“I don’t think she wants to leave, but we can ask her. If she wants to stay, I’m fine with it. Does she have a counselor or someone to talk to? I feel like she needs someone.”
Chase noted the serious tone in my voice and he didn’t continue on with the teasing. He and I were close enough that he knew when I was ready to move on. Chase could tell that I really did care about Ana’s wellbeing.
“I’ll have Jordan and her work something out. How long until you head out on your next job?”
“No idea. I haven’t returned anyone’s calls.”
“Are you ready to start your own thing? I’d be happy to invest.”
Chase knew I had a business plan to start my own private security firm. I was so sick and tired of deploying to dangerous locations with crappy intel and poor supplies. These suits that ran my current company didn’t understand how much safer the jobs could be if only they would hire an analyst to work up the areas before we arrived. Currently, the intelligence package we got about locations was so old that often we didn’t even have an accurate map to work with. That intel information was crucial for being able to protect the big named senators, celebrities, and executives that I was hired to work with. Sooner or later, a big event was going to happen all because of the crappy intelligence they had.
Plus, they often sent us to locations with nothing more than a couple handguns. These were dangerous places where the rebels had grenades, missiles, and night vision, and we had nothing to protect ourselves. Most of the guys who worked with me had all purchased their own bulletproof vests to give their families some sort of reassurance that they had protection, but it was a minimal effort against some of the rebels we encountered.
“No, I think I’m going to have to wait a couple more months. Two of the guys who want to come work with me are in contracts until then. I’d also like to pull away one of their big clients, which means I need to do one more job for him. Prove that I can handle his work.”
“Where’s the job?”
“I’ve heard he has an office in Damascus, Syria that he’s trying to close down and get his people out of. He’s got a new, billion-dollar facility in Dubai that he’s moving everyone to.”
“Syria? Shit, that’s dangerous.”
“I know. He’s been trying to get people and their families out slowly, but it’s tough. I think that’s the job they’ve been calling me about. But to be honest, it scares the hell out of me. Not because it’s Syria, but because my employer won’t make it a very safe job.”
“What isn’t a safe job?” Jordan asked as we turned and saw her and Ana standing in the doorway.
“His next assignment is in Syria,” Chase added.
“Syria? Why would you go there? That’s way too dangerous. You should tell them no,” Ana voiced her concern. “I was there with my family ten years ago; it was dangerous then and it’s much worse now.”
“You were there?” I asked.
This tidbit of information about her past was about all I knew so far. Jordan had been pretty busy with her life with Chase and I hadn’t tried to be too pushy to find out. All I knew was that Ana had accepted an invitation from Stephano to come to the United States from Liechtenstein.
“Yeah, my father had a job over there for a short period of time. Luckily, he got out though. Most of the men at his company were murdered by rebels in the area a few years later.”
“Nate works as a private security guard for an oil tycoon over there.”
“Thanks, Chase, for that commentary,” I joked with him. “I don’t know if I’m going to take the job yet. I haven’t returned a call to the office in a few weeks.”
I noticed Ana’s hand started to shake and she grabbed onto Jordan and whispered something in her ear. The two women turned toward each other, and Chase and I watched as they were deep in conversation.
“We are going to head back inside,” Jordan said and wrapped her arm around Ana’s waist and walked away.
“I can’t take that job and leave Ana here,” I said.
“Well, you can’t stop working for the rest of your life to take care of her either. She’ll be fine. Give it a week or two and then take your job. Jordan can come stay here, or Ana can just come and stay with us. We will take care of her.”
“Chase! Nate! Come help!” Jordan screamed from the house.
Her voice seemed frantic as we both took off running toward the house. When we got close enough, we saw Ana on the ground with Jordan standing over her. Ana was pale and appeared to have passed out but was coming back to us as she opened her eyes.
“What happened?” I asked as I kneeled down next to her.
“She was hyperventilating and as we walked up the steps she just collapsed.”
I couldn’t believe my eyes as I saw her lying there on the ground. She looked so fragile and I instantly remembered what she had looked like while sitting in the corner of the room at Stephano’s.
“Does anything hurt?” I asked.