Final Vow (14 page)
“Put
my twenty with Miss Violet,” Ahmed said coldly as he reached out to grab Bill’s collar. Bill screamed and leapt backward, right into the table. He teetered for a minute and then tumbled over the table, landing hard on top of Kandi. He bounced a couple of times on her twin inflatables and then finally came to rest.
“
Ahmed, that’s enough. Bill’s right—we’re not together and he can kiss me if he wants to. In fact, I can kiss anyone I want.” Bridget scanned the room and with a smirk leaned down and planted a big kiss on Old Man Tabby. “Now, are you going to beat up Mr. Tabernacle, too?” Old Man Tabby sat stunned until a little smile came across his face. It quickly faded when he looked up to Ahmed.
“
Let’s talk outside,” Ahmed said quietly, suddenly realizing he was making a scene.
“NO!” The agonizing wail filled the café and everyone turned back to whe
re Bill was helping Kandi stand up. Her chest was dramatically uneven. One giant boob cast an eclipse over its missing twin. The weight of having only one colossal boob was causing Kandi to list to the side as Bill steadied her.
“Thank goodness something good has come out of this,” Bill mumbled.
“But I got them for you. Not that it mattered, you still won’t touch me,” Kandi cried as her mascara mingled with the syrup covering her face.
“They scare me
. I could die if I put my face near them. And you look ridiculous. You were perfect before all this. Perfect with stretch marks, a few extra pounds, and your natural brown hair. Now, let’s get you to your doctor.”
“Oh
, Bill,” Kandi cried as she wrapped her arms around him and tried to lean in over her still-inflated boob to kiss him. “Will you ever forgive me?”
“Not yet. But you get rid of those death traps and we’ll talk. I’m going to move into my own place with the boys for a while
, though.”
“You’re leaving me?”
“Yes, until you can prove to me and the town that you have changed. Now come on.” Bill led his sobbing wife out the front door as everyone watched.
“Twenty says she’ll reform,” Pam Gilbert, PTA president called out.
“Twenty she’ll go to Vegas and become an escort,” Old Man Tabby said as he scrounged around his overalls looking for the bill.
“It seems as if we are old news. Please, my dear, come home
and talk to me,” Ahmed whispered into her ear.
“Oh, Ahmed,
” Miss Lily hailed. “We haven’t forgotten about you. Let’s hear it.”
Br
idget almost felt bad for him while he looked around at the town all staring him down again.
Almost
. It seemed she had more friends than she knew.
“Bridget?”
he pleaded.
“If you have anything to say, you can say it in front of my friends,” Bridget said loudly as the town
speople grinned and some even whistled.
“You go
, girl,” Dani called out from the back of the room. Bridget looked back and saw Mo sitting there smiling with a huge shiner. Bridget turned back to Ahmed and crossed her arms to wait him out.
Ahmed tried to calm his beating heart as he kept his eyes on Bridget. He loved her, he kept reminding himself. He took a deep breath and ignored Dani’s cheers from the back of the café and just remembered what Mo and Cy had told him. He could do this. She was worth this public humiliation, and he did deserve it.
“I’m
sorry I was so cold last night.”
“Louder
,” Miss Daisy shouted to the joy of the patrons.
“I’m sorry I
shut down last night. I saw how beautiful and full of life you were and I was afraid I’d change that. That my dark side would take its toll on you and you’d end up unhappy and resent that you ever met me.” Ahmed kept his focus on Bridget as the people started whispering all around him. He didn’t care what they said; he only cared about what Bridget thought.
“You know I understand
. . . things. Don’t you think if you had this worry you should have been man enough to talk to me about it? Let me decide what I can and cannot handle.”
“I thought I was protecting you,” Ahmed pleaded. He felt as if he were losing her and that feeling
was worse than any torture he’d experienced.
“And how many times have I t
old you I don’t need protecting?” Bridget asked angrily.
“How can I not protect the woman I love more than my own life? How can I stand the thought that
my love is in danger from Sergei because of me? What kind of man do you take me to be?” Ahmed shot back.
He saw the shock on Bridget’s face and then her eyes softened as she stepped closer to him. “I love you
, too. You just need to realize you’re not alone anymore.”
Ahmed let out a deep breath and unclenched his fists. He was flooded with relief and didn’t care how many people were watching. Bridget was his and he’d never
be so stupid again.
With one quick move
, he grabbed her around the waist and brought her against him. His mouth sought hers and he claimed her lips right there in front of everyone. No one would make the mistake of thinking she was single again. As his tongue ravaged her mouth, he’d be damned if she didn’t just mark him as hers forever, too.
“Now I’ll come home with you,” Bridget whispered when the kiss ended and the town alternately clapped and whistled. Ahmed couldn’t stop the reacti
on that hit him quick and hard.
“Your
place is closer,” he smiled down to her.
“Oh
, Lordy,” Miss Lily hollered and then grabbed a paper napkin and began to fan herself.
“I think you may need to stop smiling or the women will be swooning at your feet and then I’ll never get you naked,” Bridget teased in a low
voice.
Ahmed tried to stop the laugh
ter but decided to finally be himself. His head fell back and he gave a bark of laughter as he pulled Bridget to his side. “Nothing is going to get in my way.” He smiled down at her while they made their way to the door amid the flutter of napkins and sighs.
Bridget snuggled against Ahmed’s bare chest and rested her arm on his flat stomach. She absently ran her finger up and down the path from his belly button to the small dark trail that disappeared under the sheets. Ahmed had practically undressed her as they hurried down Main Street to her apartment. It had been different this time. They had broken down all the barriers between them and made love with all the passion and love they felt for each other. She closed her eyes as he absently stroked her hair until the sound of her phone alerted her to an email.
“Go ahead and get that, my dear.
I’m going to jump in the shower,” Ahmed said, kissing her head before sliding out of bed.
Bridget watched him confidently walk to her bathroom completely nude. He had scars on his body
—some were thin white lines and some she recognized as bullet holes and knife wounds, but he wore them well. In fact, it only made him sexier.
She stretched out her arm and blindly grabbed her cell phone. She opened her email and saw the new message was from her father.
Inside was a secure link to satellite images. There was a short note from her dad reminding her of the deal they struck. Bridget smiled and quickly forwarded the images while removing their source.
The shower turned off and a minute later Ahmed came out with his hair hanging loose around his face and a
towel slung low over his hips.
“I have a present for you,” Bridget smiled as she drank in the sight of him.
“I think you’ve already given me a most wonderful present,” he smiled and Bridget couldn’t believe he was hers.
“Check your email.” She giggled when he raised his eyebrow and went to his phone. She saw the moment he realized what he was looking at.
“First, how did you get these?” When Bridget just smiled, she saw his jaw tighten. “Your military source, of course. Second, what did you have to do to get these?”
“I made a couple
of promises.”
“What kind?”
“The kind I hope you don’t mind agreeing to. I promised I wouldn’t enter the compound. I also promised that if you used these images and went into the camp that we turned over all intelligence to my source in the military.”
“Will I have U
.S. military backup?” Ahmed asked as he studied the images.
“You will if you can verify terrorist activity and key targets. Oh, and if you don’t get caught. If you can manage that
, they’ll send in a drone to destroy the compound,” Bridget told him as she sat up in bed and watched him study the images.
“If he’s there,
then he’ll most likely be in this building here. See how it’s a little away from these smaller tents?” Ahmed pointed. “You do realize I won’t wait for the military to blow up the camp. I’m going to be the one to kill Sergei.”
“I know. I don’t think they’ll mind as long as this ‘joint’ mission
has a positive result. They just need the intel to know that they have enough evidence to take out the compound and not get blasted by the United Nations,” Bridget explained as she hopped out of bed and started to pull out her tactical gear.
“So, I’ll be videoed?”
“Audio, too. I’ll make sure it gets edited. You’ll never be seen. And you’ll have a kill switch on the helmet cam in case you don’t want to record something. I’m guessing you know the drill.”
“I do. Will I have any boots on the ground?”
“Just me,” Bridget grinned.
“You’re all I need. You can be my eyes and ears from a safe distance. I’ll leave it up to you to communicate with the military. Just try not to get me blown up.”
“I wouldn’t do that . . . well, I won’t do it now that you’ve apologized,” Bridget laughed.
“I need to get my gear. I’ll pick you up in an hour. Tell your contact
, wheels up in ninety minutes.” Ahmed buttoned his shirt and slid on his suit jacket before giving her a quick kiss goodbye. No more smiles, no more laughing. Nope, he was in full soldier mode now and it was sexy as all get-out.
* * *
Bridget felt the familiar calm settle over her as she prepared for the mission. They had been supplied a Range Rover with communication equipment, camouflage, an M-60 machine gun, and some other fun equipment upon landing at a private airfield belonging to a expatriate of Rahmi. She and Ahmed had driven three hours south along the coast toward Sudan before turning off the coastal road to bounce along a desert road almost another hour inland. They’d traveled through the rocky red mountains to a spot near the compound.
After s
tudying the satellite images, Bridget and Ahmed picked out her perfect surveillance spot about three-quarters of a mile from the compound, as well as Ahmed’s entrance and exit paths. She covered the Range Rover with a camouflaged tarp while Ahmed put on the small lightweight communications device and buckled on the heavy Kevlar helmet with a small camera and night-vision goggles. He put on his vest and strapped his 9mm Sig and knife to his thigh before slipping the M4 rifle over his shoulder.
“Do you need help?
” he asked in a low voice.
“I don’t think so,” Bridget replied as she put
her matching helmet on over her communication device.
“It’s going to get dark soon. You need to hurry into position.”
Bridget nodded, pulling on the ghillie suit covered with burlap strips and some small desert foliage. “Let’s test the communications.” When Ahmed gave a barely perceptible nod, she continued, “Eagle to Lion.”
“I
read you," replied Ahmed.
She gave him a
nod acknowledging that she heard him.
“
Eagle to base,” she said as she waited for a response.
“Base reads you
both. Drone has already been launched. ETA one hour and forty-three minutes,” she heard back from the U.S. military base in Djibouti coordinating with a ship in the Red Sea that launched the drone.
“Do you need anything?” Ahmed asked her as she put the ghill
ie rifle wrap around her Tac-338 long-distance sniper rifle.
“Just for you to be safe.” Bridget took a deep breath and got accustomed to the heavy suit. She was already getting hot and looked forward to the
cooler night temperatures.
Bridget
turned away from Ahmed and started toward the mountain. As she approached a cliff, she dropped to the ground and spent the next hour slowly moving the last fifty yards to the spot she picked out. She crawled on the ground before the edge came into sight and moved slowly in case anyone was scanning the ridge.
S
he kept moving slowly as darkness fell. Night vision goggles were too common now for her to safely move faster. By the time Ahmed was ready to start his mission, she had her rifle set up, the night scope focused on the camp below and blended in seamlessly with the mountain ridge.
“
Eagle in position,” she whispered into her coms.
“Lion
on the move,” Ahmed’s voice said with no emotion. She scanned the camp that was laid out in a rectangular shape with a campfire close to the target. Ahmed had to come in from the left because there wasn’t enough cover behind the target tent. Ahmed said he’d manage it, but she was worried now that she saw the layout.
She
took note of the guards’ locations and weapons before searching for Ahmed. Bridget knew the path he was going to take to enter the camp, yet she still couldn’t find him through her night vision scope. “Eagle,” his voice came over the coms again. “If anything goes sideways, I want you to pick up and head out immediately.”
“Base seconds that,” she heard in her earpiece. She was sure her father had just issued that order. She knew he would be in the war room at the Pentagon listening in with an o
pen line to the command center.
“Copy.” Bridget didn’t mean it
, but it would make the men feel better and allow them to focus on their jobs. “Base, are you getting visual?”
“
Yes.”
Bridget looked
along the mountainside again and spoke quietly into her coms. “I can’t see you, but you should be reaching the camp within five minutes. There are two sentries on patrol that you could run into. Their path comes close to your target path, so I would change your course eight degrees north. You’ll be able to take the one guard and then meet the other as he rounds Gamma tent.”
“
Changing course now. ETA three minutes fifteen seconds.”
Bridget scanned the mountainside but still failed to see Ahmed. She had to keep her breathing slow and steady
in case he needed her to take a shot. Her head didn’t move as she scanned the area with an extra scope. The guard walking at the foot of the mountain failed to see her both times he walked by. Her ghillie suit was doing its job. That's when she saw Ahmed. He slid from the side of the mountain and lay still on the ground in a dip on the desert floor as the guard strolled slowly by him, scanning the mountaintop instead of looking at the ground near his feet.
Ahmed controlled his breathing, feeling the footfalls of the guard reverberate though the dry desert floor as he walked by. Knowing Bridget was watching him made this task even more difficult. He would trust her with his life, but the thought of taking a life in front of her made him worry. She would see the true dark beast in action.
“Clear,” he heard Bridget
's hushed voice say through his earpiece. Silently, he rose from the ground right behind the guard. He only had ten seconds before the second guard would round the tent on the far side of the camp.
He cleared his mind of all thoughts and opened his senses. He heard the man breathing
and felt the air his body disturbed as he walked. Not allowing him to take another step, Ahmed wrapped his arm around the guard’s throat and against his head. Ahmed pulled and twisted the man tight against him. The guard didn’t even have time to gasp before Ahmed broke his neck. He quickly dragged the man against the back of Delta tent and propped him up.
“Second guard in six, five
. . .” Bridget counted down as Ahmed raced to lie in the dip in the ground at the base of the mountain once again. “Here’s our boy now. Twenty paces. Twelve. Eight.”
Ahmed heard the man yell in Arabic for the dead guard to stop taking a piss
again and get back on patrol. The other soldier, clearly at the end of his patience, went to grab the dead man when Ahmed made his move.
Bridget watched in silence as Ahmed killed the two guards. She didn’t even hear his breathing increase as he dragged the bodies off the main path behind the tents. She scanned the camp once again and knew Ahmed was going to have to pass a clearing on the far side of Beta tent before arriving at Alpha tent, which they hoped was Sergei's hiding spot.
“Okay. You have ten yards between Beta tent and Alpha. Six guards are drinking around a fire in the center
of the compound with clear sight of Beta and Alpha tents.”
“Copy,” w
as all Ahmed said in response as he disappeared behind Beta tent. She couldn’t see him as he made his way toward his target. The wait was killing her. She wished she was down there with him, but she would protect him the best she could from here. Three minutes passed by and the two sentries on the other side of camp had not noticed their comrades missing.
“I’m seeing movement inside Beta tent. The door is opening and someone else is j
oining the group. There’s also movement at Theta camp on the far side of the compound. Three guards, but they have their backs to you.”
“I’m going now,” Ahmed whispered.
Ahmed pulled the
keffiyeh from around one of the dead men’s head. He tied the large scarf around his head, leaving just the lens of the camera exposed. He hid the night vision goggles under the keffiyeh and tried to tie it in such a way as to hide the blood. Moving his thigh strap to the left leg to help conceal it, he took off his vest and stashed it behind Beta tent. Without hesitating, he walked straight into the open space between Beta and Alpha tents.
Ahmed strode calmly toward Alpha tent
, which he was going to pass until he got behind the men at the campfire. Then he’d duck behind Alpha and cut his way into the tent before the patrol for that side arrived. He relaxed his shoulders and shot a glance to the group around the fire.
“
What’s going on?” one of the men shouted to Ahmed in Arabic.
“Just watching that
idiot get chewed out for pissing while on patrol again. I swear he won’t have a dick to piss with if he keeps this up,” Ahmed called back as the men laughed and went back to talking among themselves about the guard Ahmed had just killed.
“We got positive ID on two of those men,” the base commande
r broke into Ahmed’s coms. “The one who talked to you is Ghali Yasin. He is responsible for the embassy bombing in Lebanon. The man to his right is Boris Golov. He’s a rising star in the Russian Mafia. He started off as a contract killer and murdered the U.S. ambassador to Yemen prior to the embassy closing. Now he’s dabbling in the sale of bombs on the black market. It’s time to leave, Lion. That’s enough evidence for us to authorize the strike.”
