Page 41 of The Sheik's Vow

“Apparently,” he replied.

“Also, several of the cult members have stepped forward, pressing charges against Mr. Howell for crimes that are too craven to describe on the news. But details of Mr. Howell’s atrocities will eventually come out during the court hearings.”

“It’s over?” Kaia asked, still staring at the television even though Riaz had turned off the sound.

“It’s over, love,” he assured her.

Kaia nodded, but deep down inside, she knew that it was going to take a while longer for her, and Tara, as well as the villagers of Todras, Kentucky, to feel genuinely safe. She’d been running from Ethan for fourteen years.

Epilogue

Kaia stepped into the nursery, and came to a halt as she took in the scene. Bindi and Huron, the brother and sister offspring of Marta and another guard dog, were in the crib. Bindi and Huron were snuggled up around Zultin, their one month old son, who cooed happily.

However, it wasn’t the sight of the two, furry, ferocious looking guard dogs napping beside her infant son that stopped her in her tracks.

“What have you done?” she whispered.

Marta’s wet nose nudged Kaia’s hand and, automatically, Kaia reached out to scratch Marta’s ears. The dog snuffled blissfully at the touch, and then sighed with happiness when Kaia’s fingers reached her favorite spot, behind her left ear.

Kaia was about to speak, when she heard a male voice behind her. “What the hell?” Riaz rasped. “I thought you locked up the toys.”

Kaia shrugged. “I remember putting them in the toy chest. I guess…Marta decided Zultin needed…guard toys?” she offered.

Riaz chuckled as they eyed the semi-circle of toys that the guard dogs had arranged strategically around their son’s crib.

“Well, on the plus side,” Kaia started out, tiptoeing around the various toys, “no one would dare steal Zultin out of this crib. Notwith Huron and Bindi in there with him.”

When she smiled down at her baby boy, Zultin waved his pudgy hands, playing with Huron’s silky fur. The big dog didn’t seem to mind. In fact, the dog nudged Zultin whenever his fingers slowed.

Kaia chuckled, then lifted her son into her arms. Huron and Bindi leapt out, then moved to Kaia’s side. There was a slight tussle between Marta and Huron, but the mother persevered.

“You are all wonderful protectors,” Kaia assured the animals.

“Careful of the toy landmines,” Riaz grumbled, picking several of the toys up so that Kaia could escape.

She laughed. “I don’t mind the toys. I love it, actually. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this safe in my life,” she told her husband, as she lifted onto her toes to kiss him.

Postlogue

Ethan groaned as he woke up. It wasn’t the near constant noise of the other prisoners that had disturbed his sleep. It was the smell of his cell mate’s morning visit to the toilet. Since Ethan was forced to sleep on the bottom bunk, the toilet was literally one foot from his face. He had to watch the massive, hairy man that the guards call “Timmy”, who was actually well past the three hundred pound point, take a dump in the toilet. The fact that the prison had served rice and beans yesterday for dinner only made the man’s morning “constitutional” even more powerful.

There was no way to get away from it. He’d been sentenced to life without parole and sent to a maximum security prison. He might have been offered parole eventually, if the authorities hadn’t found that body in his freezer.

Timmy was also a “lifer”. Ethan’s mind could only picture every day starting the same way for the rest of his life. Of course, the man’s morning rituals were better than what Timmy preferred doing to Ethan in the evening after lights out. The guards couldn’t see what happened after the lights went out. Or maybe they could see, but they turned a blind eye to the night time activities. Those hellish fifteen minutes were yet another nightmare that he’d learned to survive.

The only thing that kept him going through this daily nightmare was the fury that burned inside of him. Impotent fury andthoughts of how nice his life had been before.