Page 27 of Cole
“That’s very noble of you, Sira but I have no power. I have nothing.”
“Oh, honey, you have everything. You have a man that obviously has fallen in love with you. You have his family, his entire, crazy, amazing family behind you. You have an opportunity to work at a world-class hospital and research clinic. You have everything at your fingertips here. Everything to give you the happy life you deserve and desire.”
Hala stood and circled the fountain, staring back at Sira every few seconds. Sira let her have a moment to absorb everything. When she sat back down, she turned to Sira.
“What if, what if he realizes this was all too fast? It’s all a mistake and he wants out.” Sira shook her head.
“Honey, that won’t happen. It doesn’t happen here.”
“What if he hits me?”
“Never!” growled Ham walking toward the young woman.
“Oh. Mr. McDonald, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you,” she stammered. He gripped her shoulders and Sira kissed her cheek, walking back toward the cafeteria.
“Hala, you didn’t offend me. The men here are different than the men you’ve known. No one hits a woman. Ever. There is no cheating or lying. There is no abuse of any kind. It’s not in our DNA and it’s not tolerated even if it were.”
“He’ll hate me. Because of what my grandfather has done, what he’ll do, Cole will hate me.”
“Hala, take a deep breath,” he said smiling at the young woman. She took a shuddering breath, then another. “Better?”
“Yes.Thank you.”
“Hala, your goodness, kindness, and bravery saved my son. I will never ever forget that. Because of it, even if you decided not to marry Cole…”
“Marry!”
“Hold on. Even if you decided not to marry Cole, you would stay here and be safe, hidden from your grandfather. You are part of this family now.”
“I’m so confused. And overwhelmed. I don’t even know why except that I’ve never had anyone show me such kindness and love.”
“Well, that just makes me sad. And I have to tell you, it would make me sad if you weren’t my new daughter-in-law,” he said grinning at her.
“But he didn’t ask me to marry him,” she whispered.
“Believe me, honey. He will.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Cole? Are you sure this woman didn’t know who you were?” asked Luke with some concern for his friends’ son.
“I’m not sure how she could have. I was in that well for four days, no one on my team was taken, no one knew we were there. Besides all of that, no one saw me or came by in all that time. Her face was the first I’d seen in days.”
“Which brings about another point, are you sure this isn’t you falling in love with your rescuer?” asked Eric.
“If you weren’t older, and bigger,” smirked Cole, “I’d punch you in the nose for that. No. I mean, I obviously saw how beautiful she was right away and she was kind, and sweet, and…”
“Okay, okay, lover, we get it,” grinned Hex. “Now, what do we do about her grandfather?”
“We kill him,” said Hala walking toward the group with Ham. He smiled down at her, nodding at his son who took her hand and pulled her in, hugging her.
“Are you sure, babe?” Hala smiled at him, the term of endearment piercing her heart. “You can’t go back, you know that. I don’t want you to go back. But taking his life, that’s something you might not be able to live with.”
“I can live with it,” she said resolutely. “He killed my parents and countless others. He’s robbed hundreds, if not thousands of people of their time with loved ones. He’s kept my country at war, pitting tribes and political factions against one another. I’m ashamed that I didn’t run sooner.”
“There is no shame in self-preservation,” said Cam. “You can’t do a damn thing if you’re dead. It took great courage for you to rescue Cole and we’re grateful for that. We’re going to dosome research and see what we can come up with on the area he marched to. Do you know when he was supposed to be back?”
She thought for a moment, trying to remember how many days it had been since she rescued Cole.
