“Thank you, again, for letting me tag along with you guys,” Kinley said next to him. She pulled out her wallet and opened it. “I only have two hundred dollars in cash on me. I can write you a check if it’s more than that or I can PayPal you the money.”
“It’s really no problem. And we’re not taking your money,” Shane said. “We’re headed in that direction anyway.”
“Are you sure?”
“Put your wallet away,” Ace said. “Your money’s no good with us.”
“Thank you.” She returned her wallet to her small purse. “What happened to the other guy that was supposed to be with you?”
“What other guy?” Phantom asked from behind them.
“Shane said there was a fourth person who was supposed to be on the trip, but couldn’t make it.”
“Oh. I lied.” He shifted so he partially faced Kinley. “It was pissing me off that he was giving you grief. It wasn’t costing him anything to let you ride with us.”
“Oh. Well, thank…you. Again.” A pretty blush stained the tops of her cheeks.
He grinned. “You’re welcome. Again.”
She smiled and pulled a notebook and pen out of the small backpack at her feet and flipped to the middle. Taking her cue, he glanced out the window at the passing scenery.
Shane felt Ace’s gaze and looked at him. Ace made a gesture with his hands like a plane crashing and exploding upon impact. He flipped Ace the bird.
Sneaking peeks at her during the drive, he noticed the way she pinched her bottom lip between her fingers and furrowed her brow or twirled a lock of hair around her fingers. Occasionally she jotted notes down in the margin of her notebook or flipped back and forth between pages. What was she reading? He tried to read a page out of the corner of his eye, but had a hard time figuring out what the script and block pictures meant.
About an hour into the drive, she stretched her neck side to side, closed her notebook, and returned it to her backpack. “Why…? Um, what tour are you guys taking?” she asked.
“We’re going on a freaking hike,” Phantom said.
Shane rolled his eyes. Not this again. Ace’s uneasiness with enclosed spaces had nixed Phantom’s caving suggestion and all he’d done since was complain about their walk in the woods.
“Huh?” Kinley asked.
“What Phantom means to say is that we’re taking a nice leisurely stroll to El Mirador,” Ace said. “It’s more sedate than we’re used to, but the whole purpose of the trip is to relax.” He leaned around his seat to glare at Phantom.
“I’m not sure most people would describe a six-day trek through the Guatemalan jungle as relaxing.”
“We aren’t most people,” Phantom said.
“Who are you then?” Kinley asked.
“We’re SEALs,” Ace said.
A pang of regret hit Shane deep in the gut. He heard the pride, and yeah, a little bit of conceit, in Ace’s voice.
“So you’re all in the military?”
“They’re still active duty,” Shane said. “I separated about three years ago and work in private security now.”
He hated he had to add “former” in front of SEAL when he told people about himself. His civilian job was great, but it would never compare to being a SEAL.
Kinley shifted in her seat and put her back against the window. “Is that how you all know each other?”
“Yeah,” Shane said. “We went through BUD/S training together.”
“I don’t…” Kinley shook her head. “What’s buds?”
“Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training,” Ace said. “It’s where they teach us to be badasses.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “Oh.”
“What about you, Kinley? Why are you going to Carmelita?” Ace asked from the front seat.
“I’m joining an archaeological dig at a newly discovered Mayan ruin complex.”
“You’re an archaeologist? That’s cool,” Shane said.
“Kind of. I’m a crypto archaeologist, not a dig-in-the-dirt kind of archaeologist,” she said.
“What’s a crypto archaeologist?” Phantom asked.
Shane glanced at him, surprised that he was taking an interest in their conversation.
“I decrypt and translate ancient writing and hieroglyphics,” she said.
“So you can read Egyptian hieroglyphics?” Shane asked.
“A little bit, but my specialty is ancient Mesoamerican, specifically Mayan writing.”
Smart and beautiful. With her long brown hair pulled into a ponytail, wisps framing her face, Kinley looked like the girl next door. Finding out she specialized in ancient languages was a serious turn-on.
Shane didn’t meet too many women outside his work and it was always difficult getting involved with someone from the office. His mind raced forward. How long was she in Guatemala? Where did she live in the U.S.? Would she give him her number?
No doubt, he was getting ahead of himself. She might not even be interested in him. He eked out a college degree in kinesiology because he liked to work out and figured it would help him when he joined the military. Book smart, he was not. Unfortunately, he’d always had a thing for smart women.
“Uh. Guys,” Ace said as the van slowed to a stop.
Shane bent and peered through the windshield, feeling, rather than seeing, Phantom do the same behind him.
Four men stood in the middle of the hard-packed dirt road. Three of them held guns and the other held a machete.
“What the hell?” Shane asked.
“Banditos,” the driver said.
Kinley gaped at the scene in front of her. “What…? How…?” She couldn’t form an articulate question, much less ask it. “This is one of the most traversed roads in the country.”
The men in the road yelled and gestured.
“They want us to get out of the car,” Jorge said, unlatching his seat belt.
Ace grabbed his arm. “Hang on a sec.” He glanced over his shoulder at Shane and Phantom.
Kinley looked at them, eyes wide. Why was he waiting? What other option did they have except get out of the car and do whatever the bandits told them to do?
She caught the look Shane shared with Ace, followed by his head tilt in her direction. “Let’s do what they say.”
“You know we can take them,” Phantom said.
Shane turned toward the sliding door and looked at Phantom. “Not with civilians in the line of fire.” He slid the door open and eased out of the van, holding his hands away from his body.
“Shit. After you,” Phantom said.
Kinley spared him a quick glance and then scooted across the bench seat, taking the hand Shane held out to help her from the van. He pulled her behind him and used a hand on her hip to keep her there while he sidestepped away from the vehicle. Phantom languidly unfolded his large frame from the van and ambled over to them as if they’d stopped to enjoy the scenery and not because they were held up at gunpoint.
Ace joined them as the driver rounded the hood.
“You see what kind of guns they have?” Shane asked in a low voice.
“Yup,” Ace said. “Standard issue M16.”
Needing something to do with her hands, Kinley gripped the back of Shane’s shirt. What did it matter what kind of guns they had? They were guns. She swallowed hard and tried to control her breathing. It probably wouldn’t help their situation if she started hyperventilating. They might be used to having guns pointed at them, but she wasn’t. Not exactly the experience she was hoping to have on this trip.
“We doing this?” Phantom asked.
“Let’s see what they want first,” Shane replied.
What? Doing what? She was so lost.
One of the men gestured with his gun and spoke in Spanish.
“He said to stop talking and move away from the van,” Jorge said.
Following the instructions, they moved to the side of the road. Two of the men stayed with them while the other two opened the back of the van and
rummaged through the luggage, throwing bags and miscellaneous boxes out of the cargo area.
She leaned her head against Shane’s broad back. As long as they didn’t take her laptop or note book, it would be fine. All her work over the last year was in her laptop. She had backups on her cloud drive, but didn’t hold out hope that she’d be able to access them while in the jungle, which was why she’d brought it with her. Her notebook had all her notes and research—it was the whole basis to her research. Clothes and shoes and the little bit of makeup was replaceable, but her work was not.
One of the men behind the van shouted something and one of the two in front of their group reached around Shane to grab Kinley.
“Hey!” Shane pushed the guy away.
Kinley stumbled back and hit the ground with a low grunt. She didn’t know if she’d been knocked down in the scuffle or shoved out of the way, but she curled into as small a ball as possible and hoped she wouldn’t be trampled.
A shot rang out. She flinched, squeezing her eyes closed, and curled even tighter, holding her head to her chest with her hands. Shouting in English and Spanish was followed by two more gunshots. Then…silence.
Chapter 3
Kinley’s heart pounded in her chest and she swore she could feel the vibration against her chin.
“Please. Please. Please.” She didn’t know what she was pleading for. For it to be over. For no one to be shot. For Shane, Ace, and Phantom to not be dead.
That last one was selfish, but she didn’t want to be left alone with a group of bandits who wanted who knew what. There had only been three shots. Three guys—three shots. What else was she supposed to think?
Feet scuffed next to her head and she tensed.
“Kinley?”
She released her hands and lifted her head, blinking up at Shane squatting next to her.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“No. Are you?” She unfurled and glanced around. The bodies of the bandits lay on the ground and she could see blood under at least one of them.
She swallowed hard. “Are they…?”
“No. Only knocked out,” he said matter-of-factly.
Was he telling the truth or telling her what he thought she wanted to hear?
He wrapped a large hand around her arm and helped her stand. “We need to go. The driver’s hit.”
A little light-headed, she let him lead her to the van. Jorge lay across the seat she had previously occupied. “Is he…?”
“No, but we need to get him medical attention quickly. I need you to help Ace get the bleeding under control.”
She blanched and stopped at the door of the van, shaking her head. “I don’t know what to do. I barely know basic first aid.”
“Ace will tell you what he needs.” He helped her up into the back and slammed the door closed behind her.
Kneeling in front of the seat, her back to the driver and passenger seats, she stared down at the driver. There was a lot of blood. He groaned and rolled his head.
“Try to get him to stay still,” Ace said from the back row.
She nodded. “Okay.” She could do that. Gently touching his shoulder, she made shushing noises and told him to be still.
Ace leaned over the seat and ripped open Jorge’s shirt, pressing a large wad of cloth over a wound on the side of his abdomen. There was another wound high on the right side of his chest.
“Hold this.” He took her hand and placed it over the cloth. “Press hard.”
The driver groaned as she applied pressure and she snatched her hand away.
Ace grabbed her hands and stacked them on top of each other over the cloth, pressing down. “It’s going to hurt him, but we need to stop the bleeding. Press hard.” He searched her eyes and nodded, asking if she understood.
“Okay,” she whispered. Trying to remember her high school biology, she hoped the bullet hadn’t hit anything vital. Studying hieroglyphics and dead languages had not prepared her for this.
Grabbing the driver’s pants, Ace bent the driver’s knees so his feet were on the seat and tilted his legs so they rested against the back of the seat.
“This first aid kit sucks,” he said. “Did either of you bring your IFAK?”
She glanced over her shoulder at Shane and Phantom, sucking in a breath when she caught a glimpse of the butt of a rifle in the crook of Phantom’s arm. They hit a bump and she fell to the side, hitting the arm rest.
“Nope,” Shane said from the driver’s seat.
“Walk in the woods, remember?” Phantom asked.
Kinley righted herself and reapplied pressure over the wound.
“Right,” Ace muttered, then looked at her. “I don’t suppose you have an IFAK?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what that is.”
“Individual First Aid Kit. Has all the basics for combat wounds.” He looked down at whatever he had on the seat next to him. “All this kit has is Band-Aids and gauze.”
“Do the best you can. I think we’re ten to fifteen minutes from Carmelita,” Shane said. “Hopefully they have at least a clinic and can get him back to Flores quickly.”
“Do you have anything plastic?” Ace asked. “Like a sandwich bag.”
“I have the bag my apple was in.” What did he need with a sandwich bag?
Ace put his hands over hers. “Let go.”
She pulled her hands from the wound as he took over applying pressure.
“Let me have the bag,” he said.
She dug through her pack and pulled out the bag with the core.
“Switch back,” he said.
She handed him the bag and watched while he dumped the apple core out. “Lift your hands.” He removed the bandages and placed the plastic square over the chest wound, taping the sides down with band aids.
“That will have to do for now.” He replaced the bloody bandage. “Keep applying pressure.”
“I don’t understand how this could happen,” Kinley said. “This is one of the most used tourist routes in the country.”
“It can happen anywhere,” Phantom said. “Desperate people do desperate things.”
Maybe, but she still didn’t understand what had made them desperate enough to try to hold up a tourist group. The van was clearly marked with the company’s logo. She’d heard of westerners being kidnapped for ransom in countries like Colombia and Venezuela, but nothing like that had come up when she’d been researching this trip.
The van slowed almost to a full stop before taking a sharp left and speeding up again. Glancing out the window, she glimpsed wood fences and corrugated tin roofs bordering the road. The van slowed again as the buildings got closer together.
“There,” Phantom said.
Kinley jerked as the van veered to the left and stopped suddenly. Both front doors opened, followed quickly by the side door. Phantom jumped out and rushed into the building they’d parked in front of.
Shane motioned for her to get out and she scrambled out on her hands and knees, moving quickly to the side as he and Ace lifted the driver out and carried him into the building. She followed and her eyes struggled to adjust to the dim interior of the clapboard building.
A short woman gesticulated and spoke loudly in Spanish while they laid the driver on a bare gurney.
“She says there’s no doctor here and we have to…go to Flores,” Kinley said. “I think. My Spanish isn’t very good.”
“He won’t make it back to Flores,” Shane said.
Phantom and Ace rummaged through drawers and cabinets. “I’ve got saline and an IV. And a fourteen gauge,” Ace said.
“Antiseptic,” Phantom said. “Nothing stronger than acetaminophen, though.”
“Let’s get a line started,” Ace said.
“What can I do?” Kinley watched the men work, seemingly knowing what to do without discussion, and felt useless. She didn’t want to get in the way, but if there was something she could do to help, she wanted to do it.
“Keep pressure on the woun
d on his side while they work,” Shane said. “I need to make a call.”
Shane stepped outside the building away from the woman still yelling at them in Spanish and called the office.
“This is Graham.”
“It’s Shane.” He paced back and forth in front of the door, scanning from one end of the road to the other.
“What do you need?” he asked.
Graham was the reason he’d signed on with Leonidas in the first place and the reason he stayed, even though he was feeling restless.
“I need medevac in Carmelita, Guatemala. An air ambulance would be ideal.”
“For you or someone else?” Graham asked.
Shane could hear the keys of a keyboard clicking away while he gave Graham a quick rundown of the attack and driver’s injuries.
“Air ambulance is thirty minutes out. Can you stabilize the driver that long?”
Shane inhaled. “We’ll do our best.”
“Do you think it was random or were you targeted?” he asked.
“I don’t think this was about Leonidas.” Something was off about the attack, though. They’d focused on Kinley from the beginning.
“All right. Stay alert and let me know if you need anything else.”
“Head on a swivel.” Shane ended the call and scanned the road again.
It was wide and ran from one end of the town to the other, which made sense as it was also used as a landing strip for small aircraft. Getting back in the van, Shane moved it to the side of the block of buildings. Graham hadn’t said whether the air ambulance was fixed-wing or rotary, but he hoped it would land as close to the clinic as possible.
Walking back in the clinic, he found Kinley sitting on a low stool, staring at her hands while Ace and Phantom fiddled with the IV line.
“Evac is on the way. How is he?”
Kinley looked up. “They stuck a needle in his chest.”
Her skin was pale, making the circles under her eyes appear more bluish while her pupils were so wide, he could barely see the green of her irises.
Found in the Lost Page 2
