Hamin
needed to get rid of these stupid fights and lay down a law of justice instead of a law of fear. 

Her team
stopped
the van
several blocks away and walked the rest of the way to where they’d been told the violence would be occurring.  She was standing in the shadows while Dinan, the negotiator
on the team
stepped forward.  They found the two gangs facing off in the middle of the street and Isla said a silent prayer of thanks that this was happening in the early morning hours instead of later in the day.  This street was the main market place and more people would be hurt if anything happened while the vendors were set up and people doing their daily shopping.

Dinan and Loan
, another medic,
stepped forward, their hands raised high in an effort to get everyone’s attention.  The men on both sides looked at the two,
then
turned back.  Isla was too far back to hear what was being said, but she knew that things weren’t going well just by the body language. 

Nazih
, a large man with tactical
and military
knowledge and knew just about everyone no matter where they were,
was beside her and she glanced in his direction.  “Not good,” she whispered.  The
tall man
silently agreed.  Dinan was still talking, while Loan was getting into position.  Personally, Isla thought they should both pull back because they were going
to
get hurt.

All of a sudden, there was movement on both sides of the street.  Soldiers were moving in with guns drawn, shouting all sorts of orders for people to get down onto the ground.  Dinan and Loan were already there, not willing to argue when guns were drawn.  It was their policy to work with the
local
officials when possible,
but only
when they weren’t corrupt which was sometimes the case when dealing with the locals. 
Occasionally
the local police officers were corrupt and other times, they were just trying to do their best with the
limited
resources they had.  Nazih observed both and could quickly discern the good from the bad.  The good received his
help,
the bad had some additional issues to deal with as he snuck around
after the fact
and caused mischief.  It was his way of keeping the local population safe.  He figured if the corrupt police officers were busy trying to find him, they wouldn’t bother the locals as often or as harshly. 

As Isla watched
the scene unfold
, she realized that these men weren’t local officials.  They were too disciplined
…t
oo well trained. 
And had better hardware, which was an additional worry. 

She looked up at Nazih, trying to get a sense from him
i
f these were the good guys or the bad guys. 

Unfortunately, she was distracted
by someone she thought never to see again
.  Ou
t of the shadows, a large, dark
, menacing
form stepped out, his stride commanding,
his
voice filled with authority.  He ordered the soldiers to round them all up.  They were being arrested for distribution of weapons and various other violations.  Isla
couldn’t
believe it!  No violence, everyone rounded up.  This rarely happened! 

Most of the time, these bursts of violence occurred during the day time so the perpetrators could slip into the crowds.  Isla and her team would move in later,
under cover of
the night and help those who were hurt or needed some sort of assistance.  They also gathered information
surreptitiously
and slipped that information to the
non-corrupt
authorities. 

Isla was just about to turn away and head back to the van when she caught a sudden movement.  One of the gang members was pulling something from his pocket.  The soldier by his side saw it at the same time, but h
e wasn’t fast enough to stop the gang member
.  The knife flew out of
the man’s hand
, burying itself in the larger man’s shoulder.  The soldier had the gang member down on the ground and handcuffed in record time, but Isla was already moving in, her medic bag open so she could tend to the wound. 

Soldiers instantly surrounded her and she put up her hands, opening her bag so they could see that it was only filled with medical supplies.  “We only come here to help the victims,” she explained, pointing to Dinan and Loan.  “They’re professional negotiators and
medics who are
trying to help.  Please don’t arrest them.” 

The soldiers looked to the larger man for guidance.  When he nodded his head, the soldiers backed up and rounded up the others.  The man who threw the knife was placed in a different vehicle from the others and whisked off to some unknown detention facility. 

Isla could see that the knife wound was deep and already blood was seeping out and soaking his shirt. 
“Can I come closer and help you?” she asked cautiously, the night making it hard to see the man’s face so she couldn’t read his expression.  “I don’t care what your political
affiliation,
I’m just here to help you tend to the wound.”
Why did the man look so familiar?