“I’m good.” He stepped back. “I’ll let you dress and eat. I’ve scheduled a meeting for zero-eight-thirty.”
“A meeting? Did you learn something new?”
“I went out to the hospital early this morning. I gave them the remaining medical supplies and told Farzad what had happened. The women boxed up your things. Everything is sitting here outside your door.
Boxed up her things? “But why—”
“You can’t go back, Jenna. Farzad doesn’t want you to come back.”
Jenna’s heart sank, the rejection painful. “Why not?”
“That’s what the meeting’s about. I’ll meet you in the conference room then.”
He left her alone.
She sat on her bed, the news like a punch to the gut. She’d set aside two years of her life to help train midwives so that Afghanistan could get on its feet again, but now…
Tears blurred her vision.
She hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye.
* * *
Derek didhis best to forget the sight of Jenna wearing only a towel and focus on the meeting. It wasn’t easy, not with her sitting beside him looking good enough to eat. She wore a long-sleeved, dark blue V-neck tee that showed a hint of cleavage and jeans that hugged the curves of her luscious ass, her hair still damp, but uncovered and free. He could almost feel its silky strands on—
Get a damned grip!
He finished telling others what he’d learned this morning. “When Hamzad got back to the hospital, he wanted to know where Ms. Hamilton was. He didn’t ask about me. He asked only about her. When he found out she hadn’t returned, he told everyone that she and I are not brother and sister and that I’m a private military operative. Farzad warned me against either of us returning. He said that Hamzad had turned his men against her. He also said that if Qassim was looking for her, he couldn’t protect her.”
Jenna stared at him, clearly taken aback. “How could Hamzad know that? I swear I didn’t tell anyone. I’ve never even spoken to him.”
“Who in Afghanistan outside of this building knows who we are?”
Jenna’s brow furrowed as she thought through this.
Cross answered for her. “Abdul Jawad Kazi.”
Jenna looked from Cross to Derek. “Why would he send someone after me? He gave me his permission to work here.”
“Kazi giveth, and Kazi taketh away,” McManus said.
“Does this have to do with the night I shouted into the waiting room? Or maybe he’s angry because we pretended to be brother and sister.”
Derek couldn’t be sure. “I think we can assume that Kazi heard about that.”
“It’s no’ like him to give a damn about such matters,” McManus said.
Derek turned to Elizabeth Shields, a linguist and former CIA analyst. “Shields?”
“I have to agree with Quinn. Kazi doesn’t care about moral issues. There’s something bigger going on here. We’ve been trying to monitor his coms, but, as you know, that’s become more difficult.”
War had made Kazi a multi-millionaire. Whatever tech he couldn’t get for free from the U.S. government, he bought from the Saudis or the Chinese.
Derek took another sip of coffee. “What we know for certain is that Qassim was searching for Jenna but made a point of staying out of sight. He didn’t try to take her from the hospital. After the failed attempt this afternoon, he stopped down the road from the hospital where he couldn’t be seen. What do we make of that?”
Levi Segal, a former counter-terrorism agent with Israeli Defense Forces and the head of their Middle East tactical team, spoke up. “He could be working for Kazi, as our sources claim, or he could be working for some unknown player on the side. Or maybe he’s gone rogue. Regardless, the fact that he tried to acquire Ms. Hamilton while she was far from the hospital proves that he’s keeping a low profile.”
“My gut tells me Kazi is behind this,” Shields said. “I don’t think Qassim would risk his life by betraying his boss. You know what would happen to him if Kazi caught him moonlighting.”