Love Inspired Suspense September 2015 #2 (22 page)

“How long have you lived here?” Maddie asked, taking the opportunity she'd been hoping for to talk to Ana away from the listening ears of her captors.

She shrugged; wide chocolate-colored eyes looked up at Maddie in the flickering light. “As long as I can remember. My mother married one of the men in the camp.”

“Where is she now?”

“She died a year ago giving birth.”

Maddie caught the sadness in her expression. “And your father?”

“He's dead, too.”

“So now you cook and do their laundry.”

Ana nodded.

But Maddie knew one day soon the men would start coming to her asking for more than just clean clothes.

“What about school?” she asked, taking the empty cup.

“I liked school, but now...there is too much work to be done.”

“Don't you have any other family? Someone else you could live with away from the camp?”

“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.

TWO

M
addie watched in horror as flames completely consumed the vehicle. She stumbled backward, away from the heat radiating from the car. Someone had to have seen them escape, which meant they needed to run. But where? Darkness had long since settled in around them. Without a vehicle—without knowing where they were going—finding their way out of here was going to be almost impossible.

And whoever had set off the explosion was somewhere nearby. She searched beyond the blaze lighting up the night sky, but saw no one.

Please, God, please... You've brought us this far. There has to be another way out.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“We run!” Grant grabbed Maddie's hand as she continued to pray, pulling her away from the scene with Antonio carrying Ana right behind them.

Smoke filled her lungs as they ran. Her eyes burned, and her legs threatened to give out, partly from fear, partly from the excursion. Her mind scrambled to sort through the facts as she knew them, while trying not to stumble beside Grant. She'd seen the explosion. Someone had purposely blown up that car. Which meant they were out there. After them. Guilt slivered through her. Grant should never have tried to come after her. Even with his military background, he'd put not only his life, but the life of Antonio at risk. And she'd seen the kind of men who had been holding her. Even if they ran, they would come after them.

Lit only by the night sky, Maddie clutched the strap of her backpack with one arm and struggled to keep up with Grant as they ran along a narrow dirt path, shielded on one side by the thick forest. She glanced back, worried about how long Antonio would be able to carry Ana. Worried about how long all of them could continue at this pace. All she could do was pray that the shadows would play to their advantage and hide them from the rebels.

Grant's hand gripped hers as they ran. Silvery traces of moonlight encircled them, bathing the surrounding terrain in a hazy glow. How had her situation escalated to this? Until the past few days, she'd firmly believed her decision to come to Africa had been worth any inconveniences of life in a foreign country. Even if her decision to come had been partly selfish.

After four years of dating “Mr. Right,” reality had hit her, and she'd realized she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life in settling for what everyone else wanted for her. But not what was best for her. In joining a medical team working in Guinea-Bissau and escaping the American rat race, she'd hoped to find a missing part of herself in helping others.

What she'd found had been far more than she'd expected.

While her family had been convinced she was crazy for even considering the idea, it had been here, in one of the poorest countries in the world, that she'd found an unexplainable joy. And slowly, she'd begun to find that missing piece of herself. Even the tragedy and heartache she faced at the hospital every day was countered by the deep sense of community, faith and a life never taken for granted by those around her.

She kept running. The sticky night air pressed against her and her lungs. She fought for air as she listened for signs of pursuit from behind. Lightning struck in the distance. The night around them hummed with the sounds of insects and other nocturnal creatures. If someone was after them, she couldn't hear them.

Grant held up his hand and then led her off the road and into the edges of the dark forest. “We'll stop here for a moment. Hopefully we've put enough distance between us and whoever's out there, but I need to contact my pilot. Keep your eyes out for anyone following us.”

Grant pulled out a phone from his back pocket. Maddie pressed her hand against her chest, trying to catch her breath while he held up his phone to get a better signal. Lungs still constricted, she bent down next to Ana where Antonio had laid her on the ground. The young girl groaned, but at least her fever was down slightly.

“I can't get through,” Grant said, walking another dozen feet away from them, still holding up the phone.

Antonio knelt down beside her. “How is she?”

“I'm pretty sure it's malaria, but I don't have the resources to treat her properly. I can give her the rehydration drink for now, but she needs to be at a proper hospital with an IV drip and a dose of antimalarial drugs.”

For now—just like at the camp—she'd have to do with their limited resources.

Maddie looked up as Grant walked back toward them. Memories flooded through her mind. He had always been the tall, quiet hero she'd looked up to. Her brother's best friend. The man who brought toffee for the holidays and refrigerator magnets from his travels for her mom. He'd also been the man who'd cried at Darren's funeral and stood beside her as they laid the casket into the ground.

And now he'd come to rescue her.

“Why'd you come for me?” she asked. She caught the weight of the situation in his gaze.

He hesitated as he studied her face. “I promised your brother before he died I'd look after you.”

And six years later he'd risked his life to keep that promise?

Her heart stirred as she dropped her gaze. “What do we do now?”

“I sent a text to the pilot. All I can do now is hope it gets through. I'm worried he might be walking into a trap if they land at the airstrip right now.”

“Who is he? Your pilot friend.”

“His name's Colton Landry. He dropped us here three hours ago. He grew up on both sides of the border. His mother's from Michigan and his father's French Canadian. He works as a pilot for West African Mission Aviation. They use aircraft to help provide medical care, rescue and disaster relief, as well as transport of medical and food supplies.”

“And he agreed to be a part of your crazy plan?”

He shot her a smile. “You needed to be rescued.”

Maddie looked away to search the black night for movement but saw nothing. Except for thunder rumbling in the distance, an eerie quiet greeted her. With limited options she had no idea what the next-best move was. She'd heard the planes take off and land from the small, nearby airfield and realized the strip must be a part of the drug route. Which meant Grant could be right. If someone knew they were coming, then more than likely they'd be watching the airstrip.

She'd seen what they'd done to the vehicle. They could easily do the same thing to the plane.

Grant turned to Antonio. “What do you think? You know this area better than any of us. What's the best way out of here?”

“The only other way off this island is by boat.”

Maddie knew that finding their way in the dark was going to be difficult, if not impossible. And extremely dangerous.

“How far to the port?” Grant asked.

Antonio glanced at Ana. “Without a vehicle...at night...”

“There's a couple of Jeeps back at the camp,” Maddie said. “If we go back—”

“It's not worth the risk going back,” Antonio said. “We got lucky one time. A second time...”

“He's right,” Grant said.

“Then what?” Maddie asked. “We can't go back, we can't continue? Is that what you're saying? And what if they come after us?”

“I don't think it's a question of if, but when.” Grant slid his phone into his back pocket.

Antonio knelt down and started drawing a crude map of the area with a stick. “Our options are limited without a plane. Drug traffickers use these islands for a reason. Not only because they're fairly isolated, but our police force doesn't own a boat, so they're pretty much free to do what they want.”

Once Maddie had made the decision to come to Africa, she'd studied everything she could find on the tiny West African country of Guinea-Bissau. About half the size of South Carolina, it included dozens of isolated islands off its coast. Even on the mainland, there wasn't a developed or well-maintained infrastructure, and on top of that only around 10 percent of the roads were paved. Which was the primary reason the majority of the population lived within a dozen miles of a waterway.

But, like Antonio had implied, she also knew that the lack of an easy way out wasn't the only issue they were facing. The country—its islands in particular—had become a drug trafficker's dream. Drugs arrived from South America and were temporarily stored in warehouses, where wholesalers turned around and quickly transported them out of the country—on speedboats along the coast, by overland routes and even by swallowers who ingested the capsules and left via commercial flights to their final destination in Europe.

“So our best way out?” Grant asked.

“We're here,” Antonio explained, pointing to his map. “On one of the dozens of islands off the coast, and we need to get to the mainland. Our best chance is to head away from here on foot toward the sea, where we can eventually catch a boat to the mainland.”

Grant nodded and moved to pick up Ana. “We need to get going. I'll carry her for a while.”

A hundred yards farther, Maddie heard a rustling in the woods beside them. Her heart threatened to explode. Six armed men stepped out of the darkness, and surrounded them.

* * *

Grant slowly lowered Ana to the ground and stepped in front of the armed men, hoping to keep her and Maddie out of the line of fire. Maybe his cockeyed plan to rescue her had been too risky, but no matter what happened in the next few minutes, he still didn't regret his decision to come. Waiting for official channels to move could have easily taken weeks, even months. And more than likely, they would have killed her before that happened.

He glanced at Maddie and caught the determined tilt of her chin. Good. She was going to need every ounce of fight she could muster. Because this wasn't over. Not yet. If he had anything to do with it, they were still going to find a way out of here.

“They're taking us back to the camp,” Antonio said, translating for the leader who spoke one of the local dialects.

“Wait...” Grant took a step forward and nodded at Antonio. “Ask them what they want?”

As far as the intel he'd gathered, they'd never said why they'd taken Maddie in the first place. There had been no ransom demands, and, in fact, no communication at all. It had only been because of Antonio and his contacts on the island that they'd been able to discover where she was being held in the first place. But his gut told him if they stepped back into that camp a second time, the chances of them coming out alive would greatly diminish. And money was the only bargaining chip he had at the moment.

He waited while Antonio spoke with them. He knew the reasoning behind not paying ransoms. Instead of freedom, it gave terrorists both publicity and cash. And ransom payment led to future kidnapping and, in turn, additional ransom payments. But that was all theoretical and easy to defend when you weren't the one standing in the middle of nowhere with a gun pointed at your head.

“They said you'll have to speak with Oumar back at the camp. He's the one in charge,” Antonio said, his jaw tensed.

A radio crackled, and one of the men started talking as they motioned them into the forested inlet. Grant picked up Ana and hurried beside Maddie as they headed back toward the camp. Prayers that he normally struggled finding the words for suddenly flowed.

We're in over our heads, God. And I'm the one responsible to get Maddie—to get all of them—out of here alive. I'm running out of options and to be honest could use some help.

He glanced at Maddie as they followed the men deeper into the woods. Asking for help, from anyone, had always been hard for him. Maybe that had been his problem all along. With his parents. With Darren...

The voice on the other end of their captor's radio shouted, the words distorted. Urgent. Grant glanced at Antonio, wishing they were speaking in Portuguese so he could understand what had happened.

“Rapido!”
One of the men hit Grant against the back of his legs with the butt of his rifle. “Hurry!”

“What's going on?” Grant asked.

“I don't know,” Antonio said. “There's been some kind of accident.”

Grant calculated their odds of escaping as they started back through the forest. White light from a flashlight created shadows among the trees. There was no way they were going to be able to overpower six armed men. They'd have to follow orders. For now.

Grant glanced at Maddie and caught the fear in her eyes. And he didn't blame her. Every time he'd walked out to clear a minefield, a part of him had known he could be taking his last step. But she was used to preventing death as a doctor. Not facing it head-on.

Five minutes later they were back at the camp. Someone shouted. Several of the men ran toward them carrying a body across the courtyard. One of the petrol lanterns caught the face of the young boy. He couldn't be much older than ten or eleven, ebony skin, full lips, dark eyes...

It was the eyes that stopped Grant cold.

The boy's gaze ripped through him. He could read the pain and panic on his face, but there was something more. Something in his eyes that seared through Grant, as if the boy knew that what happened in the next few frightful moments would determine whether or not he would live or die. Because he'd seen that same look before. He'd seen it in Darren's gaze the day he'd died.

Nightmare images he'd tried to erase flashed in front of him. While they'd known the dangers of their job, a small part of them had always held on to the belief that they were invincible. Because if they'd let themselves believe death was going to win, they'd never have stepped out into those fields.

But they'd been wrong.

One miscalculated move had killed his best friend.

Grant set Ana down on a mat as the men laid the boy on a table and shouted at Maddie. He forced himself to take a second look, because the boy's haunted countenance wasn't the only thing that had left his heart racing. Blood soaked through a cloth wrapped around his thigh. The boy's leg—from his knee down—was gone.