It felt like hours later when the Americans finally returned. By then I was exhausted, the stress and the exertion wearing on me. After lifting crates of water and boxes of food, and walking back and forth through the embassy for hours, my arms and legs were like gelatin, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay standing.
“Everything is secure, but the electricity grid was damaged in the bombing. The power will most likely be out for a few days,” one of the Americans announced. I turned, looking for the owner of the voice, when I suddenly tripped over something, falling forward and unable to stop myself.
“Whoa, there. I’ve got you,” a voice said as strong arms wrapped around me, preventing me from hitting the floor. When I looked up, I met the warm, hazel eyes of the soldier who’d been drawing my attention all day, and I could feel my heart rate increase as he studied me. For some inexplicable reason, I felt safe in his embrace. “Are you okay, ma’am?” he asked me, and for the first time, I noticed a hint of an accent, possibly Southern. That would also explain the “ma’am,” I thought to myself.
“Yes, I’m sorry. I’m just tired, and it’s made me clumsy,” I answered sheepishly.
“When I asked who was in charge of this triage set up, everyone pointed to you. Is that true?” he asked, still holding onto me.
“Umm… it was a few of us.” I didn’t want to take all the credit.
“Yes, but everyone said you were the ringleader,” the man said, his gaze steady on my face. I finally gave in, nodding in agreement, and he smiled brightly at me.
“Then you must be tuckered out. I don’t blame you for being clumsy,” the man said. “Let me help you.”
He guided me over to a chair, supporting most of my weight as if I were small, which I definitely was not. How is this man so strong? I wondered to myself, feeling his muscles flexing under me. Once he helped me sit down, he crouched in front of me, so that we were eye to eye, and at that moment, it felt like we were the only two people in the world.
“Are you good?” he asked, studying me as if I were a puzzle he needed to solve. I nodded again, and one side of his mouth twisted up into a half-smile that had no right to be so appealing. He suddenly lifted his hands towards my face, the gesture intimate, and I tried not to flinch away, even though I had no idea what he was about to do. I felt his fingers brush gently against my hair, then I was aware of fabric moving over my head.
“Your hijab was out of place,” he said as he continued to adjust my head covering, and understanding came over me.
Not every woman in the embassy wore a hijab, but as a diplomat who usually dealt with the public, and often encountered Muslim men, I’d made it a habit to always wear mine when I worked. I was glad of that today, since I’d interacted with all types of people in the semi-dark embassy.
He met my eyes again, his smile even bigger as I reached up to touch the fabric myself, blown away at the care he was showing me.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” the man said, and with a small flicker of something that looked like pride, he stood again, towering over me. “Usually my team would help set up something like this. But it looks like you’ve already gotten things organized and handled. Consider my team at your disposal, to help with whatever you need.”
I blushed in the darkness, pleased with his praise. If a Special Forces operative was impressed with my work in a war zone, that meant something.
“Well, to start with, you could bring down more crates of bottled water. There’s still some left in the storage room,” I said. “They’re really heavy.”
“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” the man said, giving me a small, playful salute. “Let me grab my team, and we’ll get started on that now.” He started to walk away, but then turned back, a smile on his face. “Also, where is the storage room?”
With a small laugh, I stood up, and the man reached towards me, as if to catch me if I started to fall again. Luckily, the few minutes of rest had made my legs feel much better. “I’ll show you,” I said, then stuck my hand out to shake his. “By the way, my name is Kassidy. It’s nice to meet you.”
He took my hand in his much larger one, his calloused fingers feeling like a caress, and he grinned down at me. “I’m Evan. It’s nice to meet you, too.”
EVAN
PRESENT DAY…
“We need to call a meeting,” my best friend, Nolan Gibson, said as soon as he walked into work that morning.
He looked exhausted, and I knew he’d been wearing himself out lately, burning the candle at both ends. As the team leader of the FBI’s Human Trafficking Task Force for the DC branch, Nolan had a lot of weight on his shoulders. As his second-in-command, I did my best to help him carry that weight.
“Is the meeting about how tired you are, and how you need to take a vacation?” I asked, but the only response I received from him was a grunt. I could already tell that Nolan wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “Alright, I’ll herd everyone into the conference room,” I said, then took a long pull from my coffee before I stood up. I had a feeling I’d need all the caffeine I could get today.
I found several of my coworkers—Ryder, Knox, and Mason— in the break room, getting ready for their day. “The boss is calling a meeting,” I told them.
“This early?” Mason asked with a frown, glancing at his watch. The puffy circles under his eyes had been worsening for weeks, and I was worried about him. He didn’t seem to be getting much rest, and I made a mental note to talk to Nolan about that later. Mason had a history of PTSD, and I had a feeling he might need an intervention before things got worse.
“Unfortunately,” I said, patting Mason on the shoulder before I moved on to look for the others.
As I walked past the restrooms, Ally and Kate, the two women on the team, walked out together. They were always in cahoots with each other, and it appeared that this morning wasn’t any different. I had a lot of respect for both of them, and considered them good friends of mine, and I knew the rest of the guys did, too. Ally was by far the smartest person on the team, and Kate was sharp as a tack herself, as well as positive and bubbly most of the time.
“Didn’t I tell you to let me know if you were making plans for world domination?” I teased. “But here you are, planning without me.”
“No world domination today,” Kate replied with a smile. “Just guy problems.”
“Well, that conversation, I don’t want to be part of,” I quipped.
I let them know that Nolan had called a meeting, and they headed straight to the conference room. Then, I quickly found Gabe and Wes at their desks, but I was still missing one teammate.
“Has anyone seen Liam?” I asked as I walked into the conference room, only to realize he was already inside. “Nevermind.”
Ally laughed, and I glared at her, pretending to be offended, which only made her laugh harder. I grabbed the only empty seat left at the table, between Ryder and Ally, and settled in as Nolan began talking.
“I’ve got two topics to discuss today. Number one is Kelsey Johnson,” Nolan said, and I saw Liam tense. We’d learned of her kidnapping while we’d been investigating a different case, and from the start, Liam had been particularly worried about the woman, who seemed to have disappeared into thin air. “The New York FBI office has had a break in the case. They’ve been keeping an eye on Oddjob, the man we got a tip on, who had paid Eddie Frasier to kidnap Kelsey. They’ve been doing surveillance and got enough for a warrant, which they served yesterday. Oddjob had several trafficked people in his home, both for the purposes of labor and sex. Kelsey wasn’t at the house, but a couple of people who were rescued said she was there for a few months. She was one of Oddjob’s favorites, according to several of them. Apparently, one night she was just gone, and there’s rumors that she escaped, but no one knows for sure. We’re going to keep putting our resources into looking for her, but for now, that’s the best lead we’ve got.”