Chapter Fifteen
Kira
Kira sat on the edge of her couch in the front room of her little house. Her feet planted flat, she’d been sitting there like that, with London’s ring held between her fingers, feeling completely numb.
She hadn’t moved on that center cushion since she’d said goodbye to Lula.
The room had been bright with sunlight, one of the reasons she loved her little house so much had always been the cheeriness of the sun.
With every light in the house still off, the room had grown dim and then dark.
She was rousing from her stupor because she needed to pee.
And here she sat, feeling the ballooning pressure of her bladder, wishing that Ty would be coming back to her home and climb into bed to spoon and keep her warm.
Kira never knew when to expect him.
He came home when he came home.
His time and his body were parts of the vast US military machine.
It was one of the things that Kira couldn’t get used to. That, and Ty was, more frequently than not, unreachable by phone.
Since the summer before last, in Tanzania, Kira would have been fine with that. She had her work, her friends, her hobbies, her routines. If she added a man to her life, while they dated, he would merely be a component of her day, not her focus.
And then Ty arrived on the scene.
Ty.
It was instant for her—trust, desire, comfort, a sense of safety that she’d not realized that she wanted in her life. She’d not really had a reason to want in her life.
Kira paused and let herself massage those thoughts, gauging their substance.
But London sent her the ring. And it could only have something to do with Uncle Nadir.
“There will come a day when you must betray someone you love to save someone you love. At that moment, you will not hesitate to use this ring.” London hadn’t hesitated. If she’d hesitated, London would have lost the short-term memory of Uncle Nadir’s plan.
“You will know exactly what to do,” the crone had said.
This ring portended danger.
When Kira opened the ring to see what was inside the secret snuff compartment, she knew that life would change.
She wished that Ty were home and was looking with her.
“Be brave, Kira. Open the ring.” She licked her lips. “Rip the bandage off, see what’s underneath.” When Ty went to work, Rory went with him. It would be nice to have Rory.
Kira felt her bladder pressing down, and she pushed her knees tight. She wasn’t sure she was going to make it to the toilet.
Putting the box on the cushion and bending at the waist, Kira wriggled off the sofa and waddled hunched over to the powder room. Clicking on the light, flipping up the lid, Kira’s bladder felt like it had done its duty, and pee dripped out as she forced her pants down and plopped over the bowl.
She kicked off her pants.
When was the last time she’d peed herself? That was twice today.
She was so far out of control that even her body couldn’t hide the truth.
Kira fished her phone from her pocket and checked the time.
How did that happen? She’d been in a stupor since four.
Hours of fuzziness.
It was because she knew her little bubble of time with Ty was over.
She knew it that morning when he took her to bed.
Kira exhaled.
Placing the ring on the counter, Kira wiped and flushed, then picked up her soiled pants and walked bare-bottomed up the stairs, where she dumped her clothes into the hamper and climbed into the shower.
A quick scrub, a quick rinse, a towel wrapped over her breasts, she went to her room to dress, her hands reached for hiking pants instead of pajama bottoms.
When she opened the ring, she’d have to act. She’d better be dressed for it.
After slipping on a sports bra and a long-sleeved shirt, she went back down to retrieve the ring from the powder room and sit back in her place on the couch.
There, with trembling fingers, Kira pressed the tip of her nail against the hidden latch, and the ring sprang open. Inside, a piece of folded paper expanded with the release of the jeweled top.
It was folded so tightly that Kira was afraid of tearing the paper and possibly destroying what London had sent her.
She moved to her office, where she kept her archival tools, and pulled tweezers from her drawer.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Kira had to stop several times to swipe her sweaty palms down her thighs and to take a breath to calm the tremble in her hands.
Finally, she smoothed the paper to find tiny, regular letters printed into tight words.
Kira pulled her magnifying loop into place and peered down.
Kira, Nadir believes you were part of a conspiracy to kill Omar Imadi.
This has complicated some business (?) scheme, some scheme.
I know it’s impossible that you brought a sniper to the compound to kill our guest, your intended husband.
I cannot—my brain … I don’t know what’s going on.
But your uncle thinks you are an American spy, and your book reading is a cover.
I’m writing this quickly before I forget because this can’t be in any of my necklace notes.
But I know that you would never endanger my baby or me.
I said that you hired security because you were afraid, and rightly so.
Because you brought Ty, Archie and I survived what could have been a horrific attack.
As a mother, I know that’s true, and I am grateful, no matter Ty’s reason for being at our compound.
William says I can’t remember anything about that time because of my head.
But I know you. I also know Nadir, and he is a punitive man.
And since Omar died in Tanzania, he is a man who no longer contains his anger.
I overheard the men talking in the garden.
They don’t mind talking in front of me because of my brain injury.
Nadir said he has hired someone to watch you, and that’s how he knows you bring shame to the family.
Perhaps you and Ty are dating? Nadir didn’t say specifically.
But I saw you and Ty together in Tanzania, and I thought you were in love.
(I do have old memories; it’s the new ones since I was shot that slip away) Nadir said he would send someone to get you so they could ask you questions, and then you will no longer be his problem.
It sounded to me as if once he has the information he needs, Nadir will order …
No, I’m not even going to write that. I love you.
I’m risking everything to get this to you. You should run and hide.
Kira held completely still, thinking perhaps she was hallucinating.
From the point when her father died, and her mother wanted to return to the family compound in Qatar, there had been pressure for her to leave her American life and join the family and steep in a different culture.
A culture where she would be treated like a princess, but she’d be ruled by a king—her Uncle Nadir.
Nadir was a selfish man. So Kira didn’t have any expectations that he’d put her first. But she never thought he’d put her last.
Kira loved her big family—her aunts and cousins. Her mother, to a lesser extent. Yes, there was baggage there that Kira hadn’t worked through yet. She couldn’t give up her family.
Kira was getting older, and she’d congratulated herself that she was aging out of the marriage market.
Uncle Nadir had left her alone for almost two years.
But apparently, out of sight wasn’t out of mind.
In fact, her hope for peace was a mirage.
When her phone jingled, Kira’s body contracted in a horror film jump scare.
She snatched up her cell, hoping it was either Lula or Ty.
It was Pam, Jeopardy’s wife. Kira sniffed and swallowed, hoping to answer in a natural voice. The wives of Delta Force Echo were stoic and strong, and she was not going to be weak and weepy in front of them. It was a veil of pride, but Kira clung to it. “Hello?”
“Kira, I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No. No. I’m up reading,” Kira said, looking down at London’s note. “I’m waiting for Ty to get home. He said he’d come up after his training.”
“None of the boys are home from their training mission. Looks like this has turned into something more.”
Kira’s chest clenched so hard that her breath squeaked.
“We never know how long they’ll be gone. You know the drill: if it’s turning into more than a few days, they usually tell the wives a little something. We won’t be able to share any details, of course, but we can invite you over for dinner, so you have our support.”
“That’s kind of you.” Kira pushed the words out mostly as breath with little volume.
“I know, sweetheart, I know. It sucks. And it doesn’t get easier.
You should know that. It’s something to be weighed into the equation.
” Pam’s voice changed. “You can’t have one foot in and one foot out as a Unit wife.
If you marry Ty, you have to be all in. And let me tell you why.
” The sentence turned into a snarl. “If Ty is worried about the peace in his home, he might be distracted, and distraction can get my husband killed.”
“Ty and I are dating, Pam. He knows I’m not interested in getting married. I don’t think he’s concerned about the peace in his home. And I’m going to chalk this conversation up to raw nerves because, as you said, it never gets easier when the team just vanishes.”
Kira’s eyes hadn’t left the note. If Ty were on a mission, she wouldn’t be able to ask him what to do.
“Kira, that was so rude of me. I’m drowning in pregnancy hormones.”
“Go take care of yourself. I really do appreciate this phone call.” Before Kira started crying, she hung up.
Ty wasn’t coming home. She’d known that too. She knew that this morning was the end. And that was probably why she was so angry about Ty and the robbery. It would have been good to end on a happy memory.
Lula came to mind. Maybe she was still in the area.
That she’d come to visit today didn’t feel like a coincidence.
Maybe Lula was the reason why Ty wasn’t coming home. After all, Lula was CIA, and the CIA often tapped special forces teams, and The Unit in particular, to head out into the wide world and do the thing that needed to be done.
Kira called Lula’s line, and it went straight to voicemail just as she’d suspected it would.
“Nadir said he will send someone to get you so they can ask you questions, and then you will no longer be his problem.”
Get her. Get her? What did that mean? Not confront her here, but get her.
Getting her meant taking her somewhere else.
Did it make sense that her uncle would send a man who was not in their family to get her? She’d assumed it would be a man because her leaving would require force.
Qatari women didn’t travel alone. They would be escorted by a family member called a Mahram. In that role, the Mahram was the woman’s guardian, and it was his duty to ensure her safety and that her honor was not compromised.
This could be a life-threatening practice for women in many ways.
Kira had two friends from Afghanistan who were studying in one of Tehran’s many famous universities.
When bombs started dropping, their Mahram went immediately to Iran to escort them home.
Many women from Afghanistan and other countries on the peninsula couldn’t make the flight to safety because they had no Mahram to conduct them.
So they stayed and faced the uncertain future.
Kira was American, and she didn’t fall under those traditions.
But that didn’t mean that she traveled alone from the United States.
As a child, she accompanied her mother when they traveled to the family compound to spend Kira’s summer vacations, and once Kira went to university and her mother moved to Qatar to live with her in-laws, Kira would travel with London.
It was on one of these holiday visits that London met William, fell in love, married, and had a party in Tanzania that Kira helped plan, and where Ty entered the picture. And so it was embroidered, the tapestry of Kira’s life.
Would Uncle Nadir send a Mahram—one of her younger uncles or older male cousins—to fetch her?
Perhaps they’d make up some reason that would have her tossing clothes into a suitcase and scampering for the airport.
If they told her that her mother was ill in the hospital, possibly on her last breath, that is exactly what she’d do had she not been warned.
But she’d been warned.
Was London safe?
London was such a smart person. So clever and imaginative that hearing about London’s day-to-day struggles was hard on Kira’s heart.
How was it that William had allowed London to get pregnant under such circumstances? Get a vasectomy, wear a condom, give London a Plan B pill. He had to have chosen to knock her up.
London was a beautiful woman.
Archie was a gorgeous baby.
And William was an old man working in a cutthroat world of young ambition.
It might serve William’s vanity to feel virile enough to make babies in his sixties.
Kira’s mind was looping, and she needed to be strategic.
Baseline, if confronted, Kira simply wouldn’t go to an airport.
What could they possibly do to get her onto a plane and take her to Qatar?
So someone would come, and they’d try to convince Kira to cooperate.
And she’d have opportunities to stay safe.
After all, what would induce her to leave America?
They could use the threat of harming someone she loved.
Her mother, her aunt, her cousins.
There were times when athletes traveled to foreign places during political catastrophes in their home countries—a crackdown of some kind. And the athletes were often in the position of deciding whether to remain free and accept the host country's hospitality and asylum status.
They usually returned home despite their opportunity to escape.
They did it because they loved.
Kira understood that kind of love. She’d already chosen her family over freedom once when she was asked to marry Omar.
But once she understood how Uncle Nadir had betrayed her and had signed a marriage contract with a demon, a terrorist, she was done with that. Done.
Kira’s memory slid back to the steps at the Tanzanian compound when the plane landed, and Kira saw Omar for the first time.
Rory had known from the start. Rory had moved between her and Omar and sat on her feet, staking his claim. She’s mine.
And Kira felt protected. Honored. It was a feeling she’d never forget. She was special to a military K9, but to her uncle, she was nothing but a chit.
That wasn’t true. Kira was something, a pawn.
Now, Uncle Nadir believed the Kira was responsible for Omar's death.
More concerning was that he wanted information from her.
What information could she possibly have, and why now?