“Don’t worry. He’s here.”
Bret appeared at the entrance of one of the tents gripping a backpack in his hand.
Colton resisted the urge to run to him and pull him into a bear hug, but there was no time for a family reunion. “We need to get you out of here—”
“Wait,” Bret said. “There’s another prisoner.”
A young woman ducked out of the tent behind Bret, the wind tugging on the ends of her dark, shoulder-length hair. His mind fought to place the familiar face. He’d met her before. They’d chatted briefly...
Lexi.
The man shouted at her to get back. “She’s not going with you.”
Another man grabbed her arm. She screamed, trying to fight back. A second later, a bullet slammed into the man, dropping him to the ground beside her. She stood frozen. Blood spatter dotted her khaki pants. Colton reacted instantly, ignoring the men shouting around them as he ran to her, then pulled her toward the only cover there was behind one of the tents.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“I don’t think so.”
He looked back up at the ridge. Half a dozen men in military uniforms appeared along the ridge at the edge of the camp. He let out a sharp sigh of relief. The army had arrived. Now it was up to him to get them safely out of here.
“Follow me. We need to go now.” He grabbed Lexi’s hand and started running back toward the Jeep with Bret right behind them, praying the army would be able to hold the kidnappers off. “I’ve got a driver waiting for us.”
He shoved back the worst-case scenarios flooding through his mind as he caught sight of the approaching vehicle. They’d almost made it through the most difficult part, getting away from their captors in one piece. Now all he had to do was ensure they got to the airstrip, got the plane in the air and flew them out of this nightmare.
While Lexi’s mind fought to hold on to reality, Colton held her hand and they ran across the sand and away from the sounds of gunfire. She’d been kidnapped by rebels, taken to an unknown location in the middle of the desert, only to be rescued by a man she’d dreamed about. It sounded more like a movie than her own fairly routine life.
She tripped on a bulge in the sand, but Colton caught her, ensuring she kept her balance. She glanced down at her bloodstained pants, before she started running again. Unlike her nighttime imaginings of Colton, this was no dream. A man had been murdered next to her. She was running for her life in the middle of the Sahara, praying that one of those bullets she heard behind her didn’t hit her or one of the men escaping with her.
Bret had mentioned how he’d hoped his brother-in-law had a plan to rescue them, but at the time that had seemed impossible. And with men who had nothing to lose, she could have easily been kept for months, even years. She knew what happened to people like her who were snatched up and disappeared. It was a place she hadn’t wanted to imagine for herself.
“This is my driver, Joseph,” Colton said, as they neared the Jeep. “He’ll get us out of here in one piece.”
Colton helped her into backseat of the vehicle next to Bret, then scrambled into the front passenger seat. The second his door closed, Joseph pushed on the accelerator and headed back across the sand in the direction they’d come from.
Lexi pulled the seat belt across her lap and buckled it, working to slow her breathing both from exertion and pure terror.
“Are you both okay?” Colton asked.
“We will be once we put enough miles between us and those men. This is Lexi Shannon, by the way,” Bret said, making a quick introduction. “And I’m sure she’d agree that your timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”
“We met once in Timbuktu,” Colton said, looking at her with those unforgettable smoky gray eyes.
“You remember?” Her hands gripped the armrest as Joseph sped across the bumpy terrain that even with a seat belt on made her feel as if she were about to fly through the window.
“I do. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked her.
“I think so.” She tried not to think about the bloodstained pants.
“How long have you been here?” Colton asked.
“They grabbed me yesterday morning outside Timbuktu.” She tried to suppress the wave of emotion that came with the memories. “Then brought me to the camp early this morning.”
A day earlier and he would have missed her. A day later—she hated to think what they might have done to her given more time.
Bret reached up and squeezed Colton’s shoulder. “You can’t imagine how good it is to see you. The two of us discussed your taking part in a rescue, but I honestly didn’t think it was possible. Where in the world did you come up with two million dollars?”
Colton turned back around, as the camp faded into the distance along with the sounds of gunfire. “I didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?” Bret asked.
“I didn’t have the money. Not real bills, anyway. It was counterfeit.”
Bret leaned forward. “Counterfeit?”
The surprise in Bret’s voice mirrored her own. Arriving without the ransom was a risk that could have easily cost not just her and Bret’s life, but Colton’s, as well. And yet the plan had worked. He had somehow managed to grab both Bret and her while the rebels had taken the fall with the army’s bullets.
“I decided to show up with the Malian army instead,” Colton said. “I know it sounds crazy, but when Becca and I couldn’t come up with the two million, it was the only real option we had.”
“You’re kidding me.” Bret shook his head. “If they’d opened those suitcases and discovered what was inside, or if those soldiers hadn’t shown up...”
“But none of that happened,” Colton said. “And now the army’s going to play cleanup and you’re safe.”
A shadow crossed Bret’s face. “How is Becca?”
“My sister’s a strong woman, but it’s been a tough few weeks for both her and Noah. The waiting and not knowing...”
“They’re what kept me going.”
“We’ll call her as soon as we can, I promise. Let’s just focus on getting out of here first and making sure we’re all safe.”
Lexi glanced out the window at the miles and miles of endless sand. Dunes loomed to the west then spread out flat in front of them and to the east. She was still breathing hard. Her heart still pounding. She wasn’t going to feel safe for a very long time.
Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention from behind them.
She turned to look out the back window as the Jeep bounced across the uneven ground. A vehicle followed.
“Colton...” She could hear the panic in her voice as she spoke.
“What’s wrong?”
She stared out the back of the Jeep. “There’s someone behind us, and they’re closing in.”
“I thought the army was supposed to clean up while we made a getaway,” Joseph said, pushing on the accelerator.
Lexi gripped her fingers tighter around the armrest. When she was a teenager and they’d lived in California, her stepfather had raced dirt bikes up the local sand dunes. He taken her out a few times and taught her about safety. Which was why she knew that this wasn’t the place to be running for