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She leaned against the wall and her eyes fluttered closed. Other than the few hours she’d slept before Jase found her, she hadn’t gotten any sleep for more than twenty-four hours. She struggled to open her eyes but she must have failed.
The scrape of boots on stone jerked her awake. She shoved her hand into the pocket of her tunic, searching frantically for her Glock.
“It’s me,” Jase said softly. He must have heard her scrambling for her weapon.
Laila drew a deep breath. Slid her hand out of her pocket and, still groggy with sleep, struggled to stand up.
When Jase emerged into the smaller chamber, she staggered toward him. Wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly. “I’m so glad you’re back,” she murmured. “I couldn’t hear a thing. I was afraid the Taliban had grabbed you.”
He rubbed his hand up and down her back, and it was soothing. Comforting. Comfort wanted to drift into arousal, but she refused to let that happen. Hiding in a cave, surrounded by the Taliban, was not the time or place.
There would be time later to do all the things she wanted to do with Jase.
“If the Taliban were waiting, you would have known,” he said, his fingers tracing a path down her back. They moved dangerously close to her ass, then retreated. “I was watching to see where they were and what they were doing.”
“Tell me,” she said.
He waved toward their packs. “Let’s eat while we talk.” Grabbing his pack, he pulled out two MRE’s. “Which do you want?” he asked. “Chicken and noodles or spaghetti and meatballs?”
“Chicken,” she said, holding out her hand for the package.
“I’ll do it,” he said as he put her meal on the tiny stove in the container, then opened his own meal and did the same.
While the meals heated, Jase gulped down most of a bottle of water, just as she’d done, then removed her meal from the stove and set it down in front of her.
She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until Jase removed his meal from the tiny stove and the garlicky, tomatoey scent of his food drifted over to her.
In just a few minutes, they were both eating. Laila chewed slowly. It wasn’t as bad as some of the MREs she’d eaten during training, but it wasn’t even close to a gourmet meal. When she finished the chicken, noodles and vegetables, she reached for the package of cheese and crackers and ate those.
“God, I was hungry,” she said as she tore the wrapper off the candy bar.
“Me, too,” Jase said as he finished his meal, then wadded up the packaging and replaced it in his pack. “No one focuses on hunger when they’re running for their lives,” he said. “But we needed to refuel.”
“So what did you see out there?” she asked. “Have the men looking for me left?”
“They haven’t gone anywhere, but they’ve stopped for now. Looked like they were eating, but I’m guessing they’re not done searching. They’re past the crevice where Del and Cody have hidden the Humvee, thank God. It’ll make it easier to get down to them after dark. But it means we’ll have to drive past them.”
Laila frowned. “They’re spending a lot of time looking for me. Doesn’t that time and effort for one woman strike you as odd?”
Jase drew a deep breath. Held it for a moment, then exhaled. “Yeah, it does. Nothing about your situation feels right. And it has me worried. Everything we know points to the Taliban gearing up for something big. Why are they wasting time searching for you? What do they want with you?” He shrugged and didn’t look at her. “Who knows? Maybe as a bargaining chip with the U.S.”
She was pretty sure that wasn’t the reason. The Taliban wanted her because she’d committed the sin of teaching women.
And Amira. Feroz wanted Amira.
“You’ll ask the guys about going back to Al Kamen, right?”
Jase studied her for a long time and didn’t say anything. Then he looked away and punched his fist into the rock wall. When he wiped his hand down his pants, she saw blood-stained knuckles. “I’ll talk to the guys,” he finally said. “See if they’ll agree.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I know that’s all you can do. But I think I can persuade them that we have to do this.”
Jase blew out a breath. “You can try. But I wouldn’t count on it.”
