If Duardo had not been here....
His hand lifted from her mouth and, moving slowly, tugged on her ear lobe. Listen.
She listened.
From far away, she heard a choppy sound she had only ever heard on television and in the movies. A helicopter. Nick and maybe Calli too. Even as she heard it, it seemed to grow louder. It was echoing oddly and she realized the echo was the sound of the helicopter bouncing off mountains. It meant Nick was flying low.
Why low? And why, if it Nick was here, was Duardo standing so still up against a tree?
She listened again and this time heard a flat, irregular snuffling or shuffling sound from not far off. Something or someone was moving through the forest. Moving carefully, or the sounds would have been more regular. Either they didn’t know that Minnie and Duardo were there, or else they were really bad at moving silently through the forest.
That gave her an insight into Duardo’s thinking. Regular Vistarian army had forest and jungle warfare drilled into them from basic training onwards. Duardo had described some of his brutal training and survival courses and he had gone through fairly typical training. Regular soldiers wouldn’t be so bad at sneaking through a jungle.
These weren’t regular soldiers and they wouldn’t be civilians. Not here. Insurrectos then.
Duardo’s hand moved down to his hip. He slid his gun out. Against her shoulders she could feel his chest move as he breathed. Slow and even.
The noise of the helicopter seemed to leap in volume. It became loud, the only thing to be heard. Then, unbelievably louder, came the ratcheting stutter of what had to be some sort of mounted machine gun.
Farther away, beneath the noise, she heard shouting. More than one person then.
“Me cago en Dios!” Duardo breathed, stiffening. He stepped away from the tree, turning her loose. There was no danger of him being heard. The noise of the helicopter was thudding in her ears and the machine gun fire, though intermittent, was a roar that swallowed even the helicopter sounds. Where did they have it? Stuffed behind a tree?
Duardo gave her a small push. “Run for the edge of the trees, Minnie and don’t look around.”
She took off. Panic was a marvelous inducement. She flew along, skimming over vines and logs, pushing off with her toes for an extra burst of speed. Thank God she’d put on joggers this morning and not sandals. She reached the brilliant sunlight and halted, hugging a tree and gasping. Ahead was a camping area, about a mile across and two miles wide, empty of everything but grass. Above it, moving in a steep circle, was the helicopter. There were white lines racing toward it and Minnie realized she was watching bullets from the machine gun fire at the helicopter. Nick was turning in a circle to duck the bullets.
Duardo pushed up against her from behind and looked over her shoulder.
“There.” She pointed.
He nodded. “He won’t land, not until he knows we’re here.” He took a deep breath. “I will go out. Do not come out into the open until I wave you on. Then you run for the helicopter as fast as you can. Do not look around, Minnie. I will be watching your back. Okay?”
There was no time for questions. For anything. She nodded, unable to catch her breath enough to answer.
Duardo ran out into the open in a slow jog, his gaze on the helicopter. His gun was in his hand. Immediately, the craft dropped down, rushing toward Duardo. The descent was so steep it looked like the helicopter had lost power, but the roar of the engine assured her it had not.
Minnie heard a shout from far inside the forest. The machine gun fell abruptly silent. Nick was too low for the gun to sight him now. The shout alerted Duardo, who looked over his shoulder.
He glanced at her and waved.
Minnie took off. She had no idea where the energy came from, but from somewhere she found the power and wind to run at a full sprint. She reached Duardo. “Keep going!” he shouted, letting her pass him.
He was protecting her back.
From the edge of the forest she heard more shouting. They were being pursued now.
The helicopter touched down barely ten feet in front of her and the door was thrown open. She saw Calli inside, scrambling into the back, leaving the passenger seat open. Nick at the controls, watching her, his face tight and emotionless. Calculating.
She missed the step and scraped her shin against the door. White agony flared briefly. She held in a sob and scrambled again, up into the seat.
“Down!” Nick roared.
Minnie threw herself across the front seat. There was no arguing with the command in his voice. She glanced over her shoulder. There were three men heading for Duardo as he ran to the helicopter.
She was in the front seat and in his way. She had to make room for him. She got up, intending to climb over to the back like Calli.
“Minnie, no, stay down,” Nick said sharply.
There was a sharp noise, almost like a miniature thunderclap. She heard Duardo give a hard exhalation and the cabin shivered as he fell against it. Then the full weight of him landed on her back and legs.
He was surprisingly heavy.
Nick let go of the controls, picked Minnie up around the waist and almost threw her into the back. She spun on the seat, alarm only just starting to filter through her adrenaline-clogged system.
Then Nick grabbed Duardo, a hand under each arm, and hauled him into the seat. He lunged over the top of him and snagged the door and shut it.
“Stay down!” Nick roared.
Calli pulled her down again, but Minnie was already hunkering. The helicopter lifted and she could feel it moving, but she was more concerned with getting around the seats to check on Duardo. He was very silent.
There was a sharp crack! Minnie identified it correctly—she was already learning how to catalogue warfare. It was the sound of a bullet breaking glass.
“Calli!” Nick said.
“What?”
“Pull off your T-shirt. Get it behind him, put pressure on it. Hurry!”
An instant chill spread through Minnie from her head to her toes. “NO! Duardo!” She pulled Calli aside and wriggled her upper body through the seats. Duardo was sprawled in the front seat, his chin on his chest. His eyes were closed. Minnie shook him. “Duardo...?” It was a choked whisper, the best she could manage. What to do? What to do? God, why didn’t she know what to do?
Calli’s hands were on her waist, tugging at her. Minnie tried to resist, but her athletic cousin almost picked her up and slammed her against the back wall. Calli’s eyes were very large, her face white. “I have to get to him,” she said. She pushed through the seats, leaning on the console in the middle, her legs still dangling in the back and reached for Duardo.
Minnie lay stunned. Why didn’t she know what to do? Why couldn’t she help him? Why did everyone else around her have a role and know what was needed? She had never felt so afraid or useless in her life.
“No!” Calli shouted. “No!”
Nick dropped a hand onto Calli’s shoulder. “Let Minnie through,” he said.
Minnie closed her eyes. She knew instinctively why Nick was saying that. There was nothing else Calli could do.
There was a wail, a childish cry of protest, building in her. But if she could do nothing else here, she could at least maintain control until it was safe. Until Duardo would no longer need her.
Calli’s voice was muffled by the seat as she responded to Nick’s command that Minnie be let through. “No. I get the pad on, we get him somewhere where they can do something. Something more.”
“Calli,” Duardo said. His voice was weak. So weak. “La dama fuerte,” he said. The nickname the army had given Calli, who had saved one of their own. Who had saved Duardo. “Thank you for not letting go.”
Then Nick was pulling her aside. Minnie pushed past her and curled around the seat. She was small enough that she could perch on the console and almost lay across his lap. She smoothed his brow, kissed him and patted his shoulder. For a moment the huge wave of feelings almo
st spilled from her. She fought it, pummeled it back deeper. But then, no words would come at all.
Useless. Useless. You can’t even comfort the man you love when he’s dying.
Duardo ruffled her hair. “I regret...” He closed his eyes, took a slow, struggling breath. “English...agh,” he whispered. Then, “Nick?”
Behind her, Nick said quietly, “Sí, Duardo?”
“Dígala yo estaba equivocado...Si yo no había insistido a hacer mi deber entonces yo habría tenido la alegría de es su esposo. Aún un solo día...yo habría sido orgulloso.”
He was staring into her eyes. And she didn’t have to understand the Spanish to know what he was saying. He had said it all in the forest anyway—I will give up my life for you, if you go on.
The tears came then, tearing at her throat, burning her eyes.
Nick translated. “Minnie, he said, ‘Tell her I was wrong. If I had not insisted on doing my duty then I would have had the joy of being her husband—’”
Duardo smiled and his eyes closed. His head rolled gently one side.
Minnie held back everything but a pathetic noise that escaped her. She had to hear the rest.
“‘Even a single day...I would have been proud.’” Nick’s voice was thick, flat.
Minnie buried her head against Duardo’s chest, holding him. It was too much, too overwhelming. For a long while, her mind walked in far-off places, escaping to be with Duardo just a little longer.
Chapter Three
“When the helicopter landed,” Minnie told Calli as she drained the last of her coffee, “I could feel Nick pulling me away. I didn’t want to let go of Duardo but, well....” She shrugged and wiped away the last traces of tears that had flowed as she related the story of their forest dash to Calli. Calli had been there and seen it all herself. She didn’t need to explain what happened in the helicopter.
“That was the last time I saw him, but I swear, Calli, I swear on whatever the hell deity you want to call up, I wasn’t hysterical by then. I wasn’t even upset. It had all gelled over. There was a moment in the helicopter when I could feel it all pushing at me, when I could have let the hysteria out, but I didn’t because I wanted to hold it together for Duardo’s sake. You know?”
Calli gave her a soft smile. “Strangely, yes, I do know exactly what you mean. I’ve had moments like that myself.”
“So when I was lying with Duardo, all I was doing was being with him. Taking in all and every sensation, feeling it all, storing it all up to remember later, because I knew that was all I was ever going to get. I wanted to remember the feel of him against me, right then, for the rest of my life. So I was taking notice of everything. It was only later on the yacht when Nick brought us over to Mexico, that I put it all together and it occurred to me that Duardo’s body was too hot for someone who had died at least thirty minutes before.”
“How would you know how fast a body cools off?”
Minnie could feel her cheeks warm. “I used to have a thing for Ice-T.”
Calli figured it out with a chuckle. “You mean Law and Order: Special Victims Unit? You used to watch that?”
“Compulsively.”
Calli’s chuckle faded as she looked over Minnie’s shoulder. Minnie turned around. Carmen had strolled onto the balcony, the college jock trailing her.
Minnie could feel her defenses slamming into place. Just what was it about Carmen that got her back up so fast? Everyone except Nick openly adored her. She was stunningly beautiful and from the little Minnie had seen and heard, so smart she made professors blush. She had graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Law School with a double degree in politics and law, and her English was perfect. Men fell all over themselves for her.
Perhaps that was it. Carmen used that power to the hilt. But she wasn’t using it right now because the jock looked less than happy with her as he hovered near the door to the balcony.
Carmen came right up to them, stalking with a model’s grace, tossing the waist-length bronzed waves of lustrous hair from her shoulder. “I see you managed to clear the decks,” she told Minnie. “Not exactly what you were after, huh?”
Minnie straightened her spine. She was sitting on a backless bench, so it didn’t put her on higher ground when Carmen stood about six inches taller than her in the first place. “I hardly think it’s any of your business, Carmen.”
“No?” Carmen folded her hands and thrust out a hip. “Let me see, my father, who was the elected President of Vistaria, was assassinated by insurrectos who are now driving what’s left of the population into poverty and slavery as they try to run the country the way they think it should go. You’re living in my uncle’s house and trying to twist Nick’s arm into sending in a couple of commando teams to rescue one soldier who’s probably dead and if he isn’t, no one knows where he is anyway.” She held up an elegant finger with a long black-lacquered fingernail. “Oh, except he’s inside a country overrun with zealots who shoot first to save themselves the asking later. Nick won’t send anyone into Vistaria to save living people anymore—it’s too risky. But you’re still insisting anyway and jostling his elbow with it while he’s trying to keep what’s left of the real Vistaria held together and working to win back our country. And you’re not even Vistarian. You’re a...Californian!” She said it with the rich prejudice of an eastern Ivy-league educated snob.
“Carmen, really....” Calli murmured. “That’s not fair.”
“No? Which part of what I said isn’t completely true?”
“I didn’t say anything about truth. I said fair.”
“Truth often isn’t fair. Haven’t you noticed?” But Carmen was watching Minnie as she said it. “Is there any part of that that isn’t any of my interest, Minnie-mouse?”
Minnie could feel a dull anger throbbing in her gut and her temples. “Are you enjoying yourself, Carmen?”
“Immensely.” Carmen dropped her pose and took another step forward. She leaned down toward Minnie as if she were about to share a treasured confidence. “Don’t you know anything about how to get a man to do what you want? Screaming at him isn’t the way.”
Minnie jumped to her feet, furious.
Carmen threw herself backward, staggering a step or two, to stay out of the way of Minnie’s thrusting head.
Minnie stalked toward her, too pissed to even care that she had to tip her head back to look Carmen in the eye. “I’ve had enough of you, you arrogant bitch. You and every boy toy you drag in here with you. You think you know how to manipulate men? You haven’t got a fucking clue!”
“Minnie!” Calli breathed, sounding shocked. But there was laughter in her voice she was clearly trying to hold back.
“La concha de tu hermana!” Carmine screamed.
This time even the jock sucked in a breath, proving he wasn’t as dumb as he looked. He knew his way around Spanish anyway.
“Who’s the fucking bitch?” Minnie cried. “You’re the one that uses men to try to make Nick mad. You think you’ve got a clue? You’ve got no idea at all. You’re a petty little girl. And your Furstenberg shirt is a cheap knock-off. Don’t think I didn’t notice.”
Carmen’s face reddened. “You little whore! I’ll have your guts for garters, I swear!”
Calli tugged at her arm. “Enough, Minnie. God, that’s enough.”
“What is going on here?” It was Nick’s voice, chillingly sharp.
Carmen spun around and Minnie saw Nick was standing at the door to the balcony, his arms crossed. Her father stood behind him, his eyes wide as he glanced from Carmen to her.
Minnie stayed silent. Let Carmen hang herself. She didn’t give a damn.
Carmen straightened to her full height, her hands on both hips. Defiant. “We were just talking.”
Nick nodded. “And now you’ve finished. Find something else to do, Carmen.”
Carmen’s expression hardened. “How dare you—”
“Now,” Nick said. He didn’t say it particularly loud, but it throbbed with undeniable
authority.
Her lips thinned, but she turned and headed for the door. When she was level with him, Nick grabbed her arm. “Do not ever again use that sort of gutter language when speaking to someone in my household. Do you hear me?” Still he did not raise his voice. But Minnie shivered anyway.
Carmen looked him in the eye for a moment as if she intended to argue the matter. Then she gave a sniff and walked over to where the jock hovered by the door. As she passed the small bar she picked up a sealed, full bottle of scotch and tucked it under her arm. She glanced at Nick as she did so, daring him to comment.
But he simply watched her leave, dragging the jock with her.
Josh pushed past Nick and hurried over to Minnie. “For god’s sake, Minnie, what were you thinking? She’s just lost her father, her country, her home. Don’t you have any feelings at all?”
Minnie sank back onto the bench, only then realizing she was trembling. “I know,” she said tiredly. Why had she let it rip, right at that moment? It wasn’t like Carmen hadn’t irritated her all along.
Calli dropped onto the bench with her. “It was the men comment, wasn’t it?” she said softly.
Awareness flooded Minnie. She nodded as the last few minutes shifted and meanings became clear. She had blown her stack because Carmen had been right. Minnie did know exactly how to deal with men. How to woo them, how to get them to do what she wanted. It had come naturally to her.
So what had happened to change that? Why was she going at Nick like a pit bull instead of using guile? She’d once known how to do it perfectly.
“I guess I just haven’t been myself for a while, have I?” she said to Calli who patted her hand.
Josh pushed his hand through his graying, wavy hair. “Well, will you please start behaving like you, then? We’re guests in this house and you just insulted the daughter of the President, for God’s sake.”
“Josh, leave Minnie alone. It wasn’t her fault,” Nick said. He’d come up beside them, moving silently. “Carmen has been provoking Minnie since she arrived. My niece grew up in a household where she was the only female. Sharing attention doesn’t suit her.”
Black Heart Page 3
