Jenna swaddled the newborn—a little girl—and laid her in the clear plastic bassinet next to her exhausted mother, who pressed her clenched fists against her lower belly, lines of pain on her face. It was Najida’s fifth child, so the cramps would be strong. “I’ll bring you some medicine for pain.”
As she walked back to the pharmacy, she saw Nahal, Lailoma, and Parwana peeking through the kitchen curtains at something that was going on outside, headscarves drawn over their faces.
“What is he doing?”
Jenna filled out the paperwork for two oxycodone and carried them, together with a glass of water and a stool softener, back to the mother’s bedside. “Swallow these. They will take some of that pain away.”
“Thank you.” The woman took the pills and drank.
“You have a beautiful baby daughter. Do you have a name for her?”
Najida glanced over at her new baby. “No. I have three daughters already. My husband wanted this one to be another son. He will be angry.”
The baby gazed around at her new world, sucking on one hand, blissfully unaware that she was a disappointment to her parents simply because she’d been born female.
The thought put an ache in Jenna’s chest.
She wanted to explain to the mother that it had been her husband’s sperm and not her egg that had determined the sex of their children but stopped herself. “Rest.”
Jenna walked back toward the kitchen hoping for some tea and found the three student midwives still staring out the window. “What is it?”
“Your brother is up on the wall.”
Jenna walked over, saw Derek standing atop the compound’s outer wall, looking to the south, tools in his hand. He pointed, said something she couldn’t hear.
“What is he doing?” Nahal asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Is he married?” Parwana asked.
Jenna was about to say she had no idea but caught herself. She was pretending to be his sister, after all. She guessed. “No, he’s not.”
With Farzad, Dawar, and a few others looking on, he straddled the wall and adjusted something. Jenna couldn’t see what it was from here.
She went to her room, slipped into her parka, and walked out back.
Under normal circumstances, she would never have gone outside in the presence of a group of men, but she had a chaperone now. Derek was her brother, after all.
“What are you doing up there, brother?” she asked in Dari.
He saw her, grinned. “Hey, sister. I’m installing security cameras. Farzad thought it would be a good idea.”
Jenna turned to Farzad. “Thank you.”
Derek acted like it had been Farzad’s idea, but she knew better. Somehow, Derek had talked Farzad into this.
Derek jumped to the snowy ground and walked over to her. “Do you have time to talk? We can sit in the Land Cruiser.”
There were three women in labor, but Marie was looking after them. None were close to delivering yet.
“I have a few minutes.”
She followed Derek to the Land Cruiser and climbed into the rear passenger seat.
Derek turned on the engine—and the heat. “You could sit up front, you know.”
“I suppose I could.” Respecting the culture here was her full-time job—if she wanted to help Afghan women. “You bought security cameras?”
He looked back at her, nodded. “I picked them up yesterday afternoon. I installed cameras at the intersections of the roads to the east and west to give Farzad and his men warning if any militia troops or Talibs head this way. There are also cameras on the wall looking to the north and south, on the front gate, and in the waiting area. I still have to set up the monitors and teach Farzad and his crew how to use the system, but I should be done by this evening.”
Jenna had to admit, at least to herself, that this made her feel safer. “Thank you.”
He turned in his seat so they could speak face to face. “Are you having a better day?”
“Four babies so far, all healthy. Thanks.” The concern in his blue eyes made her pulse quicken.
God, you are pathetic!
She’d known being here would mean two years of celibacy, so why did she explode into hormones every time she was around him? First his scent. Then the sight of his butt. Then his touch. Now his eyes.
“I need you to do me a favor. Can you organize emergency drills for the women? Farzad is afraid that running drills will scare everyone, but I think you’re all tougher than that. He’s willing to wait till bullets fly and trust that you’ll manage. I’d rather see you get organized and practice, even in small groups. Keep it low-key, but drill.”
“Okay.” She wasn’t sure how the others would feel about this.
“You’ll want to make sure you’ve got food, water, blankets, whatever medical supplies you might need, and some kind of toilet. The siege at the midwifery school in Ghazni lasted most of a day.”
A midwife had been shot in the head during that raid.
“I don’t think we have blankets to spare.”
“I’ll get some. I can get water pouches and halal MREs, too, if that helps.”
“The army makes halal MREs?”
Halal was the Islamic equivalent of the Jewish concept of kosher.
Derek grinned, making Jenna’s heart skip a beat. “Hey, Uncle Sam thinks of everything.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Good. I’ll set the MREs and the water outside the back door and text you to let you know it’s there.”
Then Jenna remembered. “Are you married?”
Derek’s expression shifted to amusement. “Why do you ask?”
Heat rushed into her cheeks. “It’s not personal. One of the students asked me, and I wanted to make sure we’re not telling different stories.”
“Smart. No, I’m not married.”
Why this should please Jenna, she couldn’t say. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
He shook his head. “I’m not really good at the relationship thing. I’m gone all the time, and I can’t talk about my work. That doesn’t fly with most women.”
Not wanting to pry, Jenna changed the subject. “James told me some things—how grenades work, how helicopters stay in the air, how to load a magazine. He told me stories about the things you two did.”
“Did he?” Derek didn’t sound altogether pleased.
“Does that mean you have to kill me now?” The moment she said it, she regretted it. He almost certainly had killed people, and joking about it was insensitive at best.
His brow furrowed. “God, no.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
It was his turn to change the subject. “How about you? Why aren’t you married?”
“I guess I haven’t met the right guy. I had a serious boyfriend, but we broke up when he couldn’t change my mind about coming here.”
Derek’s gaze held hers. “He must have been a loser.”
You’re staring at him like a teenage fangirl.
“Trenton was a brain surgeon, actually, but, yes, a loser. He loved his job more than he loved me, but when I focused on my career, he felt threatened. I’d been ready to end it for a while anyway. I didn’t even cry when we said goodbye.”
“Do you miss him?”
“Not one bit.” Jenna missed sex, but she didn’t miss Trenton. She glanced at her watch. “I need to go.”
Derek caught one of her hands, held it between his two bigger ones. “Take those drills seriously, Jenna. I won’t be here much longer. You need to be ready.”
“I understand. I’ll do my best.”
* * *
Derek watched her go, then climbed out of the vehicle and got back to work. It was late in the day by the time he finished attaching the monitor and booted up the system.
Farzad watched as images of the road, the mountains to the north and south, and the waiting room sprang up on the view screen. “What do you think?”
Farzad grinned. “This is like James Bond.”
Derek showed him how to toggle from camera to camera, how to shift to a full-screen view from an individual camera, and how to zoom in. “You can take photographs of license plates on vehicles or get a closer look at faces this way.”
“What about nighttime?”
“The cameras are infrared, so you will be able to see what’s happening in the dark, too. If the Taliban or a rogue militia group tries to sneak up on you, you will see their vehicles passing by and have time to prepare.”
“This is good.” Farzad pointed toward the image from the waiting room with a jerk of his chin. “Why did you put a camera there?”
“If someone manages to sneak weapons past the gate or comes here wearing explosives, you might spot it and have a moment to act before they do.”
Farzad looked doubtful. “We would have to run from the barracks to the door, and by the time we got there, it might be too late.”
That’s what Derek had hoped he’d say.
Derek wanted an armed officer in that waiting area at all times. “What if your men took turns sitting in the waiting area as if they, too, awaited the birth of a child? If someone takes out a weapon or is wearing a vest, they will already be there—and they will have weapons hidden inside their clothing.”
“Do you think such vigilance is necessary?”
“After the attack on Ghazni, yes.”
Farzad rubbed his beard, his gaze back on the screen. “Such a thing could not happen here. Inshallah.”
“Inshallah.” Derek repeated the phrase, but, given the shit he’d seen, he put more faith in a loaded M4 than the will or mercy of anyone’s god.
He finished teaching Farzad how to operate the surveillance system—how to check each camera to make sure it was live, how to reboot if the system went down, how to capture and save images from the view screen.
Farzad was smart and learned quickly. “It is a great gift you have given us.”
“You have given me the gift of your hospitality—and you have protected my beloved sister these many months. I am grateful.”
When he had finished, it was time for evening prayer.
The men came together, rolled out their prayer mats, and faced Mecca, Farzad taking the role of imam. Derek stepped outside to give them space, Farzad’s singing following him.
“Allahu akbar.” God is the greatest. “In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful, all praise is due to Allah.”
Derek stood in the cold, his gaze drawn toward the front gate, which Farzad had closed for the night. Jenna was in there, maybe helping a patient, maybe standing as he was, alone, an outsider.
He’d told her he would only call if it was important, so he ignored the impulse to text her to say hello. What kind of stupid idea was that, anyway?
You lonely, man? Tough shit.
He was used to being alone. Yes, he’d had his share of lovers, but nothing that had lasted. He’d never managed to go the distance with a woman. He’d told Jenna that his work was to blame. Truth was, he had trouble getting close to people and dealing with the messy complexity of relationships. The women he’d been with had wanted him to open up, but he didn’t know how. Or maybe he just hated being vulnerable.
An image of Jenna’s face, her cheeks flushing pink, flashed through his mind.
Damn. Yeah.
She was pretty—clear skin, bright green eyes, long dark lashes. When she’d blushed, he’d felt it down to his balls.
“It’s not personal,” she’d said.
But the color in her cheeks had said otherwise.
He caught himself, shook his head at his stupidity.
What the hell was wrong with him?
You’re attracted to her.
Yeah, okay. So what if he was? He was as human as the next man.
And you wouldn’t mind being the next man, would you?
That wasn’t going to happen. He left his dick in his pants when he was working. Even if he was willing to break that rule, which he wasn’t, Jenna was Jimmy’s little sister. He owed the man his life. He couldn’t repay that debt by getting Jenna naked. Fucking her would be a serious violation of the Man Code.
Before he could start trying to imagine what she might look like beneath all those layers of loose clothing, he walked to his Land Cruiser, which he had parked near the gate, and started unloading halal MREs. He’d just set the first box on the ground when his satellite phone buzzed. He pulled the phone out of his coat. It was nine in the morning in D.C. Corbray was probably calling to—
Senator Hamilton.
Fuck.
“Tower here.”
“I spoke to your partner this morning. He says you haven’t yet managed to convince Jenna to come home and that you’re planning to leave soon.”
Yeah, the man was pissed.
“She refuses to leave before she has completed her contract, and I can’t stay here for eighteen months. I can find someone—”
“I thought I made it clear that I want you either to bring her back or to stay and watch over her yourself.”
“I never agreed to stay here for eighteen months. I suggest you read the contract.”
The bastard spent the next minute yelling into his phone until Derek was tempted to hang up on him. Hadn’t he watched Jimmy deal with this same bullshit? Hamilton had tried to procure an honorable discharge for Jimmy while he was in basic training and had spent no small amount of time shouting in Jimmy’s ear just like this.
“Senator Hamilton!” Derek put a hard edge on his voice. “You can’t intimidate me. If you don’t shut up, I’m going to end this call.”
“You wouldn’t—”
“Try me.” Derek took advantage of the silence. “I’ve investigated the security team here. I’ve also installed cameras in various positions to give hospital security a bit of advanced warning if—”
“It’s not ‘if,’ Tower. It’s ‘when.’ It’s only a matter of time, and you know it!”
The man was paranoid. There were NGOs all over the country. Though there were occasional attacks, most of the aid workers who came to Afghanistan went home in one piece. He started to say this, but the senator cut him off.
“I warned James not to join the army. I told him he had a different purpose in life, but he didn’t listen. He died over there without ever having lived up to his potential, and now Jenna—”
“Your son died a hero.” The words were out before Derek could stop himself. “It’s too bad you never knew the warrior James became. As for Jenna, she’s an adult. Like James, she can make her own decisions. You don’t own her.”
“You’d best watch your—”
Derek ended the call, fury slamming through him.
It wasn’t often that a person could provoke him like this, but that son of a bitch had dared to judge Jimmy’s life and death without knowing a damned thing about it. Hamilton had never put on a uniform, never faced live fire, never had to make a split-second decision that meant life for someone—and death for himself.
Fuck Hamilton.
Sniper!
Rat-at-at-at!
Derek shoved the memory away and reached for the next box of MREs.