Altair (Desert Sheikh Romance, #5) Tee, Marian (reading comprehension books .TXT) 📖

all the way down to his jaw. It was almost as if someone had wished to carve off half of the sheikh's face, and the mere thought had Ahmad gulping anew.

"Maehdina, alshaykh." I'm sorry, sheikh. "It is very bad."

To which the sheikh only smiled, and when he spoke, his answer was just as cryptic. "Good."

Ahmad decided not to answer. He could not see anything good about the sheikh's disfigurement, but he also knew better than to point this out.

Altair briefly relayed instructions for the boy, and Ahmad, chest now puffed with pride, bowed to the sheikh and promised fervently he would do as commanded. Altair acknowledged the bow with a grave nod. The boy was never to know that his errand was only meant to give Altair a private moment.

And now that he was finally alone...

The sheikh turned to his attention back to the last man to taste the blade of his vengeance.

It was over.

Although the same words ran through the minds of the people around him, Altair's thoughts did not bring him a similar sense of peace. There was neither relief nor triumph to savor, and his thoughts had little to do with the Sand Wars itself.

For Altair, today's battle was entirely personal: what was over was a promise given and a promise kept, and as soon as his eyes slowly closed, the past yanked him back into its tortuous embrace.

He was twenty again, his father was dying, and it was all his fault.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Even now, Altair couldn't bear the memories of Hadwin's death, and the sheikh forced his eyes open and gritted his teeth as he willed himself to focus instead on the black-and-white harshness of the present.

He had promised to avenge his father's death, and the dead man on the ground was the last of the rebels that had kidnapped Altair.

It was over.

He had been a stubborn and reckless fool in his youth. A fool who had blindly trusted the rebels when they said they would consider entering into a truce if Altair joined them in the desert without his guards. And the price of his idealistic foolishness had been his father's life.

And that, too, was over.

He would never be such a fool again.

Present time

Interview Transcript #056

Interviewee: Beatriz Yildiz (Code: BY)

56, single, Filipino-Ramilian descent, formerly employed by the Sheikh of Farigha

Interviewer: Detective Zahra Caplan (ZC)

Witness: Fredericka S. Grachyov

Legal counsel to Sheikhdom of Farigha

Spears-Grachyov Law Firm PLLC

Date: (Redacted)

Place: (Redacted)

Duration: (Redacted)

Location: (Redacted)

Excerpt 1A from full transcript of recorded interview

ZC: How do you know Sheikh Mahmud Tannous?

BY: I was his former mistress. He dispensed of my services when he married his wife. When he was widowed, he had his people look for me. He knew I could be trusted, and he offered me a permanent position in his household as his daughter's keeper.

ZC: Do you mean her governess? Or lady's maid perhaps?

BY: To be blunt, he employed me as the princess' warden. I looked after her at night while Urwa - a eunuch - looked after her during the day.

ZC: Why did the princess need such looking after?

BY: The sheikh was obsessed in guarding her chastity. His plan to make her a queen or at least consort to the king was years in the making.

ZC: And was the princess in favor of these plans?

BY: Safiya had no say over anything. She was a captive in her own home. Her room was no better than a prison cell, and she was never allowed to leave the estate. Urwa and I were the only ones allowed to talk to her.

ZC: You've obviously become emotionally attached to your charge.

BY: You'd have to be an unfeeling bitch not to. She's the purest person you'd ever hope to meet. The kindest. She's the last person to deserve the kind of life she's been given.

ZC: Because of her father?

BY: He was away almost the entire time. He was never around long enough to see what was happening.

ZC: Did that make the relationship between the sheikh and his daughter contentious?

BY: No. Unfortunately...no. The relationship between them is...I suppose the only word to use here is one-sided. He has forgotten she exists, while the princess...she loves him, fool that she is.

ZC: What about Saul, the sheikh's right-hand man?

BY: An asshole. I thought I knew what evil looked like...but that man...we all did our best to avoid him, and Safiya...she was scared of him.

ZC: Did she believe he would hurt her?

BY: He would rape her first before anything. The way he sometimes stared at her, when he knew the sheikh wasn't there to see him...it would make anyone's skin crawl. And it got worse after...

(BY stops speaking.)

ZC: Are you alright, Ms. Yildiz?

BY: There was this girl. Saul abducted...and raped her.

(ZC presents several photos to BY.)

ZC: Are any of these girls the—-

(BY points to the photo of Malina Atwan.)

BY: T-That's her.

ZC: You saw her in the sheikh's estate?

(BY slowly nods.)

BY: None of us knew her name. The first and only time most of us saw her was when Saul dragged her kicking and screaming to the dungeons. She would've died...if not for...

ZC: Someone rescued her?

BY: It was the princess. She was the only one with the courage to risk Saul's wrath by helping the girl escape.

ZC: Did Saul find out about the princess' involvement?

BY: No. But he suspected.

ZC: What would Saul have done if he found out the princess was behind the girl's escape?

BY: At that time, Urwa and I thought he was biding his time to turn the sheikh against his own daughter. And if that happens...he would've...he could've done a lot of things. Things that would've made the princess wish she were dead instead. But because he couldn't prove it, he made her watch instead.

ZC: Watch what?

BY: There was this little boy. Safiya was fond of him. He was the cook's son. And Saul...he had the boy taken from his home and made Safiya watch as his men...oh God, the child almost died that night. Saul