Ann Voss Peterson - Seized By The Sheik

Until now.

“Mr. Bahir was protecting Sheik Efraim.”

“Protecting him from what?”

Efraim had to hear the sneer in her brother’s voice. Callie just prayed he didn’t lash back.

“There are people who want me and my people dead.” Efraim’s voice was steady.

Callie gave him a grateful look she hoped he could read despite the glaring light.

“I’ll bet there are lots of people who want you and yours dead. And I’ll bet you’ve done a few things to them to cause it.”

Callie swung a much less charitable glare on her brother. “Brent, stop it.”

“One of these people shot Fahad. He followed us from the badlands and attacked me.”

“And what were you doing wandering around those badlands?”

“Searching for a friend.”

“On foot? How did you get out there?”

“My horse ran. He was afraid of gunfire.”

“That horse—” Joe’s voice. At least one of her sane brothers was on this trip. A schoolteacher, husband and new father, Joe helped out on the ranch in the summer and some weekends. Apparently he’d stopped by today after Callie had ridden out.

“We need to get to the ranch, Dad,” Callie repeated, feeling a bit bolstered by Joe’s presence and Efraim’s continued calm. “We need to call the sheriff.”

“How do we know he isn’t going to try to pull something?” Russ’s voice. Second to youngest in age, Russ idolized Brent, even planning to go into military service himself after he got his degree and could enter as an officer. His plans had changed after Brent’s injury.

Unlike his big brother, Russ had always taken to ranch work. Callie’s father called Russ his natural cowboy. Unfortunately his unshakable hero worship of Brent caused him to absorb everything his oldest brother said like a sponge. He tended to follow Brent’s lead in all things, unless Callie could get to him first.

Unfortunately her job had her traveling all over the world, and she hadn’t been able to spend much time on the ranch the last couple of years. She had the feeling that this time she might be too late to influence Russ. “He’s with me, Russ.”

“That better not mean what I think it means,” Brent grumbled.

Callie’s cheeks heated as the sensations of her kiss with Efraim flitted through the back of her mind.

“Callie is working with me through her office.”

Efraim again. He’d just lost his cousin, one of the closest men in his administration, not to mention his friend going missing, and yet he was steadier and calmer than the men in her family. Men who before this, she would have sworn were steady and calm.

“Her office, yeah. Foreign Affairs,” Russ drawled out, putting emphasis on the word affairs.

“Grow up, Russell,” she snapped. For a boy almost out of college, he was more immature than their high school–aged youngest brother.

“What do you mean, grow up? I’m not the one messing around with a damn Arab. Hell, he’s probably a terrorist.”

She blew a frustrated stream of air through tight lips and focused on her father. She wished she could peer past the light and see his eyes. Better yet, she wished her father would stop shining the damn thing on Efraim like he was a subject in some kind of interrogation. “Efraim is one of the good guys. The leader of a country.”

“A country that is an enemy of the United States?”

Brent again. It seemed like she’d spent most of her life smoothing things over between her big brother and the rest of the world. Callie wanted to belt him. “Efraim is not an enemy. He’s not a terrorist. Get it? He’s the leader of a country named Nadar, and he’s here to negotiate a contract brokered by the United States.” Her voice shook with the effort to keep it even when she really wanted to scream.

They answered her with silence. The spotlight still glared in Efraim’s eyes.

“Please, Daddy. Why would I tell you something that’s not true?”

Her father didn’t answer, but Russ did. “Because you’re hot for him. Don’t lie, sis. You’re pretty obvious.”

She closed her eyes. Of course, Russ was closer than she wanted to admit. At least she should be grateful the spotlight’s beam prevented Efraim from seeing her blush.

“Admit it,” Russ continued, clearly encouraged by hitting on the truth. “You’re covering for him.”

“I don’t need to cover for him. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Her father flashed the light back down to the ground for a second. “Someone killed this man.”

“Fahad is my blood. My head security man. I didn’t kill him.”

“The person who did tried to kill Efraim, too,” Callie added quickly. “That someone is still out there. We need to get to the ranch. We need to make sure Efraim’s safe.”

“I’m more concerned about you.”

Of course he was. He was her dad after all. And maybe she could use that fact to break this stalemate. “Then get me to the ranch. And call the sheriff.”

“You,” he said, bobbing the light to indicate Efraim. “Pick up that body. Throw him on the horse we caught.”

“The horse you caught?” Callie hadn’t noticed the horse behind Russ, but as her brother led it into the spotlight, she recognized Efraim’s gelding.

“You found him.”

“Him?” Russ tilted his head.

“The horse. It’s Efraim’s.” She’d told Efraim the horse would find his way to safety. She was relieved to be proven right.

Efraim lifted Fahad. Joe dismounted and helped Efraim slump the dead man over the saddle. Using his lariat, Joe tied him securely.

“Good to go,” Brent said to his father, and Joe swung back on his horse.

“You,” her father barked, obviously meaning Efraim. “Walk ahead. And remember we got rifles pointed at your back.”

“Daddy—”

He held up a hand, blocking her complaint. “I’m doing the rest of what you asked, Callie. I trust you, honey, but that doesn’t mean I trust this boy.”

Efraim glanced back at her. “It’s all right.”

It wasn’t all right. Her family was behaving horribly. She’d told him they would help, and technically, she supposed, they were. But she didn’t know if Efraim would see it that way. She felt she needed to apologize.

She just hoped that after all this, he’d give her the chance.

Her father nodded, as if it was settled, and motioned to Brent and Joe. “The two of you keep looking. Russ and I will see Callie and the sheik here back to the ranch.”

“Looking?” A frisson of fear fanned over Callie’s skin. The thought of her brothers out on the dark BLM searching for a murderer scared the breath out of her. “Don’t be ridiculous. We need to call the sheriff. He can look for the man who shot Fahad. It’s his job. Not yours.”

“We’re not looking for some terrorist killer,” Brent said. “We’re looking for Timmy’s ATV.”

“Timmy’s ATV?” Callie had been so wrapped up in defending Efraim, she hadn’t thought there might be a reason her fourth brother, the youngest in the family at only seventeen, wasn’t riding with them. “Why? What happened? Where’s Timmy?”

“Timmy’s home. He crashed his ATV.”

“Is he okay?” The thought of her baby brother hurt… She wanted to race Sasha home as fast as she could.

“He’s banged up. A little worse for wear,” Joe said. “But you know Timmy. He’ll be okay.”

“What happened to his ATV?”

“He flipped the damn thing.” Her dad lowered the light enough for her to see him shaking his head. Then he brought the beam back to Efraim’s face. “Wasn’t Tim’s fault, though. He said someone shot out a tire.”

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