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“You don’t know the half of it. It’s been crazy, but it’s all coming together.”

I took a deep breath. “I’ve given it a lot of thought…I’ll allow you to use me as a named source.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” I put a hand on her waist. “If we’re serious about our relationship moving forward, we need to work together.”

“Are you sure you’re sure?”

“Yes. What do you need me to do?”

“Answer some questions and let me connect the dots. You need to read what I’ve written so far.” She pointed to her laptop on coffee table in her living room.

I walked over and sat down. After scrolling up to the top of the long article, I read what she had compiled so far. The words on the screen moved me emotionally—something I wasn’t accustomed to. As I read, she sat down on the couch next to me, our legs touching.

“Damn,” I muttered.

“It gets worse. I told you it went high up,” she said.

“They made tens of billions of dollars…”

“You can kind of see why they’ve kept the war going for over ten years now, huh?”

I shook my head, furious at myself. “How could I have been involved in this? The money was good, but we’re talking a couple hundred thousand dollars in return for risking my life over there! And these guys walk away with billions?”

Rose rubbed my back, instantly calming me.

I inhaled deeply. “That day I saved you in Afghanistan…”

She moved her hand away. “Yeah?”

I frowned as the truth got ready to surface. “It wasn’t just me who saved you,” I said with some difficulty.

“What do you mean?”

I swallowed. “There was this old Afghan guy who helped me.”

Rose’s eyes narrowed. “Go on.”

“He hid me and you while the Taliban searched for us. If it wasn’t for him, neither of us would have walked out that day. I didn’t tell you because I really wanted to impress you.”

I stared into her eyes, searching for forgiveness.

Rose nodded. “Yeah, I could tell you had one thing on your mind, but I’m an adult. I made a decision. The right one. I think I know the old man you’re talking about. Before they dragged me away, he offered to help, but I didn’t trust him.”

I grimaced. “I should have gotten his name.”

“You and me both.” She sighed. “Let’s get back to work. Who knows how much time we have.”

Over the next two hours, she questioned me about the smuggling operation, including all the people I knew were involved. When she got into the zone afterwards, typing away on her laptop, I went to her bedroom to lie down and rest my eyes.

Minutes later, I was fast asleep.

CHAPTER 37

Rose

With the story posted online at DC News Heroes—the only website that was willing to work with me—I crawled into bed, exhausted. I fell asleep the moment I closed my eyes.