Page 23 of Stand Fast

“A little, yeah. I thought we clicked. Didn’t see it coming when she bailed on me like that.”

“Maybe you came on too strong. Too macho or something, and scared her off.” Dammit, she must have completely misunderstood his meaning in that email. Maybe he’d been teasing her, because the man she’d come to know would never have said it to be offensive.

“Too macho?” He sounded insulted. “I don’t think so.”

Now she felt awful, both for taking his comment the wrong way, and for cancelling on him like that. After getting to know him better over here, she realized that Zaid wasn’t chauvinistic or controlling. But she didn’t have the guts to come clean here and now.

“I’ve got a meeting to get to.” She gathered up a couple of the files and took her sidearm out of a drawer.

“With who?”

“A source. He says he’s got some more info for me.”

“And you have to meet him in person?” He followed her to the door. Yes, she was in full retreat mode, and didn’t care. She needed time to think, to regroup.

“At this point, yes. I don’t trust anything someone tells me over the phone or in a message. I need to look a source in the eye to know if they’re feeding me a line of bullshit or not.”

Five steps down the hallway, her phone rang. Her boss. “Rabani speaking,” she answered.

“You’re gonna have to postpone your meeting,” David said, his voice tight with frustration.

“Why, what’s going on?”

“Our number one suspect just got taken out. His vehicle blew up when he left the station about fifteen minutes ago. It was surgical. Nothing else around it was damaged except for a few windows blowing out on other cars parked along the street.”

Jaliya stopped, rubbed at her forehead. Another targeted bombing. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah, and since I doubt very much that The Jackal would blow himself up, we’re at another dead end.”

Oh, God, they’d have to go right back to square one again. “Dammit.”

He grunted in agreement. “Meet me out front of my office in ten minutes. We’re heading out to investigate.”

“All right.” She tucked her phone away and faced Zaid, who was watching her intently. “Our police chief suspect just got blown up on his way home from work.”

Zaid’s expression darkened. “So what now?”

“I go to Kabul, to try and find out what the hell is going on.”

“You taking protection with you?”

She paused. “I assume so. David will handle it.”

“I’ll go.”

He’d been acting overprotective since the bombing. Texting her to check on her. It was starting to annoy her a little, even though the sentiment behind it lit a warm glow inside her. She liked knowing that he cared. “No need. I’m sure David’s got it covered.”

He wasn’t listening, already edging away from her back down the hall. “Gimme ten minutes. I’ll go find us some backup.” Before she could argue further, he turned and jogged away.

****

SA Reid Prentiss’s stomach dropped as soon as he saw the email from his ex sitting in his inbox. He fought back an aggravated sigh and leaned a forearm on the table in the corner of the storeroom where the team had set up the laptop for everyone to use.

Change of plans, it read. Even though he could already guess what it would say, he opened it.

His jaw tightened when he began reading. As per fucking usual, Sarah had screwed with the timeline, and he had no doubt that it was on purpose. Last night he’d finally managed to get her to agree to a Skype call between him and their daughter at oh-nine-hundred Eastern time, so there would be no miscommunication, no chance of him missing it.

My parents have invited us over for a family get together before brunch, so we have to leave here before nine a.m. Sorry.

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