Everything
Thanks to Marcher, She's a Star, and Queen Brunette! And sorry about the delay in getting this chapter up…had some family problems to deal with, but all is better for the time being, so on with the story…
Chapter 3
You are the strength
That keeps me walking
You are the hope
That keeps me trusting
The sun is slowly beginning to set on the western horizon. It has only been half a day in the blazing desert sun, yet I can feel my skin has a rather warm, pink tone to it. It won't be long before I look like a beet with hair. With my hands bound before me, I try in vain to push my scraggly hair out of my eyes, wincing slightly as I realize that even my shoulders have burned through the thin fabric of my blouse.
"We should stop soon," Rikes says. I can feel his eyes on me, but I refuse to meet his gaze.
"No," answers Khepri. "I'm not risking her running off again."
"Where am I going to go?"
"I've heard that one before," the Egyptian spits. "Your lover, as a matter of fact."
"He's not my 'lover'," I hiss through clinched teeth.
"He put up one hell of a fight too," Rikes chimes in, ignoring me. "Damned bloody Americans usually do."
"What do you mean?" I ask quietly. Not that I really wanted to hear anything more about O'Connell, but something in me forced the words out before I realized what I was saying.
"Some people just can't be beaten into submission," Khepri says.
"Yeah, and you're much easier to deal with," Rikes says with a yellowed grin. He pulls my camel closer to his, placing his grimy hand on my knee. "In more ways than one." He adds, just before I take my bound hands, knocking him from his camel. He hits the sand with a heavy thud, words I won't repeat escaping his cracked lips. In front of us, Khepri laughs, turning his camel around. Rikes leaps to his feet, grabbing the waistband of my skirt, pulling me to the sand. Grabbing my hair, he rips my head back, ignoring Khepri's calls to stop. It isn't until the Egyptian fires his gun into the air that Rikes turns, catching that the barrel of the gun now points at him.
"Don't make me shoot you, Rikes," he says. "It won't do me any good to have either of you dead."
"It's always about you, isn't it?" Rikes says before he turns back to me. He grins once more, kissing me forcefully; his breath alone is enough to make me nauseous, never mind his tongue in my mouth. He throws me to the sand, chuckling as he saunters over to his camel. "We settin' up camp here," he declares. Khepri simply rolls his eyes, dismounting his camel. "Besides, where she goin' on foot? Ain't nothin' but sand for miles."
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the burning day of the desert turns to a frigid night. I sit near the fire, as far from my captors as I can manage with the rope tying me to all three camels attached to the bindings around my ankles. I draw my legs up close to me, wrapping my arms over them, doing what little I can to block out the cold. Thankfully, Rikes is asleep, giving Khepri the first watch.
I notice the Egyptian staring at me, and try as I might, I can't ignore him any longer. "What?" I finally say.
"I can see why you caught O'Connell's eye," he says with a slight slur. I glance away from him, not really caring to hear his theories. "Of course, what you saw in O'Connell is what confuses me."
"I don't want to talk about it," I say, staring into the flames that lick the night sky.
"He's a backstabbing bastard," he continues, completely ignoring me. "He has no morals, no ethics..."
"Oh, and I suppose you do?"
"Of course I do," he says, slamming his bottle into the sand. "I wouldn't lead a couple of kidnappers to my woman." I wanted to snap about not being O'Connell's 'woman,' but I couldn't get a word in edgewise as he prattled on. "The low-life pig that has the nerve to call himself a man wouldn't even hold up his end of a bargain. And that's why you're—"
"Enough!" I can't take much more of the bashing, and yet, I can't understand why I wouldn't want to join in on it. After all, I had called him everything Khepri had under my breath at one time or other, but ... I don't know. Why can't I get that man out of my head and move on with my life?! The answer is simple – I just don't want to believe it.
My attention is suddenly caught by the sound of a bell; the sound is low and distant, and though I try not to flinch at I, Khepri hears it too. He draws his gun, standing haphazardly. "Stay here," he orders as he walks into the blackness surround the roaring fire. My eyes follow him, and the sound of the bell draws closer. But it's no longer the bell that concerns me. My hair is picked up in the sudden breeze. I hold my breath, praying inwardly it was a random draft wafting through the desert...but the draft continues, picking up in strength, bring along small grains of sand. I chance a look in the general direction of the wind; the moon that had been rising slowly in the east has now turned to a deep brown, soon to be nothing there at all…...
A storm is coming.