Page 61 of Duty Bound

Stitch looked shifty. “I suspected something was up, but I figured if it was bad enough, he’d get help.”

Blade shook his head. “He didn’t. Lily said he was having nightmares—bad ones.” He left out the strangling incident. Spade wouldn’t want anyone knowing about that.

“I had no idea it was so bad. He kept that under wraps, didn’t he?”

They talked about Lily, and how she’d come to be captured. Stitch was interested in her work on Hawkeye.

“Excellent.” Respect tinged his voice. “It at least gives the Afghans a fighting chance. The Taliban wreak havoc on these rural communities. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve helped pick up the pieces.”

They discussed the situation in Afghanistan for a while longer, then Stitch downed the last of his tea. “Okay, buddy. Time to work. Let’s talk about logistics.”

“You mentioned a vehicle?”

“Yeah, I’ve got an old Land Rover—ex-US army, as luck would have it—bought at a sale in Kabul last month. I can drive you to Kabul, if you want.”

“You sure?” Stitch had gone AWOL to get away from the violence. The last thing he wanted to do was drag him back into it.

The sides of his eyes crinkled. “I’m sure. Not much excitement around here.”

He had a pregnant wife. Blade could never live with himself if anything happened to Stitch. “I don’t want to put you in the shit. We can manage. You don’t have to get involved.”

“I want to. For Spade.”

Blade nodded.

It was how he’d felt too.

CHAPTER 22

While Blade and Stitch plotted their escape, Lily helped Soraya warm up two enormous buckets of water in the stone washroom adjoining the house.

“You can wash here. I’ve laid out some clothes for you to wear afterward. You won’t want to get back into those.” She wrinkled her nose as what Lily was wearing.

Lily laughed. She was so refreshingly genuine. “Thank you. Are you sure you don’t mind?” The simple skirt and blouse were pretty enough, but not bright or stylish enough to attracted undue attention.

“Of course not.”

“You know I can’t return them.”

Soraya waved away the words with a flick of her hand then left Lily to bathe.

God, it felt so good to be clean.

She took her time, luxuriating in the hot water and the scented homemade soap. She washed her hair then poured water over it, the stress of the last few days rinsing away with the suds.

When she’d finished, she went back to the house, where Soraya worked in the kitchen. The air carried the scent of cumin and coriander. Whatever bubbled in the pot smelled delicious.

The men were still hunched together in the living area, talking in hushed tones.

“Can I give you a hand?”

Soraya smiled, her hands skillfully patting dough into rounds for flatbreads. She gestured toward a bowl of fresh vegetables. “You could prepare the salad.”

Lily began chopping cucumbers and tomatoes. “I can't tell you what a relief it is to be clean again.”

Soraya laughed, her unusually green eyes lighting up. With her smooth skin, raised cheekbones, and slanted cat eyes, she was gorgeous—exotic by Western standards. Even covered with an apron and several weeks pregnant, her beauty was striking.

Lily felt quite bland beside her.

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