Page 48 of Sheltering You

He snatched it off the coffee table and swiped to answer the call.

“Just got your message,” Michael said. “What’s up?”

Perfect. Because he’d already been in such a great mood.

“Jasmine asked me for a favor,” Derrick said, “and I…probably should have said no.”

“Hmm. We all know how good you are at that.” Michael sounded amused.

“Yeah, well, in this case…” Derrick explained what she’d asked—and the plan they’d come up with. “We figured it’d be easy. Just meet them at the hotel, get them in the car⁠—”

“Wait a minute,” Michael said. “Please tell me you’re calling because you’re having second thoughts.”

“I wish.”

“You’re saying you did this? You’re in DC? Did you get them, her friends?”

“Things didn’t go exactly like we’d hoped.”

“Explain.”

Derrick told his brother about the botched rescue mission and the harrowing escape. “I had a feeling we might be followed, so I rented a nondescript car. I lost them in the city traffic.”

There was a beat of quiet, and then Michael exploded. “Are you out of your flipping mind? What were you…?” Deep breath. “I can’t believe…” Another breath. “I know exactly what happened. She batted those big eyes, and you fell all over yourself like some ridiculous smitten…flipping…kitten.”

Derrick’s churning frustration turned to fury. “Said the guy who disobeyed orders, flew to Iraq, and⁠—”

“I’m a CIA agent, Derrick. I’m trained. I’m⁠—”

“Why don’t you write down everything I did wrong and go over it with me later? That’ll be fun for both of us.” He clamped his lips shut, took a breath. Started over. “Could we just get past the part where you tell me what a moron I am? Because I get it, all right? I get it.”

Silence.

Derrick pushed his hair back. “Sorry. I’m not…” The last thing he needed was to alienate his brother. “This isn’t your fault. This was all me.”

“Yeah, well… I might have done the same thing, if Leila had asked me. At least you got out of there. Where are you now?”

“Hotel. We were going to fly out, but when we pulled up to the terminal, there was a guy at the door who looked like he might be a guard. We thought he was searching for us. In retrospect, I think we panicked. I can’t imagine how they’d have known we’d be there—at the private terminal.”

“Huh. I see what you mean.”

“Then we thought someone followed us leaving Dulles, but again, we could have imagined that. Our Uber driver managed to lose the guy in the airport traffic.”

“That also seems unlikely, if the person following was trained.”

Maybe, under normal circumstances. But Kyle had been a little crazy.

“When we got to the hotel, I went through Rabie’s clothes and backpack, just in case someone had stuck a tracker somewhere.”

“Good thinking. Next time, go through the stuff before you get to the hotel. Or, better yet, just toss it all out the window. The backpack, anyway.”

Next time? There wasn’t going to be a next time. “The kid was freaked out enough. I was trying not to⁠—”

“Better than the alternative.”

True. “The point is, I didn’t find anything. And if there was a tracker, wouldn’t they have come already? Wouldn’t they be here?”

“Probably.”