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“Mile high club.”
I took his hand in mine and led him back to the bed.
We were soon laying side by side, still holding hands. Sleep overtook both of us.
My dreams were filled with mountain ranges and strange people speaking an unknown Afghan dialect.
No matter what happened on our crazy, last minute adventure, I would stay by his side.
We had each other, and at the end of the day, that was all that mattered.
THIRTY-NINE
Cooper
Jade and I landed at the Kandahar airport in one piece. I had sent word to a few contacts I still had in the country. A Land Rover waited outside, ready to take us all the way to Samangan.
A man riding shotgun smelled of goats and sour cheese, but he looked tough enough to protect us. I had spent a lot of money setting up this trip to be sure nothing would happen to us.
I glanced over at Jade as she sat beside me in the back of the Range Rover. She was looking out the window at the landscape as the sun rose in the distance.
Arabic music flowed from the speakers as the driver and his security guard in the passenger seat yapped back and forth about the best way to dig a well.
“We have to be ready for anything,” I said. “You shouldn’t have come.”
She turned to face me. Her eyes were red, with bags under them.
“The man contacted me, not you. Plus, I want to be here. You couldn’t have stopped me.”
“This will all be over soon. We can put it all behind us and get on with our lives.”
As I watched her smile weakly, I realized how much I loved her. It was as if we were made for each other. A perfect fit. True love.
“I can’t think of a better plan,” she said, still staring into my eyes.
“We should arrive early enough to scope the place out before it gets too packed. Are you sure you remember where his booth was in the market?”
“It’s been so long. My memories are a little hazy, but I think so.”
“Good.” I turned to the passenger up front. “I need the gun.”
He twisted around, eyeing me suspiciously.
“Do it, do it, he’s been vetted,” the driver said in English.
The other man reached into the glove box and pulled out a revolver old enough to be in a museum.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “This isn’t what we agreed I would be getting. I’ll need more firepower than this if this turns out to be a trap.”
“That what you pay, that what you get,” the driver said.
Meanwhile, the passenger continued to stare at me menacingly.
“It’s okay,” Jade said. “We’ll be fine.”
I wanted to call her out for being so naïve, but I held my tongue in front of the strangers. Every decision I made concerned her. I couldn’t forget that now if I tried.
The two in front returned to arguing amongst themselves as we bounced around in the backseat. Outside, the unforgiving Afghanistan landscape stretched to the horizon.
