He gave her a slight nod, his face expressionless. “For double the price.”
It figured. “Shukran,” she thanked him and took a few more steps away. Fingers shaking, she punched in the first number that popped into her mind, her apartment landline. If anyone was searching for her, that would be the first place they looked. And they would be monitoring it. If she was lucky, Xander would be there. This time she was mentally prepared for an answering machine when her own voice told her she wasn’t available. She left her message.
Relieved she had finally been able to make some sort of contact, she started to turn back to the bootlegger but stopped. She would call the police, too. At least someone there would answer. She was still dialing when a calloused hand wrenched the phone from her fingers.
“That will be enough.” Tahir handed her a battered paperback and a pen. Under his creepy stare, she flipped to the title page and scribbled down an address in Australia she remembered from a movie about a fish.
“I am very glad to help,” Tahir said sweetly while she wrote. “I have a vehicle, you know. For a little bit extra, I could drive you home.”
Extra? “No, thanks.” Leila shoved the book and pen into his hand and turned.
He caught her wrist. Her heart jumped into her throat.
“Why not? You’d be home in a few hours.”
She tugged her arm away, but he tightened his grip. Clenching her teeth, she glared at the man grinning down at her. Where should she kick first?
“Awad,” warned a rough voice. Abdullah stood a few feet away, grimacing as if he’d stepped in camel dung. He held a hoof pick in one hand, his fingers flexing around the grip. Behind his shoulder, Amina’s round eyes appeared.
“Abdullah, my friend,” Tahir crooned and released Leila’s wrist. “So she’s with you? Lucky. If only I’d been the one to find her.”
Abdullah’s eyes shot daggers at the smuggler. Tahir chuckled and lowered himself next to his shisha pipe.
“Join me. I have something I want to talk to you about.”
Without another word, Abdullah turned and stomped across the sand, heading back to the cluster of trees. Leila and Amina hurried after him.
“I’m sorry,” Amina whispered at her side. “I shouldn’t have let you go. After you’d gone, I ran to get Abdullah. I was worried Tahir would try something like that.”
“It’s okay.” Leila put a hand across Amina’s shoulder and squeezed. Leaving Tahir’s camp behind them, they continued their walk under the shade of palm trees.
“It all worked out. I was able to make a couple calls. They’ll be looking for me in Saint Catherine.”
Abdullah whirled around. “What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed.
“She’s just trying to reach her family before we—” Amina slapped a hand over her mouth.
“Before you what?” Abdullah snarled.
Amina lowered her hand, held her eyes closed for a moment, then locked her gaze on her brother. “We’re going to find the tomb.”
Abdullah stepped up to Amina, towering over her. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he seethed. “You’re not going on some far-fetched treasure hunt. Not with her.”
“But we need her to come,” Amina insisted. “This all makes perfect sense. We need an archaeologist to help find the tomb’s location and here she is, ready to help.”
“And for exactly that reason she can’t be trusted. If there are any artifacts she’ll claim it all. ‘It belongs to Egypt,’ she’ll say. Not us. You know the laws. She’ll report you for theft and you’ll land in prison.”
Leila’s mouth dropped open. She had suspected he felt this way, but him thinking she’d send Amina to prison was taking it too far. “I would not. I—”
Abdullah rounded on her, and Leila took a step back. He held the hoof pick stiffly at his side as he came closer, eyes narrowed. She gulped, realizing it would be all too easy for him to drive the pick straight through her abdomen.
“You go back to Cairo where you belong,” he said dangerously. “Stay out of our business.”
“I’m not going to steal anything,” Leila said firmly. She couldn’t listen to it any longer. His words were so bitter. Where did the hostility come from? “All I want is to go home. I’ve already told someone that I’ll be in Saint Catherine, so I’m going.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Abdullah,” Amina pleaded, her voice falling to almost a whisper. She grabbed his arm and pulled until he was facing her and she looked up at him with red eyes. “I need to do this.”
“What you need is to listen to me. I don’t trust her. She’ll ruin everything.”
Leila swallowed. He might as well have slapped her. The siblings glared at each other, neither of them blinking. Finally, Abdullah yanked his arm free and brushed past his sister.
“That went well,” Leila muttered under her breath.
Amina didn’t respond. Instead, she watched her brother’s retreating back, tapping her fingers on her arm. Once he vanished behind the tents, she turned to Leila.
“I know the way to our first stop, an oasis. I’ve been there many times. It’s a one-day ride from here.”
Leila widened her eyes. “Are you saying we should go without him?”
Amina nodded. “We’ll leave for the oasis before dawn. We’ll rest there until the heat of the day passes, get some sleep. We would continue at night, but that’s when we’ll need Abdullah. I don’t know the rest of the way.”
“But if we leave without him, we’re stuck there.”
“He’ll come, believe me. We just need to get a head start so he can’t stop us.”
Leila couldn’t help the twisted feeling in her chest. Now that Xander knew where she would be, she had to get to Saint Catherine. But facing the ruthless desert once again was not something she looked forward to. At all.
