Levi rolled over, getting on top of the man he was wrestling. He planted a fist in the man’s face. Twice. He was able to grab his knife from its holster in the brief pause that followed, and shoved it into his opponent’s neck, then rolled over again, keeping the guy’s body as cover. Levi took the gun the man was holding and shot the third guy as he was getting back up to his feet, hitting him in the chest.
Levi pulled free and shoved one of the pistols into his waistband. He’d dealt with three bad guys. They only had one vehicle. The odds were good that there would be at least one more, unless they’d parked another vehicle where he didn’t see it.
“Zaida! Call out!” he shouted. She didn’t, but Beau did, another single bark. “Beau! Good boy.” Levi could see a glow ahead. It killed him that Zaida wasn’t responding. Was she hurt? Dead? Gone? He tried to hurry, but the going wasn’t easy. The light was getting brighter.
“Zaida! Answer me!” Still nothing from her, but Beau gave another bark. Whatever that light was, it was where Beau was. Maybe Zaida had turned on the light on her phone. “C’mon, babe. Answer me.”
A few feet farther in, and he saw Beau lying on the ground, facing a man who seemed unresponsive. Levi released Beau and stepped in front of him, his gun pointed at the man. He was breathing hard and sweating like crazy. The whites of his eyes were red. Levi grabbed his gun, and as he did, he saw the red, swollen patch with a V-shaped bite mark.
He had a matching spot on his neck. Yeah, that guy probably wasn’t long for this earth. “Where’s Zaida?” Levi asked. The guy’s lips moved, but nothing intelligible came from him.
Levi looked back at Beau, but only saw his tail as he slipped into the rows of sunflowers. And then he heard her, just faint gasps for air. Motherfucker. Had she been bitten, too? Obviously, there’d been two snakes in the area. Maybe there’d been more. Levi followed his dog, terrified of what condition he’d find Zaida in.
“Baby, it’s me. You’re safe.” He stepped through another row, and there she was, huddled on the ground, shaking. He knelt in front of her, looking at her through a dense row of sunflowers. “Hey.” He swiped his hands over her face. She still didn’t look up at him or move in any way other than the shivers racking her body.
“There are more men,” she whispered. “There were a lot of them. Four, I think. And snakes. Snakes everywhere.”
“The men are all dead.” God, it was a relief that she could talk. “C’mon. Let’s get back to the house.”
“No! I told you—there are snakes everywhere. Don’t move.”
“Nope. I don’t see any. They’re long gone. They don’t hang around after a confrontation, especially if what they bit isn’t prey. It’s okay. I got you. I’ll carry you. If I have to walk through a pile of them, they’ll get me not you. You weren’t bitten, were you?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Honey, for sure you’d know if you had been. C’mon, stand up now so I can lift you.”
She stood very slowly, holding his forearms in a death grip as he pulled her into his row between sunflowers. When he lifted her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed tightly. He pushed through the tight crop of flowers, leaving the snakebit guy behind with his flashlight so it would be easier to find him. He wasn’t super interested in attempting to save the guy’s life. He’d come onto Levi’s property with the intent of harming Zaida. Levi figured he’d gotten what he deserved.
Zaida relaxed just a little when they were out of the forest of sunflowers, but that relief didn’t last long once she caught site of Levi’s torn up front yard and three more dead guys.
Off in the distance, coming from a northerly direction, was a helicopter. Not something that ordinarily would catch Levi’s attention now that he was a civilian…but this one was flying low.
Fuck. Maybe it was unconnected to everything, but maybe not. He ran up the stairs to his house with Zaida and Beau. He needed to get his weapons. He locked the front door, then crossed the room to his big wall unit. Flipping up a light switch panel, he pressed his right thumb on the panel it hid. A section of the wall unit separated from the rest of the built-in, moving forward, then to the side.
He heard Zaida gasp at the armory he exposed, but he didn’t have time to calm her fears. That chopper had landed nearby, probably in the empty field across the street. His driveway’s motion sensors triggered an alarm. He took out an M-16 and its magazine. He heard heavy footsteps on his front steps.
Levi grabbed Zaida and called for Beau to follow him. He rushed them into his bedroom and then into the bathroom. “Lock this door. I’ll lock the bedroom door. Don’t come out until I tell you it’s clear, understand?”
There was a loud banging on his front door. He looked at Zaida one last time, then ordered Beau to guard her. He set the lock on the bedroom door as another loud banging came against his front door.
“Levi! Open up!” Max’s familiar voice thundered through his solid steel door.
Levi laughed as he heaved a relieved breath. He opened his front door, admitting Max, his friend Val, and his team lead Kit. They plowed inside his house, visually sweeping the room for hostiles.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Levi asked.
“There a fucking reason you can’t answer your phone?” Max snarled.
Levi patted his pocket, then remembered he’d dumped his phone on the floor of his Jeep in his rush to get to Zaida. “Oh.”
Max spread his hands wide and looked like he was about to strangle Levi.
“Ohhh. Zaida’s necklace,” Levi said.
“Yeah,” Kit said. “We’re still tethered to her. When her alert came through and we couldn’t get you, we had to come down.”
“It’s good we did, judging from your lawn decor,” Val said. “There more enemies out there?”
“I don’t think so. As far as I know, there was just the one vehicle with four bad guys. I haven’t had a chance to search.”
“We checked for heat signatures on our way in,” Kit said. “Only caught one faint one in the field. That someone you care about?”
“No. He’s one of the bad guys,” Levi said. “He chased Zaida into the field, then got some special attention from a couple of rattlers. A little natural justice, if you ask me.” Levi went over and knocked on his bedroom door. “Zaida, it’s safe. Come on out now.”
He heard her unlock the bathroom door, then she fumbled with the bedroom lock. As soon as she opened the door, she threw herself into his arms. He held her in a tight, one-handed grip, his other hand still on his M-16. He led her over to his sofa so she could sit down. He still hadn’t gotten a chance to give her a once over.
Zaida looked at his friends nervously, all three were watching her with intense expressions. She was fighting tears. Levi thought she looked like she wanted to jump up and flap her arms to shake off the adrenaline she’d built up over the last hour. When he moved away to put his rifle back in its case she did just that. Her breathing was irregular. The flapping didn’t help. She went over and gave Max a big hug.
“Thank you,” she said, looking at the other two who’d come with him. “Thank you for coming down. You barely know me, and yet here you are, once again hurrying into danger to help me.” She shook her head. “I know I won’t ever be able to repay you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Max said. “Levi’s paying for us.” He got an elbow in his ribs for that flip remark from the big blond. Val, wasn’t he? Zaida tried to remember.
“We woulda come anyway,” Val said. “Not like we’d leave a little girl to fend for herself.”
Kit shook his head. “You’ve collected some wicked enemies, Zaida.” He looked at Levi. “You’re not going to be in the clear until Tahrir al-Sham forgets the impact she’s had on their operatives.”
“I know,” Levi said. “I thought we were out of the woods, but more of them crawled out of their shitholes.” He pulled Zaida out of Max’s hold and led her back to the sofa. “I need to call this in,” he said
, looking at Kit. “Can you guys hang here for a minute?”
“You bet,” Kit said.
Levi went outside to his Jeep and grabbed his phone. He leaned against it as he called the commander. “Hey, sorry for the after-dark call…”
Lambert huffed a laugh. “Forget it. What’s up?”
Levi told him about the guys who hit his place. “The suits thought we’d pretty much wiped out the cell. So who are these guys?”
“Send me their info. Any of them alive?”
“Not sure. I killed three, and one’s dying in my sunflower field from two rattler bites. Hope he’ll be dead by the time your cleanup crew gets here. If not, guess they’ll have to take him for medical treatment.”
“How’s your woman?” Lambert asked.
“Shook up.”
“Sorry about that. I’ll find out what I can about any persistent threat against her. I’ll update you when I know something. I’m going to call this in to Jack as well. Let me know if you need something else.”
Briefly, Levi thought about the guys’ helicopter flight down here, but decided not to say anything. Lambert would know soon enough about it when that bill came in.
“That’s it from me. Later, commander.” Levi dropped the call. He gathered the licenses of the three guys in his front yard and snagged a picture. Then he sent those and pics of the men to both Lambert and Jack.
When he went back inside, he found Zaida was sitting on the sofa, a damp cloth on her forehead. One foot was in Val’s lap, her other was soaking in a big roasting pan full of soapy water. Val was bent over her foot with a pair of tweezers, pulling out slivers.
Levi heard his water kettle scream and looked over to see Kit manning the stove for a cup of tea. Max stood near the sofa, his arms folded, glaring at what Val was doing.
Geez, Levi hadn’t even seen to Zaida’s welfare before calling the attack in. Her feet were cut all to hell from running barefoot into his field. It was going to take several days for all the spiny hairs from the sunflower stalks to come out of her skin. She really needed a bath and a change of clothes.
Levi sat next to her and took hold of her hand. “You guys can take off. There’s a team coming out to do the cleanup.”
“We’ll stay until they get here,” Kit said, handing the mug of tea to Zaida. “Just in the off chance there’s another team waiting to strike if the first one failed. Max, go outside and secure the site until Levi’s guys get here. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Max nodded and left.
Kit looked down at Zaida with worry in his eyes. “Zaida, I hope the next time we meet, it’s just for fun.”
“Thanks, Kit.” Zaida smiled up at him, then winced as Val tugged a splinter free. “Me, too.”
“Levi,” Kit nodded, indicating they should talk in the kitchen. He handed Levi a card with Owen’s info. “The boss wanted me to tell you that you’ve got a job, no questions asked, whenever you want one.”
Levi smiled as he looked down at the card. “Good to know. If this farming gig doesn’t work out, I may just take him up on that.” He shook hands with Kit, then the team lead left the house.
Later that night, after Max and the guys had left, after Jack and his team had recovered the bodies and evidence, Levi put his home back in order. He parked his Jeep, righted his picnic table, tidied the kitchen and living room, and repacked his first aid kit. It was almost midnight. Zaida had long ago showered and gotten in bed after letting Levi bandage her feet.
Everyone was gone now. His home was once again ordered and quiet. Zaida hadn’t come out of the bedroom; he hoped that meant she was sleeping, because he needed time to think.
He sat on the sofa. Leaning forward, he put his head in his hands. There was a fifty-fifty chance that Zaida was finally out of danger. Those weren’t odds he liked. Even if Jack once again reported the Tahrir al-Sham cells were finished here in the States, Levi wouldn’t have a sense of peace. Any other cell in the allied ISIS network could take up the fatwa against her. Even if Levi somehow got the fatwa lifted, there was no guarantee the sick bastards wouldn’t continue to target her. He could go hunting, but hatred and crazy ran deep. No matter how many he took out, ten more depraved men would take their place.
At some point, an eye-for-an-eye wasn’t the answer. Maybe only love was. Zaida’s freedom code had to apply to men as well as women.
Levi didn’t hear Zaida’s door open, he didn’t know she was there until her bandaged feet came into his field of view. He looked up at her. Her eyes were serious. Sad. She reached for his hand. He pulled her into his lap and leaned back on the sofa.
“I’m sorry about tonight,” he said, breaking the heavy silence.
“It’s over. Don’t dwell on it.”
“I don’t know what the answer is, Zaida. I don’t know how to stop this.”
She leaned against his chest. He felt her shake her head. “Greater people than us have fought for peace. It’s always seen as a weakness.”
“You know you’re a warrior, right?” Levi said. “Your freedom code is the change we need.”
She pushed up to look at him. “Do you think so?”
“I do. It ain’t gonna be easy. I told Jamal I was out of the war business,” he sighed and brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, “but I will fight to my death for you.”
“For peace.”
“For love.” He smiled at her and pulled her into a tight hug.
Epilogue
Levi’s phone rang. Zaida was calling…at seven a.m. Since when was she up this early? He grabbed the phone and took the call. “Zaida. Everything okay?”
“No. It’s awful,” she said.
“What is? Are you in danger? Where are you?”
“My parents have just left. They spent the night here. They’re on their way to see you.”
Levi slumped against the counter, relieved. “Why aren’t you coming with them?”
“I was forbidden.”
“Forbidden. Really? Can they do that?”
“I’m so sorry, Levi. I knew this was coming…I just didn’t think it would happen so soon.”
“And…what exactly’s happening?”
“They’re coming out to negotiate. For me.”
“What? I have to buy you?” Levi laughed. He was not at all surprised her parents wanted to grill him about his intentions, but it was fun torturing Zaida about it.
“No. Yes. Maybe. They want to be sure you can afford me.”
“Ah. Well, if I show them my bank account, they might turn around and drive away.”
“Oh, God. Are you poor? I should put some money in your account. We never talked about this.”
Levi could hear heavy breathing from her end of the phone. Her panic ratcheting up, so he took pity on her. “We should have talked about it. I’ll tell you what I’ll tell them. I was in the service for twenty-two years. I partied my way through the first decade. By year eleven, I guess I grew up, figured out my body couldn’t take doing what I was forever. I started to save every penny I could. I went to school nights, weekends. The university worked around my schedule. SEALs are damnably unpredictable, but the university helped me make it work.”
“What did you study?”
“Ag sciences. I saved up to buy this property, which I did about ten years ago. It’s almost paid off since I took a fifteen-year mortgage. Between my Navy retirement and my farm’s income, I think I got you covered, babe.”
Zaida huffed a relieved sigh. “Don’t tell them all that. Just the last part.”
“Honey, don’t you think I know how to negotiate for you?”
“Have you ever negotiated for a wife before?”
“Nope. First time around, we went to Vegas.”
“Oh, God. Don’t tell them that, either.”
“They don’t like Elvis?” Levi chuckled at her gasp.
“My parents are so old world in some ways. Many ways.”
“Well, some things are tried and true. It’s a respect issue. They
want to know that I mean to do well by you. And, darlin’, I sure do.”
“I love you, Levi. We can run away. Be expats in Canada.”
“No can do, sweet thing. Neither of us wants to be an expat and running away from your family won’t fix your troubles. Besides, then they’ll hate me for taking you away from them.”
“It’s true.”
“They hate me?”
“No, they’re afraid you’ll take me from them.”
“Never. I was kinda afraid they’d take you from me. See? We have common ground.”
“When they’re like this, they are so dreadful. I don’t want you to hate me. Or them.”
“Zaida Hussan, if your folks didn’t confront me, I would worry about their commitment to you. It’s all good.”
“Just beware if my father starts speaking Spanish. That’s bad. Very bad.”
“Not if you speak Spanish and can back him down.”
“Do you?”
“I do.”
“God, there’s still so much I don’t know about you.”
“That’s what a lifetime is for, honey.”
“I want to be there, with you.”
“Then do it. Get your butt out here. I’ll fix a brunch for us. Is there anything they’re allergic to?”
“No.”
“Anything they can’t eat? Bacon?”
“I guess technically we shouldn’t eat pork, but we’re not devout. We’re not even practicing our religion. And if we weren’t supposed to eat bacon, why would it taste so good?”
“Good to know, but I won’t push that boundary just yet. Go shower and get out here. I want to celebrate with you.”
“I can’t come out yet. These things can take all day.”
“Honey, how long did it take you to fall in love with me?”
“As soon as you shoved Jamal from me that first night.”
Freedom Code Page 22