Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
CHAPTER SEVEN
NATHANIEL
Kabul, Afghanistan
August 2021
“Change your mind,” I ordered Izzy when she opened her door the next morning. Fine, maybe it was more plea than order. Sleeping hadn’t been an issue for me in years, but I’d tossed and turned all night after she told me why she was really here.
Searching for her sister was going to get her killed. Every step Izzy took outside this embassy was a calculated risk, and we’d prepared security for her precise itinerary, not for hunting a needle in a haystack. American photojournalists made excellent propaganda targets for the enemy around here, and with the country destabilizing, the odds of finding Serena in the window of Izzy’s visit were grim.
“Good morning to you too.” Izzy cocked an eyebrow at me and held open her door so I could enter. “Give me about three minutes, and I’ll be ready.”
“Ready to change your mind?” Fuck me, she smelled good. The scent was straight out of every dream I’d had over the last decade.
“No.” She buttoned what looked to be a linen blazer up to her throat and packed a scarf in her tote bag with a pair of overear headphones. “Ready to get on the helicopter. Is Mayhew ready?”
“Already downstairs.” The junior aide was so much easier to deal with than Izzy, but then again, I’d never been in love with him, so that probably influenced my opinion.
“I see you’re dressed for a funeral again.” She eyed my all-black combat gear.
“As long as it isn’t yours. Tell me something. What exactly was your plan coming here?” I leaned back against her door.
She glanced down at my M4. “You really have to carry that everywhere?”
“Yes.” I didn’t bother to tell her about every other weapon I had strapped to me. “Now what was your plan, Isabeau? Just show up here and start calling out Serena’s name?”
A blush rose up her cheeks as she shouldered the tote and faced me, lifting that stubborn chin of hers. “Something . . . like that.”
I let my head fall back against the door for a heartbeat. “I’ve always known you would do anything for her—you’d do anything for each other—but this is ludicrous. How long has she been in country?”
“Five months. She was offered the opportunity to end her assignment early when the rather”—she winced—“abrupt handover of Bagram indicated a larger . . .” Izzy searched for the right words.
“Shit show was about to go down?” I supplied. “Because that’s what’s happening.”
“Withdrawal was never going to be pretty.” Her chin lifted a good three inches. “I just didn’t think Serena would be stubborn enough to stay, especially after the embassy staff was reduced back in April. But she’s . . .” Izzy shrugged.
“Serena.”
Izzy nodded. “If I can just find her, I can talk some sense into her and get her out of here.”
“Do the other members of your delegation know what you’re up to?”
“No.” She gripped the straps of her bag so tight I half expected them to start screaming. “And I know you aren’t going to tell them either.”
I pushed off the door and flat out invaded her space. “And what makes you think that?”
She looked away, and her throat worked before she dragged her gaze back to meet mine. “Because you owe me.”
“I. Owe. You?” My eyebrows rose. Apparently, she remembered New York a little differently than I did.
“After leaving me in—” She closed her eyes and blew out a slow breath through puckered lips that claimed every ounce of my attention.
My stomach drew tight, remembering exactly how soft those lips felt under mine, against my skin.
“You owe me,” she said, straightening her shoulders, our gazes colliding. “Besides, I’ve already put feelers out at her paper and narrowed it to those two provinces, without, you know . . . advertising that I’d be here with a congressional delegation. She’s a photojournalist for the Times. She can’t just disappear, Nate.” She winced. “I mean, Sergeant Green.”
“People disappear here all the time.”
“Well, not Serena.” She shrugged, like her statement could somehow give her older sister a layer of impossible protection that simply didn’t exist here.
“And you’re willing to bet your life on it?” I wasn’t. As much as I cared for Serena and everything she meant to Izzy, my priorities were clear as fucking day.
“It’s not going to come to that.” Izzy shook her head. “We both know that as secret as we’d like this fact-finding mission to be, it isn’t. Serena will know I’m here. She’ll find us, and we’ll put her on the helicopter, and I’ll bring her home with me.”
Disbelief mixed with a heavy dose of anger raced through my veins, and I took a step backward. “You’re using yourself as bait?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Please don’t pretend that you’re concerned about my welfare.”
“Your welfare has been my concern for the last ten fucking years!” I snapped, immediately regretting the slip. Damn it, this woman pushed me to the edge faster than anyone on the planet.