In the Likely Event(102)
“I know.” He stopped my words with his mouth. “Fuck, do I know.”
I swallowed the knot in my throat. “What are we going to do?”
He tunneled his hand through my hair. “We’re going to get in the shower, and then I’m going to make you come a few more times, and then we’re going to face this day.”
No promises. No sweet vows. No plans past the sunset. After ten years, we’d walked right back into familiar territory.
He did exactly as he’d planned, making me come against his mouth in the shower, and then again with my back sliding across the water-slick tile as he buried himself inside me, taking me like he could hold us in this moment if he just fought hard enough for it.
But we’d barely wrapped towels around our bodies when someone pounded three times on the door.
“Stay in here,” Nate said, kissing my swollen lips quickly before walking out of the bathroom, then closing the door behind him.
I wiped the steam off the mirror and stared at the woman I found there.
Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright, and her neck slightly red with whisker burn. She looked like the version of me I liked best, the one who only existed when I was with Nate.
The bathroom door opened, and I tensed at the serious set of Nate’s mouth.
“What is it?” I spun toward him, fearing the worst. “Serena?”
He shook his head. “Get dressed. They’re at the city gates.”
My lips parted. “At Jalalabad?”
His jaw clenched. “No. They surrendered Jalalabad last night while we were sleeping. They’re here in Kabul.”
Oh shit.
CHAPTER THIRTY
NATHANIEL
Kabul, Afghanistan
August 2021
“That makes three hundred,” Elston said, closing the roof-access door behind us as the Chinook took off with another fifty evacuees from the embassy.
The city was in chaos beyond the defenses of the Green Zone, and we weren’t faring too much better in here either. Panicked people were dangerous people, and though the evacuation was going pretty steadily, who knew how anyone within would react to the sight of one of those white-flagged pickup trucks.
“Only a few thousand to go,” I said as we descended the stairs in full combat gear. “How long do you think we have?”
“Before the president negotiates a surrender, the Taliban decides to kick up their heels in the Green Zone, or you actually convince Ms. Astor to get the fuck out?” he asked, our boots the only other sound in the stairwell.
“I bet they’re in the Green Zone before dinner,” Torres said, catching up to us.
“They’ve been in negotiations for a couple hours now, so I’m sure that part is going to happen quickly. We’re just lucky their forces are still outside the gates, and as for Ms. Astor . . .” I sighed as we passed the third floor and headed toward the second. “I’ve already told her that we’re out of here at five, whether or not she’s willing to go.”
She’d been holed up with embassy staff all morning, processing any last-minute visas possible and gathering blank passports to burn. Graham was under strict orders not to leave her side, though if he pulled the twelve-inches rule, I was going to kick his ass.
The noise grew the lower we went in the embassy, and I had no doubt that mayhem ruled the lobby. This moment had come quicker than any intelligence had speculated, though the inevitability of it stung like a bitch.
“You sure you don’t want her on an earlier helicopter?” Elston asked as we entered the second floor. Izzy’s door was wide open, with Parker standing guard and a line of civilians forming down the other side of the hallway.
“It’s a good question,” Torres added.
“You see the gridlock on those streets?” I asked.
“Pretty sure you can see the gridlock from the International Space Station,” he replied, his gaze sweeping the hallway. “Nothing’s moving out there.”
“All those people fleeing their cars are headed to the airport. Apex already has two teams there and said it’s a fucking nightmare. The place is pure havoc. Her flight is at ten, and I don’t want her in that circus any longer than she has to be. At least we’re in a controlled environment here.”
“For the moment,” Elston said as we walked into Izzy’s suite, passing Parker at the door.
“For the moment,” I conceded. The second that changed, she was on the next helicopter, and I didn’t give a shit who I had to throw off to make room for her.
The part of me I’d never wanted Izzy to see was in full force, and she might not like my methods, but she’d be alive, and that was enough for me.
I found her immediately, sitting on one side of her small dining table, nodding at whatever the civilian across from her was saying. Go figure the woman had had herself declared a consular officer so she could help process as many interviews as possible.
“She’s been interviewing people nonstop for the past two hours,” Graham said quietly, coming to stand with us.
“Did she eat lunch?” I asked, not taking my eyes off her. The red my beard had left on the skin of her neck had faded to a light rose in the hours it had been since I’d seen her. Though she was all business in a cream-colored blouse and dark pants, her hair wound in an efficient low bun, I couldn’t shake the vision of her beneath me, her hair falling around her naked body as she told me she loved me.