Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
The lump in her throat threatened to choke her. She found she was rocking, self-soothing, something she had tried very hard not to do.
“Shabina.” Raine’s voice was gentle. “You don’t have to tell us.”
“No, I do. I was responsible for what happened. I should have tried to escape. The Frenchwomen were ransomed a few months after the first one. We moved often, but it was always the same: a nice setup and everyone seemed so peaceful. There were two babies born. The three college students left. Salman Ahmad came to me one day and said it would be my turn. He said I was too good with the children, teaching them different languages and playing games with them, and no one wanted me to go. I overheard him telling his men that each time the ransom was to be paid, it was intercepted. He didn’t know if my father was deliberately keeping the money or if they had a traitor among them, someone taking the money before it got into their hands. Either way, he couldn’t keep me much longer. I knew I would be going home.”
She touched her tongue to her suddenly dry lips. “But then they came. He called himself Scorpion.” Without thinking she wrapped her fingers just above her left wrist. “He said his name was Al Aqrab Jabrir Birvul Fareed. He claimed he was likely named after the star, but he prides himself as the Deathstalker Scorpion. He even referred to himself that way. He has a special brand he puts on his captive women to claim to the world they belong to him.”
Shabina realized her friends were watching her closely, and she forced her hands to relax and drop once more to the dogs pressed close to her.
“He wore a mask, but I realized fairly quickly he wasn’t from the Middle East. His name wasn’t really Fareed. The men he surrounded himself with were mercenaries, and they were nearly as sadistic as he was. They used automatic weapons and mowed down the men. It didn’t matter the age of the women; old or young, they were raped before they were killed. They killed every single person in the camp, babies included. Everyone.” She whispered the last word because her voice refused to go any louder. “I thought I would be raped and murdered as well. I was part of them. They had become my family.”
“Oh, Shabina,” Zahra whispered. “How terrible you had to witness such a massacre.”
“I know you might think I have some kind of Stockholm syndrome from being kidnapped and held so long by Salman Ahmad, but I know it isn’t that. To him, kidnapping was simply a business transaction. He was a good man. A wise man. He led his tribe with fairness and kindness. Not just his men but the women and children. They followed their traditional beliefs, and while I was with them, I tried to learn as much as I could and followed them as well. Scorpion was just the opposite, and he is a true sadist.”
“I’ve heard of him,” Stella said. “That name has been in the news numerous times. He’s an international serial killer. Most people suspect he’s an airline pilot because he’s killed in so many countries.”
“There’s little trail left behind,” Raine added, “because he murders everyone he comes into contact with. He usually keeps a young girl for about six months, tortures her and then kills her in some sadistic way, leaving his brand on her arm.”
Shabina resisted rubbing her forearm beneath the long-sleeved shirt she wore.
“He’s killed in the United States,” Stella said. “In France. In Argentina. Costa Rica. Egypt, Belgium and I think one other country besides Saudi Arabia. He was reputed to have massacred several villages or very small towns in each of the countries.”
“He insisted everyone around him address him as Sheik Fareed,” Shabina said. “A sheik is a holy man, wise, an advisor, someone for everyone in the tribe to look up to. Scorpion didn’t earn his title. He took it, when it wasn’t his to take. He doesn’t practice the beliefs he pretended to outsiders to have. He doesn’t have one ounce of respect for any of the people, the land, or even the royal family. He truly is a serial killer, and so far, no one has been able to catch him. When I realized he wasn’t from the Middle East, I did my best to find out his true identity. At least to figure out where he was from.”
She rubbed her aching thigh. It was throbbing now, her heart beating in tune to that pulsing pain. “I heard him speaking French more than once with several of his top commanders. He called them his cabinet. I won’t go into what happened to anyone who dared to cross him, or what he did to me, but he was no holy man. He was a total fraud, and he hated me and yet seemed obsessed with me. I couldn’t do anything right. I pretended not to know his language and made him speak French or English to me. That earned me quite a few punishments, but after a while, the mercenaries he’d hired locally grew careless and talked in front of me. His command of both those languages was excellent.”