Unease iced up his spine.
Stella stepped aside. “I guess I’m just a really lucky lady. Your good fortune too, to be kidnapped with me, don’t you think?”
Bubbles passed the student a protein bar. Damn good distraction and a reminder they had practical concerns.
Jose studied Harper, noting his pale face and twisted ankle. A few superficial bruises and some scratches, but no stitches needed after all. Butterfly bandages would take care of what he could see. Granted, not all torture left visible marks and there could be more injuries under his clothes. But right now he was wondering if the student had flipped, giving over information… Except what did he know?
He damn well didn’t need to learn anything more. “I think we need to stop chitchatting and find somewhere to park ourselves until our next ride rolls around.”
“Next ride?” Harper sat up straighter and scrubbed his sleeve over his sweaty brow. “So you dudes really do have a plan B. That’s a relief. Preferably something that doesn’t bail on us when it gets a little hot.”
What the hell? Saving this fella’s ass had cost them those precious seconds. If the student hadn’t panicked and set off the land mine, they could have made it to the rendezvous point, and they wouldn’t have brought a slew of forces charging right at them.
Jose forced a smile. “You sure are picky for someone who just got rescued.”
“Chalk it up to nerves. Makes me mouthy. Sorry to be an ingrate. Thanks for the Rambo moment.” The student’s voice rang with sincerity, easing some of the tension. “What can I do to help now since I’ve been a total slug so far?”
“Can you walk on your own or do you still need to be carried?” Jose turned to Stella. “And you? Are you sure there aren’t any medical issues I need to know about?”
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with a shaky hand. He sensed a brittleness in her from her efforts to hang on to professionalism to the end. And pride, he saw that too in her eyes, a defensive wall she’d erected between them because of how they’d ended things. He scratched the ache lodged in his chest—not that he expected any relief from the pain of losing her, from the teeth-grinding frustration of knowing he wasn’t the right man to give her what she needed.
Sutton cricked his neck from side to side. “Isn’t there a boyfriend/girlfriend conflict of interest in you treating her?” He held up his hands. “What? I’m standing, ready to walk.”
Bubbles coughed once, flicking a fuzzy caterpillar off his arm in disgust. “Quiet’s a beautiful thing.”
“Fair enough.” Sutton raised his hands again. “I’m embracing the chi of quiet.”
Jose slid an arm around Stella’s waist for support, nothing more. She’d made that clear enough when she broke things off with him. There could never be anything more.
***
Stella wasn’t sure she could take much more.
She understood they needed to get far away from the compound. The place would undoubtedly be crawling with bad guys. She prayed they assumed everyone had flown out in the chopper, but they couldn’t count on that.
Still, Jose was making damn sure their tracks were covered. Now Bubbles had Sutton over his shoulder, the student’s ankle having given out after five minutes of hobbling.>The chopper was gone? Her stomach lurched, her heart rat-tat-tatting like the gunfire.
Sutton swayed, his knees buckling as his eyes rolled back in his head. Jose tucked his shoulder into the injured student’s gut and hefted him into a fireman’s carry. Sutton’s arms hung limp, his whole body slack with unconsciousness.
Jose turned to his teammate. “Bubbles, lead the way.”
“Roger that, Cuervo.”
Not even wincing at the extra hundred and sixty pounds of unconscious student, Jose picked his way around the rubble toward the gaping hole in the fence—the only blessing from the explosion.
Gunfire grew louder, closer. The outer realm of security was engaging. Jose was right. They needed to bail. How ironic that she’d always been the one pointing out the logic, the reasons they were perfect together, and how their future fit. He was the wildly impulsive one. The romantic.
Yet here and now, he was keeping his cool, completely in the moment. She wanted to lose it, to scream over the danger she’d put him in.
And yet she’d done what she had to in order to get the innocent students out. She would do the same again.
If only she’d had time to learn more about the group’s agenda.
Local government officials had pleaded with the UN for help. Intel on the warlord indicated he wanted control of an already unstable region. They had pirates on their side operating as rogue mercenaries, funding their operations and splitting the profits. If they gained control, the area would be at the mercy of a brutal totalitarian regime where the rights of children and women would become nonexistent… There were so many horrific scenarios for what they could have in mind and she’d only begun to scratch the surface.
But if she’d been there longer, she would be dead. She had to focus on one thing only now: keeping her head on straight and staying alive.
***