bedroom.
Harrison was right behind her, and he closed the door, trapping them in the dark.
“What-”
“Shh,” he warned, listening at the door to the cresting voices in the other room. Julia couldn’t understand the words, but it was clear the speakers were agitated.
She stood stock-still, all her fears of arrest and jail rushing back. She refused to even acknowledge her fears of the man with no nose. The bites of pita bread sat like lead weights in her stomach.
Then, finally, the voices subsided, and the door to the bedroom cracked open.
“A sandstorm is coming,” said Ahmed.
The girls were moving from window to window, battening them down. Ahmed’s wife covered her head and left the house.
“Julia,” said Ahmed, “you are welcome to stay in the guesthouse with Harrison, of course. But, if you prefer, please stay here and sleep with my daughters.”
It was gracious of him to consider Julia’s virtue. Not that there was any virtue left to save. And, as she glanced from friendly, cherubic Ahmed to fierce, uncompromising Harrison, she knew where she wanted to be if No-nose showed up.
“Thank you,” she said to Ahmed with sincere appreciation, trying to frame an answer that wouldn’t offend Ahmed’s culture. “But Harrison has pledged to protect me. My family is counting on him.”
Ahmed nodded. “Very well.” Then he looked to Harrison. “You should return to the guesthouse before the storm hits.”
Harrison handed the phone back to Ahmed, thanking the man.
Then Julia and Harrison left the building, hustling along the dusty pathway to the little cottage.
“Your family is counting on me?” he joked.
“You’ve probably disappointed them already,” she told him, deciding she could be blase about their earlier lovemaking. It wasn’t as though she was a quivering virgin. They’d been attracted to one another, and they’d had sex. It didn’t have to be the defining moment of their relationship.
“In some cultures, they’d have me shot.”
“In other cultures, they’d invite you to dinner.” Julia’s feet slowed to a halt, her eyes widening at a gap in the trees.
A thick, dark, roiling wave was pushing its way across the setting sun.
Harrison grabbed her hand. “Time to get inside.” He increased his pace, forcing her to struggle to keep up.
She couldn’t help but glance back over her shoulder, amazed by the spectacle. The light disappeared, and the wind picked up, flecks of sand whipping through the air.
Harrison yanked open the cottage door, pushed her inside and secured it behind them.
“Check the windows,” he called.
She glanced around. The windows were all closed, but she went from one to the next, checking the latches, while airborne sand began battering the outside of the panes.
Then the wind suddenly turned from gusting to howling. The panes rattled in their frames, and she took a few steps backward.
“Will the place hold?” she asked.
“I expect so. This can’t be their first sandstorm.”
“How long will it last?”
“Hours, days. It’s impossible to tell.”
They had some time. It was a relief to have some time where they didn’t need to worry.
“And then what?” she couldn’t help but ask.
He didn’t answer immediately.
“What did Alex tell you?”
“That the police are still looking for you, and he can’t get an answer as to why.”
Julia lowered herself into a cushioned rattan chair. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither does Alex. But somebody with influence is out there looking for you, and they’re using the police to do it.” He sat down in an identical chair across from her. “And whoever it is is powerful enough to cover his tracks. Alex’s contacts couldn’t help us.”
“What about the no-nose guy?”
“It all has to be related somehow.”
“Which brings us back to Millions to Spare.” Julia still got a hitch in her heart when she thought about the horse. She hated that she might have inadvertently contributed to its death.
“What did you say to No-nose?”
She’d gone over the conversation a hundred times in her head. “Nothing. I tried to take a picture of Millions to Spare. The security guy stopped me. Then No-nose showed up, and I asked him the horse’s name. He thought I wanted to place a bet.”
“No, he acted like he thought you wanted to place a bet.”
Julia went cold. “You think he could have followed me to the trailer?”
Harrison nodded. “And watched you go in. And saw that you didn’t get out. Then came to Cadair.”
The next sentence was left unspoken.
No-nose had killed Millions to Spare.
Chapter Eleven
“Did Alex have a plan?” asked Julia, standing by the window to watch the mesmerizing sand grains blow past. At least she knew No-nose wasn’t lurking out there in the brutal storm.
“Not so far,” said Harrison, crouching to browse through the small bank of cupboards in one corner of the twenty-by-twenty-foot room.
“Maybe I should turn myself in.” At the moment, No-nose seemed a lot more dangerous than the police. If she was in custody, the U.S. embassy might help her. Maybe Harrison could even help get her out of jail again. She truly didn’t want to take her chances with a man who was willing to kill a horse.
“Not until we find out what they want,” said Harrison, extracting a butcher knife and contemplating it.
Julia got the horrible feeling he was arming himself.
He straightened. “If the same person influencing the police also hired No-nose, he could be capable of anything. And the police might turn you over to him.”
Julia’s knees grew weak, and she reached out to steady herself on the back of a chair.
Harrison caught her movement. He set down the knife and crossed the room, pulling her into a hug. She felt safe for a moment, but she knew it couldn’t last.
“We’ll come up with a plan,” he promised.
“Plans fail.”
“Are you going to get pessimistic on me?”
“I’m not a pessimist, I’m a realist. There are crazy men out there gunning for me-”
“And there’s a sane one in here protecting you.”
A lump formed in Julia’s throat, and she couldn’t speak.
His arms tightened around her, and she rested her cheek against his broad chest, closing her eyes for a moment.
He gently kissed the top of her head.
“I know you’re scared,” he said. “But we have a very long list of options that we haven’t even tried yet.”
Part of her wanted to ask what the options were. Another part was afraid they were laughably weak. Maybe it was better to pretend Harrison had a long list of rational courses of action that would save her. Denial might not be such a bad thing in this case.
“We should sleep,” he said.
“I know.” They’d been up virtually all night, and she was dead tired. “You should sleep, too.”
