“One day—with the right man.” For a second, she let herself imagine that Derek was the father. Her uterus contracted, clearly in favor of this idea.
He stroked her hair. “What a funny pair we make. You bring life into the world, and I take it out.”
“I guess so.”
She drifted off after that, waking briefly when he drew up the blankets. She snuggled deeper into him. “You’re so warm.”
He stroked her hair, kissed her again.
It was six in the morning when he left her, kissing her on the cheek. “Sleep, angel. I’ll see you in a little while.”
She was asleep again before he closed the door.
* * *
“Ms. Hamilton,this is Malik Jones, Connor O’Neal, and Dylan Cruz. Corbray sent them to bolster our operation here. Jones served as an Army Ranger. O’Neal joined us after a decade in Delta Force. Cruz comes from eight years serving as a SEAL.”
Jenna shook each man’s hand. “Thank you so much.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” O’Neal said.
“Did you have a good flight?” Derek asked.
Jones grinned. “Is there such a thing as a good flight?”
“Stop whining, man.” Cruz slapped him on the back. “Get your black ass some coffee before the meeting starts. I’ll need some, too.”
Jones grinned. “How about you get your skinny Puerto Rican ass out of my way?”
Jenna looked startled by their words.
Derek knew how it must sound to someone who didn’t know them. “Don’t worry. They’re best buds. They give each other shitallthe time.”
He opened the conference room door for Jenna and followed her inside, taking his seat at the head of the table and offering Jenna a place to his left. The staff was already there. He waited until Cruz and Jones had poured themselves cups of coffee and taken their seats to start the meeting. “Let’s get down to business.”
“Ms. Hamilton was the target of a failed abduction attempt by Abdul Jawad Kazi, former warlord, now governor of this province.”
“And all-around asshole,” Jones added.
Derek went on. “It is our job to get her safely out of the country and back to the U.S. We will not fail, am I understood?”
Jenna’s gaze was fixed on the table, hands clenched in her lap. She was afraid—and not without reason.
DerekhatedKazi for this.
He turned to Segal. “Let’s hear it.”
“We’ve got three options. We can drive Ms. Hamilton north to Tajikistan and fly her from Dushanbe to Istanbul and home. We can fly her out on a chartered flight from the airport here. We can fly her via helicopter to Kabul and then fly her out of Afghanistan from there. Each option comes with its own set of risks.”
Jenna’s face had gone pale.
Derek held up a hand to stop Segal from continuing. “Ms. Hamilton, do you have any questions before we start, anything you’d like to say?”
“No. It’s all just a little … overwhelming.”
“I bet.” Derek had to stop himself from taking her hand.
Segal went through the risk assessment of each option. “Option A. We drive Ms. Hamilton across the border. The risks are obvious. There’s one highway, and we could be ambushed anywhere along the road by Kazi’s men, this Qassim bastard, Taliban fighters, or displaced insurgents from Daesh.”