Page 48 of Indirect Attack
When the doctor came in to check her vitals, I left her in his care, promising I’d be back soon. But my heart was soaring as I went—she hadn’t changed her mind, and I was sure about my plan. There was no going back now, even if I wanted to. And all I wanted to do was leap into the future with Jasmine.
“DO YOU NEED ANYTHINGelse?”
I had taken Jasmine back to the hotel from the hospital just as the sun set. We’d gotten dinner from the restaurant downstairs and eaten—I was glad to see Jasmine was eating well. Now I was ensuring she was comfortable, tucking her into bed, her medication on the nightstand, and the doors open to bring in the sea breeze.
“No, I’m good.”
Everything settled, I slipped under the blankets and took Jasmine into my arms. She let me pull her to me without resistance, settling back against me with a happy sigh, content simply to watch TV quietly together for a time.
“Hey.” Jasmine canted her head back to look up at me. “Mom said you called her to tell her everything and let her know I was okay. Thanks for that. I can’t imagine how scared she was.”
I flashed her a smile. “I wasn’t not going to tell her, especially once we knew you were okay. I didn’t want her to wait for the ages the news could take to get back to her through official channels. I care about your parents.”
“Well, they care about you, too.”
We grew quiet again, Jasmine’s attention returning to the TV, but mine stayed on her. This was as good of an opening as I was going to get, but I had to swallow the lump in my throat as my pulse picked up.
“So, I went to my CO this morning.”
“Hmm?” Jasmine was only half listening to me, though whether it was because of the TV or her meds, I didn’t know.
“I told him I wasn’t reenlisting when my tour is up.”
Jasmine stilled for a moment, then pulled back to look up at me, her eyes wide with surprise.
“You’re not reenlisting?” Her tone matched her eyes.
I shook my head. “No. I’m going home. With you, hopefully.”
Her eyes grew impossibly rounder, then began to shimmer with tears I could see even in the dim light from the TV.
“I’m not going home yet,” she said, her voice shaky.
“I’m not, either. But can you wait for me?”
A tear slipped down her cheek. I brushed at it with the pad of my thumb and stared down at the woman in my arms.
“I’ve waited for you my whole life, Benjamin Rusev. What are a few more months?”
“Well, it’ll be more than a few,” I pointed out. “Six or so—”
Jasmine stopped my runaway words by pulling my head down to kiss me as soundly as her swollen lip would allow.
When we fell asleep later, curled warmly around each other, I was happy—far happier than I’d been in years.
Chapter 22
Jasmine
IT TOOK TWO TRIES TOget the post of my earring into the hole in my ear because I wasn’t paying attention, my gaze instead on the pre-print of the research paper Jason had emailed me only a few minutes before. I didn’t have time to read the entire thing, but I was too excited not to skim it or squeal at the fact that my name was one of those at the top, under the author heading.
The paper detailed our first thrilling finds at the dig site. Our team had uncovered the hallway to which the door attached, as well as the room at the end. It was as full of treasure as we had imagined, but not the kind with gold and rubies—though there had been some of that. Instead, we had found the first of many rooms in what we believed was from that kingdom lost to the sands of time Jason had mentioned offhandedly all those months ago.
Our find rippled through the archaeological world until it made worldwide mainstream news. News channels had trumpeted the discovery of an ancient civilization that would change the narrative of history in that part of the world.
In the six months since the original find, we had uncovered several more buildings and the remains of several foundations and thoroughly inventoried the contents of two rooms.Specialists on the murals and depictions painted on the walls and carved into the ornate doors had come from around the world to research them. I couldn’t wait to learn more about their findings, which would take months, if not years, even to begin to glean an understanding.
Someday, maybe not in my lifetime, the entirety of the ancient kingdom would be revealed and cataloged, placed correctly into its place in history. For now, I was simply happy to have been there at the beginning, to have found something exciting and important, and to have started something others would finish.
