Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
But when I glanced up and saw the way Olivia was looking at me, the different sort of tears that were in her eyes…the pain eased a little.
When I’d finished bringing them all up to speed, JD looked around at the team. “I know what I want to do,” he said. “But this isn’t what you signed up for. If we’re going to do this, I figure we should all be on board.”
He looked at each of us in turn. One by one, we nodded.
JD gave a sober nod, but I didn’t miss the look that crossed his face, like a proud father at his kid’s baseball game. “Alright then,” he said. “Let’s—”
“Nobody asked me,” yelled Gina from the cockpit. “Don’t just presume I’m okay with your little mercy mission!”
I rose and walked forward to her, then leaned over the empty co-pilot’s seat to talk to her. “You gonna leave those people to die?”
She looked away, fixing her gaze on the horizon. For a long time, she said nothing. Then, “You better pay me triple.” Her voice was sour and extra gruff. Just to make it clear that she didn’t have anything as soft or vulnerable as a heart.
“Okay,” I said, my voice neutral. “Triple.”
She nodded. “Fine. Let’s go be heroes.”
And she swung the chopper around so fast that everyone standing fell over.
44
GABRIEL
As we approached the village, Danny whistled to get our attention, then pointed ahead and down. JD and I leaned over the co-pilot’s seat and looked. “That’s not good,” I mumbled.
The convoy we’d seen at the military base was on the move, snaking through the jungle towards the village. “We’ve got thirty minutes,” said JD. “Maybe less''. We'd been hoping we’d have hours to prepare.
As we got closer, the soldiers in the convoy opened fire and Gina had to bank away, cursing. JD shook his head. “There’s gotta be eighty men in those trucks,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to hold them forever.”
I nodded, thinking hard. “The whole thing with kidnapping the doctors,” I said at last. “That was all so that no one knew what was going on here. They’re terrified of this going public.” I turned to Gina. “How long to fly to Quito and get back here with a news crew?”
She pursed her lips, thinking. “Ninety minutes, if I go all-out.”
I exchanged looks with JD. We’d have to hold the soldiers off for a full hour, while outnumbered more than ten to one.
A few moments later, we roared over the village and Gina brought us in for a perfect landing in the middle of the soccer pitch.
We jumped out, leaving only Dr. Guzman and Marcos on board: Dr. Guzman needed a hospital and Marcos would need to look after him enroute. I turned to Olivia and realized we were alone: everyone else had hurried off, following JD. She was looking up at me the way someone would look at a rock star: adoring but like she was worried she was in a dream, and might wake up. I sighed and nodded: Yeah, I can’t believe I did it, either. I’d been shot, more than once, and I can say honestly that losing four hundred million dollars hurt more. After years of always finding a way: the cunning plan, the last-minute double-cross, the switcheroo no one saw coming—I’d lost.
Olivia threw her arms around me and pressed close, her breasts pillowing against my chest and her breath soft against my neck. I ran my hands all the way down her back to her ass and squeezed. And felt a little better.
“This place is about to be a warzone,” I told her, and nodded at the chopper. “Don’t suppose I can persuade you to go with them?”
She shook her head, stepped back and slung the filthy, soggy medical bag over her shoulder. “People are going to get hurt. Marcos can look after Dr. Guzman. You need me here.”
She hurried off with the others. I went to close the door…and stopped when Marcos grabbed my wrist. Our eyes locked and something passed between us, man to man.
“Take care of her,” he told me.
I gave him a solemn nod and gripped his hand. “Always,” I promised.
I slid the door closed and watched the helicopter lift away. Then I ran to join the others.
Olivia introduced us to Antonio, the head of the village. “We’re getting all the children into the school,” he told us.
JD looked over to where the adults were hustling kids into a large wooden building. His gaze seemed to lock, and for a moment, he just…stopped.
I followed his gaze. A little boy was trying to hurry up the steps, but he was being weighed down by the weight of a backpack that was far too big for him. A woman who might have been his teacher was telling him to leave it, that it was too heavy for him, but he stubbornly struggled on.