A SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE BOXED SET

by Lewis, Laurie

  The muscles along Michael’s jaw tensed as he looked toward the local crowd, where several armed men dressed in camo pants and sleeveless shirts began moving toward the taxiing Cessna. Once again, the rebels’ warning replayed in Olivia’s mind. What had Hudson said?

  Water frees people. That’s the last things these rebels want …

  She and her misguided decision to bring those tablets had drawn the rebels here, making targets of them and their cargo. Now Hudson would also be in danger, as would the prototype pump. Olivia knew Hudson and the entire Sweet Water project were at risk. Because of her. Because, once again, her judgment had been off.

  Her breathing became rapid as the armed men closed the distance to the plane. Olivia forced herself to move past her guilt and think. A quick scan of the terrain reminded her of one of Peter Thibodeaux’s stories, giving her an idea. It was hazardous, but it was less risky than the sure danger Hudson would face if he arrived. With her heart pounding, she laid out her plan.

  “I caused this danger, but I have an idea. We need to get that pump to Hudson, but we can’t let him be seen by the rebels. Safdar has made him a target, so we need to divert their attention long enough to sneak the pump past them. Michael, if you steer this plane near that brush on the right, Buddy can bail out and hide in there. Then, while the plane taxis back to the terminal building, he can get to Hudson and convince him to head for the test site.”

  Michael kept idling down the runway and away from the airport while Buddy protested.

  “And leave you and Michael here to face the rebels alone? No way, ma’am. I’d rather take my chances with the rebels than with Hudson if anything happens to you on our watch.”

  “Protecting me won’t save Hudson or the pump.” Buddy grew quiet. The rebels were agitated now and closing fast. With time growing increasingly short, Olivia pressed on. “We just need to convince them that we’re here to deliver those tablets and not pump supplies.”

  “And how do you plan to do that?”

  “A little diversion and a scam called the Flimflam. I’ll keep them occupied while you get the pump to Hudson.”

  Buddy’s jaw clenched as he dug in on his refusal. Olivia’s hands were shaking as she looked to Michael. “You know it’s the only way to protect us or Hudson or that pump. This situation is all my fault, but I can do this. I need to do this. Please, trust me.”

  Michael spent a moment chewing on the side of his mouth before abruptly steering the plane toward the brush, sending the rebels racing across the dirt strip in their direction.

  “You can’t go along with this!” Buddy argued to Michael.

  “She is right. If Safdar wins now … if he defeats Hudson, the leaders may never have the will to stand up to him again. The rebels will see this fancy American lady as a misguided philanthropist, not a well driller. You go. Keep Hudson away. These are my people. I know what that pump means to them, so I will stay with Olivia and pray that God will smile on each of us.”

  The exasperation on Buddy’s face turned to acceptance as he looked at Olivia. “You’re a brave gem of a woman, Liv.”

  She forced her lips to still their trembling. “Liv? That’s what Hudson calls me.”

  “I know,” he said in his thick Australian drawl. “He talks when he sleeps in-flight.”

  The comment sent Olivia’s heart pounding even more. As the plane drew beside the brush, Buddy rolled out the plane’s door and into the cover of the brush. Olivia took his seat as Michael turned the plane back toward the airport. Within fifty yards, the sweat-soaked African rebels caught up to the plane with their guns raised, ordering the passengers to deplane.

  Michael slowed the Cessna to a halt, and the rebels threw the doors open, shouting in a French dialect as they gestured for them to step out and onto the tarmac. Olivia understood a few words, but the rebels’ body language and glaring eyes told her all she needed to know. They were angry and dangerous.

  Automatic weapons were brandished with fury as they cursed in French. Michael wisely shook his head and touched his ear, pretending not to understand them. The apparent leader of the four-man group began communicating in English. Now Olivia could follow the conversation and eventually play her part.

  “Where is the copilot?” demanded the leader. “There were two men in Bouaké.”

  “As you can see, he did not complete the last leg of the flight with us.”

  The youngest rebel tossed a braid over his shoulder and pressed a gun barrel into Michael’s cheek while the leader snarled, “You think I am a fool? The fuel for that plane was reserved and purchased a week ago using a Bauer Group credit card. You see? Safdar knows everything that happens. Tell me, what have you brought to my country? Safdar has already warned Hudson Bauer about interfering in our affairs. Where is he?”

  Olivia leaned back against the plane on jelly-like legs as she wondered that as well. She willed herself not to glance in the direction from which Hudson would be arriving, silently praying that Buddy reached Hudson in time, and that he’d be successful in stopping him from attempting a rescue.

  “Where is Hudson Bauer?” the rebel repeated to Michael with a shake of his automatic weapon. “And what equipment have you brought him?”

  Something about the rebel’s French dialect reminded Olivia of Peter Thibodeaux, calming her. She needed to pivot the conversation away from Hudson, but how? Crazy or divine inspiration flashed into her mind, telling her to mimic Peter’s inflections and Cajun vocabulary, masking her connection to Hudson Bauer.

  Willing her quaking legs to still, she pushed away from the plane and faced the rebel leader. “You are correct,” she said with Cajun intonations. “The plane was chartered from The Bauer Group, but I bought these tablets. I have the receipt to prove that I am the benefactor.”

  Confusion and intrigue showed on the man’s face, along with suspicion. Olivia increased the ruse. “We will pay you well for your help in transporting our cargo to its destination.”

  The ludicrous comment and her tones seemed to momentarily baffle the rebels. The dread-headed young man let his gun slip as he stared at her. His accomplices smirked while the leader sneered at Olivia. “You no longer have cargo. It is now the property of the Forces Nouvelles de Côte d’Ivoire. I will see our cargo now!”

  Ignoring the rubbery condition of her legs, Olivia stood eye-to-eye with the leader as they moved to the cargo door. She ratcheted up her Cajun performance to distance herself from Hudson and the water project. “Perhaps you have heard of my father—Peter Thibodeaux, of New Orleans? I saw a documentary about a local orphan school. The plane and pilot were chartered so we could bring the children these electronic tablets.”

  The leader swung his incredulous gaze to each of his men. “They want to help the children!” He laughed in a derisive tone and shoved the gun into Olivia’s side. “Open the box!”

  Hudson Bauer’s gut knotted as he caught sight of a man hiding in the scrub growth along the roadside. “Do you see him?” he asked his driver as they slowed.

  Hudson recognized the man who ran into the center of the dirt road and waved his arms, but that recognition brought deeper concerns. As the Jeep drew closer, Hudson called out, “Buddy?” He opened the door and jumped from the vehicle. “What are you doing in the middle of the airport road? Where’s Michael? Is he all right?”

  Buddy slouched and diverted his eyes. “We’ve run into a bit of trouble, Hud. There were rebels waiting for us at the airport. I was sent to warn you and hand you this.” He placed the pump and piping in Hudson’s hands before meeting his employer’s eyes. “Liv insisted.”

  Hudson’s throat tightened as he dropped the pipes and dug his fingers into Buddy’s shoulders. “Liv? Olivia McAllister is back there? And you left her?” He shoved Buddy to the ground and ran back to the Jeep.

  Buddy scrambled to his feet and stood in front, creating a barrier. “Think first, Hud!” His Aussie accent was filled with emotion as he shouted above the rumble of the engine. “All you�
��ll accomplish by barging in there is to get yourself and them killed. I had the same initial reaction, but Liv changed my mind. She has a plan, and sadly, something she needs to prove to you. But you would know more about that than I, wouldn’t you?”

  The steel set of Hudson’s limbs and jaw melted into fear as he remembered the conversation preceding their first and only kiss back at the beach house after rescuing her. He had indicted her about her failures and lack of faith in him. Had he pushed her to this?

  Nothing he had ever done, nothing he had planned for the future mattered in that moment. Nothing had meaning without Liv, whom he felt powerless to help. Buddy was right. He would only place her in further danger by rushing in. He felt much as he had that day in the hospital when she threw him out and turned him away. “I can’t just do nothing.” His voice sounded ancient, defeated. “She’s everything to me.”

  Buddy placed his hand on Hudson’s shoulder. “You two have a strange way of communicating, because it would seem that’s what she’s trying to tell you as well.”

  Without shame, Hudson turned his welling eyes to Buddy.

  “Does that surprise you, my friend?” Buddy spoke quietly. “I’ve known for some time that there was someone special out there named Liv, but since you never spoke of her openly, I figured she was someone lost to you. I don’t know why you’re not together, but she put your safety, your life, and your dream ahead of her own security. She asked all of us to trust her. I think we should, but you must decide for yourself.”

  Every nerve in his body was firing. He needed to run, to get to Olivia, but his driver had the only weapon available, and it was a pistol—no match against automatic weapons. And then he got an idea.

  Olivia’s hands were shaking so badly she couldn’t release the tape on the carton. The rebel pushed in beside her and produced a knife, which caused her to gasp and shrink back a step.

  He laughed. “Did you think I was going to cut you? If I wanted to kill an American, I would have already shot you.”

  She took some comfort in his comment, knowing she also needed to keep this man from changing his mind. She swallowed to regain her composure. “Who are you?”

  His head shot her way. “No names.”

  Their faces were so close she could feel his spittle sprinkle her cheek, but she dared not wipe it away.

  He sliced through the tape and rifled through the box, counting and admiring each tablet he pulled from the carton, even mentioning their model number. When he reached the bottom, he shoved the box to the parched ground and called two of the other rebels by name. “Search every inch of this plane.”

  His interest in the tablets heartened Olivia, but the rebels were still there brandishing their guns, so she needed to continue the negotiations. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you half the tablets if you let me have the other half for the orphans.”

  His bright teeth glowed against his dark skin as he sneered. “I … keep … them … all.” Each word was clipped and exaggerated.

  The final moment had arrived, and if all went well, Olivia hoped the rebels searching the plane would be told to stop and the four men would take the tablets and leave. Olivia gave the leader a look of resignation and rounded her shoulders. “You win. Please take them as my gift.” Her conscience couldn’t stop her tongue. “But first, tell me one thing. Why do you fight those who are trying to help your people?”

  Eyes that celebrated victory a moment earlier now darkened. His hand came up, jabbing a finger near her face. “You know nothing about my country and people. We are diverse, from many nations, many political ideologies, many religions—Muslim, Christian, those who believe the old ways.” He leaned in close and snarled. “Do not presume to know what is best for us.”

  She held her breath, regretting her words. A few seconds felt like an hour, and then he called to his two companions searching the plane.

  “Come. Get Aristide. It’s time to go.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the men in the plane raise a piece of paper and call for the leader. She recognized it as a page from one of the brochures. A sheen of sweat spread over her body as the leader reached through the open hatch to retrieve the document. If he read the word “pump” in the text, she and Michael would be in danger again.

  The leader’s eyes moved across the page when a siren sounded and a red glow appeared from down the road.

  “Des soldat!” growled the leader as he tossed the paper to the ground. “Allez! Allez!”

  He and his colleagues filled their arms with tablets, which they juggled on their run to a battered truck parked near the terminal.

  During the rebels’ chaotic retreat, Michael ran to Olivia, placing his body between her and the rebels.

  “Michael, that rebel was about to read the customs manifest. Those soldiers just saved us.”

  “Not the soldiers,” smiled Michael. He pointed toward the light and sound show. “Look.”

  A Jeep rounded a bend in the road with only one passenger—a driver—but off to the side of the road, in the brush, two men watched the rebels’ truck speed away from the light and siren blare. When they stood up, Olivia recognized them immediately. Buddy leapt in the air and cheered while Hudson broke from the cover, heading her way in a dead run.

  Breathless and pale with worry, he stopped mere feet from her as his eyes surveyed her condition. Olivia’s voice cracked, and without a word, he scooped her into his arms and pressed her close, burying his face in her hair. She heard no words other than the graveled repeat of her name, and the shuddering breaths of relief rushing past her ear.

  Olivia returned the embrace, tightening her arms around Hudson, feeling once more that she was made to fit this very man. The enormity of the risk she had taken flooded upon her, and she wet Hudson’s shoulders with tears of relief. Hudson pulled back, his mouth still agape, worry still visible in the creases of his face and in his shining eyes. He framed her face in his hands, brushing her hair back. His lips trembled as his thumbs traced along her jaw. “I lost you once. I’d never survive losing you again.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sor—”

  “I love you,” he muttered in a breathless rush. Further speech was silenced as Hudson’s hungry mouth pressed over hers. His pounding heart throbbed against her, its steady rhythm quieting the shaking of her body, replacing it with peace and security. Her arms moved up his back, preventing his escape. This time, her thoughts were consumed with only one man—Hudson Bauer.

  The kiss ended, but the need to connect remained. Cheek to cheek, brow to brow, Olivia finally said the words she’d travelled thousands of miles to say. “I love you. I never stopped.” His arms reached for her again, and she settled in against him like a second skin. “I have so much to tell you. I know all about Arena Corp and the money. Thank you for always looking out for me.”

  “Every day. Always.”

  She pulled back again to meet his love-filled eyes. “I finally put all the pieces together. I found your proposal book. That’s what you went back to Portland to get the night—” Her eyes lowered in shame, then rose again, pleading, earnest, to meet Hudson’s. “Jeff stole from it that night in the apartment. He said and did all the right things, but it was your words and ideas I fell in love with, not his. He told me you were moving on without us. I should have trusted you, but I let my fears overrule my heart. I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?”

  He kissed her head. “That’s all in the past. What you did today …” His eyes closed and his head shook as if he were reliving a nightmare. When he reopened them, they shone as he stared into hers. “Did I push you to this? Did I make you feel you needed to prove something to me?”

  Beads of sweat streaked down Hudson’s face, leaving trails along his cheeks. She reached a dirt-stained hand up and pressed it there. “I needed to prove something to myself. There’s so much more I need to tell you.”

  “We have time. All the time in the world.”

  Hudson pulled her hand awa
y and placed a knee-weakening kiss in her palm that overwhelmed her remaining strength. She slumped into the arm wrapped protectively around her as his lips found hers again in a soft kiss that deepened moment by moment. His hand released hers to rest against the plane as he leaned their bodies back, pressing into the privacy found in the crook between the wing and fuselage. Olivia felt his heart beat against hers, their every breath timed to their salty kisses.

  At last, they were as one, as it was always meant to be.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The last embers of the previous evening’s fire had burned to hot ash, their glow in the gray of dawn casting shadows across Olivia’s sleeping face as she rested in Hudson’s arms. Lifting his head from the sleeping bag, he gazed down at her and smiled as a new found contentment radiated through him. He pulled her closer, and she rustled as his hand slid down her sleeve to intertwine his fingers with hers. Every inch of him hungered to touch her, to immerse in the wonder her love brought him. But nothing short of the original dream of making her his wife would satisfy. There was time. They would take things slowly. He would follow her lead.

  She stirred and opened her eyes. “Good morning.”

  He welcomed her with a lingering kiss. “This was worth waiting eight years for.”

  “All I’ve ever wanted was you. You’re the reason I moved to New York.”

  His face slackened. “That’s what you were trying to tell me back at the office that last day. And I … I rushed away. I’m so sorry.”

  “No.” She pressed her finger over his lips. “You were worried about your parents. I understood. What matters to you, matters to me. That’s why I’m here. I want to be with you when your dream comes true.”

  Only seven tribal leaders out of the twelve Hudson had contacted agreed to come to the designated location for the test. They had been collected in two U.N. vehicles with armed guards in each. Olivia was standing by Hudson’s side as Michael and Buddy drove up in the lead escort vehicle.