Page 42 of Her Faithful Protector

“We’ll deal with them after we have the prisoners out of the line of fire,” Max said decisively. “I didn’t see any of the men go into the church, but we don’t know if some of them might have been holed up in there before we arrived.”

“I’m closest to the church, I’ll check it out,” Asher volunteered. “If it’s safe, that’s where we can take the hostages and that will be easy to defend while we take out the trash.”

“Good plan,” Max agreed.

* * *

What part of ‘keep quiet’ did Roxanne and Wendy not fucking understand? And why the hell were the others relaying their goddamn questions? If the pain in her shoulder wasn’t close to making her pass out, Camilla thought the pain in her head might actually be an aneurysm caused by stupidity!

God, I shouldn’t have said anything. What can I say to keep them quiet?

Lie.

I can damn well lie.

“The rescue won’t start until everything is silent. We only have one chance. Pass it on.” She glared at Travis as she said it. His eyes widened. He damn well better have gotten the message.

Then she heard it. The sound she’d been dreading. A bird chirping. Then, thousands of them. Oh no, how close were they to dawn? The rescue had to happen fast, otherwise, some of them were going to die, she just knew it.

Camilla tried to turn her head to the left, away from Travis, to see what was going on, but it hurt too much. Every part of her left side felt like it was on fire. This wasn’t just a dislocated shoulder, it felt like her muscles were overcooked strings of spaghetti and they were barely holding her bones in place. What happened when the muscles tore and tendons snapped?

Camilla clamped her jaws shut tight over the laugh that almost escaped. Really? You’re worried about your arm when you’re probably going to die? She’d seen El Jefe and his men; there was no way people were going to be able to overtake them.

Quit being a defeatist, Ross! You’re named after a goddamn Roman warrior! She turned her head again, then squinted her eyes and saw one of the guards sleeping in the back of the Jeep next to the satellite truck. She continued to scan the area, trying to find some of the other guards. She saw another sleeping with his head propped up against the wheel of the satellite truck.

Something caught her eye. She turned farther and hissed. She closed her eyes, willing away the bolt of fire that raced from her shoulder to her neck to her skull. When she could finally open her eyes again, she didn’t see anything except the man in the Jeep now had his arm hanging dangling outside over the car seat. Was he dead?

“Doctor Ross?”

It wasn’t Travis this time, it was Roxanne. In tiny little increments, Camilla turned her head to the right so she could look past Travis and see the girl. She didn’t respond verbally, she glared at Roxanne.

“I think I saw something,” Roxanne said.

“Absolute silence, or you’ll ruin everything. Pass it along just to Roxanne.” Camilla said the words low enough so just Travis could hear her.

If the girl had seen something, maybe she was right and the man in the Jeep really was dead. Were their rescuers silently killing El Jefe’s men just like they had killed the man who had been assaulting her? Camilla felt a surge of hope race through her.

“Doctor Ross?”

Dear God, is Roxanne even louder now?

“My phone is on the ground in front of you. What if they see it?”

There was really no help for this, was there? How in the hell could you stop it? Could she threaten to have her expelled?

Then she saw Travis whispering to Roxanne. She had no idea what he was saying, but even in this dim light, she could see Roxanne’s expression begin to shift, and soon tears were tracking down her grimy face. Travis turned back to Camilla. “She’ll be quiet now,” he said in the quietest voice imaginable.

Camilla felt like she could breathe again.

Watching her, Travis’ eyes went wide with shock. An instant later a huge hand covered her mouth.

“I’m here to help,” an American man’s voice whispered into her ear as Camilla felt her right arm cut loose. “Nod if you can stay standing.”

Camilla nodded.

He let her go.

Damn. Without the steadying influence of the rope, Camilla lurched to the side. A solid arm reached around her waist. “I’ve got you.”