Page 26 of Stand Fast

“Bye, sweetheart.”

“Bye.” She ended the call and the screen went blank.

It felt like his only lifeline to her had just been severed.

Reid closed his eyes and scrubbed a hand over his face, all his emotions tangled in knots and topped off with an avalanche of guilt. He loved his job, loved being part of the team, but at times like this he was never more aware of the damage his career did to the person who mattered to him most.

Autumn was growing up way too fast, turning into a young woman right before his eyes, and too often he only saw it as an observer from thousands of miles away. How many Christmases and birthdays had he missed already that he would never get back?

Too many.

Then he thought of Sarah and her coldness and the rage began to simmer just below the surface. He got why she hated his guts, and why she hated what he did for a living, because in her mind he’d placed that above his family, and that’s what ultimately had led to their split.

But they’d been divorced for nearly seven damn years, and since she was supposedly so happy with her new boyfriend Max, then why the hell couldn’t she let it go and at least try to be civil? And why use Autumn as a weapon when their little girl wound up suffering as much as him?

“Fuck,” he muttered, Autumn’s devastated expression burned into his mind as he shoved back from the table and stood. What he wouldn’t give for a bottle of Jack right now.

His mouth watered at the idea, his brain lighting up even all these years later in anticipation of what it could never have again. Alcohol had damn near destroyed his life and he knew better than to give into temptation, even once. One drink was one too many for him now, and he fought that battle every damn day.

“Hey, how’s Autumn?”

Reid swung around to find Zaid standing in the doorway of the squad room. “Sad,” he muttered, hating himself and this whole situation with Sarah. It wasn’t right. “She misses me, and she’s worried about me, when all she should be thinking about is what presents she’s going to get, or what games she’ll play with her cousins this afternoon.”

Zaid winced in sympathy. “Sorry, man. You weren’t on long with her.”

“No. Sarah made sure of that.” And if she tried to stop him from taking Autumn to Orlando for a father-daughter trip… Exhaling, he headed for the door and squeezed past Zaid into the hallway.

His teammate followed him out. “Wanted to talk to you about something,” Zaid said.

Reid stopped and turned to face him. “Sure, what’s up?” He was closest to Zaid of anyone on the team, and Reid had taken to hanging with him whenever he could.

Zaid was a good guy, he cared about everyone on the team, and bonus, he didn’t touch alcohol because of his religion. Maybe it made him a selfish prick to use Zaid that way, but it helped to be around someone who never drank. If Zaid suspected that was part of the reason Reid had been spending so much time with him over the past eight months, he’d never said anything.

“A situation’s just come up with the investigative team looking for The Jackal. You up for a private security detail for the next few hours?”

Beat the hell out of feeling sorry for himself on Christmas while his daughter was on the other side of the world, and having a duty to perform would help take his mind off everything for a while. “Yeah, sure. Who’s it for?”

“Agent Rabani and her team.”

Reid wasn’t positive, but it sure seemed like his buddy had a thing for her. There was no other explanation for the whole protective routine he was pulling today. Whatever Zaid needed, Reid was more than happy to be his wingman. “Okay. Where we headed?”

Zaid grabbed the door handle and paused to look at him. “Kabul. The guy they thought might be The Jackal just died in a targeted hit outside the police station.”

Chapter Seven

The vehicle he and Prentiss rode in jostled over the uneven road as Zaid drove into Kabul. It was full dark now, and that made their presence here even riskier given the present circumstances. Men with evil on their minds loved to come out after dark.

Jaliya and her boss were in the vehicle in front of them. In addition to their driver they also had an armed security agent with them. Along with Zaid and Prentiss, that gave them three hired guns to watch their backs.

Zaid got the feeling that his insistence on accompanying them here had annoyed Jaliya, but he didn’t care. He’d rather be here to guard her and risk being overbearing and overprotective than sitting back at base waiting on another assignment with his team and leaving her safety in someone else’s hands. Screw that. Thankfully, Taggart had granted him and Prentiss permission to do it.

The flash of emergency vehicle lights up ahead was visible from more than a block away as they approached the special police station. Zaid turned right to follow the other driver toward the main building.

After parking along the curb beyond the security gate he and Prentiss hopped out with their M4s. They maintained careful watch over the area as Jaliya and her boss—both armed with pistols tucked into thigh holsters—met with the acting deputy police chief outside the taped-off perimeter set up outside the headquarters.

The cold air carried the stench of scorched metal from the car burning somewhere behind the building, but he couldn’t see it as the acting deputy chief began to lead Jaliya and her boss to the other side of the compound.

To stop them from rounding a blind corner without checking what was on the other side first, Zaid intervened. “Hold it.”

---