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Another reason to get her girls and their families out of Al Kamen.
“Yeah, she’ll probably send you home,” Jase said after a long moment. “We’re all probably going back to the states. And if things are going to shit here, that’s where you belong.”
“Where do you belong, Jase?” she asked quietly.
“Wherever Mel tells me to go,” he said immediately. “Or where her bosses in the CIA tell me to go. But I’m not thinking about that right now. All I care about is getting you safely back to Kabul.”
She grabbed Jase’s hand. Held it tightly so he couldn’t pull away. “I need to ask you something.”
“Ask away,” he said.
Laila drew a deep breath. “Can you and Dev and Cody take me back to Al Kamen after we get away from here?” Her words fell over one another she was speaking so quickly. “I need to figure out a way to get Amira and her family, and the other five girls and their families out of the village. Back to Kabul. Maybe even evacuated to the States. They’ll all be targets if the Taliban take control of the village.”
Jase shifted away from her, and even in the darkness, she knew he was staring at her. “Jesus Christ, Laila! That would be a suicide mission. Three spec ops soldiers show up and try to take six families out of town? We’d all be dead before we reached the city limits.”
“Then we go in the middle of the night,” Laila said. Her heart jackhammered against her chest, but she swallowed the lump of desperation. “I can’t leave them behind, Jase. You know damn well what will happen to those girls if the Taliban gets hold of them. They’re thirteen and fourteen years old, for God’s sake! The best they can hope for is a forced ‘marriage’ to a Taliban fighter.” She shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about the worst case scenario.”
Jase’s fingers curled around her hand. Held her tightly. “I know you’re concerned about them, Laila. I know you want to help them. But how would we get them out of the village? A Humvee holds five people.”
“One of the villagers has a box truck.” She spoke too quickly, desperate to convince him. “We could use that. Put everyone in the back and drive straight to Kabul.”
“What the hell, Laila?” She heard him shift, as if he were staring at her in the darkness. “You’ve been planning this?”
She took a shuddering breath. “Yes. Ever since I realized that the Taliban are targeting Al Kamen. I can’t help everyone in the village, but my girls are at risk. I put them at risk by begging them to attend my school. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t at least try to help them. If you and Dev and Cody won’t take me to Al Kamen, I’ll walk there.”
“Damn it, Laila!” The fabric of his shirt whispered as he slumped against the wall. “Do you have any idea how dangerous your cockamamie idea would be?”
“I have a very good idea,” she said quietly. “I’m willing to take the risk. Are you? Isn’t that your job in Afghanistan? To help people? Those six girls in Al Kamen desperately need your help.”
“You’re not playing fair, Laila.”
“I can’t afford to play fair. A lot of lives are at stake.”
A long beat of silence hung between them. She didn’t move, and she was pretty sure Jase didn’t move, either. Finally he said, “It’s not just my decision. Dev and Cody have to agree, as well. And Mel.”
“Mel will say no,” Laila said immediately.
“Yeah, she will.”
“So we don’t tell her ahead of time,” Laila said. “Better to ask forgiveness than permission. Isn’t that what you spec op guys always say?”
She heard Jase’s head bounce off the rock against their backs. “God damn it, Laila. Do you have any idea what you’re asking?”
