Page 40 of Warlord’s Empire

She did her best to control her breathing, levelling her gun on the door as it opened. As soon as she saw Shola’s face, she squeezed the trigger. Shola was faster though, flinging herself to the side as the bullet hit the concrete wall behind her head.

Saskia ducked back behind the door, shouting, “I’ll kill anyone who comes in here! Don’t you fuck with me!”

“Saskia, stop.”

She froze. “Muhammed?”

“It’s me.” His deep voice was strained but unmistakable.

She wanted to rush out the door and into his arms, but she held back. “What’s going on? I saw Shola and Nuani shoot you.”

His shadow filled the door and her hand shook, her finger over the trigger of the gun. “I told them to,” he said, his voice stronger.

“Why would you tell them to shoot you?” What kind of Twilight Zone was this? It made no sense.

He didn’t answer at first, his tone ashamed when he finally spoke. “I was having a… flashback and it led me to believe we were under attack, but I promise you everything is fine.”

“But I saw Shola and Nuani attack you!” Saskia insisted, still itching to shoot one of them for hurting Radik.

“We used tasers,” Shola explained, her voice coming from around the corner where she could safely avoid Saskia’s aim.

“I asked them to take me down if my issues became uncontained. I promise you, I was never in danger. It was a mild electrical current. Just enough to bring me down.”

“It looked a fuck of a lot more painful than a mild zap, Muhammed.” But she was starting to believe them. It explained why she couldn’t find any attackers in the video feed and why the compound wasn’t crawling with Radik’s soldiers. She lowered her weapon and stepped out from behind the door. She stared Radik up and down, searching for injury. He looked nothing more than exhausted and worried.

She walked into his arms, wrapping hers around his waist and pressing her head to his heart. “I thought you were dead.” And it was the worst moment of her life.

He pressed his lips to the top of her head, crushing her to his body. “You were willing to kill for me.” He sounded awed by the thought.

“Would’ve done it too if Shola hadn’t been so fast.”

“Don’t sound so broken up about it,” Shola said sarcastically, stepping out from behind her protective wall. She gave Radik an accusing look. “When did you put a weapon in the safe room?”

“Saskia needs to be able to defend herself in case of attack,” he replied.

“Next time, I’ll leave you to get her out of the room.” She looked around. “Looks like Nuani took off after tasing you. Brave guy.”

“Smart guy,” Radik growled. “Now why don’t you follow his example and make yourself scarce.”

“Yes, General.” She took off, her footsteps echoing in the darkness.

Saskia snuggled against Radik, knowing he would soon push her away.

As predicted, he allowed her about thirty seconds of closeness before stepping away from her. Striding into the safe room, he quickly returned with the blanket, wrapping it around her shoulders.

When she continued to shiver, he looked down at her feet. “I’m a bastard for dragging you down here.” There was regret in his voice, but he didn’t give her a chance to deny his self-recrimination. He swept her feet out from under her, absorbing her weight as he settled her against him.

He made his way quickly upstairs, climbing them at a pace that made Saskia’s head spin.

To her disappointment, he took her back to her room, depositing her gently on her bed.

She wanted to reach out to him, beg him to stay, but she didn’t. She needed to sort out in her head what had just happened. She was deeply attracted to the warlord, probably in love with him, but she was terribly afraid there was something wrong with him and it made her heart ache.

They were going to have to sort him out before they could figure out any kind of romantic relationship and she knew from experience it wouldn’t be easy.

He turned away, striding to the door separating their two rooms. He paused before going through. “I’m sorry, Saskia.” His massive shoulders were bent. “You deserve more and better than this. I’m a weak man for forcing you to come here.”

Fear nearly froze her tongue, but she forced the words out. “Are you… are you going to send me away?”