The Sheik’s Captured Princess (The Samara Royal Family Series Book 4) (14 page)

“If you say so,” Jurar said and turned away.  He was more affected by her defense of the man than he wanted to admit.  “I have to work.  Go ahead and have dinner without me,” and walked out of their suite before he did something stupid, like demand that she tell him the truth about the rebel leader.

As he walked down the hallway, he wondered why he was protecting his wife.  He should have her arrested.  He should have her in an interrogation room, demanding answers.  That’s what he would do if any other person was accused of being a spy.  Any other person but his wife!

Damn!  He hated being in love with his wife! 

Love?! 

He walked down the hallway, not seeing any of the servants as his discovery hit him full force.  He loved the woman and he was protecting her!  She might be subverting his administration and he was protecting her! 

He went into his office, pacing back and forth as he worked through the details in his mind.  He was in love with a woman who might or might not be a spy, undermining his government.  Who was he going to believe?  A man who lived on the streets, making money however he could?  Or the woman he…loved with all of his heart? 

How could he be in love with a woman he couldn’t trust? 

This shouldn’t be a question.  But was he being duped?  He’d thought he knew her.  He’d thought that he had made her happy here but she’d snuck out yesterday then lied to him. 

And the biggest question – were his feelings for her clouding his judgement and all of this back and forth argument in his head was pointless endeavor because she really was a spy?

By the time the sun was rising over the horizon again, Jurar had come to only one conclusion.  He wasn’t going to lose Ciala.  He didn’t think he could live without her.  If she truly was a spy, then he’d talk with her, ask her why she was doing this.  If she was in love with the other man…well, to hell with him.  Jurar wasn’t letting her go!  He was somehow going to make her happy. 

Ciala woke up and uncurled her legs from the awkward position in which she’d fallen asleep, looking around.  Jurar hadn’t come back to her!  For the first time since they’d been married, he hadn’t made love to her!  Not even once!

And what was worse, she didn’t understand why.  If he was working, wouldn’t he have come to her and let her know? 

Her limbs were stiff from sleeping on the chair and her hair was a mess, but she still wanted to find Jurar, ask him why he hadn’t come to her last night.  And not only that, she’d basically begged him with her body yesterday afternoon and he’d simply turned away.

Was this the end?  Did he not want her anymore? 

One day he was making love to her with a frantic, crazy desperation and the next day, he was walking away from her. 

She didn’t understand and her heart was so confused.  She loved him, but didn’t understand him.  She wanted him, but had no idea how to tempt him to want her back if he’d truly lost interest. 

And what’s worse, she didn’t know who she could talk to.  Back home, she would have gone to Shantra and they would have talked through the problem.  If it was really bad, she’d always known she could go to Ramzi, Turk or Rais.  They could be irritating brothers, but in a crisis, they pulled together with patience and intelligent solutions or suggestions, always willing to listen. 

As she brushed her hair and changed clothes, she wasn’t really sure what she could do in this kind of a situation.  “I’ll go home,” she whispered to her reflection. 

Walking down the hallway, she noticed that several of the servants were looking away from her.  That was unusual since most of the time, they were all eager to help her, smiling at her and asking if she needed anything. 

When she reached Jurar’s outer office, she sensed everyone looking at her.  And not in a good way, she thought.  Sure enough, as she looked around, several of the administrative staff looked away, almost appearing angry with her for some reason. 

This was all very strange, she thought as she approached his assistant’s desk.  “Is Jurar in his office?” she asked, wary and unsure. 

The man stood up respectfully, but he didn’t look her in the eye as he said, “He is in his office, Your Highness, but he is unavailable.”

Ciala wasn’t sure what to say in response.  Her mind floundered for a new plan, still in shock.  “Um…well, then could you tell him that I’d like to fly home for a visit with my sister?” she told the man.

The assistant opened his mouth to say something, closed it and then bowed slightly as he said, “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

Ciala’s eyes widened.  “I can’t go home?  Not even for a few hours?  But it’s only an hour’s flight away.  I can be back by lunchtime.”

The man hesitated once again, but shook his head. “I don’t think Sheik Tinora would approve.”  Another bow, but his eyes were still looking at his desk. 

Ciala turned, not sure what to make of everything that was going on.  There was a tension in the air she couldn’t really define.  Walking out of Jurar’s office area, she made her way to the dining room.  Coffee was in order, she thought.  Coffee and perhaps a short conversation with one of the servants.  They were usually full of information. 

But when she stepped into the dining room, there was a full buffet laid out, although not a servant in sight.  She poured herself a cup of coffee and considered her options.  She could just slip out of the palace and go back to Kilar on her own.  But it would be a long drive and she didn’t think she wanted to be gone that long.  It only took an hour by plane, but it would be a much longer drive…that wouldn’t give her much time to talk things through with Shantra.  And she suspected they’d need a good, long chat to figure this mystery out. 

No, something was going on and she didn’t want to antagonize Jurar any further by being gone too long.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t go back to that site she hadn’t been able to get to the other day, take more pictures and maybe explore the neighboring towns a bit.  She hoped that Jurar had listened to her about Fayad, but maybe if she took pictures of the site Fayad had mentioned to her last week, he would understand the man’s value. 

That sounded like a good plan, she thought with relish and went back into her dressing room, changing out of the pretty suit she’d donned earlier and into one of her costumes.  She slipped out the same way she had yesterday. 

And it was just as easy this time.  She made it out in less than twelve minutes this time.  As she drove down the road today though, her mind was more focused on trying to understand why everyone within the palace seemed…angry?  Yes, they were angry.  At her?  It seemed like their anger was directed towards her but perhaps she was just imagining that. She’d lived in the palace for such a short time, the servants hadn’t had a chance to really get to know her yet. 

She’d have to fix that, she thought as she pulled up to the same place she’d parked yesterday.  Lugging her heavy camera bag out of the back seat onto her shoulder, she traipsed across the rocks and sand dunes until she came to the new area. 

Sure enough, there it was.  A new shrine that had been erected for some odd reason.  And why would someone erect it here, out in the middle of nowhere?  It didn’t make a lot of sense. 

She moved around, taking pictures from different angles, trying to get a better understanding of what was going on here.  She was looking through her camera lens, bringing the focus in closer, when she saw something that caused her body to go on high alert. 

Was that a man hiding behind those rocks? 

She moved slightly around another set of boulders and focused again.  Sure enough, the man shifted once again, but he was definitely hiding. 

She didn’t recognize the man, but she suspected something bad was going on. 

Ciala turned around and headed down the rocks, back to the flat area.  This was a trap, she thought with a flash of understanding.  The shrine was a fake.  Fayad, or someone, had created this site to lure her out of the palace! 

She started to panic, but then stopped herself by taking several deep breaths.  Panic was bad.  Her bodyguards had told her over and over that a cool head was the best asset.  Think through the problem, come up with an escape route, plan ahead and have contingencies. 

Ciala had practiced, learned survival techniques, knew self-defense and how to get out of a tight predicament.  She wouldn’t let these men win! 

Pretending to adjust her camera, she used her peripheral vision and counted the number of men who were closing in on her.  There was one to the left, one to the right and…as she turned slightly, she realized there was someone coming up behind her. 

Okay, she thought as she calmed herself down, bring it on!

She pulled her heavy camera bag off of her shoulder and laid it on the ground, then pretended to search through it as she crouched, waiting for the men to approach. 

The idiots weren’t very smart, she realized.  In battle mode, she braced her muscles, ready for their attack.  As soon as the first one was close enough, she spread her legs out quickly, tripping him off balance and then twisting around to jab him in the ribs with her elbow.  They were all coming at her at one time, a bad move.  They should have come at her one at a time but synchronized so that she couldn’t count their numbers. 

As it was, they didn’t reach her all at once so she was able to take them out, one by one.  At first, she was only able to stun them, but as soon as they were gasping for breath or doubled over in pain, she went back in, kicking one in the groin, kneeing another one’s nose and then clapping the third one’s ears.  That last one would have a concussion but she didn’t care.  These men had ambushed her, used her love of history to create a fake shrine and then tried to capture her.  She was fairly certain it was to hurt Jurar and that was one thing she wasn’t going to allow. 

While they were either unconscious or writhing on the ground in pain, she moved in fast. Taking her knife, she sliced off strips of her canvas shirt and tied each man’s hands behind his back, even the unconscious one.  She then went back to the ones that were awake and put her knife between the closest man’s legs.  “Get into the truck or lose them!” she told him.  The man’s eyes widened because he didn’t know she was only bluffing. 

Ciala had never used her knife on any human being.  The only place this knife had gone was into a target when she was practicing her skills.  But the threat was enough to motivate both of them to move fast.  She got them into the back of her SUV and tied each of their hands to various parts of the truck to keep them from jumping out when she was in the driver’s seat, then she tied their feet together and sliced their laces so that she could toss their shoes onto the hard ground.  By the time she was finished, her canvas shirt was all used up and she’d even had to use parts of her camera bag. 

She wasn’t sure how to get the unconscious man into the truck.  He was too big for her to carry.  So she dumped one of her water bottles over his face.  He woke up quickly, sputtering out his anger and surprise.  “Get into the truck,” she told him with furious calm. 

The man stared up at her with defiance.  This one was going to be a bit more difficult, she thought.  “Fine,” she said and started slicing through his pants. 

The man sputtered in anger, but because his hands were so tightly tied behind him, he couldn’t even jerk his legs towards her.  It took her only seconds before his pants were sliced off of his body.  She made long strips of the canvas and tied his feet, making the strips into a rope.  She then dragged him over to the truck.  She’d only gone a couple of inches before he realized what she was planning.  “Okay!” he yelled to her.  “Crazy woman!”

He stood up with her help and started towards the truck.  But the man was wily and tried to run.  Silly man, Ciala thought.  She put her foot on the trail of his pants and down he went again, face first. 

When she walked around to him, he tried to spit on her but she was pretty spry on her feet.  She simply lifted the makeshift rope and started over to the truck once again.  This time, he was closer and she was able to tie the rope to the trailer hitch on the back of her truck.  “I’ll get in!” he roared. 

Ciala didn’t help him this time.  She simply grabbed the remains of her camera bag, tossed it into the back seat of her truck and started up the engine.  The man was still debating his options when she started driving away.  The man quickly understood that he had the choice of being dragged behind the SUV or jumping into the back.  She drove slowly for about a mile, listening to his screaming out obscenities when she stopped the truck once again. 

Walking around to the back of the truck, she shook her head at the man.  “You know, that’s extremely bad language for a gentleman,” she told him. 

Taking the first man’s leg which was tied together so he couldn’t kick her, she sliced off three more wide strips from his pants, basically cutting his pants off since the only thing remaining was a flap around his groin.  When she had those strips, she moved to the other man who looked at her as if she were crazy, and did the exact same thing.  When she had all of the strips of canvas, she tied all three men together, then tied them to the sides of the truck more securely.  The men looked pretty silly in only their hairy legs, dark socks and combat boots.  “You gentlemen are stylin!” she teased. 

All three of them tried to kick their feet out at her and jerked at the bindings on their wrists.  But she’d been trained well on how to tie a knot.  Those guys weren’t getting out.  Thankfully, they’d underestimated her and hadn’t brought guns to the ambush.  Silly men!