“Saint Catherine? Oh…kay.” Emma stepped up to Xander. “Mind if I untie him?”
The old man shook his head. “Unfortunately, we also shared this information with the man yesterday.”
Xander tightened his jaw and Emma tugged at the ropes around his wrists. Not only did he have to catch up to Leila, but he would have to find this man too. And somehow stop him. Two days wasted, and for that he missed his chance to find her here.
Instead, she was still out there, somewhere, with a possible crazed murderer on her trail. All he could do was get back in the jeep and pray they would still be able to reach her in time.
“So, what did this guy look like?” Emma asked as the rope slid off.
“Tall,” said one Bedouin with a nod.
“Skinny, blond,” said another thoughtfully.
“No, he had brown hair.”
“It was definitely blond.”
“Oh, quiet. You weren’t even there.”
“I don’t care what he looks like.” Xander rubbed at the red skin on his arms. “I’d like to know what route Leila took to Saint Catherine.”
Emma offered to retrieve their map from the jeep. Moments later, she unfolded it and spread it over the ground. The rocks underneath the heavy paper gave the topographic map a fitting mountainous effect.
The old man crouched beside the map and glanced it over. He dragged a pointer finger down the center of the Sinai mountain range. “They would have taken this route here. The terrain is difficult to navigate, but there are roads on the outskirts of the mountains that you can take. They will probably spend a night here, in El-Misbah.” His finger hovered over a tiny black dot in the midst of the mountains. “Perhaps you can catch up to them there.”
Xander nodded. “El-Misbah. I’ll find it.”
Ten minutes later, Xander and Emma climbed back in the jeep. Although his ribs still smarted from that kick, Xander gave the old man a grateful nod and turned the ignition.
“Did you hear him say the creep gave them water?” Emma asked, digging around the foot room of the passenger seat. “Should we leave them something, too? Do you think they’d like granola bars?”
“Emma, really.” Xander washed down a couple painkillers with disgustingly warm water from the bottle in the cup holder. “We need to get going. We can always come back after we’ve got Leila.”
“But the granola bars will be all gone by then.”
“Don’t worry about it right now, all right?” Xander put the jeep into gear and they rumbled back down the tire tracks once again. The landscape looked the same for miles, yet dunes rose on the horizon, blocking the base of the Sinai mountains from view.
It wasn’t hard to picture Leila sitting atop a camel, wandering the mountains with the Bedouin. It was a much better image than the one that had haunted him all week. It would be even better if he knew the danger had passed, but with this psycho following her, he wasn’t feeling any peace just yet.
The ground inclined as they neared the dunes. The jeep effortlessly climbed the hill, spitting rocks and sand into the air. They reached the top and Xander’s stomach plummeted. The view changed from blue skies to a vicious cloud of sand, blasting its way toward them as it swallowed up the mountains.
“Porca miseria,” Emma breathed, lowering a half-eaten muffin from her face. “That’s the nastiest sandstorm I’ve ever seen.”
The sinking feeling in Xander’s gut dropped further. It would be like trying to drive blindfolded if he went through that. Not to mention the damage it could do to the motor and air filters.
“Yep,” he sighed, then turned off the jeep. “And we have to wait it out.”
CHAPTER 26
Russet clouds billowed on the horizon and Abdullah led the caravan straight for them. A flash of lightning lit the angry sky.
“We can’t go that way,” Amina protested, screaming to be heard over the howl of the wind.
Leila tightened her hold on the reins. Was Abdullah nuts? Probably. But he seemed to know where he was going. She wasn’t someone to question his directions right now.
“If you’re okay with being hit by debris or being buried in sand, then stay here,” Abdullah yelled.
Leila adjusted her scarf to stay above her nose. Moistened to help filter out the smaller particles, the damp cloth stuck to her skin. If the siblings would stop arguing for three seconds and get to shelter, that would be fantastic.
Dust darkened the air and her eyes were already starting to itch. Another web of lightning cracked across the sky. Leila’s stomach hardened as the cloud roared closer. The temperature dropped, and mud caked over her wet scarf. She shielded her eyes with a flat palm, but it did nothing to stop the sand. The wind whipped at her face, strengthening with each moment as if it was determined to knock her off the dromedary.
She kept a death-grip on the reins and leaned forward, her muscles aching as they tensed against the storm. Her camel seemed fine, trotting along as if this were a relaxing stroll on a sunny day.
A jagged bolt of lightning flickered, illuminating the two camels and riders in front of her. A second later, an ear-splitting boom echoed across the desert.
Fatma swayed her head back and forth and Leila reached out to give her a comforting pat on the neck. When she looked up, her two companions faded into the earthen blizzard.
The sharp, craggy sides of the mountains on either side of her partially vanished in the fog, the path in front of her barely visible as she squinted to see. Her insides twisted. One wrong step could send them tumbling off an edge.
They followed a curve in the path and one of the bluffs beside her ended, the only thing to her left a brown haze. She tugged the reins to the right, urging Fatma to keep closer to the rock face and away from the edge.
Mercilessly, the wind whistled and the dust and sand pelted her from the front. She snapped her eyes shut and rubbed the grit away from her eyelids. When she opened them again, her heart dropped into her gut. Amina’s silhouette had vanished.
She leaned forward and pulled at the rope that had been attached to the camels until she held the end in her hand. The end that was supposed to be tied to Amina’s saddle.
Her breaths quickened as she looked in all directions. The same muddy cloud swirled all around her. Did the siblings turn somewhere? Or did they go on straight ahead? Wouldn’t they have made sure she was still behind them?
She flicked the reins, urging Fatma to speed up. If she couldn’t find the others, she would have no choice but to find somewhere to wait out the storm. How would she be able to find them again in this place?
