Page 46 of Her Faithful Protector

Roxanne’s eyes welled up with tears. Camilla remembered how she had said she talked more when she was scared, but she really didn’t have the capacity to care at the moment. Every time she heard another gunshot outside the church, Camilla got scared so the young woman was just going to have to learn to cope.

Suddenly Travis was crouched down in front of her. “Here, I got you another bottle of water.”

“It’s okay, I haven’t finished mine,” Camilla held up the half-full bottle. She flinched as she heard another spurt of gunfire and then pulled the cloth closer around herself.

“Okay, I’ll go check on the others and see who needs some,” Travis said. She couldn’t turn her head to watch him go up the aisle. Instead, her gaze remained on the back of the church as she tried to drown out the sounds from outside and push away her physical pain. She started her breathing exercises: take a deep breath of pure pain-free air in through the mouth and hold it. Then blow out the pain-filled air through the mouth.

Again.

Again.

She gasped in a deep breath, spoiling her rhythm as she saw the church door open. The firefight was still going on. Who was coming inside? As soon as she saw the arm with the black t-shirt, she knew. She knew.

El Jefe. He swung his rifle so that it encompassed everyone in the church.

Lisa was resting against the holy water font at the front of the church. She jerked up and the man immediately spotted her. He grinned as he grabbed her by the hair.

“Hello, beautiful,” he purred in Spanish. Another man came in behind them.

“El Jefe, this isn’t a safe place to hide.” His voice was panicked.

“We’re not hiding, Raoul. We are now going to be negotiating.” He raised the fist holding Lisa’s hair higher and higher so that she was soon standing on her tiptoes. She whimpered in pain.

“Everyone stand up,” he yelled out in English. “If you don’t, I’ll gut the girl, then I’ll start randomly shooting you. I just need one hostage to get out of here alive, so I don’t care who the hell I kill. You better play nice.”

Even with this kind of threat, Camilla still didn’t have the capability to turn her head and look behind her, so she just stood up and prayed that the others would as well. She saw the door open just a little, and when Maria slid in, her blood turned to ice. The woman gave a broad smile.

“Leon,” she purred as she sidled up to El Jefe and put her arm around his waist. “Hiding has never looked like so much fun.”

* * *

“The church doors won’t open,” Nic heard Raiden say over his receiver. “Asher, did you tell the kids to bar the door?”

“I didn’t tell them shit. I should have.”

“If I start banging on it, then that draws attention to the church and it becomes a target. How many kidnappers are we down to?”

“Five,” Max answered.

“Raiden, I don’t see you from my viewpoint,” Zed chimed in. “But I do see a side door on the north side of the building.”

“I’ll move there,” Raiden said.

“I’m with you. I’ll be there soon,” Asher chimed in. “If it’s locked, I’ll blow it.”

Nic figured that could work, there hadn’t been much activity going on in the north side of the village for the last ten minutes, so there was a good chance no kidnappers were there. Asher was their demolitions expert; it was amazing what he could accomplish with the tiniest amount of C-4.

“Why not blow the front door?” Ezio asked. He was clearly impatient. Nothing new there.

“Absolutely not. I left some of the students close to the front of the church. God knows where they are now,” Asher exclaimed.

“Side door it is,” Max stated, shutting down the conversation.

Goddammit, it was shitty luck that nobody had had eyes on the front of the church. How many assholes had gotten in there? What were they doing?

“I’ve got my eyes on three houses. One of the doors is shut. I’m thinking some of the kidnappers could be inside,” Nic said.

“That’s my take too,” Cullen agreed. “Which houses are you looking at, Nic?”