Page 41 of Saving Their Forever

I hear it again. Scraping. Metal on metal. I sit up a little straighter.

The door swings open, and a metal canister bounces into the room. I watch it with morbid fascination, convinced I’m hallucinating. Until a bright flash and the loudest sound I have ever heard leave me dazed.

The floor shakes. I try to scramble farther from the door, but there’s nowhere else to go. My vision is nothing but two bright spots with vague shadows dancing around the edges.

“Clear!” a man shouts.

Someone grabs my hands and pins them over my head. Pure agony wraps around my torso. I can’t catch my breath.

“Can you hear me?” This voice is a woman’s. I blink hard to try to clear my vision.

“Y-yes. Please…” I struggle against her hold, but she’s so much stronger than I am.

“Did you send the message?” she demands.

“Help.” I nod. “It was all…I could do. That…and the schematics. The power.”

The woman’s face is starting to come into focus now. She’s beautiful. Glowing, bronzed skin. Gray eyes. A shock of dark hair peeking out from her black cap. I recognize her from the files Ramin made me compile on McCabe and his team. She’s a sniper.

The men behind her…I know them too.

“Who are you?” the older man asks. He’s a Navy SEAL.

“Saba. Saba Safi.”

“You know who we are?”

I nod. “You are West Sampson. She is Inara Ruzgani. He is Graham Peck. I gave Ramin information on all of you.”

“Willingly?” Inara’s icy tone terrifies me.

“N-no. They took me from my home in Sukkur. Ramin said…” I swallow my sob. “He said he would have my sister killed if I did not help him. But I could not let McCabe and his men die. I found the report on that bombing in Herat. I have proof it was not the American government. Or…had.” I nod at the remnants of the laptop on the floor.

“Fuck,” Sampson says. “We can’t have our information…out there. You’ve put us all in a shit ton of danger.”

Tears spring to my eyes. “I had no choice. But…Ramin hated computers. He could barely work his mobile phone. Everything I found…is on the hard drive.”

Peck drops to one knee and scoops pieces of the broken laptop into a bag. “I’ll get this to?—”

“Not another word,” Inara says. She turns her focus back to me. “Don’t move. I have to pat you down.”

“I do not have any weapons. Not even a pen.”

Sampson gestures to the dead man on the floor. “Did you do that?”

“Yes. He beat me when he saw I turned off the power.” I gasp as Inara smooths her hands over my torso. Black spots swim before my eyes. “I think things are…broken.”

Sampson takes a quick look around the apartment. “Do you have a wheelchair? Prosthetics? Anything here you care about?”

“I have nothing.” It’s getting harder to sit up. To breathe. To talk.

“We can get you to a doctor if you come with us—well, fuck. Scratch that,” the SEAL says. “You’re definitely coming with us. Because once the doc is done with you, we’re going to have a hell of a lot of questions. But after that, we’ll help you get back to your family. Or…anywhere else you want to go.”

He taps his ear, then lowers his voice. “Leaving with the HVT. Send Superman and Jimmy to wipe this place down. They can leave the DB.”

Inara straightens my headscarf, then turns her back to me. “Arms around my neck. Do your best to hang on and try not to strangle me.”

“Wait,” I protest. “Can you tell me…are Wren and the baby okay?”

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