Page 36 of Acting on Instinct
Lula pushed into the tree as she stood, then brushed off her backside. “You know the nice thing about getting the gig with Iniquus and staying involved with the Pentagon is that no one would be shooting at Ty anymore. He’d go help people in trouble, then serve as the liaison between the military and the alphabets. The CIA could call him up and ask for his good counsel on how to best do something with their dogs. The FBI. The Secret Service.”
Kira’s phone pinged, and she pulled it from her pocket to see who had dropped a text. “Speak of the devil.” She swiped it open.
Ty:Don’t expect me back tonight. I got word it’s going to be a late night.
Kira pressed her lips together and held the screen out for Lula.
“If he’s letting you know his team is out late, it’s not a deployment,” Lula said.
“I don’t know how the Unit wives do it. Babies on the way, kids in the hospital, they call their husbands, and no one answers. Poof gone. No heads up. No idea when or if they’ll get back home.” Kira’s pace matched her agitation.
“You understand why that’s important,” Lula said as they stepped back on the sidewalk.
“My head understands. My emotions are not as good. In this day and age, they could be ghosting. Not if they’re married and living on base. There’s security there. But if you were just dating a guy.”
“You’re not dating Ty. You’re in a committed relationship with him, right?”
“We’re feeling our way forward. I still wake up with nightmares. He still feels partially responsible. I don’t like who I am right now, all clingy and fragile. I’m easily bruised. I don’t want to talk to people. It’s hard for me to leave my house. When Ty’s not around, I don’t go out. It’s not healthy.”
“You’re telling all this to your psychiatrist?”
“Yes. But I’m not improving. I have this existential threat that has been consuming me. In my dreams, it’s getting closer when I’ve been working so hard to gain distance. I just want these sensations to go away. I want to feel like myself again, not this untrusting, ever-flinching hermit. I feel old in my bones.”
“Kira, you saw your best friend shot in the head.”
“I did.” Kira looked up at the sky. “They called her to the front, and they shot her in the head. And she fell to the ground. And Ty held me back so I wouldn’t rush to her.”
“He probably saved your life by doing that. Though I’m sure it made you angry, and that might have a good deal to do with why you got so angry with Ty when he pushed you today.”
“Lula, London lay there bleeding, and no one did anything.Idid nothing. What kind of person does that make me?”
Chapter Eleven
Kira
They walked the rest of the way back to Kira’s in silence.
Stepping through her front door and locking it behind her was soothing to Kira.
She wanted Lula to go.
And as if Lula could read her mind, she said, “I’m going in just a second, but first, I wanted to tell you that I’m doing some work in Qatar.” Uninvited, Lula took a seat back on the couch and reached for the glass of water she’d left there, drinking some down. “I stopped by to see London. She’s very lucky to have your family. They treat her as one of their own.”
“Yes, well, we spent summer vacations for many years at the family compound. She became good friends with my cousins, and my aunts are very fond of her. Even my mother likes her, and my mother isn’t a person who likes people.” Kira perched on the side chair. “How is she? London, I mean.”
“When is the last time you saw her?” Lula asked.
“At the hospital, before they flew her to Qatar. I’m not willing to visit right now. I don’t think it’s wise of me to be under the nose of Uncle Nadir. I hate that my uncle puts a wedge between my beloved family and me. But I don’t trust him. I agreed to marry Omar because I would at least be close to my family. Then I realized Omar was from Saudi Arabia, and I would be required to go wherever Omar told me to and speak to whoever he chose for me to speak to. I might never see my family again, which was the threat that Uncle Nadir wielded like a sword against me.”
“I would agree. It’s better to stay away for now.”
“London?” Kira whispered.
“So London walks robotically. Sometimes her short-term memory is difficult. She wears an AI pendant that listens to her all day long and synthesizes everything down into notes for her to review at the end of the day. It’s quite remarkable, really. She comments on her day as she goes, I’m putting my phone on the kitchen counter. I’m eating lunch. And then she can ask the device things throughout the day. ‘Where did I put my phone?’ ‘On the kitchen counter.’ ‘I’m preparing soup and a sandwich for lunch.’ ‘You ate lunch at eleven thirty. Snacking on a piece of fruit is a healthy choice.’ It’s interesting. I’m sure it’s enormously helpful as she’s building back her health.”
“Is that level of disability permanent?” Kira’s voice was barely audible.
“London says she’s making progress. They’re doing all the things that help build brains. Did you know that if you put rose oil at a .5% dilution on your clothes for thirty days, researchers have found that it increases the volume of gray matter?”
