“Chill, Mila.You’re blowing things out of proportion.”
Imbecile.How could he be so clueless?“If I were you, I’d leave right now, before he forces you to stay too.”
Instead of the fear she’d expected, his forehead crumpled in contemplation.She didn’t want to know what he was thinking.
“Goodbye, Vance.”She’d done her best to help him.What he did from here wasn’t her responsibility.She got into the car and Ali drove her back to the village for her class.
Mila stared out the window down to the small village below, her heart aching.
She’d been happy here.It was a safe place to nurture her broken heart and figure out what she wanted out of life.
But she could no longer stay.
Not now Agus knew who she was.
She rubbed the chill from her arms.
She just had to figure out how to leave without Agus stopping her.
Chapter 2
Sergeant Damien “Dobby” Dobson stared out at the blackness of the night, broken only by the glisten of the ocean not far below.The roar of the helicopter rotors was background noise, the usual accompaniment for the start of a mission.What wasn’t normal was the way his stomach clenched as the feeling things were about to go FUBAR intensified and they hadn’t even arrived at Pulau Tengah.
They shouldn’t be here.
There hadn’t been nearly enough time to plan for all contingencies.
But the Minister for Defence’s son had been kidnapped and Dobby’s team had to rescue him before the twenty-four-hour deadline passed, or he would be killed.
By all reports, the party boy often took these kinds of holidays where sampling the local ‘wares’ was part of the fun, though his father insisted he’d gone to win back his ex-fiancée, who was teaching English there.
Luckily the ex-fiancée was the daughter of a major-general who had immediately been called for more information.She hadn’t been able to get in touch with her daughter, as internet was sporadic on the island, though she had told them a man named Agus ran the island.
Her daughter, Mila, believed he was some kind of smuggler or pirate.Probably a small fish in the scheme of things, but smart enough to take advantage of an opportunity when he saw it.
The Major-General also mentioned Agus hated her, but Mila had hidden their relationship from the man.
Vance might have changed that.At least the Major-General hadn’t also received a ransom demand.
An inexperienced thug with little fire power wouldn’t be hard to overcome, but he also might have enough fire power to lack sense.
They hadn’t been able to source blueprints of the man’s house and had not much more than some satellite imagery of the island and a rough location of where the ex lived in the main village of Batara.
None of that mattered to the minister and his wife.The high priority mission had been planned and green-lit in less than five hours and because Dobby’s team was in the area taking part in an international war game, they’d been ordered to go.
He considered it lucky they’d at least received photos of Vance and his ex, Mila, although by all accounts, few tourists went to the island.
The Major-General wanted an update on her daughter’s whereabouts if possible, which Dobby considered a reasonable request.He’d make sure the woman was safe, because she might be next on the smuggler’s radar.
Only five minutes to the drop zone.
He checked his team.
Joker sat staring at the floor, mentally preparing himself as he did every mission.His dark hair was still short from their last mission in the Middle East where he’d gone undercover.His Middle Eastern heritage and ability to speak Farsi made him the perfect person, but the mission had been difficult.
Next to him was Hawk.Just under six feet tall and stocky, his dark brown hair was shaggy, and he was a tank.
“Two minutes.”Radar’s voice was loud in the headset and Dobby turned to their signal operator.
