Page 14 of ELITE Protection
She couldn’t remember when she’d last experienced the big O. Aziz had shown up in their forward camp only a few times in her final months in Syria. Their sex had beenwham, bam, thank you, ma’am. He’d been more interested in their pillow talk afterward than seeing to her needs. And she’d let him get away with it rather than demanding her own release.
She had been such an idiot to believe his lies. Now he was dead, and she was on the run from his vengeful family.
“Looks like that snowstorm is finally moving in,” Isaac noted as he settled onto the couch and kicked sock-covered feet onto the coffee table. “I’m glad we got in a whole day of skiing, though.”
“Me, too.” She had thoroughly enjoyed the day. “If it snows, are we still going—”
“…al Hasakah—”
Hannah’s head popped up at the news announcer’s mention of the small town in Northwestern Syria close to ISIS claimed territories.
“…twenty-five girls ages eight to fourteen were kidnapped and the four nuns running the remote school were killed.”
Hannah leaped to her feet and stared at the television in horror as pictures of smiling children in makeshift classrooms typical of that area flashed across the screen. Her heart started to beat faster and faster as she sipped shallow breaths. She had been to that school. She’d spoken with the nuns.
“No. No. No!” She cried out. “The YPJ vowed to protect them. Where the hell was my all-female battalion? How could they have let this happen?” This was her fault. She had made promises to the nuns and wasn’t there to keep the girls safe.
Video scanned the charred remains of the once-thriving school. The camera zoomed in on a still-burning book as the newscaster announced that ISIS had taken credit for the devastation.
“We brought them those books when the physicians came to immunize the girls.” She and twenty-five of her best warrior women had escorted a group from Doctors Without Borders to several isolated schools. They had also transported dozens of books, colorful modern clothing, and feminine necessities for the girls coming of age.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS and Aziz’s brother, spoke in Arabic about how his soldiers had freed the easily-influenced young women from the clutches of a modern world and he would personally oversee their proper Islamic education. The English translation printed on the bottom of the screen didn’t get it quite correct. His word choice was considerably more exploitative.
“Yeah, right.” Hannah sneered. “Their virginity was your gift to the soldiers who will make them slaves. Their so-called proper education will be in ways to make a man come in every orifice of their tiny bodies. If they fight back, they will be beaten to within an inch of their life.” Hannah gasped, trying to force air into her lungs. That was when she realized she was crying. She had seen the brutality inflicted by his men. She had personally freed more than three dozen of the helpless girls militants had turned into sex slaves.
She had to go there.
Now.
Hannah spun toward her bedroom and sprinted down the hall.
“Are you all right?” Isaac called as he followed her.
Hannah grabbed her travel bag from under the bed and started stuffing clothes into it. If she were moving back to Syria, she would need more than the mere essentials she carried in her grab-n-go bag.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“Back to Syria.” She opened her underwear drawer and scooped everything into her arms, carrying the load to the duffel on her bed. She dumped it in the bag and turned to retrieve more clothes.
Isaac grabbed her wrists. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She looked at him through tear-filled eyes. “I have to.” She sniffed. “Did you see what those fuckers did? I promised the nuns they would be protected.” Tears streamed down her face. Pointing toward the living room she screamed, “Those little girls are now in the clutches of savages because I wasn’t there to protect them.”
Hannah shook her hands loose from Isaac’s grasp, returning to her dresser for jeans.
Isaac punched his fists on his hips and shook his head. “How do you know this isn’t a ploy to make you move? The minute you hop on an airplane, they would find you…and kidnap you. They would haul you back to their desert base and force you to suffer the same fate as those young girls.” Through clenched teeth, he added, “Or even worse, they would decide you’re not worth it and just kill you.”
He pulled her to his broad chest and ran a soothing hand up and down her back. “I can’t let that happen.”
Helplessness overtook her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and let her head drop to his shoulder. For the first time in years, she allowed the tears to flow rather than turn them into anger and determination. Those young girls were more than six thousand miles away, and she could do nothing to stop the brutality that had started the moment they were taken. Without a doubt, the YPJ was already looking for their location, planning a raid and rescue.
Hannah allowed that knowledge, and the faith in the women she had trained beside, to help her regain her composure. She replaced the horrific pictures on television with memories of looking down her scope, an ISIS soldier in the crosshairs. Her battalion would find those young girls and free them.
To get her unruly emotions under control, Hannah dragged in a deep breath and inhaled the distinct scent of man. It was intoxicating. She could easily escape into his comfort, allowing his arms to shield her from the evil of the world. How she longed to fall deep asleep next to this man.
She rolled her head and laid her lips on his neck.
His breathing caught for one heartbeat, then he released it slowly. She wasn’t sure what his reaction meant, so she kissed her way around his beard to the spot just below his ear.
