Chapter 13 - Assault
"Get in, Sarah." Outside of Harm's loft was a car, a sleek Mercedes with a driver that looked nothing like Sadik Fahd. It's him though, that voice has been the subject of so many nightmares I'm surprised Harm hasn't mentioned the nights he's brought me back to bed after finding me on the sofa.
Harm.
I shouldn't look up at his window but I do anyway. He's seen me get in the vehicle and presses a palm against the pane. I feel more than see him call my name and the heartbreak is so intense that I nearly gasp in pain. "Where are you taking me?"
"Does it matter? Open your blouse." He has platinum hair and his skin is whiter than snow. He looks European and probably passed as Swiss or German as he traipsed through airport security without a care in the World.
I normally wouldn't be so keen to comply. Being an officer and a Marine has made me defiant to those without authority over me. Nevertheless, it's kind of hard to argue with a man pointing a gun at you. "Slowly, Sarah and need I remind you how easily your Commander's life could end if you don't comply."
"Leave him alone." I pop open each button, pull the blouse apart and show him the top of my lacy bra. He takes an appreciative glance, licks his lips and like a switch that's been flipped, an angry expression manifests.
Good. This means I hold some kind of power, some force I could use to free myself and find out why he's really in DC. "Button up. You look like a whore."
I wince as he says the word and with a final glance back I see Harm stumbling out the side door. He screams my name and as we drive off I know things will never be the same again.
The place he takes me to is quiet, a townhouse not far away from the small shops along Georgetown's main drag. I wonder who the place belongs to but the dead body on the far side of the sofa is answer enough.
"He lays with other men, that's not Allah's will." Sadik's explanation is one that I didn't want to hear.
"He's in America, free to lay with whomever he wants. Man or woman." My comment is met with a slap, one that splits my lip and will eventually bruise my cheek. It causes me to fall and I narrowly miss the young man Sadik has killed.
I slowly come to my feet, my will to fight hovering beneath the surface. I want to get my bearings and lunge at him. I want to beat him with my bare knuckles until his face is broken and bloodied. I want to kill.
Instead, Sadik makes me follow him to the kitchen where I'm instructed to make tea while he keeps his distance. "I've been watching for months, Sarah. I've seen you with the Commander. I saw how he treats you. Why do you enjoy acting like his whore?"
This time something inside me snaps and the calm demeanor I've tried to adapt is no longer in control. "I am not a whore! I sleep with a man that I love and have loved for years. He's my equal in every way. My partner. My lover. You can't understand that with all of that hate in your soul."
Sadik grins. "At least my soul will be saved. Yours is tainted, Sarah…You're like a wounded animal that needs the kind of care that man like the Commander can never offer."
His words hit a nerve and I shake as I pour the tea into a cup and slide it towards him. I am wounded. I was born that way, defective and with each emotional hit I'vd taken the wound has festered and grown. "Can you save my soul?"
"Only Allah can but you need to leave this life behind. You can no longer act like a man or dress like one. You must leave these infidels and be a good Muslim woman like Allah desires." He takes a sip of the tea and then waves his hand towards me. "You will start with the niqab so that your body stops being a temptation."
He's eyeing me again and then quickly averts his gaze. It's a crack in Sadik's armor, a desire to possess all of me that weakens him. "Do I tempt you?"
"I am but a man." I think I've broken him or at least hope that I had until an alarm's shrill breaks the silence between us. The sound comes from an odd, watch-like object strapped to his wrist and at once his leering gaze turns to the device.
"What is that?"
He stands and roughly grabs my arm. I'm practically dragged to the window that overlooks a small nightclub thriving with patrons. "There's a bomb in the men's room, set to go off in ten minutes….Tomorrow, there'll be another and another and another."
"No. You can't."
"I have. There's only one way to stop it, Sarah." He taps the device on his arm.
"But, why? What have any of those kids done to you?"
"They're alive when many of my countrymen are not. Isn't that reason enough?"
Fuck, why aren't they here yet? Why the hell hasn't Kershaw's men found me? The tracker in my boot should have led the CIA to this apartment and the club across the street. A quick check on my internal clock alerts me there's only seven minutes left now, the time is dwindling faster and faster. "Please, Sadik. Take me if you want. I won't fight you."
"You'd give yourself to me?"
"Completely. Use me as you wish, just stop this, please." And I meant every word if it kept innocents alive. I'm surprised when he grabs me and presses his dry lips against mine. A hand roughly palms my breast and it hurts so bad I let out a yelp of pain. I want to stop once his opposite hand descends between my thighs, the long fingernails scraping rough denim, over my sex and I'm infinitely relieved I never wore a skirt.
My heart is racing, the sound deafening as I deny every reflex that wants me to fight. Is it rape if I allow it? He'd only violate my body, not my heart and soul which beats for another man.
As Sadik tries pulling down the zipper and his mouth sloppily takes mine again, my mental clock winds down to two minutes…119 seconds…118….117…116 God, please help me!
It's then that I hear them, the wail of sirens approaching, a sound that makes Sadik stop and peer out the window. He turns to me, his lips stained, tainted by the gloss that I wore. The once lascivious lear is now filled with anger and hatred that I would betray him so badly. "What did you do?"
"Betrayed you."
At once he strikes, the back of his hand forcefully slamming into the cheek he already bruised. It hurts like hell but when his hands wrap around my throat and begin to squeeze, he leaves his torso vulnerable. "Die, Sarah!!! Die, you whore!!"
My vision is blurring, darkening as my life begins slipping away. There's only seconds before I'm about to black out and with a final surge of strength, my hand finds the gun tucked underneath his suit. Thankfully it's racked, a fact I know to be true as I locate the trigger and pull.
His eyes go wide in shock. The hands that were once wrapped around my throat drop to his abdomen. When Sadik glares at me his expression is a mix of hatred and fear. Yes, he fears me, fears death although he once claimed that his soul was prepared to meet Allah. "Sarah, what-" I shoot again, this time with the barrel of the small pistol against his chest, close to his heart.
The door is broken down a moment later, Harrison Kershaw leading the charge which rushes to my aid. He doesn't say much about Sadik's untimely demise or the wealth of knowledge the CIA could have extracted from his capture.
"Get me out of here."
"I'll take you home." He suggests but I can't bare the thought of being alone and I'm too scared to run to Harm. He'll hover. He'll ask questions I don't want to answer. He'll love me and I don't want to be loved.
"No, not home. Just away." I don't want to be in Washington anymore.