Page 7 of Deadly Storms (Sunrise Lake #3)

“No one ever knows the right thing to say in these circumstances, Shabina. We know you’ve done these things.

You’ve been through panic attacks and triggering events probably multiple times.

You’re a very disciplined person. We know you’ve got the tools to deal with each crisis when it comes, but that doesn’t mean those tools always get you through.

That leaves us with nothing to offer you but our love and friendship. ”

The others nodded. “And our faith in you,” Stella added. “We may play the devil’s advocate and argue the other side, but that’s just to give you every perspective. Whatever you choose to do, we’re with you all the way.”

These women. How could she not love them? They’d offered her unconditional love and friendship without knowing her past, almost right from their first meeting her. She had issues, and yet they didn’t seem to care. They remained steadfast in their resolve to help her.

She had been stoic as a prisoner, refusing to cry no matter the inventive tortures of Scorpion and the seven men he referred to as his cabinet members.

Or the mercenaries he’d hired to help him destroy small villages.

Now she was a bundle of volatile emotions.

Tears burned behind her eyes. She was so grateful and so lucky for the friendships.

She might despise thinking of her past, but in doing so, she was reminded of the good people she’d lived with who had treated her as part of their family.

Scorpion’s mercenary guards, who had risked their lives and the lives of their families to give her as much aid and comfort as possible under horrific circumstances.

She never wanted to forget the goodness and compassion of those people.

“What else happened?” Raine encouraged when Shabina fell silent.

She took another deep breath and forced herself back to the present and what had occurred to set her off. “Two days ago, I found something lying on the back steps of the café when I got there to bake. It was just before four in the morning.”

She patted the dogs, rose to her feet and went to a low cabinet with several drawers in it. She’d slipped the feathers in a Ziploc bag. “I found these on the top stair. Three feathers.” She handed the bag to Stella.

“These look like the feathers from the mourning dove, Shabina. I know four a.m. is early, but why would these upset you?” Stella passed the bag to Harlow.

Harlow frowned as she studied the feathers. “They do look like mourning dove feathers, but they don’t have spots. If I recall, don’t those doves have brown or black dots on their wing feathers, Shabina?” She handed off the bag to Zahra. Vienna looked over Zahra’s shoulder.

“I wouldn’t know,” Zahra admitted. “Just looks like regular feathers to me.”

“Me too,” Vienna agreed. She pulled the transparent bag closer. “Is that blood on the feathers? And on the shaft? Were the feathers pulled out of the bird?”

Raine held out her hand, and Vienna placed the bag in her palm.

“Definitely drops of blood. Birds aren’t my field of expertise, Shabina, they’re yours.

What type of bird?” Raine carefully handed the bag back to Shabina.

Shabina’s hand shook as she placed it carefully in the drawer.

To her, the feathers were evidence she wasn’t losing her mind.

Shabina pressed her palm against her thigh hard.

“There’s a species of bird, beautiful, pigeon-like, called the laughing dove.

It looks similar to the mourning dove, but it has a very long tail, and the body is pastel pink and brown edged with blue.

They mate for life. Most of the time, they walk along the ground hunting for food.

They’re called laughing doves because they sound much like a human laughing. ”

She kept her gaze fixed on Raine. If anyone believed her, it would be Raine.

Shabina knew birds. She didn’t have a single doubt that these feathers had come from a laughing dove.

That didn’t mean someone couldn’t have dropped them outside and they’d blown in the wind and found the way to the steps of her café.

That seemed an unlikely coincidence, but then three feathers?

“What significance would these feathers have between you and Scorpion?” Raine asked. “There must be a tie for you to be upset.”

“Scorpion was gone a lot. He’d leave behind orders to torture me but not kill me.

Despite his hiring mercenaries, there were a couple of good men in his camp who didn’t like what he was doing to me.

We’d move every three or four days, but I was always in bad shape.

There was one guard, a man called Iyad. He never participated in rape.

He was always rough with me, and a few times he was forced to beat or whip me.

I understood. He was risking his life to be kind to me.

He would sneak me water or a small bite of food when I was at my worst. I was forced to walk every day to keep my endurance up.

He knew I liked birds, so he would deliberately find a flock and take me in that direction.

He rarely spoke or made eye contact, and I was careful to keep my gaze fixed on the ground. It was a protection for us both.”

“They had eyes on you all the time,” Harlow guessed.

“Yes.” Shabina inclined her head. “We moved every few days, and it wasn’t like before with Salman Ahmad and his tribe. This was only a small group of Scorpion’s paid soldiers.”

“Do you think those men knew Scorpion’s true identity?” Raine asked.

Shabina shook her head. “I know the majority didn’t.

He always wore a mask. He had the seven men he referred to as his cabinet members who may have known.

They stuck close together, and those men also wore masks.

Sometimes I would hear them speak in French to one another.

If Scorpion was present, he would always shut that down. ”

“I’m sorry I interrupted,” Raine said. “Please continue.”

“They’d throw tents together, and that’s where we’d stay and then move on.

That morning, Iyad had taken me for a walk, and Scorpion arrived with no warning.

He was really angry. That meant he was at his most dangerous.

Even his men were afraid of him when he was like that.

He began shouting and cursing at everyone.

Something had gone wrong with the money transfer.

Unfortunately, at that very moment, the doves took their opportunity to chime in, and it did sound very much like human laughter.

I must have smiled. I was so disciplined by that time and always kept my head down and eyes averted from Scorpion, but he must have seen me. ”

Her heart accelerated, remembering that moment.

It felt as if time stood still. She knew Scorpion would beat her to death.

He was more than capable in his blackest moods, and there was no doubt that he was in one of his killing frenzies.

She had lifted her chin, determined to goad him into doing it, killing her.

Getting it over with. She’d had enough. She was already weak and felt hopeless.

Her body was worn out and so was her mind.

Her guard, Iyad, had instantly recognized the danger she was in and what she planned to do.

Maybe all the men had. It was that silent.

Only the wind blew and the sand swirled lightly around them.

Iyad yanked her around to face him, slapped her face, and forced her to the ground, yelling at her to kneel before the sheik.

He began to viciously whip her back, over and over, all the while cursing and admonishing her to respect Scorpion.

Instantly, in one of his infamous mercurial moods, Scorpion stopped Iyad from beating her and said he knew a better way to teach her manners.

Just uttering those words sent that same sinister chill down her spine. Shabina couldn’t help looking out her windows again. Was he out there watching her right at that moment? Watching her friends? He couldn’t see into her home. She shivered and crossed her arms over her chest.

“To make a long story short, that night, he had several laughing doves killed in front of me and cooked for my dinner. When I refused to eat, he decreed I couldn’t eat anything until I’d eaten what he’d put in front of me. Little did he know he’d given me the perfect out.”

No one could be more stubborn or more disciplined than Shabina when she made up her mind to something. If starving was the only way to escape Scorpion, she would take it gladly. She knew it wouldn’t take long. These men had abused her to the point her body had few reserves left.

“How did you survive?” Vienna asked when she fell silent again.

Shabina had presented her case regarding the laughing birds’ feathers and their connection to her. She didn’t see how anyone would call finding them on her doorstep a coincidence. She hadn’t planned to continue talking about her time with Scorpion.

She sighed. “When it was clear I was going to die and no threat was enough to force me to eat, no beating could induce me to eat, and nothing he did or said worked, in the end, he turned his wrath on my guards. He threatened that if I died, he would give them a slow death, not only them but their families as well. Two of the four guards assigned to watch me day and night had been decent. In a camp that size, two wasn’t many, but they were good men just doing their best to stay alive.

Both had risked their lives several times to give me small respites from pain or to give me encouragement.

I knew Scorpion meant what he said. He would have taken great pleasure in hurting them, although they’d served him well. I felt I had to live for their sake.”