Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“What’s your position?” Rutherford asked.
“We’re almost to Langley. He may not be there yet, but he’s en route,” Jessica answered as she looked into the mirror to reposition the short red wig; she didn’t need anyone from the CIA recognizing her.
“You should’ve handed his mother over to us.” The line crackled from Rutherford’s heavy breathing.
“Everything happened quickly when we got here. We had to move on the intel,” Luke said as he drove, sitting alongside Jessica in the front of the Chevy Tahoe. Fatima was with Asher, Owen, Liam, and Knox in the other SUV following behind them. Echo was in the third vehicle.
“She’d never have talked to you,” Jessica added. “Not in time, at least.”
“Well, if Samir really thinks he’s going to waltz into Langley and blow himself up, he’s out of his goddamn mind.” Rutherford was quiet for a moment. “Our people are in position if he shows,” he added. “You can stand down.”
“Sir, with all due respect, no.” Luke glanced at Jessica. “We promised his mother we’d keep him alive if possible.”
“If he approaches the building with a bomb strapped to his chest, what do you think we’re going to do?” Rutherford sputtered.
“Let us talk to him,” Luke said with a plea to his tone. “We can try and get him to back off.”
Samir’s mom was right. He was still practically a kid.
Maybe he didn’t deserve saving after everything he’d done, but it also wasn’t her decision to make, was it?
“You may have gotten his mom to talk, but we’re dealing with a loose cannon here,” Rutherford hissed. “Your words. Remember?”
Her eyelashes fluttered as memories from her past operation—the reason why they were even in this situation—clouded her mind.
There’s no place for emotions in this job. No feelings. I thought you of all people understood that, her boss at the time had said after she’d requested the agency help Ara and the others in Aleppo.
This isn’t an emotional request. It’s about what’s right. We promised to help them in exchange for information. They won’t have a chance at survival if they stay here. And anyone who supports or protects Ara will be targeted: her cousins, her friends. She’d pleaded her case.
I’m sorry. Request denied, he’d responded.
After, she’d caught a plane out of Aleppo and never even said goodbye to Asher. And when the dust had settled, she’d returned to help the girls—telling herself it had nothing to do with her emotions and everything to do with keeping a promise made.
But she’d lied to herself, hadn’t she? She had cared. And helping Ara over the years, teaching the girls . . . it was because she did have a heart. She’d tried to convince herself otherwise over the years, and for what? For whom?
She pressed a hand to her stomach as the realization continued to light a fire inside of her. I’m not cold. “I’m not like you,” she whispered. “I tried to be. I thought I had to be.”
“What?” Rutherford’s word snapped through the line.
Her gaze winged to the phone. “I—”
“If anyone dies today other than Samir, you’re done,” Rutherford cut her off. “All of you. Understood?”
“Roger that.” Luke ended the call.
“I’m going to make things right,” she said as her brows drew together. “Or I’m going to die trying.”
Luke slowed the vehicle at her words, and she glimpsed Asher in the side-view mirror in the SUV behind them. “Samir’s not in the right state of mind, Jess. There’s a really good chance the only way we’ll be able to stop him is with a bullet.”
“You have to give me a chance. All of this is my fault.”
“No, it’s not. You can’t blame yourself.”
She took a steadying breath. “I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t at least try.” Her hand trembled atop her thigh, and she rested her other over it to hide the slight shake.
“After Berlin, I can’t risk . . .” He pressed his foot back onto the pedal at normal speed. “Under no circumstances am I letting you put yourself in danger.”
“This is what we do.”
“No, it’s what I do. What Owen, Asher, and the others do. Not you.” His jaw tightened. “I never agreed to you being in the line of fire when you convinced me to start this team six years ago. And it’s something I’ll never support.”
She exhaled through her nose. “That’s how you do it, huh?”
“Do what?”
Her gaze skated to his face, to his brows drawing inward. “Work with me. You were never worried about me getting hurt because you made sure to keep me behind the scenes.”
“What’s wrong with that? You’re my sister. Not a SEAL. You’ve never been in combat.”
“But I have field training. I’ve killed people, Luke. I’m not some innocent woman. I’m not just a brain.” She leaned the base of her skull against the headrest.
“Bravo. Echo. We’d all fucking die for you. But under no circumstances are you allowed to die for us.”
Her body tensed at his words. “My life doesn’t matter more than any of yours.”
“Jessica,” he said nearly under his breath and pulled the Tahoe off the road.
She could hear the screech of the tires from the other two vehicles behind them as they rolled to a hard stop. “What are you doing? We need to go.” Her tongue pinned to the roof of her mouth.
He shifted in his seat and draped his arm over the wheel. “I’m not going anywhere with you, not if you think I’m going to let you risk your life. Not today. Not ever.” He bowed his head, blocking his eyes. “I’ll pull the team back and let the Feds maintain control.”
“No.” She scrubbed her hands down her face. How had she let this conversation get away from her like this? She knew in her heart she might be the only one able to stop Samir and save him from an early death.
She looked to Luke’s side window and found Asher standing there.
Luke looked up, followed her gaze, and rolled down the window. “We’re turning around.”
Asher glanced at Jessica before focusing on Luke. “Why? We’re a minute away.”
“Because she thinks she’s made of steel,” Luke rasped, clutching the wheel.
Asher’s eyes closed and his mouth pressed into a tight line. He was thinking, his mind racing. She could see it happening. Feel it.
And then he asked, “If Samir shows, did Rutherford give us the go-ahead to approach?” His eyes opened now, and his shoulders arched back.
“Yeah, with a condition. We don’t fuck it up, or we’re out of a job.” Luke released the wheel and leaned back in his seat.
The corners of Asher’s lips depressed, his eyes thinning. He was quiet for a moment, as if fighting some internal battle, before he said, “Jessica’s our best bet, then.”
She took quick, shallow breaths as she caught his gaze.
“She’s part of the team. If she says she can do it, then we have to let her.” There was real pain gliding through his tone, but he was making the right call for the sake of the mission.
“Thank you,” she mouthed, trying to fight the quiver in her lip.
“No.” Luke shook his head and looked at her.
She reached for his forearm and gripped it. “How many times have you used yourself as bait? Hell, you used Knox just the other day.” She swallowed. “I even used Eva. Remember?”
His forehead tightened at the mention of his fiancée. “This is different. This is approaching a man who may be a walking IED. And we just got you out of an s-vest; I’m not about to let you go stand in front of another one.”
“She’s always had our backs in the field,” Asher said, a rough texture to his tone. “What makes you think we won’t have hers?”
Luke pulled his arm free of her grip and dragged his palms down his face. “How can you, of all people, suggest putting her in danger?”
Her pulse spiked higher when Asher’s eyes touched upon her face. This wasn’t easy for him, but the man came through for her. And it was time she accepted that he always would—regardless of emotions. Maybe even because of them, something she hadn’t realized until today.
“We’re a team,” Asher said pointedly. “All of us.” He looked back at Luke. “But you should know”—his lips briefly turned down—“I’ll never let anything happen to her. And I mean never.”
He should’ve been there by now. Jessica’s gaze swept left and right. No sign of Samir.
Snipers were waiting, but there were no agents in sight, no one to tip Samir off. The last thing they wanted was for him to show up to a place crawling with Feds and take off to a neighborhood or to a store or mall, where he could hurt other people.
“Bravo Three, anything?” she asked Asher over her comm from inside the vehicle in the parking lot.
She prayed to God Fatima hadn’t set them all up. It was a possibility, but at this point, they didn’t have a choice but to trust her.
“Nothing yet,” Asher answered. “Copy?”
“Copy that.” She glanced at Fatima alongside her.
“Maybe he discovered you have me,” she said. “But no, he’d come for me if he realized his plans fell through.”
“And what was his plan for you? To live under a fake ID in the US?”
“I have a cousin who lives in Cleveland. I was going to go there.” She clasped her hands in her lap and stared out the passenger window.
“Is that why you’ve been working on perfecting your English?
” At Fatima’s silence, her attention diverted to thoughts of Berlin.
“Was it your idea to threaten the refugees in order to get Ara to give me up?” Anger bubbled back to the surface at the reminder this woman played a role in Ara’s death.
“You knew how much those girls meant to her based on her emails to you. She’d have done anything to protect them. ”
“I would never suggest such a thing.” Her voice wavered as she spoke. Her fingers fanned across her collarbone. “But Samir read the emails. So, I suppose it is my fault.”
Jessica looked out the window. “How could you be okay with your son killing himself? How can any mother want that for her child?”
Asher’s voice came over the line, ending her conversation with Fatima. “I have visual confirmation of the target. He’s heading toward the front entrance. Eight hundred meters north of your location.”