Promises in the Dark (25 page)

“The kids don’t know,” she whispered. “I know you won’t have good news for me.”

“I’m sorry,” Olivia told her quietly. “I wish …”

Julia closed her eyes so the children wouldn’t see her crying if they looked over at their mom.

Olivia didn’t understand why Julia was here though, instead of the main tent, why the whole family was crammed into this tent with a single window and cramped space with no amenities.

Unless …

A chill ran down her spine. If Doc J didn’t mind taking her in with all her baggage, he wouldn’t be against doing the same for others.

Before she could whisper to Rowan, the EMT she’d met moments earlier when the woman had walked in on her examining Julia, the door opened. She looked up to see Doc J entering the small space with Zane, saw Zane looking around the room, assessing the situation.

Granted, by the taut look on his face, he’d already been apprised of what was happening here and appeared to be in full mission-ready mode, and her stomach clenched because she wished she knew why.

She backed away from Julia’s bed slightly as the men walked over, making the space even more crowded.

“Julia, this is the man I was telling you about,” Doc J said, and Julia turned her head toward Zane, who’d bent down in deference to her.

“Take my children out of here, please.” Her voice was still low, her words making Olivia’s heart lurch.

Take my children out of here
.

She stared at Zane. His eyes looked flat, his face devoid of expression, which was something she didn’t expect at all.

But still, he nodded, ground out a “Yes, ma’am,” stood and left the room without another word to anyone or a look back.

Julia focused on Olivia now. “He’s with you?”

“Yes.”

“He’ll do what he says?”

“I’ve never known him to go back on a promise.” It was the most honest thing she could say, based on close personal experience.

Julie swallowed hard. “My sister, she’ll be waiting in Morocco. Doc J got a message to her.”

“I’ll fill them both in on all the details, Julia,” Doc J said quietly.

Still, Julia reached out, gripped Olivia’s wrist. “You’ll be with them too? Please? They need to leave soon.”

Soon. That wasn’t something Olivia had prepared for. But how could she refuse a dying woman anything?

She couldn’t. But thankfully, Julia let her off the hook by closing her eyes and drifting into sleep. The simple act of talking had exhausted her, and Olivia knew the time for all of them was running out fast.

“
Why would you help me like this?
”

Ama wiped her forehead with cool water. “Because that’s what I was put on this earth to do. No use arguing with the Lord.
”

Olivia wanted to make some rude remark, about God not giving a fuck what happened to people, but she bit it back out of respect for the woman currently keeping her off the streets. Literally
.

As if Ama sensed this, she smiled briefly. “Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe. I have more than enough faith for both of us.
”

She had to, because Olivia had thought that escape from the clinic was the final move for her, wasn’t sure she could keep pushing ahead but knew there was no way to go back to what she’d had before the kidnapping
.

“
You hide behind your work,” Ama continued
.

“
You don’t?” she shot back
.

Ama took a sip of her tea before answering. “Of course I do. How do you think I recognized it so easily in you?
”

And when Olivia couldn’t stay anymore, when the community began to ripple with the rumor that a man was asking questions about an American doctor, Ama gave her the tools she’d need to survive day by day. Mapped out a route for Olivia to follow, gave her money. Got her a driver to take her to the first safe place.

Olivia had stayed there three and a half weeks, helped the women in the village and felt as if she could stay forever. Until she’d gotten word about Ama.

That’s when she’d begun to run in earnest and she couldn’t stop now, no matter how many promises Zane made to her.

She glanced at Julia again and then at Randy, a man who was losing the woman he loved, and she wished she could open herself up to love as easily as other people—though, in her heart, she knew that she somehow had. And that scared her more than DMH and her past combined.

“Where?”

“Village a few miles down the road needs vaccines and antibiotics. You’ll come and do that. Let them meet you. Unless you were lying about wanting to stay, in which case I’ll take you to Freetown.”

It was more than part dare and she accepted it, got into the truck without a look back.

The windows were already rolled down, a rifle on the backseat. He had a pistol on him too. There was also a wicked-looking knife sticking out of the broken glove compartment and she was pretty sure he had other weapons on his person although he’d taken the knife off his arm—and put on a shirt—but she didn’t bother asking about them as he got in and gunned the old engine.

He drove out of the compound smoothly, the engine running better than she’d anticipated, but the roads themselves hadn’t changed since the other day. If anything, they seemed to be more treacherous, thanks to the recent rain. So she held on and tried not to think about his close proximity.

Tried, but didn’t succeed. She snuck a glance or two his way, his profile just as handsome, his big hands holding the wheel effortlessly—and how did she fall this far, this fast, in lust? “Are you sorry about last night?” she asked finally.

“No,” he answered tersely. “But I’m sorry about your husband. I meant to tell you that earlier.”

The way Tristan said it, she knew it was less about the death and more about the way he’d died—and the people behind the act. The familiar ire, tightness in the expression of the men and women in the military who wanted to make sure it never happened again, those who blamed themselves as if they should’ve seen it coming.

“It was a long time ago.” She noted the look of surprise in his eyes. “What? Did you think I’d fall apart when you brought it up? I may be screwed up, Tristan, but I don’t break down anymore. It took five years, but it stopped.”

“You cried last night,” he told her.

She opened her mouth to protest, to tell him he was wrong, but she couldn’t. It came rushing back to her like a bad dream—how long had she been lying to herself that she was over it?

And last night, once the tears came, she’d feared they’d never stop, remembered trying to muffle them against the pillow, Tristan’s shoulder, but there had been no mistaking the sobs that made her throat ache.

God, Tristan must’ve thought … what? That she was a crying, drunken mess who slept with men hours after meeting them.

He should’ve rolled away, gotten off the cot and left her there.

Or taken her out of there, the way she’d insisted.

She was so confused, didn’t know what she wanted anymore. But instead of driving her out of camp, Tristan had simply folded his arms around her so her face was buried in his chest. He’d stroked her hair. Murmured something—her name maybe, and words she didn’t recognize.

But he hadn’t told her to stop or that it would all be okay or any of that crap people said when they didn’t know how to help.

“I came here to find peace—Doc J told me I could find peace. How can I do that with weapons? With danger?” she’d asked him finally, when the tears had dried and she’d been too tired to care about much more than the fact she’d found a safe place to land for the night.

“There’s always danger, Rowan. Even when you’re at peace, that doesn’t go away. Sometimes, it makes it better.”

God, she wanted to bury her head in her hands, didn’t want to look at him … didn’t want him to remember all of that. “Sorry,” she managed to mumble, her face heated.

“You were pretty wasted. I wasn’t sure if you’d remembered,” he explained.

She didn’t have time to respond before Tristan cursed. One look in the side mirror showed the soldiers coming up fast behind them, faster than they had yesterday, and she braced herself as Tristan sped up so they could drive into the main part of the village and then he braked hard.

“Got to keep it business as usual—can’t arouse suspicion,” he told her, and her belly tightened. “Let’s go—just get out and walk to the back of the truck like all of this is normal.”

She hesitated. He leaned across the seat to grab his rifle, his voice brushing her cheek. “I’ll protect you, baby.”

“I’m not your baby,” she said through gritted teeth right before she slammed her way out of the car—and then realized, dammit, he’d gotten her pissed off on purpose. Show no fear and all that shit.

It was better than crying all over him, she supposed.

She grabbed the antibiotics from the back of the truck even as the soldiers approached, telling her to halt. Tristan stepped in easily between her and the men. “We’re going in.”

“We must inspect your packages first,” one of the soldiers said.

She turned in time to see Tristan’s hand curl into a fist and then unclench.

“Maybe we can avoid that?” He held out his hand for the soldier to shake, and she caught a flash of paper hidden in his palm before the dark hand clasped Tristan’s.

The soldier turned his eyes to hers. “Do you know what we call him?
Padi
. Friend.” The man laughed, his teeth white against the darkness of his skin, and if he hadn’t just called Tristan a friend, she might consider him handsome. But there was a cruelty behind his eyes, something she had yet to see from the Tristan.

The soldiers backed off then, got into their car, and Rowan was grateful to see them leaving in the opposite direction of Doc J’s camp as this tiny village they’d entered began to come back to life.

“Why do they call you friend?”

“He thinks we’re the same,” he said.

“Are you?” she asked, and waited, but he didn’t answer that question. “Do you always pay them?”

“It’s their way of life. It’s how they survive. It’s going to take a hell of a lot to change that,” he said as they were suddenly surrounded by children—and women—all of whom seemed to be talking at once to both her and Tristan.

“
Wetin yu nem
?
” A few of the children asked and Tristan told them, “Her name’s Rowan.”

One of the women smiled as she looked between Rowan and Tristan. Said something that made the other women giggle and Tristan simply shake his head.

It was obvious they believed she and Tristan were together.

She thought about protesting, but what would be the point? There were worse things than being the subject of local gossip and, if anything, it seemed to make the women flock to her more easily. That was a plus. And as she gloved up and doled out shots to crying children and their parents, she took in bits of information. Watched the men crowd around Tristan as he helped them with their cars and various other pieces of equipment.

He seemed to know them all, which made sense since his permanent residence had been in the area for the past few years.

“You like him,” one of the women said, smiling, and Rowan tried to keep the flush off her cheeks as she said simply, “He’s very nice.”

The women spoke fast to one another in Krio and Rowan barely caught any of the words, but she was pretty sure they were talking about Tristan. “Do you know him well? Tristan?”

Two of the women nodded, and the one who appeared to be the leader of the group said, “He’s been here a long time. He’s very respectful. Are you his girlfriend?”

“Me? No.” She avoided the woman’s eyes as she prepped another syringe. “Does he have a lot of girlfriends?”

The woman smiled and shook her head.

“Does he help you here a lot?” Rowan tried to ask casually, not sure why she was going this route with women she just met.

“He’s here all the time. He helps us when he can.”

“Does he talk to you, about his past?” she asked, and the woman simply looked at her, and Rowan knew she’d crossed a line. “Sorry, it’s just … he doesn’t talk about himself much.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

The women rounded up the rest of the children for the vaccines, and after Rowan was done, she caught sight of the woman she’d spoken with talking to Tristan. She wanted to tell herself that she’d just been making conversation, but she’d been stupid asking about him. Especially when he didn’t appear to fully trust her as yet … This would no doubt make things worse. But she wasn’t used to working in the field with people she didn’t know much about—combat made bonds happen fast.

What happened last night had bonded her to Tristan. She wasn’t sure if he felt the same way at all.