“Your qualifications look great for this position, Miss Hawthorne.”

Lily smiled her most professional smile, hope rearing its tiny head.

“Thank you so much! I am able to start right away if hired. I would love to jump right in and help your students master the English language.”

The headmistress nodded approvingly as she glanced back at Lily’s papers. Then, her eyebrows narrowed ever so slightly.

Oh no.

Lily had seen that expression at least six times in the two weeks she had been in Al Yibri. She was lucky to have secured so many interviews so quickly, but they had all ended exactly the same.

“I don’t see your work visa here. Do you have that documentation available?”

Lily swallowed, her mouth dry.

“I don’t actually have the work visa secured, but after a few weeks of employment I will certainly be able to procure one with my salary.”

The woman frowned, and Lily knew exactly where the conversation was heading.

“I’m sorry, Miss Hawthorne, but without a work visa, you cannot work here. I can’t have you doing it illegally. I’d advise you to secure one as soon as possible before your status is discovered. Our law enforcement is particularly stringent on this sort of thing.”

At the mention of the police, Lily’s face blanched, and the woman laid a reassuring hand on hers.

“I won’t be making any phone calls, so don’t worry. I’m sure it was an honest mistake.”

“Yes, quite the mistake. Thank you for the information, ma’am. It’s most appreciated.”

The woman nodded, and Lily stood, finding her own way out of the school.

Tears threatened to fall as she got back into Marissa’s silver car and slammed the door shut behind her, resting her forehead against the steering wheel as she composed herself.

How could she have been so foolish? She had managed to land herself in a foreign country with no job prospects, and the more time that passed, the faster her savings drained. She was steps away from being totally broke and trapped illegally in Al Yibri, and she had no one but herself to blame.

Turning on the engine, she decided it was time to go home. She would apologize for leaving with such short notice and hope that her employers in Wyoming would be understanding of her stupid spontaneity. Turning onto the road, she drove to the highway ramp that would take her back toward the city. A wall of fully stopped cars met her, and she tapped the brakes as she reached the tail-end of rush hour traffic.

“Typical,” she huffed, resting her forehead against her hand as she watched for any movement.

She could try for another teaching job abroad, maybe in a country that didn’t charge so much for a work visa. There had to be somewhere else she could go and make a living for herself without being stuck in Cheyenne for the rest of her life. There simply had to be.

Yet, after spending two weeks in Al Yibri, she had grown to love the culture and people of the tiny country. She had so badly wanted to find a way to stay, but it looked like that wasn’t meant to be.

Crash!

Lily bumped her nose on the steering wheel. She hadn’t been paying attention. She’d been lost in thought as traffic had begun moving, and before her, the bumper of a very expensive-looking car was now smashed against the crushed front end of Marissa’s vehicle.

“Oh no, no no!” Lily cried, sitting in shock as she tried to pretend that she hadn’t just ruined her friend’s car with no way to pay her back.

As she stared ahead, a man in regional garb stepped out of the sports car and turned to look back at her. His robes were flowing, his eyes masked by expensive sunglasses. But even through all of his coverings, she could tell he was handsome.

Great.

He approached the driver’s side, and Lily realized it was her turn to exit and see if he was unharmed. Opening the door, she stood and faced the man whose car she had wrecked.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

He was tall, towering over her as he perused her, his eyes unreadable behind the reflection of his sunglasses. Still, his shoulders were tense, his body language clearly showing his annoyance.

“Are you all right, miss?” he asked, his tone less than charitable. He was trying to be polite even in the face of the damage.

Lily’s blood roiled with anxiety as she looked from Marissa’s car to the man’s and back again.

“I’m fine. Are you?”

He held his arms out, indicating that he was, in fact, perfectly unscathed.

“I am. I cannot say the same for my vehicle, however.”

They both glanced at the damage. His car had nothing but a dent on the back bumper, while Marissa’s looked beyond fixing. Lily swallowed, her throat terribly dry. The sound of police sirens echoed across the trees in the distance, and when Lily looked back up at the man, she caught an expression of pure panic on his face, only matched by the sheer terror rising up in her own gut.

In that moment, she realized she was living illegally in Al Yibri with an expired travel visa and no auto insurance for a car that didn’t belong to her in the first place. A run-in with the cops could get her deported, or worse.

Panicking, she turned away from the rich man, unable to think about the damage to his car as she plopped back into the driver’s seat and attempted to turn the ignition.

The car barely sputtered. It was totaled. Lily was trapped.

Tears finally won out, and Lily pressed her face into her hands as she began to weep in despair. The man with the sports car walked a little closer, leaning in.

“I don’t have a visa to live here, and I don’t have any insurance to help pay for this damage. If the police find me, who knows what they’ll do? I can’t believe I’ve gotten myself into this mess!”

Lily continued to cry, the sirens getting closer even as traffic managed to stay in a gridlock. When she looked up, the man was still watching her, his expression exposing some level of pity. Lily wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or annoyed. The last thing she needed was pity. She needed help!

“Get in the car,” he said.

She stared up at him, sniffling as she tried to register what he meant by that.

“Quickly. We don’t have time to waste,” he said, opening the door.

People around them were starting to take notice, staring and whispering. The wealthy, handsome man ignored them as he held out a hand to Lily for her to take. She stared at it.

“If you want to avoid arrest and deportation, I suggest you move with a bit more haste. We haven’t got a moment to lose!”

There was an edge to his voice that implied he would be much better off avoiding the police, as well. Lily hesitatingly placed her hand in his, and he lifted her up, leading the way to his sports car.

“Quick, get in.”

Lily’s eyes were wide as she watched him slide into the driver’s seat, and she opted to jump in before he raced off without her. Glancing back, he turned the wheel of his car and unwrapped it from Marissa’s front bumper, taking off down the breakdown lane and making a quick turn just as flashing police lights came into sight behind them.

Lily held on to the door handle, her knuckles white as he wound his way through a series of twisting roads, turning in a myriad of ways until Lily’s head was spinning and she was completely at a loss as to their whereabouts. They both held their breath, glancing in the mirrors to see whether they were being followed. After some time, the man pulled into a parking lot.

“We should swap vehicles. This one is too noticeable, now.”

Lily opened her mouth as though to speak, but she could find no words. Instead, in full self-preservation mode, she exited the sports car. The man pulled another key from his ring and unlocked a little blue car that was far less flashy. Lily stepped inside as he turned on the engine, leaving the damaged sports car behind.

They drove in silence for a while as he pulled the new car out onto the highway, forest transforming into desert as the trees thinned out all around them.

“You seem to have done this before,” Lily commented.

While she was grateful to be out of the hands of the police, she was deeply aware that she was now traveling to an unknown destination with a stranger. While his chiseled jaw and thick dark hair were stunning, that in no way meant she was safe.

He shrugged his muscular, broad shoulders.

“It’s important to be able to get to where one needs to go. In the old days, they would swap horses. Now, we simply keep cars in strategic places in case the need arises.”

He spoke so matter-of-factly, like that was the easiest thing to understand in the world. Who didn’t have several cars planted all around the city just in case they needed to get away from the cops?

“Are you a criminal?” she blurted out.

The man laughed, deeply amused by her question.

“I am not. Well, at least I don’t think I am. In any case, you can rest assured that I won’t be the one handing you off to the authorities. I happen to like keeping a good distance from them, myself.”

“So, you are a criminal?”

The man sighed, and his shoulders slumped ever so slightly. Lily had touched some kind of nerve, but it was one that had been so frayed over time that it only resulted in exhaustion rather than anger.

“I am not,” he insisted. “And I will once again assure you that you are safe with me.”

“In that case, may I ask who my knight in shining armor is?”

He hesitated on his answer, as if debating whether to tell her the truth.

“Sheikh Atnan Shadid, at your service.”

Lily knew what it meant to be a sheikh, but that name in particular stuck out to her. She remembered the pictures at the airport of the local royalty.

“You’re the future ruler of Al Yibri!” she gasped.

Atnan didn’t answer that, and Lily realized that his royal status might be a sensitive subject and let it drop.

They drove on in silence, Lily’s mind whirling with what had happened, and what would become of her. She glanced sideways at Atnan.

“Why did you do that? Why did you let me escape with you?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he mumbled. “Perhaps I can never resist a damsel in distress.”

“I am no damsel in distress,” Lily insisted.

He glanced over at her, his lip twitching.

“You’re not? My apologies. If you’d like, I can take you back to the scene of the crime so you can hash it out with our fervent and disciplinary police force. I’m sure you can take them on single-handedly.”

Lily frowned.

“All right, fine. I did need help, and I’m grateful for it, but where are we going now? Are we on the run?”

Atnan chuckled again like he was sharing an inside joke with himself.

“I wouldn’t say that. Still, it can’t hurt to be out of sight for a little while. I’m taking you somewhere safe. Do you trust me?”

“No,” Lily answered, and Atnan laughed. “How can you be so jovial after what just happened? We’re on the run from the police! How do I know you’re not some psychopath?”

He glanced over at her, shaking his head.

“I suppose I consider myself an eternal optimist. Instead of being locked in a cell for our perspective ‘crimes,’ we are free to go, driving along this lovely stretch of highway. Don’t you think that is something to be grateful for?”

“For how long? At some point, we will have to find a solution. Without a visa, my situation is even more perilous.”

“Why don’t you just go home? They won’t force you to stay here against your will, especially without a visa.”

Lily gazed at her hands in her lap. The truth was, her credit card was maxed out. She had no money for a flight back home. There was a chance that deportation would be the only way to even get her back to Wyoming, and what then? Hitchhike a ride back to her apartment, if they hadn’t already thrown her stuff out and rented it to someone else?

“I see,” Atnan said.

Lily looked up at him.

“You see what?”

“You’re stranded, much like myself. Fortunately, now that we’re together, you at least have a place to stay for a while.”

“Who said I’m staying with you?”

“You did, when you ran from the police with me. Besides, where else are you going to go?”

Lily considered that as the desert stretched on. Atnan pulled the car off the highway, and Lily watched as a beautiful, deserted palace appeared along the horizon, growing larger as they drove closer. The Sheikh pulled the car into the circular drive that led to the front doors and turned off the engine, gesturing toward the palace.

“We’ve arrived,” he announced.

Lily stared up at the wondrous building. It was clearly ancient, and there was a distinct sense of disuse about it. Chunks of stone were missing from various places, and the window coverings were torn and tattered. Lily looked back at Atnan, who was watching her with a closed expression.

“What is the son of the ruling Sheikh doing living in an abandoned palace in the middle of nowhere?”

“What, you don’t like my decorating?”

He was deflecting, and she knew it.

“I saw the look of panic on your face when you heard the police sirens. You wanted to escape just as much as I did, yet you are one of the most powerful men in the country. What do you have to run away from?”

He removed his sunglasses, then, revealing a pair of milk chocolate eyes that made Lily want to melt. She steeled her emotions, determined not to let them get in the way of her already difficult situation.

“How about this?” he began. “I don’t ask why you’re in my country illegally, and I won’t report you to the authorities unless you really get on my nerves.”

“Some savior you are,” she muttered, feeling the weight of the threat.

“Oh, come now, I’m just teasing,” he said, though his expression indicated he might not be. “Come inside and see what we have to offer.”