The days passed in a blur with a lot of love-making, relaxation, and exploration of the nearby caves. They had split up quite a few times when work called Junayd away. Midnight and the two bodyguards had an ongoing challenge: she would try to escape the house without them and they would do their best to catch her before she got too far away.
Badr and Kalil loved the excitement. Issa and Ziya were here, too, during the day. Midnight discovered the four were placing daily bets. At the moment, Badr was raking it in. The men were currently two-to-five, and those two times that she had been caught would never have happened if they were working strictly at night.
Midnight had only received one brief message from Jameel saying he had met up with her sister. Junie was radio-silent except to say that she loved her and she was busy. Her sister was probably avoiding hearing Midnight say again that going off on her own was not the brightest idea Junie had ever had. Midnight's frustration and fear for Junie had not disappeared with their single conversation about this, and Junie had always preferred to hide her head in a computer screen than deal with confrontation or drama of any sort.
Yesterday did bring big news though: confirmation that she was not pregnant. At her request, Junayd had picked up her prescription for the Pill. She knew he was disappointed. She was a little bummed about it, too, but also relieved.
It wasn’t like they hadn’t been trying, but she also wanted more time to make sure things worked out between them. They had talked for hours before he agreed it might be nice to wait a little while before having children.
Junayd was leaving today to fly to Nasir. Midnight opted to remain at the house with Badr and Kalil. She was gradually getting used to being up during the day, but still preferred the seclusion of his desert home over being in the city.
"Issa and Ziya will take turns staying here with you," he told her.
"That isn't necessary," she replied. "No one even knows I'm here."
“I don’t care. I would feel better if you had a least one guard with you at all times,” he said.
“I have Kalil. He was a guard back when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth,” she teased.
Junayd tried to hide his grin. “I’ll be sure to tell him that before I leave.”
“You just want to get me in trouble with Badr,” she pouted.
“You do that well enough on your own. I better go. No climbing cliffs without me being here—please. I don’t want to risk you falling,” he said.
She snorted. The cliffs here were like a children’s climbing wall at the playground. She had scaled far more dangerous things. He sighed and ran the back of his fingers along her cheek.
“I will try to get back early this evening. If I'm late, I’ll have to fly into Bahija and drive.”
“Why don’t you just come back tomorrow then?” she suggested.
“And miss holding you in my arms? Never!”
“Be safe," she murmured. "I… I'll miss you.”
“I love you,habibi. I will text you during the day,” he promised.
She watched him walk to the SUV with Ziya. They would catch a flight out of Bahija so they could leave the SUV there for later. She almost called out to him to tell him she had changed her mind and she would go with him, but she bit back the urge. There was a new cave she wanted to explore today.
She turned and made a face at Issa. He chuckled and folded his arms across his chest.
“What?” she demanded, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow at him.
“I’m going to put a tracking device on you if you keep trying to sneak out,” Issa threatened.
She sniffed and tossed her braid over her shoulder. “I would lead you where I want you to go like a little bunny with a carrot. Better men than you have tried to track me and failed.”
Curiosity and disbelief flashed through Issa’s eyes. She was feeling more than a little impish, so she lifted her shirt far enough to show a two-inch scar, unaware that it also showed her recent gunshot wound.
“See this? Some drug lord jerk set a trap for an undercover DEA agent about three years ago and thought he could use me to bring him in. He put a tracking device in me and sent me off to tell the undercover agent that his girlfriend had been kidnapped. His girlfriend was a nurse who had stitched me up a few times.” She fingered the scar almost fondly before she dropped her shirt and shrugged. She noticed that his eyes were still locked to her stomach.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I took exception to some idiot putting something under my skin, of course. I cut it out, dropped it on the subway, and came back to ruin their plans. I rescued the girlfriend while… a friend cleaned out the drug lord’s bank accounts and dumped a shitload of damaging video onto the DEA’s servers. His business partners were not happy that he had been hoarding proof of their exploits. He was killed two weeks later."
“What about your other wound? That looked like a recent gunshot,” Issa commented.
Her hand went to her side. “Oh, that? I was hit twice during a firefight between rival gangs a month or so ago. Junayd pulled the bullet out.”