Page 78 of The Commander

Lord, I’m going to kiss his face off when I’m back in his arms.

Then what?

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NOAH

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Note to self: always carry a Leatherman with me from this point on. Or a grenade. Clearing the site with one where these cartel assholes were hiding and attacked me would have been a more proactive solution to the one I’m in now.

Yet here I am, escaping and close to achieving it.

One latch is off and so is half my damn fingernail. Toughen up, Jenkins.

Turn, turn, turn, fucking turn, turn, turn.

Ping. Another screw drops to the floor, and I start to become confident my freedom is imminent. Then I hear voices in the hall and freeze.

I count to ten, then continue with my efforts.

I turn faster, kissing the skin on the end of my finger goodbye, and cuss under my breath.

The voices turn to shouting outside, and because they’re speaking Spanish, I don’t understand what they’re yelling about. I recognize the word police and figure my time is up.

They’ll either try to use me as a hostage again—but this time with a gun to my head—or kill me.

I hear a voice outside in the garden through the gap in the window.

Is that... a female voice? The fuck?

Quinn? No, it can’t be.

She was shot.

Spinning back at the loud voices in the hallway, I realize I have a choice to make. Do it! I shove at the window frame, the last of the screws fly off, and I lean out.

“Quinn?” I whisper-yell.

“Noah!” she yells, waving at me from the bushes. “Jump. You need to get out of there. Jump!”

A guard in the distance heads toward her, and I lose all sense of self-preservation. Swinging a leg over the window ledge, I push my hands off and drop down. As I land on my feet in a crouched position, bullets rain down around me.

Fuck. Quinn.

I can’t believe she’s alive.

I need to cover her.

Before I can lift my head, I’m grabbed by the shirt and pulled into the bushes. My body lands on top of Quinn.

“Oof!” she gasps.

“Woman!” I tuck her under me and scramble further away as more shots are fired. “I need you to run. As far away as you can get.”

“Are you kidding me? I just saved you,” she cries.

“You didn’t save me. I jumped.”