Indiscreet Ladies of Green Ivy Way

by Kress, Alyssa

  Shana blanched but said, "I can sure try."

  "Oh, boy." Olivia puffed air from her cheeks and walked over to the bars, attempting, in vain, to see down the hall. "Let's just hope those thugs won't wait too long to check on us again." She also hoped that even if the women did manage to get out of the cell, they wouldn't run into another cadre of thugs blocking the exit, wherever that might be. Oh, this was crazy, crazy. But she had to admit Brittany was right. What choice did they have?

  "I'm not letting my kids get raised by Blake," Brittany declared, collecting dirt from the floor in one palm.

  "And I'm not ending my life in the company of men even I wouldn't dream of sleeping with," Shana said, peering into Brittany's palm.

  Olivia sighed. "But I'm not sure it wouldn't be better to die here, rather than face Gideon again."

  "Don't be silly," Brittany soothed. "You'd much rather have Gideon kill you than these fellows."

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  There was one piece of good news. Gideon was almost positive the women were still on the island.

  The men started the two dogs off near the hotel, where Olivia had said they'd been abducted. Gideon had to hand it to Hollister for his skill in buying dogs. This pair could track like anything. For three hours the two bitches led the men up into the mountains lining the center of the island, never once losing their concentration or their trail.

  Everything was great, except for the three hours part.

  Anja had been a veritable fount of information once Gideon had told her the women's situation. The version of the virus the terrorists probably had was the one she'd been working on in Subrahmanyam's lab. It disabled the body's immune system. "Injected with the vector," Anja had serenely explained to Gideon, "they will sicken from any number of germs ubiquitous to the environment."

  "How long will it take?"

  Anja had lifted a shoulder. "Not long. And without the back door, they will probably die."

  "The back door." Gideon had latched onto that. "Olivia told me that's what the thugs are after. What is it?"

  Anja had then looked at Gideon in a way he never wanted to be looked at again. "This is what I told you about, a month ago. I told you I needed to develop a back door for the virus, to make it safe before I let anybody else have access to it."

  Gideon had looked back at Anja, dimly remembering...and feeling like an idiot. He finally understood, comprehensively, why Anja had been so set on finishing her work before she let anybody, even him, get a hold of it. "The back door stops the action of the vector," he guessed.

  "That is correct. So if you find the women in time, we can give them the antidote. Once the vector is no longer interfering with their immune systems, they should recover quickly from whatever they have contracted."

  The back door, Gideon had finally figured out, was a very, very important thing. "Thanks," he'd then said to Anja. "Thanks for running away and finishing it."

  Regal, accepting her due, she'd inclined her head.

  Now Peter, Dash, and Gideon were topping another ridge, following the dogs straining at their leashes. They were following a thin trail through the thick vegetation.

  "Much as I hate to say so," Peter panted, "I think we need to stop a minute, and give the dogs some water."

  Dash looked down at the dogs, both of whose leashes he held. "I think you're right. These animals, given their heads, will track until they drop."

  "We can't afford for them to drop." Gideon unhooked his water bottle. "Here Betsy, here Paula."

  "Betsy? Paula?" Peter queried.

  Gideon shrugged. "Hollister's names are too ostentatious to come out of my mouth."

  Peter chuckled, but his face quickly sobered as he looked out over the miles of uninhabited tropical forest spread before them. Quite obviously too many miles.

  He shook his head and turned to Dash with a crooked smile. "You know, even if we do find and rescue the women, I'm not expecting a hero's welcome from Brittany. In fact, I expect she'll be downright annoyed I've showed up."

  Dash snorted. "You think Shana would feel any different? I'm as likely to get a bash on the head from her as a 'thank you.'" He turned to Gideon. "What about you?"

  Gideon grimaced as he straightened from his position pouring water into a metal bowl for the dogs. "Olivia considers me a liar and a control freak. And...she may be right." He heaved a deep sigh. "I don't think things will change for the better even if I do manage to get her out of this one."

  The three of them stood there while the dogs slurped messily, each man contemplating the negative reception he was likely to receive at the end of their urgent quest.

  "So," Peter said. "Ready to keep going?"

  "Sure," said Dash.

  "Let's head out," Gideon agreed.

  ~~~

  Olivia didn't know how much of the churning in her stomach was from fear and how much from whatever dire disease she was contracting. All she knew when the sound of booted feet came tramping down the hallway was a hope she wasn't going to throw up. She had a feeling that would ruin the guise of unconsciousness she and the other women were trying to effect.

  The sound of tramping feet grew louder. Olivia did her best not to tense, or show she was actually aware of the way the feet abruptly stopped, then rushed the rest of the way into the area in front of their cell.

  "Merde," said a voice.

  "It wasn't supposed to work this fast!" cried another voice.

  "What are we going to do?" asked the first voice.

  "Get in there," said yet a third voice, gruff and nervous. Leo, the leader. "See if they're still alive."

  Nobody moved.

  "You can't catch it," growled Leo. "They're only sick because of the injection."

  Wonderful, thought Olivia. Their bold scheme was going to be stymied by a set of squeamish men.

  "Then you go in," said the first voice.

  Olivia perked up. A challenge to manhood might counteract the squeamishness.

  Indeed, Leo's gruff voice announced, "I'll go in. Who has the key?"

  "I do," said the third voice.

  Three, Olivia thought. But were they the same three? Or were others lurking down the hall, ready to pounce should three desperate women make a rush for it? And let's say the desperate women did get out of here. How did they elude recapture? Or find civilization?

  Meanwhile she heard the sound of a key fitted into a lock and then the creak of the cell door as it opened. Wait, Olivia silently adjured her friends. Wait for them all to come inside. If they all would come inside.

  Boots scraped over the floor. "You," Leo's voice ordered. "Check that one."

  "The one with the short shorts?" the other voice asked, hopeful. Apparently getting close to Shana's legs, capitalist whore that she was, won out over the squeamishness.

  Leo grunted. "Sure."

  Olivia felt a large body settle behind her. She almost gagged as two fingers pressed against the side of her neck. Leo's fingers.

  "Alive," Leo pronounced. "How about the others?"

  "This one has a pulse," said voice number two.

  "Let me see... Yes, this one, too," commented voice number three, who'd apparently decided he was the only coward, and so had ventured inside the cell.

  So all three of them were inside. Olivia allowed herself a second of relief before springing to her feet with the loudest scream she could manufacture. Brittany and Shana leaped up and screamed right behind her.

  Leo grabbed for Olivia. She swung a fist with all her might — downward. Leo sucked in a breath as Olivia's fist connected with his testicles.

  She flew toward the open jail door. From the corner of her eye she saw Brittany drop, and thus trip the one-time coward. Shana was stamping a high heel onto the ogling thug's instep. With the men thus disabled, however temporarily, the women actually made it out the door. Last out, Shana threw the door shut.

  "Lock it!" ordered Brittany.

  "I — where's the key?" asked Shana.

  "Neve
r mind," Olivia ordered. "Let's get out of here." Saying which, she threw herself down the hall. The shouts of the men echoed behind them.

  But the women were out of the cell. They had a chance.

  Fortunately, the hall was straightforward, no dicey intersections where a choice had to be made. Olivia just kept running until she came to a door. It looked like a normal door. Like a normal door, it opened, leading to fresh air, sky — the outdoors.

  A rush went through Olivia: exhilaration, triumph, and victory. They'd escaped. She ran onto a small area of hard-packed dirt. Ahead of her was a stretch of grass, with the sunset and dense green forest beyond that.

  Oh, just wait till she told Gideon. They were out. They'd done it themselves. They were free.

  "Which way?" asked Brittany, panting.

  Uh... Okay, that was a problem. She didn't know where to go. On top of which, Olivia could hear the sickening sound of footsteps approaching, fast and from behind them.

  "Um, into the — Run," Olivia shouted.

  "There they are!" cried a gruff male voice from the door.

  "I knew we shoulda locked it," Brittany muttered.

  Gunshots peppered the ground about their feet as the women took to their heels.

  I'm going to die, Olivia thought. Without telling Gideon what a prime lump of dirt he is to have made me do this all by myself I'm going to die. Gone was the slightest sense of triumph. Her lungs were burning, dirt flying up all around her as gunshots filled the air.

  She was expecting the next bullet to fly between her shoulder blades when a pair of hysterical dogs topped the ridge in front of her, followed by three large and utterly competent-looking men.

  "Down!" roared Gideon.

  Olivia went down. She didn't pause to question or consider. She dropped straight to the ground. To either side of her, Brittany and Shana did the same. And a good thing, too. Because Gideon, Peter, and Dash hauled forth some of the meanest automatic rifles Olivia had ever seen. Of course, Olivia had never seen a real automatic rifle in her life, but these seemed worse than most as all three men proceeded to set off a volley of explosions.

  Olivia pressed her face as close to the ground as she could and squeezed her eyes shut. But no high-velocity piece of metal shot into her body, despite the sound of them whizzing through the air above her.

  "Stay down," she heard, impossibly close, and then she felt someone big and hard crawl right on top of her. Strangely, it felt okay, it even felt good to have this man crawl on top of her. Probably because she knew it was Gideon.

  Olivia could feel the recoil of the rifle as Gideon shot, and the tensing of the muscles through his body as he absorbed the impact. Her curiosity as to whether he was as good a shot as Dash had her turning her head and opening her eyes. She saw one of the thugs who was aiming his gun in their direction jump back and clutch his arm.

  Yup, Olivia thought, with groggy pride. Gideon was just as good a shot.

  The battle didn't take long. In a matter of minutes, the thugs gave up. Several of them were clutching arms or legs and looking in pain. They turned and started running.

  "You can't let them get away," Olivia shouted to Gideon, whose head was by the back of her knee. "They have the virus!"

  She could feel Gideon's chuckle in her spine. "Who said anything about letting them get away?" Saying which, Gideon rolled off of her.

  Olivia swiveled just in time to see a military helicopter rise from behind the treetops. The thugs stopped running.

  "Told you I had resources," Gideon gloated.

  He then got up and commenced shouting all kinds of orders, both to Peter and Dash, and to the confounded thugs at the bottom of the hill. He was, she had to admit, magnificent. Totally in control, deftly exerting his power, arranging matters right and left. The terrorists were soon in a line, lying on the ground with their hands clasped on their backs. The dogs, still hysterical, were being held on a tight leash by Dash, who listened intently to whatever Gideon was then blasting at him.

  Olivia definitely would have enjoyed the show to the fullest, if she wasn't certain she was now running a fever of about one hundred and fifteen. Her stomach felt like the inside of a fast food restaurant explosion, and she was pretty sure she was going to faint.

  Gideon turned around just as she did so.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Olivia would gladly have stayed unconscious there on the grassy hillside, but her husband wouldn't have it. She felt herself shaken to a groggy and very unpleasant wakefulness. He was yelling at her.

  Naturally.

  "What?" Olivia moaned. "What do you want?"

  "You have to take this."

  Olivia was dimly aware the helicopter had landed on the packed dirt near the mine entrance. The dogs were next to it, barking madly at the prone terrorists. Gideon held her upright with one hand while with the other he thrust forward four white pills.

  She frowned at them. "You know I don't like pills."

  "Too bad. You have to take these. They're the back door."

  "All four of them?" Olivia pouted. "I want to go back to sleep." Yawning, she went slack in his supporting arm.

  "Hey. Hey, hey, there!" Gideon hauled her upright again. Groggy as she was, Olivia could hear the edge in his voice. "Listen, lady, I didn't bust my butt to save your life just so you could die of some ridiculous disease. Now, open your trap and swallow the pills!"

  Olivia was very tired indeed, for she didn't bother to scold Gideon for yelling. Neither did she have the energy to lambast him for denying her such a huge and fascinating part of his life as his secret agent persona. "Fine," she told him. "If you'll shut up and let me sleep, I'll take your damn pills."

  But that wasn't enough for Gideon. Of course not. He sat there, holding her and watching like a hawk to make sure she swallowed all of them.

  Bossy, Olivia thought. Gideon would be bossy to the bitter end. Then she lay back down, curled up on the grass, and went back to sleep.

  ~~~

  Dash lost no time passing the dogs off to a special forces officer. Now, ten yards from Gideon, who was yelling at Olivia, Dash bent over Shana. Her head was tossing from side to side on the grass. Delirious, Dash supposed. He felt nearly equal parts concern, relief, and frustration. Shana and the others had taken a terrible chance, making a run for it.

  On the other hand, it might well have been their only chance. It would have been nigh impossible for the men to infiltrate the abandoned mine the terrorists had been using.

  "You did good, baby, really good," Dash told her, and meant it. Hell, he was proud.

  "I know I'm not supposed to move," she muttered. "But I itch all over."

  "You can move, honey. It's all right now." Timing his own move precisely, Dash caught her shoulders. She struggled weakly, oh, much too weakly. It wasn't difficult at all for him to raise her to a sitting position on the thick grass. "Shana," he said, in a voice he hoped was firm enough to get through, but not the strident tenor Gideon was using. "Shana, open your eyes."

  The voice must have worked. Shana's long lashes raised a fraction. "I've lost my mind," she then murmured and immediately closed her eyes again.

  "You haven't lost your mind," Dash hastened to assure her. "It's really me."

  "Me?" Shana kept her eyes closed. "Who's that?"

  "Who? Oh, it's Dashwood."

  Eyes still stubbornly closed, Shana frowned. "Who is that?"

  Dash absorbed the blow this aimed at his ego. "Open your eyes again, honey. You have to take these pills."

  She did not open her eyes. "I haven't taken a shower in three days."

  "The pill," Dash persisted, back to the firm but gentle voice. "Open your eyes. You have to take it."

  Shana opened her eyes a slit. "What is it?"

  "Aspirin."

  She sighed and closed her eyes again. "Would you be a dear and find me some Tylenol, instead?"

  Dash didn't know whether to groan or chuckle. "No can do, hon. It's got to be acetylsalicylic acid. That's the
back door."

  "Huh?"

  "It'll kill whatever bug you've got. Or rather, it will kill the activity of the vector so your immune system can get back to work and kill the bug. Now, come on. Open up."

  Shana looked down at the four pills Dash held in his palm. "I have to take all of them?"

  "Anja thought it would be best, just to be sure. Here you go."

  Shana took all four of the pills and threw them into her mouth at the same time.

  "Water," said Dash, and hastily grabbed for his canteen. Shana took it and gulped greedily. When she was done she looked over at Dash with a black expression. "Whoever you are," she pronounced. "You are a beast." Then she lowered her head directly into Dash's lap, put her hand on his thigh, and sighed herself to sleep.

  Dash closed his eyes and released an uneven breath. He'd got the aspirin down her, thank God. Opening his eyes, he gazed down. Disheveled and dirty, she hardly resembled the picture-perfect sex kitten he'd met two-and-a-half weeks ago by her mailbox. Yet tenderness and yearning burgeoned up in him all the same. He lifted one hand and, very gently, stroked her mussed hair.

  She didn't know who he was, but she would. Dash sat there stroking Shana's hair and promised himself that very soon Shana would figure out exactly who he really was.

  ~~~

  The helicopter blades were still spinning, sending fine dust swirling around the men who hovered over the prone suspects. A special forces officer saluted Peter. "We can take over from here, sir," he said.

  "Great," Peter replied, and didn't wait for any further pleasantries, though he did recall he'd wanted to gut each and every one of these thugs. Huh. Maybe later. For now, he turned on his heel and raced back up the grassy hill.

  Brittany was clearly visible, located to one side of where Gideon already bent over Olivia. Peter felt yet another rush of relief. Brittany was sitting with her knees raised and her head resting on them. She was conscious.