“I’m learning to be a crack shot,” she replied with a nervous laugh. “Laremos even told me how to cock this thing.”
“If you have to fire it,” J.D. said intently, “be sure you brace it hard against your shoulder so that the recoil doesn’t break a bone. Take a breath, let half of it out, and squeeze the trigger, don’t jerk it.”
“I’ll be a natural,” Gabby told him, but she was trembling.
“I wish I could help,” Martina whispered shakily. “But I’m so tired…!”
“God knows you’ve reason to be,” J.D. said. He ruffled her hair. “But you’re a trouper, sis.”
She managed a smile for him. “Like my big brother. I knew you’d come, I knew you would. Thank God for your Special Forces training.” Martina added with a laugh, “But however did you find these other men?”
J.D. and Gabby exchanged a quiet look. “I hired them,” he said blandly. “Roberto can reimburse me.”
“My poor darling.” Martina sighed. “He’ll be so frantic.”
“How are we going to get out of here?” Gabby asked J.D.
“Wait and see.” He glanced toward Apollo. “Ready?” he called.
“Ready!”
“I’m going to draw them out for you. Don’t let me down!”
“J.D., no!” Gabby burst out as he leaped out of the brush and started firing toward rustling noises in the undergrowth ahead.
She lost her mind. Afterward it was the only explanation she could come up with. The enemy came forward in a rush, and suddenly Gabby was on her feet. She saw a sniper taking dead aim at J.D.; she turned and lifted the heavy weapon and sighted it and pulled the trigger.
It was a miracle that she even hit the man’s shoulder, her aim was so wide. But she did, and with terror she realized that he had taken aim at her and was about to fire.
“Gabby!” J.D. yelled wildly.
Simultaneously she pulled the trigger again, forgetting to brace the gun in her terror. She was knocked to the ground when she fired. There was a burst of gunfire and, suddenly, a huge, horrible explosion that rocked the ground.
“All right, let’s hit it!” First Shirt yelled out.
J.D. dragged Gabby to her feet, and his face showed such terrible fury that she closed her eyes. He didn’t even speak. He jerked the gun out of her hands and pushed her ahead of him as he bent to lift Martina to her feet.
“Are you all right, señorita?” Laremos asked gently as he joined Gabby.
“My shoulder hurts a little, but I’m…I’m fine,” she whispered. She started to turn around, to look behind them, but J.D. was suddenly there.
“Don’t look,” he said in a tone that dared her to argue. “Get moving.”
He was a stranger now, a man she’d never known. His face was like stone, and there was something wild and dangerous in his eyes and in the set of his big body. She didn’t say another word. She kept quiet all the long way through the jungle.
“Where are we going?” she finally asked Laremos as they kept moving through the endless jungle.
“In a circle, around my finca,” he told her. “We have hopes that by now the government troops have rounded up the smugglers. Apollo has gone in to check.”
“So quickly?” she asked, brushing back a strand of matted hair from her sweaty face.
“So quickly,” he confirmed. “Your shoulder, it is better?”
“A little bruised, that’s all,” she said. She felt sick to her stomach. All she wanted was to lie down and forget the past two days altogether.
“I’m so tired,” Martina murmured. “Can’t we rest?”
“Soon,” J.D. said, gently now. “Just a little longer, honey.”
“Okay, big brother. I’ll trudge along. Gabby, are you holding up okay?”
“Yes, thanks, Martina.”
There was a sudden crackling sound and J.D. and the others whirled with their guns leveled as Apollo came leaping through the growth, grinning.
“We’re clear!” he shouted.
“What about the men in the terrorist camp?” Gabby asked.
“They scattered,” First Shirt replied. “The government troops would have shot them if they’d found them.”
“How sad for them,” Martina said, but her eyes flashed. “I do not pity them, not after the ordeal they put me through. Oh, I want my Roberto!”
“We’ll send for him the minute we get to my finca,” Laremos promised her. “The very minute.”
Gabby dropped back to put a comforting arm around the smaller, older woman and smiled reassuringly. “It won’t be long,” she said.
“Absolutely,” Laremos agreed. “There. We are home.”
The finca looked so good that Gabby wanted to kiss it. The outside bore no marks of violence, but inside it was a different story. The furniture was wrecked, the floors scarred. Laremos’s dark eyes glittered as he saw the evidence of the brief occupation.
“I’m sorry about your house, señor,ȁ Martina said gently.
“Señora, that you are safe is the most important thing,” Laremos said with pride, turning to bow in her direction. “My poor house can be repaired. But your life, once lost, would not have been restored.”
“I owe you a great debt,” Martina said. Her clothes were torn and her hair hung in wild strands. But she looked spunky for all that. She reached up and kissed Laremos on his tan cheek. “Muchas gracias.”
Laremos looked embarrassed. “My pleasure, señora. I regret that I could not have done more.”
“Is everybody all right?” Gabby asked, looking around at the battle-scarred little group with concerned eyes.
“Gabby, you’ll spoil us if you worry about us,” Apollo said, chuckling.
“Not me.” First Shirt glowered at Apollo. “Worry all you want, Gabby. I’ll just sit here like a sponge and soak it up.”
The others joined in, all except J.D. He kept to himself, looking dangerous and unapproachable until Martina and Gabby left to go up to the room Gabby had shared with him.
“A bath.” Martina sighed, taking advantage of the facilities. “I feel so dirty!”
“It must have been horrible,” Gabby said, digging out fresh clothes.
“Not as horrible as it could have been. I wasn’t abused, at least. That surprised me.” She came out of the shower minutes later, toweling her long hair dry. “Your turn. I imagine you feel as mucky as I did.”
“Yes, I do.” Gabby laughed. “My shoulder hurts and I feel shaky all over.”
“You saved J.D.’s life,” was Martina’s quiet comment. “I can never thank you enough for that. But don’t expect him to,” she added dryly. “I think his pride’s dented. He’s very quiet.”
“He’s been through a lot. They all have. What a great bunch of guys,” she said fervently.
“Tell me!” Martina laughed, and despite the weariness in her drawn face, there was joy. “I’d like to kiss every one of them twice. I can’t tell you how I felt when I saw