Hud had no idea what her parents thought Layah had been doing with him last night. It was clear Ashur knew. Hud pulled the boy aside for a private conversation while Layah chatted with her parents.
“Protect her for me, will you?” Hud asked.
“You are going back to America?”
“Yes.”
Ashur stared at him for a long moment, seeming both relieved and disappointed. “She’s too good for you.”
Hud didn’t argue. “You were right about Al-Bayat.”
“He killed my father?”
“He did, and I took care of him.”
“He is dead?”
“Yes.”
The boy’s brow furrowed. “That was my job.”
“You’ll have to find something else to do.”
Ashur nodded, as if he already had a second victim in mind. Hud didn’t ask. He didn’t want to know.
Layah approached him again before she left. They’d had plenty of contact in the hotel, all night long, but he wished for one last embrace. He didn’t get it. She rose on tiptoe to give him a demure peck on the cheek.
“Take care of yourself,” she whispered.
“I love you,” he said, not caring who overheard.
Her eyes filled with tears. She kissed her fingertips and waved goodbye. Then she linked arms with Ashur and walked away with her parents. Hud stared after them until they disappeared, his chest tight with emotion.
She claimed she didn’t love him. She didn’t believe he would come back for her. She thought there was no hope for them.
He’d prove her wrong.
He took a cab to the airport, his heart heavy. He met the US Marshal who was escorting him back to the States. They boarded a twenty-hour flight to Los Angeles via Paris. When they arrived, a vehicle was waiting for him at the tarmac. Hud was taken to Commander Doheny’s office at the Coronado Naval Base.
The mood on base was subdued. No Team Twelve members came to greet him. Hud felt self-conscious about his street clothes as he entered the office buildings. Doheny’s secretary put him in a private interrogation room, which was strange.
Doheny entered a moment later. Hud rose to shake his hand.
“Welcome back,” Doheny said.
“It’s great to be here.”
They sat down to go over the details of Hud’s adventures in Iraq and beyond. Hud spoke without inflection, giving just the facts, and he tried to be as honest as possible. It was difficult to recount some of the darkest days of his captivity. His memory was fuzzy, as if he’d blocked out the pain. He skipped ahead to the journey with Layah. He didn’t mention the fact that he hadn’t been given a choice about being her guide, and he kept the intimate details private. Doheny didn’t need to know everything.
When he was finished, Doheny leaned back in his chair. “I spoke to an Azerbaijani official yesterday. Al-Bayat’s remains were identified.”
Hud was encouraged by this news.
“It’s an incredible story.”
“Yes.”
“Are you aware that you were in violation of military law when you left Iraq with a group of refugees?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is there a reason you ignored regulations?”
“They needed help, and they rescued me from a torture cell. I felt obligated.”
“You felt obligated.”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly, sir. I’d suffered multiple head traumas, daily beatings, dehydration and poor nutrition. I was desperate to avoid getting recaptured. When the refugees offered a way out, I took it.”
“And when you followed them into Iran? Were you thinking clearly then?”
Hud rubbed a hand over his mouth. This was the most problematic part of his story. He couldn’t explain a decision like that. “We’d encountered some unexpected complications in Turkey, like I said. Al-Bayat’s men were following us. I didn’t realize we were in Iran until it was too late.”
Doheny brought out his laptop and opened a file. He turned the screen toward Hud, showing him a picture of Layah. It was a staff photo from Damascus Hospital. She was smiling, her eyes bright.
“Is she the reason you weren’t thinking clearly?”
Hud swallowed hard, unsure what to say.
Doheny brought up another picture, taken from a distance. It was of him kissing Layah outside their hotel room in Yerevan. Hud’s blood went cold at the sight. He hadn’t realized they were being watched.
“You had me followed?” he asked.
“You’ve been on your own behind enemy lines for months. I had to check up on you.”
“You think I went AWAL? That I was radicalized?”
“I believe you were taken captive. I’m questioning your claim that you went with this woman willingly.”
He gestured to the photo. “Do I look unwilling?”
“According to your statement, which matches our intel, Ms. Anwar blew up the side of a building to get you. It doesn’t make sense for her to go to all that trouble and then give you the choice to decline to help her.”
Hud drummed his fingertips on the table. “Let’s focus on the big picture. She busted me out of that hellhole and saved me from a public beheading. In return, I helped her family get to Armenia. There’s no harm done, and Al-Bayat is dead. Everyone wins.”
“Al-Bayat is the problem,” Doheny said. “He was on the top ten list. Every detail of your story will be examined at the highest clearance levels. I can’t give you a free pass for withholding information, or for having inappropriate contact with a refugee.”
“I’m not asking for a free pass,” Hud said. “Punish me however you see fit. Put me on leave without pay.”
“Why are you so intent on protecting this woman?”
“Because I’m in love with her,” Hud said, his jaw clenched.
Doheny’s brows rose. “You’re in love with her.”
“That’s right. I plan to apply for an expedited visa for her and her nephew. I think we owe them that, after what happened to her brother, and I won’t do anything to jeopardize their chances of getting accepted.”
Doheny took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Your story won’t change?”
“No.”
“There is no statute that allows you to stay silent to protect a foreign national.”
“What if she’s my wife?”
Doheny wiped the lenses of his glasses
