All I see is Luxury Whitson until Yegane charges the sheikh. Her foot slams into his abdomen. “That’s what you get, you fat pig.”
“Yegane!” I call to her, unhooking the silencer from my handgun.
Just as she looks up, I shoot her in the forehead.
At the sound, father and daughter tremble to attention. I jump from the bumper of the SUV, retrieving a hammer from the trunk of the car.
As the sheikh struggles to stand, I slam the head into his legs. From the corner of my eye, Noor starts to rise.
“Help,” she screeches.
I lift the hammer in wild, passionate movements, breaking Al Rafi’s limbs, and relishing in the crunch of bone. After wiping the sweat from my brow, I rise and look to where Noor struggles to run up a slope approximately twenty yards away.
All the muscles in my upper body contract when the hammer snakes out, tumbling toward her at a swift rate. Blood arcs into the air as the steel claw cuts into the flesh at her back.
Noor sinks onto her knees, then the rest of her nosedives into the sand.
“You made me out to be a liar, Noor.” I stroll toward her. “Tsk, in more ways than one. I was a gentleman. I gave Yegane my word that she’d survive.”
“Fuck her.” Noor squeals, clawing frantically behind her, yet powerless at fetching the hammer gouging her spine. “Fuck herrrr!”
“Yeah, fuck her,” I mutter. Then, with more conviction, I shout, “Still, I gave my word! A royal to a commoner, and now she’s dead because I’m in control, and I didn’t say she could harm either of you.” I reach down and unhook the hammer from Noor’s flesh. “No, no, your death will be on my hands only.”
“Fu-fuck you,” Noor groans, turning her face in the sand to spit up blood. The vehicle’s lights fan out in this area, and I relish the sight of how her life source stains the pure-white sand.
“I intended to shoot you first, then her.” I run a hand over my face. “Albeit, that’s mercy. You’d not deserve mercy even if you spent the next decade tossing all your riches to the poor.”
I fall to my knees next to Noor as her father screams, “Do not touch my daughter!”
Holding the steel of the hammer in my fist, I poke the torn flesh of Noor’s vertebrae.
Having myself a laugh, I retort, “Tell your father the truth, Noor. I never touched you. Even after you sucked my cock so enthusiastically.” I push the soiled handle to her lips, painting the thick curve of her mouth red.
“Don’t you fucking touch my daughter,” the sheikh shouts, continuing to labor his forearms into the sand to slither over.
I hold my hands up. “See, Al Rafi? I’ve no desire to place a single digit on this lying cunt.”
“Noor . . . Noor . . .” Though his legs are crushed, Al Rafi desperately calls to his daughter, snaking closer a mere inch at a time.
The girl who only loved herself whimpers in pain.
A short while later, the first light of morning severs the dark bonds of night. I sit on the ground next to Noor, observing the streams of tears that run rivers through the sand caked on her face.
Her father has finally slithered his way to her. A red trail is left in his wake. He hooks an arm around her waist. While he prays and asks me for forgivenessandtheir lives,there’s no crack in her facade.
The vile creature cries her poisonous tears with a mouth pinched in fury.
I run my knuckles against my mouth. “Al Rafi, I do believe you’re the lesser of two evils.”
“Please, please, spare us.”
I second guess insulting him, captivated by a flurry of buzzards collecting off in the distance. They squawk, awaiting my leave.
I rise.
“Victor,” Al Rafi snarls. “Save my daughter. At least her.”
“Savemychild,” I mutter.