by Stewart, Anna J. ; Sasson, Sophia; Carpenter, Beth; Jensen, Muriel
“This is Detective Michaels from the LAPD.” Alessa’s breath stuck in her chest. Julia went to law school in Los Angeles. Her sister had worked for years as a paralegal after college, then decided to finally get her degree. “Is this about Julia Parrino?” she blurted out.
Both Steele and Rodgers had been staring at her and now Steele walked over to the chaiwallah to return their half-drunk glasses while Rodgers led Alessa into an alleyway so she’d have more privacy to talk.
“Yes, ma’am. We’ve been trying to reach you. There was a student protest on campus that got out of hand. Several students were hurt and fled the scene. Your sister’s purse with her ID and keys was found on scene but we haven’t been able to locate her. You’re listed as her emergency contact with the university.”
Alessa forced a breath into her lungs. She needed to think clearly. “Is she hurt?”
“We’re not sure, ma’am. As I said, students were injured in the altercation with our department. She hasn’t shown up to her apartment or any of the local hospitals or clinics. That’s why we’re calling—to ask if you know where she might be.”
Alessa was at a loss. She and Julia used to be so close, but now she had no idea who her friends were or where she could have gone for safety. “Have you tried calling her phone?”
“Yes, it’s turned off. We’ve tried to locate it using GPS, but it’s not tracking.”
“I… I don’t know any of her friends. I’ll try calling her as well and leave a message.”
“Okay, ma’am. Let me give you my personal number. Please call me if you think of anything or hear from her.”
Shaking, she put the detective’s number into her phone, then clicked off.
Rodgers put his hand on her shoulder in a brotherly gesture. “What’s going on, Parrino?”
She told him. He led her to a little brick stoop that belonged to a shuttered storefront. She sat down and buried her face in her hands. “What am I going to do? Should I go to California?”
“It won’t do any good.” Steele had joined them. “If she was part of the protest, she’s likely hiding from the police and you said you don’t know her friends or anything.”
Tears stung her eyes. This wasn’t the first time she’d thought about the fact that military life hadn’t let her keep a close relationship with her sister, but the weight of her complacency choked her.
“I may be able to help.” She looked up at Rodgers. He shifted on his feet. “My ex-wife’s new guy is a hotshot lawyer in Hollywood. I bet he has a good private eye who can track her down.”
A ray of hope bloomed in her chest. Even if she left right this second, it would take her more than a day to get back to LA. Not to mention the possibility that she might compromise the team. And even then, what could she do in LA that the police weren’t already doing?
“You’d ask your ex-wife for a favor from me?” She remembered him mentioning how his ex had asked him to stop calling her because she was getting serious with her new guy and needed distance. It wouldn’t be easy for him to make the call.
Without another word, Rodgers moved away from them down the block. Alessa and Steele didn’t follow. This was the kind of call he needed to make alone. Meanwhile, Alessa pulled up a private internet browser to search the news about the University of California, Los Angeles. Apparently, riots had broken out over the university’s treatment of a student who had been attacked on campus by another student. Of course Julia would be in the thick of such a thing. A committee had been reviewing the student’s case and when they came out from their meeting and announced that they would stand by their previous decision not to expel the attacker, one protestor had fired a gun at the dean and then everything went awry.
She closed her eyes and wished with everything she had that Julia had gotten away and was just hiding somewhere, afraid of the police questioning her.
Rogers returned, his face so drawn that Alessa felt guilty for putting him through this. “She was with him. He has a really good investigator and will help. They’ll call me the minute they have something.”
Alessa stood and hugged Rodgers. “Thank you so much!”
“I hate to be indelicate, but we have another problem.” Steele said. Alessa turned to him. “You’ve got to decide whether you go back or stay. If you want to stay, we can’t tell Luke. He’ll send you stateside.”
She hadn’t thought about Luke but of course Steele was right. “Let’s give it twelve hours. If there’s no news, then I’ll tell him and go back. You guys okay with that?” She looked at each man. She felt bad asking them to lie to their unit commander for her. If Luke found out, they’d both get a reprimand. They didn’t owe her anything and this was a big ask.
Both men nodded. “You’re one of us, Parrino, and we protect each other.”
She thanked the men, trying to beat back the tears that were forming in her eyes. She wasn’t used to anyone going out on a limb for her.
Ten hours later, there was still no word and she was pacing the apartment she shared with Luke. Rodgers and Steele had retreated to their own places to rest. Dan and Dimples had taken over surveillance and Luke was reading intelligence reports.
“What’s wrong?” He was seated at the small kitchen table, staring at her.
“Nothing, I’m just going over things in my head, thinking.” He stood and approached her. She wanted him to come closer but he kept his distance. She leaned into him, settling her head on his chest. She needed to feel the beat of his heart and the love that flowed through it for her. He kissed the top of her head. “Can I put my arms around you?” he asked nervously. She nodded and he circled her in a hug. She let him carry her weight for a minute, enjoying the momentary calm for her mind and body.
“Hey, is everything really okay?” He leaned back so he could look directly in her eyes.
She blinked back tears, unable to control them. She wanted to tell him all about Julia, but she couldn’t. He’d insist on taking her back to California himself and abandon the mission. His lead hadn’t panned out so he was back to looking for other clues as to Ethan’s whereabouts. If something happened to Ethan because he was helping her, neither one of them could live with it.
“Alessa, what is it? You can talk to me.” His voice was soft and she wanted nothing more than to tell him what was going on.
“I’m just not used to being taken care of,” she said.
Now he teared up. “Alessa, I don’t just want to take care of you—I want to love you.”
Did he really mean it? She couldn’t hold the tears in any longer, and they began to fall down he cheeks. He cupped her face. “I know it’s complicated between us right now, but I want us to be honest with each other. Once this mission is over, we will find a way. Together.”
A sob shook her. She needed to tell him about Julia. Her phone pinged and she reluctantly left Luke’s arms to extract it from her kameez pocket.
Meet me outside
It was from Rodgers. Had he heard something?
“Who is that?”
Alessa looked at him. It felt awful, but she had to lie.
“It’s Rodgers. He wants to know if I can come out with him to pick up dinner.”
Luke frowned. This wasn’t part of their normal operating procedure.
“I think he wants to talk about his ex-wife. I’ve been giving him a woman’s perspective,” she said nonchalantly. How easy it was for her to lie. Years of practice were paying off. Except that when she was a child hiding bruises, it was a relief when the teachers believed her. Now, when Luke smiled, a deep, gaping hole opened up in her heart. She wanted to throw up.
“Bring me back some lamb rice—that stuff was good.” Luke dropped a kiss on her head.
She grabbed her purse, put on the hijab and rushed out. She and Rodgers had established a meeting spot a block away so some
one from the building wouldn’t spot them together. Rodgers was already there. He held out his phone and she took it.
“Hello?”
“Lessi?”
“Julia? Oh my God, are you okay?”
“Yes, things got out of hand and someone snatched my purse, so I walked to a friend’s house on campus. When the police came I told her to say I wasn’t here. I didn’t want to get caught up with those other kids. Lessi, I was only there for a peaceful protest. This random guy decided that…”
“It’s okay, Julia,” Alessa said reassuringly. “I’m just glad you’re not hurt.”
“Where are you, Lessi?” Her sister’s voice was small and reminded Alessa of when they were kids.
“I’m far away, but I’ll come see you soon, okay?” And Alessa meant it. She wasn’t going to keep her distance from Julia anymore. She missed her sister.
“I’d like that.”
They chatted for a few more minutes, then Julia handed the phone to the investigator who had found her. He promised to call Detective Michaels and smooth things over.
Rodgers was smiling when Alessa passed the phone back to him.
“I know that cost you a lot,” she said.
“Nothing I hadn’t already lost—the privilege to call the love of my life,” Rodgers said sadly. His heartbreak was clear in his eyes and Alessa gave him a hug. She could feel the sobs deep in his chest that he wouldn’t let surface.
“I owe you big-time.”
“Yeah, you do.” Rodgers laughed.
“I don’t even know how to thank you.”
Rodgers smiled slowly. “Stay away from Luke. I like the guy, but I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NOTHING SEEMED TO be going their way. The team had spent the last two days tracking down Boots, but they had no leads. None of them wanted to risk going back into Afghanistan and there was only so much they could do from Pakistan. Everyone was climbing the walls.
“I think we should move forward with the mission,” Luke said. “Let’s pick up Azizi.”
They were all crowded into Luke and Alessa’s little apartment. The meeting itself had been risky since they each had to enter the unit without any of the neighbors asking questions, so they had to wait until the balconies were clear. Normally they just talked to each other on the comms system from their own apartments, but Luke felt the team needed to see each other face-to-face.
Dan and Steele had taken up spots on the tiny couch. Alessa and Rodgers were sitting cross-legged on the floor and Dimples and Luke occupied the only two chairs in the apartment.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Rodgers took a bite of his pizza, chewed a little, then spit it out and frantically motioned for water. “What is that?” he choked out.
“Hot stuff.” Steele grinned. They all warily eyed the pizza boxes. Steele had managed to find a Pizza Hut to give them a break from the spicy Pakistani food. “I just brought one to try. Stick with the chicken tikka or the pepperoni,” he advised.
Alessa reached for a slice of the pizza Steele had tried. Luke had discovered that she loved spicy food and had been enjoying the local cuisine while the others missed MREs and desperately searched for yogurt.
Dan chimed in. “I think Rodgers is right. We need to wait a bit, get the lay of the land, see why Boots went missing. We were compromised last time and may be again.”
These were all valid points. Peshawar was one of the breeding grounds for Taliban insurgents. Ethan had been pursuing a lead reported by a CIA asset that one of the Taliban leaders was friendly with someone high up in the army who was feeding him information on US operations. According to the unit members who had been on the mission, they’d identified the Taliban leader and were about to approach him when Ethan got killed. Their current mission was to make the approach the team missed the last time. It would be prudent to take a wait-and-see approach. But Ethan was here in Peshawar. Between what Alessa had found on the satellite imagery of the house where Ethan had disappeared, and the new intelligence reports, Luke didn’t need his gut to tell him Ethan was close.
Their target had a home base that didn’t change. The team had already surveilled him the last time and knew him on sight. They knew how many spoons of sugar he put in his tea and what time he liked to go to bed at night. Still, the team had to be on their A game. Azizi was the prime suspect in Ethan’s murder, and if he was holding Ethan, Luke needed the man’s cooperation.
But other than Alessa, the team didn’t know Ethan might be alive. He felt Alessa’s eyes on him and refused to look in her direction. They’d discussed it last night and she firmly believed they should read the team in on the clues she and Luke were following to find Ethan. She trusted the men, but Luke didn’t. He felt in his gut that the leak was coming from the team. It also made logical sense.
“If Boots doesn’t contact us again, we need to go to Afghanistan to find him and I don’t want us to return without completing this mission,” Luke said.
“I say we go in guns blazing,” Steele said through a mouthful of pizza. He finished chewing and leaned forward. “Look, if someone did pick up Boots, they would expect us to sit back and wait, analyze and reanalyze, giving them time to warn off the target or whatever they’re planning to do to counteract.”
Steele’s statement sank in.
“Okay, so what would Colonel McBride tell us to do?” Dimples asked.
“He’d tell us we’re a bunch of screwups—in not so nice language—and order us to come home, then blame Luke for everything,” Steele said without hesitation.
They all burst out laughing. “Luke is right, we keep moving forward, the un-army way, and hope Boots is okay,” Rodgers said.
They made plans for the next day, then each unit member snuck out of the apartment with prep instructions.
Alessa was tasked with analyzing the latest satellite images and she wasted no time in pulling them up on the rugged tablet computer, tucking her legs underneath her on the couch. She was still wearing traditional Pakistani clothing: black harem-like pants and a bright pink kameez that came to her knees. They had bought the outfit at a local bazaar and while she bristled at the richly colored fabric, Luke loved the way it brought out the hint of color in her cheeks and lips, and contrasted with her pale golden skin and dark hair. He had his own homework to do for the mission, but he couldn’t pull his eyes away from the long lashes shadowing her cheeks in the glow of the computer screen.
As if sensing his gaze on her, she glanced up and met his eyes. He looked away and busied himself with the reports he was supposed to be reading, trying to focus on the mission. Now that the team was on board, he was responsible for making sure he hadn’t led them astray. Luke should have felt a sense of relief that everyone agreed about moving forward but all he felt was fear. What if he was wrong? He hadn’t exactly made stellar decisions so far. If he hadn’t insisted on having Alessa by his side, he would’ve been with Boots. He couldn’t deny that his feelings for her had affected his decision. But what had he been thinking? The army was the only thing Alessa had; he couldn’t jeopardize that by exploring his feelings for her. Relationships between officers and enlisted weren’t tolerated. The reprisals were worse when the individuals were in the same chain of command. Even the hint of something with Luke would ruin Alessa’s career and get them both court-martialed. For what? He couldn’t make any promises to her. He didn’t even know what his future held next month. Would he continue commanding the unit? If the command was taken away from him, what would he do? Leave the army? And then what? Could he just turn the unit over to Ethan and walk away?
It had been easy to fall for Nazneen. She was unavailable. He knew that going in. No promises needed to be made. But that wasn’t the case with Alessa. Even if he left the military, could he really be with her? Was he ready to be a fa
mily man? Live the life of an army spouse the way his mother had? Just the thought of waiting at home wondering if Alessa was safe made him shudder.
His phone vibrated against his hip and he was thankful for something other than Alessa to focus on. Adrenaline shot through his fuzzy brain when he saw the text.
Your brother is alive. StinkySocks.
It wasn’t exactly news to him, but he felt reassured by the fact that Boots had sent the message. It meant Boots was okay and someone else had confirmation that his brother was indeed alive.
Where are you? How do you know?
A quick response pinged on his phone. Our target is holding him.
How do you know?
He wanted to make sure Boots wasn’t the leak and that Luke wasn’t being set up to walk into a trap.
Maddeningly, there was no response. The fact that Boots was communicating with him was a good sign. That his text messages were intermittent could mean that he was in a rural area—or that he was playing with Luke. All signs pointed to the latter. Boots had enough of a signal to send one quick string of messages. But he could have drafted a longer communication when he was offline and sent it to Luke when he had a connection. His gut told him Boots was loyal, that he was working to figure out what had happened to the team, but things weren’t adding up. Why had he ditched Rodgers? And why wouldn’t he send Luke a full report?
Once again he thought about what Ethan would do and the answer became clearer. He needed to treat Boots as potentially compromised. He wouldn’t ignore Boots’s intelligence but he would move with extreme caution.
It was well past midnight when he checked in with Dan, who had been surveilling the target.
“What’s the update on Azizi?”
“He’s at home watching TV, like clockwork, nothing exciting.” It was unusual to find a target with such a predictable schedule, but Azizi was in friendly territory and obviously felt safe. It was human nature to fall into routines.
“Can you do a thermal scan on the house and tell me how many people are in there?”