I have to pull harder.
Lisette scrambles for Mateen, her left arm hanging uselessly at her side. Faruk stumbles. Sways. His throat bobs under the pressure. His knees hit the ground. With my feet under me, I hold on until he goes limp, then stagger back.
“Fucking piece of shit.” Wrenching the knife from the asshole’s boot, I check my watch. Ten minutes.
“You are American.” Lisette has her good arm around Mateen’s shoulders, and stares at me like I’m the Holy Fucking Grail. “Take us with you.”
“I can’t. We’re here for—”
“Dr. Joey.” She comes right up to me so we’re almost nose-to-nose. Or would be if she were a few inches taller. “If we stay here, my son will die. And my…husbandwill blame me. Please. At least…take Mateen. Give him a chance to live.”
In my ear, Trevor hisses, “Are you on your way to Foxtrot?”
“No. There were…complications.” I should be moving. Ignoring the tears brimming in Lisette’s green eyes. But I can’t.
“Get your ass in gear,” he says. “We only have one shot at this and we’re not leaving a man behind.”
I sheath my blade. “You have to find him. I’m too far away. I won’t make it before the charges blow. If you can’t, he said...”
“I know what he said, but I’m not letting that sadist have him just because you ran into ‘complications.’ We’re heading for him now. Get to the rendezvous point and pray we show up.”
Fuck.
At my feet, Faruk groans softly. I could kill him right now. It would be so easy to slit his throat and let him bleed out all over the sand. But the Afghan theater is so fucking fragile, slaying one of its biggest players could start a goddamn war.
“Amir Faruk!” a man shouts from the far end of the compound. I can’t see his face, but the Kalashnikov in his hand glints in the moonlight.
This is a bad idea. But if I leave Lisette and her son here, I’ll never forgive myself.
I grab the kid, holding him close to my chest as I meet Lisette’s panicked gaze. “Come with me if you want to live.”
She keeps pace with me as I take off toward the west side of the compound.
“My exit won’t exist for another six minutes,” I whisper. “You have any idea where we can hide until then?”
“Go left,” she says through clenched teeth.
Dammit. A dislocated shoulder is the worst kind of pain. She’ll never be able to run if I don’t fix it.
We dart behind some sort of outbuilding, and I set the kid on his feet against the wall. “Stand right here, buddy. Don’t move, okay?”
Lisette pats her son’s shoulder. “Do what he says,mon chou. This man works with Dr. Joey.”
That’s enough for him, thank God, and I turn to his mother. “Do you know how to fire a gun?”
“Yes.”
I stare up at the sky. At the canopy of stars twinkling this far from civilization. They’re beautiful. One of the only beautiful things about this country.
If Trevor can’t find Ford in time, Faruk will kill him. God. If we did all this to get Joey out and the man she loves dies? My ledger will run red with blood.
Five minutes.
Lisette’s lips press flat. She’s starting to tremble.
“We don’t stand a chance if I don’t fix that shoulder. But it’s gonna hurt.”
“I can handle pain.” Her eyes are dry. There’s nothing in her voice now but determination.
