Uh. “No, it’s fine. It’s not a contract in that way. I told you we take on recruits every year, right?”
“Yes, and they’ll hopefully become operators or something like that.”
“Right,” I said. “This is their final selection. We have a training facility in Ecuador for that.”
“Gotcha. I love South America,” she mused. “Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina… Don’t get me started on Chile.”
She wasn’t reacting like she was supposed to. What was wrong with her?
“Anyway, this actually works out well,” she continued. “As much as I will miss you, I know my dad’s gonna want me around for a bit before I try to put my life back together.” She tilted her head back and peered up at me again. “Bring me back a snack if you can?”
I furrowed my brow. “Do you hear what I’m saying here, Kiera?”
“Yes. Your work takes up a lot of time. You forget I grew up with a dad who was gone a lot—whose training missions are some of the riskiest out there.” She paused. “More than that, I grew up with a mom who showed me what it was like to wait for a man who wasn’t around all the time.” She got settled once more and looked out over the mountains. “I lived through the soul-crushing moments of worry and loneliness, and I lived through the adrenaline rushes and sheer joy of the homecomings.”
She knew.
Some tension left my shoulders, and I rested my chin on the top of her head.
She knows. She has a better understanding of that kind of life than anyone I’ve dated in the past.
I needed to get that through my skull.
“At least you won’t be gone for months and months,” she murmured. “I’m really not worried, James. I have my own life too. I have to find a new job, a new place to live, I have Dad, I have friends… I know who to call if I need to ramble and fret when my boyfriend can’t stay in touch because he’s out risking his life somewhere.”
I smiled, unable to help it, and kissed her hair.
Closing in on my fifties, and I was suddenly aboyfriend.
Christ.
“I’m not totally on board with the term boyfriend,” I muttered. “I’m not twenty-four.”
She laughed quietly, her shoulders trembling. “Manfriend?”
I grimaced.
We’d find something better.
My stowaway became a stowaway again when we touched down on the outskirts of Jalalabad at oh-three hundred that night. I told her to hide on the floor between the seats, just in case, while I waited for Kelley, Wilde, and Stevens to appear.
The area was close to abandoned. It’d once been a small suburb with young families who wanted to be close to the big city but not live right in it. Now it was war-torn and financially collapsed. The stores had closed, communications had stopped, the infrastructure was crumbling, and most of the population had fled.
I checked my watch.
They had two minutes.
A dead town didn’t mean it had no eyes on it, and a helicopter stuck out like a sore thumb. This old warehouse lot only sheltered us while we were on the ground, and only for a moment.
The sooner we got to Peshawar, the faster I could bring Kiera home. But at least she’d be safe as soon as we crossed into Pakistan. From there, we’d be on military transport to Turkey and later Germany. Then, commercial to Dulles. I didn’t want her to have to flash her passport in this region—or worry about security.
The faint sound of boots scraping against pavement made me turn left, and I squinted in the darkness.There.Finally. As promised, I knocked twice on the fuselage so that Kiera knew she could return to her seat.
I took in the operators’ appearances and deduced they’d had a trying op. And they probably wanted a fucking shower. Their clothes were covered in desert dust, and Kelley’s backpack was hanging by only one strap. Wilde looked like she was ready to crash.
Stevens and I shook hands and exchanged a brief nod. He was the senior operator among the three, with the other two recent graduates.
“Everything good?” I asked.
