by Alison Stone
“Before she died, my mother told me I should find a way to get to the capital where my grandmother stays. She lives upstairs in a blue-painted house that has a balcony on a narrow street.” A slight smile settled on her lips. “But the mainland is far, and I have no way to get there.”
Maddie turned to pour some more of the rehydration drink into Ana’s cup and stopped. A figure stood in the darkened doorway. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
God, I need You to intervene in this situation... Again...
“I told you it wasn’t safe for anyone other than patients to be in here,” she said as she stood up to face the man.
The man took another step forward.
“Stop—”
“Wait. It’s okay.” He continued speaking in perfect English from the shadows, his voice barely above a whisper. “It’s Grant Reese.”
“Grant? I don’t...” She paused midsentence, as memories of a girlhood crush flickered through her mind. How was it possible he was here?
But there was no time to figure out how he’d found her halfway around the world.
A second man stepped in behind him.
“This is my friend Antonio. We need to get you out of here. Now.”
“Wait... I can’t go.” Her mind spun, still unable to determine if this was a dream, or if someone had actually come to rescue her. “Not yet.”
“Why?”
“There’s a young girl here... Ana...” Like herself, Ana wasn’t here by choice. And she wasn’t going to leave her behind. “If I leave her here...”
She tried to hold back the fear starting to crush her. Over the past five days she’d dreamed of some handsome Special Ops soldier coming to her rescue. In her dreams everything might have ended happily ever after, but there was only one ending for this scenario if they tried to escape and got caught. And, she realized, only one ending for Ana if she was left behind.
“Where is she?” Grant whispered.
“Right here with me.” Maddie turned to Ana. “Do you want to leave with us?”
“Yes—”
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Antonio interrupted.
“We have to take her,” Maddie said, pulling a thin blanket around the girl’s neck and grabbing the backpack she’d had on her when she’d been abducted. She had so many questions, but all of them would have to wait for now. “And we need to hurry. The guards are eating and won’t be paying a lot of attention for the next few minutes, but they’ll be done soon. How far do we have to walk?”
She tightened her grip around Ana’s waist. There was no way the girl could walk out of here on her own.
“Just over a kilometer,” Grant said. “We’ve got a car waiting. Then we’ll drive to the airstrip where we have a plane ready to pick us up.”
“I’ll carry her,” Antonio said, reaching down to pick her up.
Maddie nodded and turned back to Grant, wishing she could see the familiar bright blue eyes she remembered all too well. “Thank you. Both of you.”
“You can thank us later, once we get out of here in one piece,” Grant said.
She slipped through the shadows behind them toward the edge of the compound, trying to swallow the fear threatening to engulf her. Because she’d seen what they had done with her coworker from the hospital. And knew what they’d do to her if they caught her trying to escape.
She glanced back at the cooking fires, before hurrying to catch up with Grant. The men were still busy eating, and there were no signs of any of the guards in front of them. But even that didn’t help calm the panic. She quickened her steps across the tangled mass of vines beneath her feet, her rib cage pressing against her lungs as they hurried over a low section of the wall and then hastened into the forest. She was terrified the men were following in the darkness. Terrified this wasn’t really over. Because somehow, she’d become the prey in a game she didn’t know how to play.
She stumbled, but Grant was there to catch her. She felt his arm wrap around her waist. Felt the warmth of his hands as he steadied her. And caught a glimpse of his expression as he looked at her.
“We’re almost there,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.
She caught a glimpse of the waiting car as they came out of the thick wooded area. A second later, a streak of orange lit the night air in an arch and then dropped back toward the horizon, enveloping the car in a ball of flames.
Copyright © 2015 by Lisa Harris
ISBN-13: 9781460389133
Plain Threats
Copyright © 2015 by Alison Stone
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