Page 56 of Dalla's Royal Guards
Dima’s streets pulsed with life, even as its buildings bore the cracked skin of civil war. Bullet holes marred faded murals. New concrete rose beside skeletons of crumbling structures.Steel scaffolding embraced history’s wreckage like ribs stitched with progress. Roadside vendors hawked fruit and grilled meats beside pop-up tech shops and refugee-run cafés. Battered mopeds wove between electric taxis. A donkey pulled a cart of neon-lit lanterns behind a luxury sedan with tinted windows.
Hope rose from the dust.
Dalla had watched it all in silence while the city rolled past her window like a mirage that she could almost touch. The world had changed a lot since her last visit.
The silence in the car broke when Musad shifted in the front seat and turned to face her.
“You’re certain about this?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“Yes.”
“He didn’t say anything else? He just said to meet him here? Are you sure it was even him?” Nasser added, his voice edged with concern.
“It was him,” Dalla said, leaning forward between the seats. “I know it was. His voice—” Her throat tightened. “I would know it anywhere.”
Musad exchanged a look with his brother. “I agree with Nasser. We should contact Raja Hadi. At least let him know what’s happening.”
Dalla turned to them both. “Musad… no. No one can know about Harlem. Not until I’ve spoken with him.”
“Then we’ll be with you,” Nasser insisted.
“You can watch from a distance,” she allowed, her tone brooking no argument. “But if he sees you hovering, he might leave. And if I lose him again…” She swallowed the rest.
Reluctantly, both men nodded.
Musad shifted the SUV into drive and pulled into the underground parking lot beneath the New Simdan Hotel. LED lights cast an ambient glow, lighting the area. The tires of their SUV squealed against the pavement as Musad maneuvered it into a tight space between a rental van coated in desert dust and a luxury sedan gleaming as if it had just come out of a car wash.
Dalla stepped out, straightening her spine. She spotted the cameras tucked into dark corners. A family of four glanced over at them before stopping to stare at them with a wary gaze.
“You might want to leave the bow and quiver in the car,” Nasser murmured, noticing the stares.
Her gaze flashed to her longbow and quiver before returning the family’s wary gaze. Her weapon didn’t exactly blend in among tourists hauling wheeled suitcases and weary business travelers checking their watches. Dalla met the curious stares with a cool, unflinching gaze. The woman in the family nudged her husband and whispered while the two teen boys’ mouths dropped open before they began talking in low, excited voices that echoed in the cavernous garage.
“She looks just like that Viking chick from DW,” one boy blurted.
“She looks like the poster we saw at the airport. You know… that desert lady who saved two kingdoms a bazillion years ago. I wonder if she was the model for it,” the other commented.
“Are they having one of those dress-up conventions here?” the father asked.
“Ohhh man, that’d be epic!” the oldest teen laughed.
Dalla arched a brow when Nasser and Musad snorted out a laugh as the family disappeared inside. She glared at them before she slid her longbow and quiver back into the back seat.
“It was not a bazillion years ago,” she muttered with a sniff.
“I think we might need to go shopping if we want to blend in,” Musad said, coming around the car.
Dalla fingered the clothes she was wearing as they walked toward the doors where the family had disappeared. She studied the small box Musad stepped into with a wary glance before Nasser pressed a gentle hand to her lower back and she stepped forward. Heat flared inside her when she felt him rub her back before he dipped a little lower.
Her breath hissed audibly, and she turned to face him as the doors closed. Her hands shot out to steady herself when the box moved. Nasser’s hands had moved to her hips while Musad caressed her buttocks.
“You two are not playing fair,” she hissed.
“I prefer to think of it as playing with fire,” Nasser murmured. He turned as the doors behind him opened and stepped out.
Dalla blinked at the sudden change. Her eyes flashed around the box in confusion before she stepped out. She turned to study the box again before the doors closed.
“How did it do that?” she asked, frowning up at Musad.
