“It’s a long story. We have to get Leo into the aid station. He’s bleeding—he was shot.”
Effie looked from Daisy to Leo, then back to Daisy. “I don’t know, girl, you look like the one who could use the first aid station. He’s the one walking upright, not you.”
Leo put his arm around her waist again and continued to guide her toward the first aid tent. She tried to shrug him off. “I’m all right, it’s you I’m worried about.”
“Every time you push at me, my leg hurts more.”
She stopped short and looked up at him. “Oh, Leo, I’m so sorry.” Then she saw the twinkle in his eyes. “You are such a…such a…a man!”
His lips twitched. “I’ll buy that.” He hugged her closer and continued to the aid tent. Her mind was swirling with the idea that she was the reason somebody had almost killed Abia today. Yeah, people had been angry with W.A.N.T. before. They even had a security firm on retainer, and they handled the letters that came in from the crazies, but to be shot at?
She hadn’t even noticed they’d arrived until they hit the stifling heat and medicinal smells of the enclosed tent.
“He’s been shot,” Effie told one of the aid workers.
Before the nurse was allowed to look at Leo’s leg, he insisted that Daisy be looked at. “Wait a minute, what about Abia? She should be here,” she protested.
“You protected her fall, and if she needs care, her mother will bring her here,” Leo soothed. Soon she was behind a very tiny screen, pulling down her pants and showing them what was already the start of a massive bruise on her hip. They got out a one-time instant use cold pack and placed it on her bruise, taping it in place.
“Any place else that’s hurting?” the nurse asked.
Daisy hesitated.
“Answer the question,” Leo said from the other side of the screen.
“My shoulder hurts. I wrenched it in the fall.”
When the nurse tried to lift it above her head, or to the right, she groaned in pain. “You’re going to need to wear a sling for a few days so the movement is limited and it has time to heal.”
“Now can you look at the man with the gunshot wound?” she said sarcastically.
The nurse chuckled. “I think he’ll allow it now.”
23
Leo left Doug’s room, pissed off. He’d had no idea that Daisy had received death threats before as the Executive Director of W.A.N.T. Why in the hell was she gallivanting across Yemen without a security detail? Oh yeah, because according to Doug, she refused to allow the expense.
He banged on her hotel door. “Let me in.”
“Hold onto your britches.”
If he wasn’t in such a surly mood, she’d make him smile.
This time the door wasn’t flung open—instead, it was slowly opened by someone who looked freshly showered, tired and sad, and hurting. He looked behind her and saw clothes strewn about and her backpack partially packed.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yep.”
“Were you going to tell me?”
“Of course I was. What kind of question is that? Come in and sit down on one of my many different seating options.” She tilted her head toward the bed.
Leo closed the hotel room door and took note of the fact she even had the window open, letting in the hot air from outside. “That kind of defeats the purpose of the fan,” he said.
“It’ll get my hair dried faster.”
As soon as he saw her try to fold one of her skirts one-handed, he gently pushed her out of the way. “Let me.”
“I can fold my own clothes,” she protested.
“It’s painful to watch. I can do it faster. This way you have time to explain why you’re leaving all of a sudden. Don’t bother lying to me; this is suddenly because Doug doesn’t even know about it yet.”
She slowly lowered herself to the bed with a wince. He wondered if she had been icing her hip.
“I was going to tell the team after I told you. Obviously, I’m putting everybody at risk here, and I can’t stand that thought. I’m going home so I can keep people safe.” He saw the anguish in her beautiful gray eyes.
“I applaud your thought process, but this is rather abrupt. Don’t you want to say good-bye to the people at the camp?”
Leo watched helplessly as her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t risk it. Don’t you realize that with my need to glorify myself I’m essentially the same as my father? I’m putting my own ego above the real needs of the people I say I care about.”
He threw down the shirt he was folding and crouched down, grimacing in pain. Then he went to his knees instead. “You’ve done nothing self-aggrandizing. Everything you’ve done has been to try to help from a humble and honorable point of view. You have always, and I mean always, thought of everybody before yourself. If you ever thought that something you were doing would put people in harm’s way, you would do exactly what you’re doing now. Leaving. All I’m asking is, is if you want to say good-bye. I can make sure it’s safe.”
“You can’t, Leo. Look what happened today.” Her lip trembled but she firmed it up, then stood up, and walked around him. “By the way, no more crying in hotel rooms for this woman.”
He chuckled.
“Okay, no crying. No visiting. What do you want to do?”
“I’ve done it. I’ve booked my flight. I’ll tell my team that I’m leaving, and now we can talk.”
Leo stood up. He didn’t like the sound of this at all.
She walked toward him then turned around with her back
