“We’re out,” came the reply.
Helpless, Kinley watched while they inserted an IV line into Shane’s arm. His eyes fluttered and his lips moved, but she couldn’t hear what he said. One of the men leaned his ear close to Shane’s mouth, then looked at Kinley before replying to him. Whatever he said didn’t come over her headset, but Shane struggled to angle his head in her direction and he lifted his free hand.
Her heart lurched in her chest and she jerked against the harness. Glancing down, she pulled and pushed, but couldn’t figure out how to release the belts. The man who’d buckled it leaned over Shane and twisted the center of the circle, releasing all the buckles at once.
Throwing her headset aside, she fell to her knees at Shane’s head and grasped the side of his face in her palm. Pressing her lips to his temple, she said, “I’m here. I’m here. Stay with me, Shane. You have to stay with me.”
“Found you,” he mumbled. His eyes fluttered closed and she snapped her gaze to Jordan, kneeling on the other side of him.
He mouthed, “Passed out.”
Looking at Shane again, she pressed her fingers to the pulse in his throat, finding the strong, but slow pulse.
“I’m here,” she whispered against his forehead.
The ride was shorter than she expected and yet the longest seventy-six minutes of her life. As soon as they touched down, Devon threw open the door. Devon and Jordan jumped down, leaving their guns tucked behind some green netting in the back of the helicopter.
Through the open door, Kinley saw four people in scrubs jogging toward them, the two in the rear pulling a gurney between them. From her vantage point, she could see the tops of other buildings around them. When they reached the side of the helicopter, they transferred Shane to the gurney with Devon and Jordan’s help, then raced back the way they came. She tried to scramble out of the helicopter—if she didn’t hurry, they’d get in the elevator without her and then she’d lose them, but Devon and Jordan climbed back in and stopped her.
“Let me out!”
Jordan grabbed her around the waist when she tried to squeeze between them. The door slid shut and they lifted off,
“No! Take me back!”
“Calm down, Kinley. You’ll be back, but we have to get you somewhere safe first.”
She pressed a hand against the window, watching the building grow smaller and smaller the farther away they flew. There wasn’t anywhere safer than with Shane—didn’t they know that?
Less than ten minutes later, they landed again and the pilot cut the engine before they opened the door. This time, two men and a woman waited on the edge of the small concrete pad.
Jordan helped her down from the helicopter and led her toward the small group.
“Miss Dunn?” the woman asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Belinda Parker. Welcome to the U.S. Embassy.”
CHAPTER15
Shane flinched and swatted at whatever was trying to crawl up his nose. Pain shot across his shoulder and back and he groaned.
“Oh, good. You’re awake.”
He blinked his dry and gritty eyes several times and tried to focus on Paige.
“Did you stick something up my nose?” He rubbed the underside—slowly this time.
“Maybe. You were taking too long to wake up.”
He glanced around the hospital room. “Where are we?”
“Charleston. You were transferred here after they stabilized you in Guatemala.”
“I feel like someone took a sledgehammer to my back.” He flexed his shoulders to test the amount of pain and regretted it immediately.
“The bullet traveled under your shoulder blade and they had to dig it out. That should have been the end of it but, being your difficult self, you developed a fever, so they kept you under while they tried to get it down.”
