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Drax nodded his own head They eain, and Vere stood and watched as Drax ducked under the ferocity of the wind and climbed into his four-wheel drive

‘Excellency, we ently

Vere nodded, but didn’tsand had sed up Drax’s vehicle and he could see hier

Outside the s the sand whirled and the wind howled, battering the vehicle froht of the track she had been following, but she didn’t care She didn’t care about anything She only wanted oblivion

A sob tore at her throat, her e her body in much the same way as the storrip of a force so powerful that they could not escape fro to pluck up the heavy car andthe dry sobs tear at Sadie’s throat Drax! How could he have planned to subject her to such degradation? She couldn’t bear to think of the fate he had been willing to inflict on her, and she couldn’t bear to know that she had loved him She wanted to tear his memory from her heart and her mind

The vehicle’s engine started to race as it struggled to climb a steep, invisible incline—so steep that it must almost be perpendicular, Sadie realised, as the wheels spun and the vehicle rocked Without warning it suddenly started to plunge doards at great speed

Sadie tried to brake, but it was no use The vehicle was out of control She cried out in the seconds before the vehicle lurched to an abrupt halt, causing her to bang her head on the wi

ndow, and through the pain she are that she had cried out Drax’s nareater than the injury to her throbbing head Her forehead felt wet and sticky She lifted her hand to it and saw that she was bleeding Already she could barely see through the windscreen because of the sand She knew she ought to be afraid, but so felt easier than living with the knowledge of Drax’s cruelty

Sadie couldn’t have got very far, Drax tried to reassure hi to the driver of the off-roader she had taken But she had also driven right into the path of the onco storm—which hy he had refused Vere’s offer to come with him

That he would find Sadie was not in doubt Whether they would survive the fury of the storm was a different matter Like all modern vehicles in use in Dhurahn for desert travel, both were fitted with a special tracking system that ensured a driver could not becoht not work in the ferocity of the stor device would Which was just as well, Drax thought, well aware of how easily a sandstor features and creating new ones It was ih his windscreen, but unlike Sadie he knew exactly what to do when he suddenly started to climb a steep sandhill

Even though he knew approximately where the other vehicle was, it still took Drax several precious minutes to locate it, half buried beneath the sand When he wrenched open the door and saw Sadie sluh his heart was being forcibly ripped out of his chest But theand darkening with horror as she saw him

‘No! Not you…No…’ She was crying and half hysterical as she tried to push hi her out of the car, but Drax persevered, dragging her free as she collapsed against hiled back to his own vehicle Already sand was drifting against it, driven there by the unrelenting wind Drax knew there was no chance of the it back to Dhurahn ahead of the storm, but if they stayed here it would overwhelm theet there

Soer seat He had left the engine running, and as he put the vehicle in gear Sadie started to come round

She ith Drax Sadie shuddered Why had he come after her? Why hadn’t he just left her in peace? Was he so perverted that he would risk death rather than be denied his sick pleasure?

Tears filled her eyes and spilled down on her cheeks