Lucy and the Sheikh(38)

“Don’t be hasty, Lucy. Let’s follow this lead and see where it takes us.”

She groaned. “What were your friends thinking of, leaving her there?”

“She’s a grown woman. She’s, what, mid to late 20s? From all accounts she doesn’t drink alcohol—”

“Never has—”

“And doesn’t take drugs. She was in full command of her faculties. She made a decision to go somewhere of her own accord. My friends respected that and so must you.”

“Then tell me why the hell didn’t she let me know?”

He shook his head. “That’s what I don’t understand. Is there any reason you can think of why she wouldn’t?”

She huffed. “Apart from the fact I wouldn’t have approved of her wandering off into the desert alone—”

“I don’t think she was alone—”

“I can’t think why she wouldn’t have told me.”

“So she knew you’d disapprove?”

Lucy was silent for a moment as she remembered all the times that she’d expressed her disapproval of Maia’s lifestyle.

“And that disapproval would have hurt her, irritated her, or angered her?” Razeen continued.

Silence filled only with the roar of the four-wheel drive hung in the air for long moments. “Hurt her,” she whispered.

She felt his eyes upon her, just as Maia’s would have been: condemning her for her judgment of her sister.

“I think you have your answer as to why she sent you messages to reassure you she was safe, but which covered her real tracks.”

“You don’t understand. My sister is…she’s a sucker for beautiful things. I worry about her.”

“She looked after you, didn’t she? For how long?”

“From when she was fourteen really until we left New Zealand with some money she’d demanded from my father.” She bit her lip. “Five years.”

“And so perhaps she wants to break out a little now. Follow her own interests, find out what she wants.”

“She’s not your sister. I know her.”

“People change, Lucy. Sometimes people are not who we think they are.”

“Not Maia. Not Maia,” she repeated softly.

Maia couldn’t change. She’d been her one unvarying point of reference her whole life. Her lifeline. They may have chosen to go separate ways but she was always there for her—at the end of a computer, at the end of a telephone. She needed her to be there. Lucy would be lost without her. Even now, she felt that loss, stirring in the pit of her stomach, sickening her with fear. All her hopes were pinned on what she’d find in the city of caves.

She fixed her gaze on the mountains ahead that grew slowly larger with each mile they drove. The changes were subtle at first but slowly they took form—revealing their texture, dips and shadows—as if they were ancient living creatures, awakening.

Eventually they arrived and began to wend their way up the side of a dry wadi, a steep track with a long vertical drop to a dry riverbed. For an hour they climbed until they reached a plateau, encircled by higher mountains still. They slowed and Lucy looked around puzzled.

“Are we here? Is this it?”

“That’s why it was a successful stronghold: invisible and defensible. You see over there where the rocks seem lighter, that’s the entrance.”

They drove toward the cliff and still Lucy couldn’t see the entrance. It wasn’t until they were immediately upon it that she saw it overlapped and, in what appeared to be a continuous cliff face, there was an opening. They drove around the projecting cliff and turned into a narrow valley. It ran only for a short while before suddenly opening out into a huge amphitheater in the middle of which was a lush oasis and a collection of stone buildings. The vehicles pulled up in a cloud of dust. Lucy surveyed the empty valley and her heart sank.

“There’s no one here.”

“They’re here all right. Come on, let’s go and find your sister.”

Lucy closed her eyes at his words as she tried to contain the feelings of hope and fear that raged inside. Then she jumped out. The oasis was lush and beautiful; the buildings, ancient and frustratingly empty. She turned back to the cliff face and narrowed her eyes. Set in the stunning earthen orange of the near vertical cliffs, were irregularly dotted black holes.

She followed Razeen to the cliffs, flanked by his men who automatically fell into defense formation around them both. At first the place appeared empty—the only sounds being the overhead cry of a hawk disturbed from its hunt and the clatter of the palm leaves as they swayed in the light breeze—but as they grew closer she saw the dark holes were cave entrances. But still no sign of people until Lucy saw the shimmer of light on the stone face coalesce into the form of a man. Then a group of men stepped forward, seemingly out of a sheer wall. Then the details revealed themselves. Carved out of the rock face in front of the openings were small terraces, complete with plants, tables and chairs. Beyond the sheer rock face, lay a city.