Carducci nodded but made no attempt to remove the sand. “Good. What now?”
“Now?” Josh laid his head back in the sand. “Nothing. As long as those choppers are in the air, these bastards won’t come out of the jungle.”
“So, how long do we act like sand crabs?”
“’Til nightfall.”
“What then?”
“Then, we get the hell outta here. We don’t have enough ammo left to do much damage.”
“We’re kinda running low on plans, don’t you think?”
Josh shook his head. “In a war, Carducci, you never run outta plans, you never stop thinkin’, and you never give up. I learned that from Sal’s old man. I learned a lot from her old man.”
“Does that mean you haven’t given up on Delta, Connie, and Taylor?” Carducci was dying to scratch his nose.
Josh nodded. “Givin’ up ain’t in my dictionary. Wanna know why?”
Carducci whispered, “Sure.”
Josh was a man full of surprises. Who would’ve thought he’d want to tell a story when, only a hundred yards away, soldiers were waiting to blow their brains out. It made Carducci wonder what horrors Josh had been through in Vietnam that enabled him to remain so calm now.
“We were on this mission about twenty clicks outside Da Nang. I was with eight other guys when we were ambushed. We fought like hell, but six of us went down. Sal’s old man was about a mile away when the sarge told ’em to retreat. The sarge thought there was no way we coulda lived through the ambush, the choppers, the strafing. He was taking his best guess and wasn’t gonna risk anyone else comin’ after us. Well, Mac wouldn’t have none of that. He didn’t believe a guy was dead until he saw the corpse, so he and Logan came after us anyway.”
“No shit?”
“No shit. He wasn’t gonna give up on us just ’cause it didn’t look good. Hell, in that fuckin’ place, nothin’ ever looked good, so ya just took chances and prayed.”
“So, what happened?”
“Mac and Logan crept through their lines and pulled our fat outta the fire. We were lookin’ at a painful, possibly torturous death if they hadn’t come after us. The Cong knew how to inflict pain on a POW without killing him. That’s why a lotta guys killed themselves before getting’ caught. Our history books don’t talk about it, but believe it when I tell ya, death was better than being captured. Those fuckers have been torturing people since before the Roman Empire. And that mighta happened to us if Mac and Logan hadn’t come back.”
“So, they got you out?”
Josh smiled at the memory. “Against all odds, man, all four of us made it outta there alive. You learned who your friends were and that you didn’t abandon them.”
Carducci nodded as he laid his head back in the warm sand. “Police work’s the same way. You gotta know who you can and can’t depend on.”
“Well, from what I hear and see, Delta can depend on you.”
Carducci nodded. “I just hope like hell I haven’t let her down now.”
“Let’s set her down here,” Delta whispered.
Connie and Delta put Taylor in a soft patch of shade, beneath a large palm tree.
“I think we should wait until nightfall to continue,” Connie suggested, wiping her brow. “We’re too slow as it is, and it would be harder for them to pick us off at night.”
Nodding, Delta pushed her wet bangs off her forehead. “How far are we from the coast?”
“At this rate? A couple of hours. But they know that’s where we need to go, so it’ll be like crossing a minefield. They’re in between us and the beach.”
“What about the choppers?”
Connie glanced up at the sky and shook her head. “No way to tell whose side they’re on until we get to the beach. If they’re Zahn’s, we’re in for it.”
“We can’t just stay out here in the open.” Looking around, Delta saw just what they needed to get out of the day’s heat and keep them from being visible. “Over here.” Picking Taylor up, Delta made her way over a fallen tree about six feet in diameter and set Taylor in the shade beneath the trunk, which was suspended, leaning on the tree it had fallen on. It was slightly rotten on one side but provided good cover.
“Good idea,” Connie said softly.
Nodding, Delta felt Taylor’s forehead. She had passed out right after Connie redid the tourniquet and hadn’t woken up since. “She’s burning up.”
“Infection. If we don’t get her to a hospital soon, she may lose that leg. Or worse.”
Taking Taylor’s hand, Delta held it in her lap as she leaned against the tree. “She’ll make it. She’s tougher than she looks.”
Sitting on the other side of Taylor, Connie sighed heavily. “Feisty little thing, isn’t she?”
Delta nodded. “She saved our lives back there, Con. Quick thinking on her part bought me just enough time.”
Connie rested her palm on Taylor’s cheek. It was very warm. “She’s in love with you, you know.”
Releasing Taylor’s hand, Delta lightly stroked Taylor’s face. “I know.”
Connie watched this gentle movement and grinned warmly at Delta. “Nothing ever happened between you two?”
Delta started to shake her head, and then stopped, remembering the kisses that had burned Taylor’s lips into her soul. “We’ve… uh… kissed.”
Cocking her head, Connie’s eyes twinkled. “I knew it! Is that all? Be straight with me, Del.”
Delta ran her hands through Taylor’s short, wet hair and nodded. “That’s all. Honest.”
Connie continued to grin as she looked away, taking in their surroundings. “I knew it. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. I can’t believe you, of all people, were able to keep that a secret.”
“Tell you? You? Hell no. Not after the ration of trash you gave me the night you thought I’d slept with Alexandria! No way. I’d rather be dipped in hot oil than be forced to listen to another one of your ravings. No thanks.”
This made Connie chuckle. “Okay, I forgive you. Was it a good kiss?”
Delta looked away to hide her smirk. “That’s none of your business.”
Connie turned to Delta. “Oh, it most certainly is. I’ve risked my life to come back for you. You owe me.”
This made Delta chuckle. “Fine then. They were great kisses. There. Feel better now?”
Connie stared hard at Delta. “Kisses? Plural?”
Delta held her hand up. “Don’t make me try to explain, Connie. In the Harley world, there’s a saying: If I have to explain it to you, you wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh, that’s rich. Pithy. Brilliant even. Don’t think this is over with, Delta Stevens. When this is all said and done, I want to hear the whole, sordid story.”
“There’s nothing sordid about it, Consuela. We kissed. End of story.”
Connie tilted her head at Delta. “End? As in, it won’t happen again?”
Delta nodded. “As in Megan is my heart, Con. You know that. She hung my moon. Taylor and I are just friends. I think we might even end up being good friends.”
Connie heaved a sigh. “Thank god. For a minute there…Oh, never mind.”
Delta reached over and took Connie’s hand. “It’s sure good to be with you again, Connie.”
Connie smiled. “Same here, Storm.”
For the next hour, they sat in silence, listening to the birds, looking out at the leaves, and reflecting on the paths their lives had taken. Delta hated relying on others to pull her out of a scrape, but this time, she knew she and Connie couldn’t do it alone.
“Think they made it?” Delta asked Connie in a whisper.
Connie nodded. “All they had to do was get in the boat and go.”
“Easier said than done, don’t you think? You really believe Gina and Megan would leave us here?”
Connie shrugged. “My head thinks they would recognize the danger of waiting for us, and they would take the others to port.”
“And your gut?”
“My gut says they ignored the danger of waiting and are going for the whole enchilada.”
Delta nodded. She had to agree. There was no way Megan and Gina were leaving without them. Despite the risks, they had stayed.
Megan knew it was risky to stay and attempt to commandeer a boat they knew nothing about, but anything was better than leaving the guys on the beach to face certain death. That, she reasoned, she could not allow. Delta might be dead, and Connie might be wandering through the jungle trying to get to her, but Josh and Carducci were still very much alive and present.
Looking over at Logan as he set the radio mic down, Megan sighed. The fishing boat had not responded to their radio attempts, so they’d finally decided to pull alongside it. As they neared the boat, Megan shaded her eyes and peered in at the bow. She was surprised to see a young woman at the wheel.
Logan joined Megan and spoke rapid Spanish to the woman, who smiled and nodded before speaking back. Her hands flew wildly about her as she pointed at the coast and in the air. All the while, Logan nodded. When she finished, Logan shouted gracias to her and returned his attention to the small band of weary travelers waiting for his explanation.
“She says there’s a small town about two or three hours down the coast which has good medical facilities.”
“What about our borrowing her boat?” Gina asked.
Logan nodded. “I offered her money, but she refused.”
Megan was crestfallen. Their hopes of getting the rest of their family out of the rainforest hinged on having two boats.
“Then offer her more!” Gina ordered.
Logan shook his head. “I can’t. She refused to take any. She said she would be more than happy to assist us.”
“Is she alone?” Sal asked suspiciously.
Logan nodded. “It’s her father’s boat, but he’s too sick to fish today, so she came out herself.”
“Excellent!” Sal exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. “Gina, get the raft. Megan, go and tell your friends that we’re taking them to a hospital.”
Sal raised an eyebrow at the old boat. It was actually larger than the one they were on, about thirty to forty feet in length. “Umm, you think that thing can handle the weight?”
Logan laughed. “Always the optimist, eh, Sal?”
“Who’s gonna be able to tell her where to go?”
“She says she speaks a little English,” Logan said as he studied a map he’d laid out on the deck.
Sal peered at the fishing boat. “You think we can trust her? I mean, what the hell is she doing out here?”
Megan put her arm around Sal. “Sal, we need help. She’s offering, we’re taking. Relax.”
Sal turned hard to Megan, the stress of the day etched on her face. “You relax! Josh is lying under a pile of sand with the fucking enemy not a hundred yards away, and he’s waiting for us to come get him. I won’t have some fucking native screw this up for us because she’s on Zahn’s payroll!”
“Sal, we don’t know—”
“Think about it, Megan! We’re in the land of the macho man. Doesn’t it strike you odd that there’s a woman behind the wheel of that rickety raft? And we’re just gonna buy her story about papa being sick? Come on, people, think for Christ’s sake!”
Logan listened carefully to Sal’s argument. “What would you have us do, Salamander?”
Sal shrugged in frustration. “Get more information from her. Ask her what she’s doing here. I don’t fucking know, man, just make sure she’s legit!”
Megan glanced over at Logan, who nodded before returning his attention to the woman. After several minutes of Spanish, Logan returned, shaking his head. “She knows Zahn, all right.”
Sal slammed her fist into the palm of her hand. “See! I told you not to trust her.”
Logan smiled as he continued. “No, Salamander, not because she’s on his payroll. Seems Zahn’s been forcing her father to make gold runs for him. She hates the guy as much as we do. She said it’s normal for the boat to be out here and that Zahn wouldn’t suspect a thing. They fish by day and transport the gold from the coast by night.”
Everyone looked at Sal, who sighed and finally consented. “Better safe than sorry.”
Gina took Sal’s hands in hers and pulled her closer. “Don’t worry, Sal. We’re not going to abandon those boys.”
Sal fought to keep from crying, something she thought a soldier should never do. “He’s my only family, Gina. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost him. Ever since dad was killed, Josh is all I’ve known.”
Gina pulled Sal to her and hugged her tightly. “You aren’t going to lose him, Sal. We’re going to get both him and Carducci out of there the first chance we get.”
Megan turned from Gina and Sal, and opened the door to the cabin. Inside, the former hostages were huddled together, some sleeping, others sitting quietly. When Siobhan saw Megan, she jumped to her feet.
“Megan! Are we leaving soon?”
Megan smiled warmly. “Yes, Siobhan. By the day after tomorrow, all of you will be heading for home.”
“But what about you? Aren’t you coming with us?”
“Not yet, Siobhan.”
“But why not?”
“There’s still some unfinished business to take care of.”
Siobhan’s eyes narrowed, and her pupils became small black dots. “You’re going to kill him, aren’t you Megan?”
As Megan started up the ladder, she nodded. “Yes, Siobhan. I am.”
“Think Megan will really kill him?” Carducci asked Josh after several hours of silence.
Josh looked up at the darkening horizon and nodded. “Yep.”
“You think she has it in her to kill in cold blood?”
“Tony, everyone has the ability to kill in cold blood, and anyone who thinks different is only deluding themselves.”
“You serious?”
Josh nodded, watching the last of the sun set in the west. “When you strip away our clothes and cars and houses, there’s one thing every one of us is: a mammal. And mammals all have the same survival instincts. Megan not only has the ability to kill, she also has the motivation. Put the two together and you can answer your own question.”
When darkness had fully replaced the dusk, Josh and Carducci lifted themselves from the sand. It was darker along the coast, where the taller trees blocked the moonlight. Carducci found it difficult to count his remaining ammo.
“I have about twenty rounds left,” he whispered as his fingers traveled along the stock.
“Hopefully, we won’t need it.”
“So, we wait for Logan to come get us?”
Josh nodded. “Trust me. Logan’d never leave us here. They’ll be back.”
“What about Delta? We can’t just leave her.”
Josh thought about this for a moment. “We’ll be right back.”
Carducci nodded. “I don’t imagine dragging Megan and Gina from here, do you?”
“Nope. Those gals are as tight as any Marines I ever met. Leavin’ ain’t likely to happen.”
Carducci sat quietly for a while, thinking back to the first time he’d met Megan. He’d actually tried hitting on her, unaware that she was his partner’s lover. Megan and Delta had had some fun at his expense. After that, Connie and Delta had hounded him, worked on him, and had given him grief for the kind of man he was. But then, he’d deserved most of it.
Man, he’d changed.
All of his buddies knew unflattering terms like “dyke,” “pussy licker,” and “lesbo,” would no longer be tolerated in Carducci’s presence.
The last two men who had referred to Delta as such had ended up spitting out some teeth and nursing broken noses. She was his partner, damn it, and anyone who was stupid enough to talk shit about his partner had to deal with him.
“I’m not leaving without Delta, Josh.”
“Shhh.”
“I mean it.”
“Be quiet.” Josh listened for a moment. “Do you hear that?”
Carducci cocked his head and listened. There was a slapping sound in the water that hadn’t been there before. As Carducci reached for his rifle, Josh laid a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“Don’t move,” Josh whispered as he crawled to face the sound.
For a long time, they listened as the sound neared. Finally, a noise broke above the slapping of waves.
“Josh?”
It was Sal.
Crawling on all fours, Josh entered the water and pulled the raft up to the shore. Leaping out into the water herself, Sal threw her arms around his neck and whispered, “Miss me, big guy?”
Carrying Sal on piggyback to where he’d left Carducci, Josh answered, “Like bad gas. Is everyone okay?”
Sal nodded as Josh released her, setting her down between the two large men. “Hi again, tall, dark, and handsome,” she whispered to Carducci. “What’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?”
Carducci put his arms around Sal and hugged her. “Waiting for you, cutie.”
“Sorry it took so long, but we had to wait ’til sundown.”
“What’s the plan?” Josh asked, tapping Sal’s shoulder.
“Well, there have been a few developments today.”
“Like the choppers?”
“Yep. And we needed a second boat.”
“A second boat? What’s wrong with the one you’re on?”
“Nothing, but we needed to get the hostages ashore and out of the way, so we kinda contracted a fishing boat. Megan, Gina, and Logan are on that boat. The others took our first boat to a city up the coast.”
“Fishing boat?” Carducci asked.
“Yep. You really didn’t expect Megan and Gina to leave here without them, did you?”
“No.”
“Logan says we give Connie eight more hours. If she gets back by then, we’ll go back to the boat and get the hell out of here.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Then we still have a couple more hours of darkness to escape undetected.”
This brought Carducci to attention. “Don’t tell me Megan and Gina have agreed to leave?”
“Leave?” Sal said, a little too loudly. “Hell, no. But if we’re gonna find Connie and get whatever’s left of Delta and Taylor out of here, we’re going to have to do it from the air. Logan’s been trying to run down a chopper of his own, but that’s hard to do in these parts, what with all the drug trafficking and helicopter tours. And anyone who even suspects the Colombians are in La Amistad won’t give us the time of day.”
Storm Surge (Delta Stevens Crime Logs Book 6) Page 22