Protecting the Desert Princess(65)

                He even rang Demyan and Alina, just to firm up her alibi.

                ‘Every night,’ Mikael reiterated to Demyan in English, so that Layla heard it too, ‘and you or Alina would call me and say that she was okay, and then I would text Zahid. The other night the baby was upset and crying and you simply forgot till much later to call me.’

                ‘Okay,’ Demyan said. ‘Mikael, is there any way Layla can stay…?’

                Mikael switched to Russian and Layla closed her eyes at his angry voice as he swore at his lifelong friend—because if there was any way Mikael would be utilising it now.

                When he had ended the call Mikael switched back to being impassive, but Layla had glimpsed his anger and his pain and she knew he was hurting just as much as she was.

                ‘Okay, Demyan and Alina know what to say if asked.’

                ‘What if they mess up?’

                ‘Forget that,’ he said. ‘They’ll do the right thing by you.’

                ‘You need to call my brother now.’ Layla’s voice was suddenly urgent. ‘My father will be flying from Ishla if there is no news by morning. I want him to know as soon as possible that I am safe. He is ill…’ She was starting to panic—not for herself but her father. ‘Mikael, my father is sick and no one must know that. I should not have done this when he is so ill…’

                ‘Calm down,’ he said. ‘I’ll call Zahid now.’

                ‘I have been trouble, remember?’ she said as he punched in the numbers.

                Zahid answered on the first ring. Mikael was certain he must have spent the last few days with his phone permanently to hand.

                ‘Your sister has asked that you collect her,’ Mikael told Zahid, and gave his address. ‘She’s fine,’ he said. ‘Yes, I put her in a hotel, but you were right—she’s completely incapable and so I had a couple I know looking out for her.’ His voice changed to irritated. ‘They happen to have just had their first baby, so having your sister dumped on them was a huge inconvenience—’

                Mikael pulled the phone from his ear. Zahid had hung up on him.

                ‘How did he sound?’

                ‘Relieved—which will soon turn to angry,’ Mikael warned. ‘But that’s normal, and it will be the same for your father. It was the same for me when you didn’t come back to the hotel that night.’ He took her in his arms. ‘Then, when they’ve calmed down, they’ll remember how relieved they are because they love you. As do—’

                ‘No.’ She stopped him before he could say it. ‘Those words belong between a husband and wife.’

                He poured two glasses of sparkling water, added lime and ice and placed one either side of the desk as they took their seats.

                ‘Have you any mints?’ she asked, and he took a packet from his pocket and rolled them across the desk.

                She didn’t take one; instead she put them in her tunic—she would keep them for ever.

                She wrote him a note and folded it. ‘Read it when I am gone.’

                ‘Is it in English?’

                ‘No,’ Layla said as he pocketed it, and tried with all she had to make their parting easy on him. ‘It will be good to get back to my students.’ She gave him a smile, for it was surely kinder to do that than to cry. ‘And you can get back to your cases and your blonde girlfriends…..’