I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear as I heard what Baller told Nate. It was exactly what I was doing and there was no denying it. Nate looked up at me with a half-smile as I relished my win for the moment.
“Sure thing, that’s the way we were headed,” Nate said. “Catch you at the airport in a few.”
“Copy that.”
As Nate hung up the phone, I took a step closer to him and let my hand rest on his stomach. The abs that he had under his shirt were inviting me to think terribly naughty thoughts. I couldn’t help but remember what his body looked like naked and I wanted to see him like that again very soon.
“Hmmm, it sounded like he said we should go north. That’s funny,” I teased.
“Oh, shut it. You’re definitely not a gracious winner.” Nate laughed.
“I know, I don’t get to win very much. I’ll have to practice the whole not-gloating thing.”
We both smiled at each other again and then took our positions as we got everyone rolling again. We kept our breaks short and Nate pushed everyone to go longer than fifteen minutes. He had us doing twenty minutes at a time, and then thirty. When we finally got far enough north, we turned toward the airport.
The neighborhood was much better than the areas we had been in and we ended up walking, just so we didn’t look like we had done something illegal. It was still a sight to see, the group of us on the streets in the dead of night, but walking actually worked out much better because we didn’t need to take as many breaks as we moved through the city.
The night dragged on and on as we moved closer and closer to our target. I was happy to have Nate along with us and felt safer than I had before since he was there. We only had a few more hours until we reached the airport, and I couldn’t wait to have that feeling of safety.
Chapter Twenty-Four
NATE
I was impressed and surprised at Ana and all she had done. It still was a pretty damn stupid choice to come to a war zone. But I probably understood better than most people how previous trauma sometimes made you do stupid things. I could tell she wanted to do the job like I was, but it still seemed like a fad that I had to hope she would get over.
Women just didn’t need to be in the private security world. It wasn’t a sexist thing, or maybe it was, but they didn’t need to be risking their lives. There were plenty of men who were willing to risk their lives; I saw no reason to bring a woman into the business.
Certainly Ana could find something slightly less dangerous that she would enjoy doing. For God’s sake, even working as a stunt double would be a better job than going overseas into war zones. This job wasn’t something I wanted Ana doing. I knew she wasn’t going to like me for saying it, and I hadn’t decided quite how to word it to her, but this job wasn’t for her.
Plus, I really thought she needed to finish her counseling. She was barely out of the hospital and had taken off to Syria. I was sure her doctors and counselors wouldn’t agree with her plans either. Ana needed to relax; she had to take care of herself and this was exactly opposite of that.
But for the time being, I had to deal with the fact that she was there and I was impressed by how well she had been handling things. She was by far better at the job than I had imagined she would be. It was a compliment to her and her willingness to work hard and think through each task.
We could see the airport ahead of us. The finish line was in sight when I saw a large convoy of rebels driving a few blocks back.
“Take cover; get in the alley,” I screamed.
Roane and Ana rushed everyone into the alley, but I didn’t know if we had gotten out of sight in time. If the rebels had been looking for us, it was likely we had just placed ourselves right into the easiest spot for them to kill us all in a mass attack.
“Up against the walls, everyone sit still and don’t move,” I said as we spread out down the alleyway.
“They will find us; we should run for it,” Ana suggested.
Her suggestion wasn’t too far off. But I knew for a fact if we started running down the alley, they would see us. Sitting still was our only chance that they wouldn’t see us. If their eyes were focused on the street and the buildings, they could easily go past one alley without noticing us. We were on the ground, not moving; it was our only chance.
“Shhh, no talking,” I said.
Ana looked at me angrily, but I didn’t have time for her attitude. I knew she resented me questioning her route to the airport and now telling her to be quiet. But it had to be done. I couldn’t let her be in charge when she had no experience. I knew what was best and she’d have to just trust me.
Of course, if the rebels found us it wouldn’t matter at all if I knew what was best or not. But I had to hope that they wouldn’t see us.
Their convoy rolled past very quickly. Four vehicles in all and they were going much too fast to have been looking for us or anyone else. They were on a mission, heading to somewhere, probably to kill other people. But they had not been looking for us.
We all breathed a sigh of relief as I looked out to see them continue down the road. I waited at least five minutes before we got up and continued down our path. The darkness of the night was much darker since the moon had been covered by the clouds. But that only served us better as we continued to make our way to the airport.
The area of town we were in was much safer than before and I felt myself letting my guard down a little. It was only about two miles to the airport. During the day, a semblance of city traffic would be taking over this area. But at night, it was eerily quiet and we were able to continue moving without seeing much traffic at all.
At the first sign of a car, I made everyone duck down in the ditch that lines the road. It happened every five to ten minutes, but it was more of a precaution than anything else. The cars that were going past us were likely just locals and not rebels who cared who we were or why we were going to the airport.