by Debra Webb
His heart dropped into his gut when he looked over at Victoria. She dragged Salvadore's lifeless body toward the monastery's open doorway. Lucas's gaze swung back to the gate. Still clear. He scanned the top of the crumbling wall for as far as he could see. If these bastards scaled the wall, he and Victoria would be in trouble.
Lucas didn't dare call out to his wife and risk drawing the enemy's attention to her. All the while monitoring the perimeter, he held his breath as he gauged her struggle with the man's weight. The sky grew darker with every passing moment. The night would work to their advantage once they were all safely inside. For now, he needed to keep a distance apart from Victoria in order to draw the fire his way if their assailants regrouped and reengaged.
Cell phone service was sketchy at best. Calling for help would be all but impossible.
Victoria hauled the fallen guide through the entrance of the ramshackle structure that was their only sanctuary. Thank God. Lucas pulled in a breath. He couldn't measure how badly Salvadore was injured. Very, judging by the broad, dark pattern of blood on the ground.
Lucas listened for movement beyond the walls. Nothing. His muscles tensed in preparation to make a run for the monastery door. Still quiet.
Go!
He rushed for the entrance. Two rapid blasts splintered the quiet. Lucas hit the ground. Rolled. He fired once at the gate. The darkness was too thick now to see the gunmen, but their shots had come from that direction. Staying low, he scrambled for the doorway. A third shot plowed into the earth next to him. He dove for the floor inside the monastery. The echo of another shot followed him inside.
"I've slowed the bleeding," Victoria called out. "His pulse is still strong."
Lucas pushed to his feet and moved toward the sound of Victoria's voice. By the time he reached her side, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness well enough to make out hers and Salvadore's forms.
"How bad is it?" Lucas knelt beside the man's still body.
Victoria held her cell phone over the man's exposed abdomen. The dim glow from the screen provided sufficient light for Lucas to see that the entrance wound appeared low enough not to have hit a lung or his heart, but it could have hit other major organs that could prove life threatening.
"Judging by the exit wound," Victoria said quietly, "I'm hopeful. The head wound was the biggest source of the bleeding." The light roved upward. A plug of his scalp was missing but the bullet appeared to have only grazed his head.
Lucas placed a hand on his wife's arm. "Find a place to hide. Do what you can to keep him alive." The rooms and corridors they had explored on the tour they'd taken reeled through his mind, but he couldn't recall a particularly good hiding spot. "I'm going up to the bell tower. I don't have enough ammunition for a proper defense but I'll hold them back as long as possible. I can try to pick them off one at a time if they come over that wall."
Victoria touched his face, her trembling fingers trailing across his jaw. "Be careful,
Lucas. We still have much to do."
He couldn't see the fear in her eyes but he could hear it in her voice. He grabbed her and kissed her hard and fast. "And we'll do it all," he promised.
He and Victoria had known each other for more than thirty years. He didn't have to spell it out to her. They were in trouble. Whatever these bastards wanted, leaving survivors would not be a part of their plan.
The narrow winding steps that led to the bell tower were uneven and crumbling. Lucas stumbled twice before reaching the top. Moonlight melted down the walls surrounding the monastery. The sallow glow allowed him a degree of surveillance. He'd fired four shots, leaving eleven in the clip. He reached beneath the hem of his trouser leg and touched the bulge in his sock. A second clip waited there. It wasn't much but he was damned glad he never failed to prepare for the unexpected even after retirement. And even on vacation. The training was ingrained far too deep.
Victoria hadn't been pleased when he'd met with a private arms source after arriving in Mexico. Since traveling by air with weapons was near impossible, he'd armed himself upon arriving. They couldn't travel via the Colby Agency jet because it would have nullified their carefully arranged plans to remain anonymous. It wasn't a perfect world and unfortunately such steps were necessary. If he'd had any doubts, this ambush proved his analysis.
A shadow passed the gate. Lucas took aim. "Come on, amigos." He hadn't gotten a good look at the two men, but he felt relatively certain they were Hispanic. Americans, whether traveling on business or for pleasure, were often targets of kidnap-and-ransom schemes. Evidently someone had seen through the security precautions Lucas and Victoria had taken and thought they were good targets.
A woman's image flashed through his mind. He shook off the idea. He had to have been mistaken. If she was even still alive. Why would she be here? And if somehow she were, she had no bones to pick with Lucas. She had provided intelligence to him from time to time, for a price. They had shared a brief physical encounter. End of story. This ambush would have nothing to do with her.
Another image elbowed the woman from Lucas's thoughts. Keaton. Fury boiled to an instant simmer in Lucas's gut. Victoria would dismiss the notion that he was involved in this. But every strand of DNA in Lucas's being screamed at him to beware the man. His suspicions remained as yet unproven but the facts were shaking loose, slowly but surely.
Right now, however, he zeroed in on the shadowy movement atop the east wall. Survival was the single relevant factor. His forefinger tightened on the trigger of his 9 mm. A fierce pop reverberated around him. The shadow dropped to the ground inside the perimeter of the wall.
The tension eased in Lucas's muscles. He scanned the courtyard, then the wall and finally the gate. There was no way to guess how many assailants were out there. Two at
least. His position provided a full 360 view of the wall and the grounds around the two structures. The old well, the mesquite tree and two half walls that had once divided the courtyard provided potential cover for the enemy. No matter how long this standoff lasted, Lucas couldn't afford the slightest hesitation in his monitoring. Sharp focus was the key.
He prayed Victoria had found a decent hiding spot. If the worst happened, he wanted her protected. Without a weapon, her wits were her only means of defense.
Lucas would lay odds on her wits any day.
Chapter Four
Victoria's heart thumped as the sound of gunfire faded. She prayed Lucas had safely reached the bell tower. She listened for any indication that the gunmen had invaded the walls. The wind whipped furiously, a chilling score to the otherwise silent night.
Leaning close to Salvadore, she whispered, "I'm going to look for a place we can hide. Lie still. I'll be back soon." Leaving him was a difficult choice, but there was no other option. Finding some level of protection was necessary. As far as she could determine, Salvadore was not conscious, but just in case, she wanted him to know that she was not abandoning him.
As she moved through the darkness, she used her hands and her memory of what she'd seen on the tour to guide her. Each step she made was carefully placed. Reserving the battery in her cell phone was essential. Though on last check the phone was useless as far as making a call, the small amount of light it provided could prove invaluable.
She paused at the narrow pathway that led up to the bell tower. Her lips compressed to prevent calling out to her husband. Sparing the time to go up and check on him could cost far more in the end. He didn't need the distraction. Lucas was counting on her to do what needed to be done. Victoria cautiously continued. If she could find a place to hide Salvadore, perhaps then she could help Lucas.
Without a weapon? Frustration burrowed deep in her chest. There was little she could do beyond this immediate task. As she moved along each corridor and through each room, she roved her hands over the walls in search of a nook large enough to provide concealment. There were no closets as far as she recalled. A storeroom near the kitchen was too open. She moved on to the kitchen, the largest space
near the back of the rundown structure.
A rustic and decaying wooden cabinet lined one wall of the kitchen. The open shelves were bare save for dust. The walls were the same cracked and crumbling adobe as all the others. She hesitated in her search, her fingers tracing over the same spot twice, then three times. There was a crack but it was far wider than most of the others. She followed the path of the wider crack. Less than two feet across the top then the narrow divide diverted downward for maybe four feet to the floor. After listening for any sound and checking the open portals that served as windows, Victoria lit the screen of her cell phone to study the anomaly with the aid of its faint light. There was little difference between the cracks, but the pattern—once she scrutinized it at length—appeared to be deliberate. No hinges or handles were visible.
Exasperation tugged at Victoria's brow as she allowed the screen to go black. She tried to dig her fingers into the crack enough to pry at the wall it dissected. The section inside the perimeter of the crack shifted but didn't open. Then she pushed. The wall moved inward. She pushed it as far as it would go then crouched down to peer inside. A touch to the cell phone's screen awakened it once more. There was no floor beyond the oddly jagged door. She leaned forward and looked down. Narrow, steep stairs led downward into the darkness.
Carefully, Victoria eased onto the top stone tread. After inspecting the back of the makeshift door she found rusty hinges and a handle of sorts. With a deep breath for determination, she closed the doorlike section of wall. She sat and scooted downward, one dusty stone step at a time. The walls around the area were stone. A secret cellar? Maybe. It might very well have been necessary to conceal supplies during raids when the monastery had been occupied. Sheer survival in this remote area likely prompted the need for a hiding place.
As she reached the final step, the dank smell filtered through her intent focus, pressing around her like a thick, sickening compress. Leaning forward she touched the floor of the room or cellar. Dirt.
A soft whimper echoed in her skull as if someone had screamed in her ear. Victoria froze.
Her hand a little unsteady, she held up the phone and nudged the screen to life with her thumb. "Who's there?”
Across the ruins of wooden barrels and decomposing boxes, a woman stared back at Victoria. Next to the woman, a small child snuggled closer in fear.
Startled, Victoria peered around the cluttered space. If the woman had any other companions they were hidden beneath the rubble. "Are you hurt?” The woman said nothing. Victoria picked her way through the mess. As she neared, the woman's breath caught as if she'd only just realized she and her child were no longer alone.
Victoria eased into a crouch. "Are you all right?"
The woman and child appeared to be Hispanic. Victoria was a little rusty but she managed to repeat the question fairly accurately in Spanish. The woman searched Victoria's face as if attempting to identify a possible threat. The light from the screen faded.
"Help me." The words were soft, weary and in English.
Victoria touched the screen, reviving the light. "Are you hurt?" She'd noticed no bruises or blood. That the woman had chosen to hide down here with her son suggested that she might be running from someone.
Taking Victoria's free hand in her trembling one, the woman pressed Victoria's palm to her belly. "The baby is coming."
Dear God. The woman's protruding belly was hard with a contraction. The child beside her, a little boy, made a distressed sound. Since the mother had spoken in English, Victoria assumed she possessed a fair command of the language. "Soon?"
"Soon," she confirmed.
Victoria didn't need the light to know this was no place for the event to occur. Then again, given the gunmen outside, this might very well be the only safe place under the circumstances. Whatever their attackers wanted, the result would not be good for anyone trapped inside.
"Water," the woman pleaded, "please. My Emilio is thirsty."
Victoria's heart ached for the child. There was bottled water in the Jeep. Outside. She patted the woman's hand reassuringly. "I'll get water for him." It was dark outside. Victoria could reach the Jeep. As long as Lucas knew to cover her. She needed to brief Lucas, get Salvadore down here, grab the water from the Jeep and then get back down here to prepare for the birth. Victoria swallowed back a rush of fear. Simple.
"Who are you?" the woman asked, her voice frail with pain.
"I'm sorry.” She should have identified herself at the outset. "My name is Victoria. My husband and I are here to see what we can do to help with the new hospital."
A low moan rose from the woman. She grabbed Victoria's hand and squeezed hard. Emilio wailed in fear.
"I heard stories about the hospital," she said, breathless from the contraction. "We have no doctor in my village. I walked here... I didn't know the work had not even begun."
Victoria felt her desperation. So many were without health care in these remote areas. How this poor woman must have felt when she walked all this way only to find a crumbling ruin.
"What's your name?" Victoria gave her hand a comforting squeeze.
"Lavina."
"I'm going for water and help, Lavina. I'll be back soon."
Victoria went through the steps in her head again—she would need Lucas's help. Move Salvadore to safety. Get the water. And bring a child into this world.
All the while praying the enemy outside the walls stayed outside the walls.
Chapter Five
Lucas didn't dare relax. Since he'd taken one man down, the enemy had been quiet. At least one was still out there. It was possible the remaining gunman could have cut and run, but Lucas felt confident he would have heard the engine of a vehicle if one had been started.
Though his full attention remained on the wall and courtyard surrounding their safety zone, a part of him was with Victoria. Had she found a place to hide? Her safety was his top priority. He'd sent a text to Sloan but the communication had failed. Cell service in the area just wasn't reliable. The Jeep was parked inside the gate, the keys likely still in the ignition, but an escape attempt was out of the question without knowing how many assailants were out there. Though it would take only one lying in wait to lose this battle.
Movement on the steps below his position pulled his attention and his aim to the opening that led into the tower. He tightened his jaw and his hold on the weapon. His gaze narrowed. A form rose from the darkness.
Victoria.
Lucas relaxed, instantly lowering his weapon. His heart thumped with equal measures relief and anxiety. If Victoria had risked leaving Salvadore and coming here, something had changed. "How is he?"
"He's conscious and talking," she said softly as she crouched down next to Lucas. "The pain is bad but he's holding up."
Lucas wished he could protect her from this. Victoria Colby-Camp had suffered far too much in her life already. She deserved peace and happiness. "How about you?" He scanned the wall and courtyard. "You holding up okay?" If only he could comfort her. He reached out and touched her cheek.
She leaned into his touch, sending that sweet, familiar warmth through him. "I'm an old hat at this." She sighed. "I would, however, prefer to be armed."
"I only have the one gun, I'm afraid. Any luck finding a place to lay low until this is under control?" He made it sound like a simple operation, but the truth was they were in serious trouble here. All the enemy had to do was wait them out. The chances of someone who might be able to lend assistance or spook the thugs coming to this remote location were zero to none. Odds of getting any sort of communication out were equally thin. They were on their own. His gut twisted with regret.
"There's a hidden cellar," Victoria explained. "It's camouflaged enough to work better than anything I expected to find."
Lucas felt a but coming. "But..he prompted.
"But," she allowed, "there are complications."
Despite the unnamed complications she already had a plan. He knew her too well to believe otherwis
e.
"A woman, Lavina, was already hiding there. She has her three-maybe-four-year-old son with her."
"Hiding here?" Lucas surveyed the perimeter once more. "Why here?"
"That's the sticky part."
The burden on his shoulders gained a couple of tons.
"She lives in a remote village and she'd heard rumors of the new hospital coming." Victoria sighed. Not a good sign. "She walked all the way here looking for medical attention. She didn't know the hospital was only in the planning stages."
"She's ill?" If she needed immediate medical attention, like Salvadore, time had just become an even greater issue.
"She's pregnant, Lucas. I don't know how long ago her labor started, but there isn't much time."
"What do you need me to do?" A new rush of adrenaline wired his muscles for action.
"There's bottled water and a first aid kit in the Jeep. I need them."
Lucas was relatively certain that a first aid kit wouldn't provide much support for birthing a child or patching up a bullet wound. The water would be good. But Victoria going after it was bad. Very bad. "It's a big risk."
"It is. But it's one I need to take. You can't leave your station. You can cover me."
He handed her the weapon. "You hold down the fort, I'll make the supply run."
Victoria pushed the weapon back at him. "You're the marksman. Between the two of us, these people's best hope for survival lies with you. I'll get the supplies."
If she thought arguing with him was going to do any good, she was wasting her time. He wasn't going to let her walk into the sights of an armed assailant. He took her hand and closed her fingers around the butt of the weapon. "Watch the wall. One already attempted to come over. And the gate."
"Lucas," she started to argue.
He hushed her debate with a kiss. As he reluctantly pulled away, he reminded her, "Cover me."
Lucas moved down the steps before she could toss out another reason he shouldn't go. In the main room he paused to check on Salvadore. "We're moving you to a hiding place shortly. You hanging in there?"
