Captured: The Sheik's Bride Ch. 07

A few hours later Leanna woke up. She sat up in bed quickly and looked around, realizing it hadn't been a dream, she was home.

"Feeling better?"

Leanna turned her head and saw her father sitting in a chair next to her bed.

"Yes," she said quietly. "I feel much better."

"Good. Mom's got dinner ready, are you hungry?"

Consulting her stomach she found herself ravenous. Nodding to her father she got out of bed and walked downstairs to the kitchen. There she found her mother and brothers sitting, they had just started dinner. Sitting next to Kade she gave her full attention to her meal, avoiding any questions as to why she had stayed in Zariff for so long, and why she hadn't contacted anyone.

Realizing that they wouldn't be finding out anything tonight her family let the subject drop and turned to a more agreeable topic, horses. The whole family updated her on everything that had happened while she was gone.

After hearing about all the horses she decided that she needed to go see them, especially her baby, Diesel. Going back up to her room she changed into some jeans and an old t-shirt. She clattered down the steps hastily pulling on her muddy boots and practically running outside, her horses causing every other thought to leave her head.

She entered the barn and inhaled the welcome scent of horses. Striding down the barn she stopped at a stall with a large bay inside.

"Hey Deis." She greeted the horse.

The horse nickered and raised his head from the pile of hay he had been eating. She wrapped her arms around the Warmblood's large neck and buried her face in his mane. She started sobbing uncontrollably, so grateful to be back. Despite the fact that she was falling in love with Khadeem she had missed her family and horses terribly.

The horse stood patiently as she cried. Finally it seemed that she was done with the crying jag. She wished she could ride but it was getting late. Leaving the stall she turned off the lights and walked back up to the house where she sat down with her family while they watched television.

She started thinking again about Khadeem and what she should do; falling back into her thoughts she didn't see the glance her mother gave her, or the shocked look her mother had on her face when she saw the wedding band on her daughters finger. Her father saw the look of shock. Rising he took his wife's hand and lifted her off the couch and into the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" He demanded.

She stared blankly at him for a moment before she was able to gather her wits and form a coherent response.

"Go look at Leanna's left hand David." She said simply.

Frowning in confusion he went back into the living room and took a look at his daughter's left hand. His eyes widened and he quickly strode back into the kitchen.

"That's a-that's a-"

"Wedding ring." Evie finished the statement for him.

They looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Do you want to talk to her or…?" He let the question die off.

"I'll talk to her." Evie stated.

He nodded and watched as his wife went back into the living room and asked Leanna to follow her. His eyes followed the two as they walked up the stairs to Leanna's room to talk.

Shaking his head he walked back into the living room and watched the television without really seeing it. The three brothers shared a confused look at their father's blank expression. Demon broke the silence.

"Dad what-"

"Don't worry about it right now; I don't exactly know the whole of it either."

The brothers shrugged; assured that they would find out about what was going on, eventually.

----

"Baby, what is going on?"

Leanna looked up from her hands that were fiddling up to her mother's concerned face. She grimaced, she wanted to unburden herself, but she was just so scared.

"N-nothing Mom."

"If it's nothing then why do you have a wedding band on your finger?!?"

Leanna gasped realizing just now that she had forgotten to take the band off. Tears formed in her eyes, she had to come clean now. Haltingly she told her mother everything, being kidnapped by the slaver, being examined, auctioned off and then married. Once she started the words just poured out of her. She didn't notice the tears streaming down her face as she told her mother the story, though now that it was told her hands were soaked with them.

Slowly she looked up and was startled when her mother engulfed her in a hug. Sobbing Leanna held onto her mother tightly while she let out all the pent up fear, anger, and frustration. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there clinging to her mother like a two year old in their first thunderstorm; she only knew that she felt so much better to have gotten everything off her chest.

Slowly she let go of her mother and realized that she was being talked to.

"- poor baby, what an ordeal!"

For about another half an hour they talked, Leanna confessing everything, her mother listening and comforting her. Finally her mother stood up and stated;

"You're done for the day, go in the bathroom and get a shower then into bed, you need as much rest as you can get."

Meekly Leanna nodded her head and followed her mother's instructions. Her mother left the room, probably to go tell her father, while Leanna took a long hot shower. She stood under the hot spray, letting it wash off all her tears. She stared unseeingly at the shower wall while her mind raced with the memories of her time with Khadeem. She was sickened to realize that she had fallen in love with him. Weakly she sat down in the shower while contemplating this discovery. I love Khadeem. How could she love him? He had bought her, like he would buy jeans at a department store. She shook her head. Leave it to me to fall in love with the one man I shouldn't. Shaking her head she got up out of the shower and toweled herself dry while her new found discovery lay at the forefront of her mind. She got into bed and lay there thinking over how and why this had happened, but soon her brain, tired from pondering the unponderable turned itself off and she slept.

----

The next morning Leanna got up early and much to her relief was the only one up. She quickly ate breakfast then rushed out of the house to the barn. To keep her thoughts off of her own problems she put herself to work feeding horses and cleaning stalls. Two hours later she was finishing up when her family started making their way to the barn to do their chores. She ignored the worried looks she was receiving from them; it was quite obvious they all knew where she had been while she was vacationing.

Refusing to meet any of their gazes she entered Diesel's stall and put his halter on. Leaving the stall she went into the tack room and gathered Diesel's bucket of brushes. Setting the brushes down next to a pair of cross-ties Leanna led Diesel out of his stall. She put him on the cross-ties and grabbed a curry-comb. She started currying his neck, clearing his body of the mud that he had found in his field.

With all the dirt dislodged she brushed him off and picked his feet, then went back into the tack room and got his tack. She tacked him up and put her chaps and helmet on. She put on his bridle and led him out to the outdoor ring and mounted up. They walked around for awhile, Leanna just happy to be back on her horse.

After walking awhile she put him through his paces. Once they were done she let him walk again to cool out, deciding against jumping for today. She took Diesel back into the barn, un-tacked and gave him a bath before she walked him out and let him graze on the lawn while he dried. She heard someone approaching and looked up; it was her father.

"Leanna…your mother explained what happened. This afternoon we're going down to the police station to file a report."

"No! I don't want to even have to think of what happened, let alone talk about it!"

"I know sweetheart but this needs to be reported…"

"I know that dad! I just…can't…handle it right now!"

Looking away she felt the tears start slipping down her cheeks again. Disgusted with herself for being so weak she angrily swiped at her tears. She led Diesel back to the barn and put him back into his stall. For the rest of the day she spent her time reacquainting herself with the horses. It was almost dinnertime and she was riding her last horse for the day, a young chestnut mare that she had purchased just before she left for vacation. Her father hadn't brought back up the issue of reporting her ordeal and for that she was grateful, she just wasn't ready to tell her story again, especially to a police officer.

She was now out in the ring riding the chestnut filly, Andujaar (Annie) and was being schooled over fences by her father. Annie wasn't very cooperative today, she was jumping and bolting, Leanna was having a hard time keeping the mare under control, but she was used to it, that's what she got for riding inexperienced horses. She was finishing off a course, coming down a triple when a limousine pulled into the driveway. Leanna knew who was inside. She wasn't paying attention and the mare knew it, as she approached the final jump in the triple she ducked out. Leanna who obviously wasn't prepared was thrown to the ground, the back of her helmet smacked the ground hard and she fell flat on her back. Her ears were ringing and she was, for lack of a better word, seeing stars. She vaguely heard her father yell at her to stay put and the sound of a car door slamming along with multiple feet running towards her. Sluggishly her brain reminded her who was in that vehicle. Groaning loudly she turned on her side and folded herself into the fetal position.

She jerked away when someone touched her shoulder.

"Sweetheart what hurts?"

Silence was her response; it would hurt too much to talk; that and the fact that her brain was overwhelmed with the fact that Khadeem had found her. She knew Khadeem was right by her side, that fact kept her from opening her eyes. She noticed that her father wasn't trying to kill Khadeem…probably was too worried about her.

She heard the faint sound of a siren; great now she got to go to the hospital to have some more doctors poke at her.