from his arm the minute he yanked the glass plug loose. He tossed it aside and calmly unclipped her seat belt, then unclenched her fingers so he could release his buckle.
She took a couple deep breaths to calm herself, but all things considered, she wasn’t doing half bad. She was holding herself together, prepared to face whatever came next.
At least, she was until Carlos brushed her hair back out of her eyes with a tenderness that threatened to unleash the hysteria curling up her chest.
Her face must have given her away.
He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “Don’t panic. You okay?”
The kiss comforted her almost as much as seeing an army charge to the rescue. “Oui” was all her strained mind could come up with. She had to pull herself together. Now!
“Let’s go.”
“You keep saying that as if it were no big deal and it only gets worse.” She scrunched her nose at the acrid smell left from the smoke screen they had broken through.
“Don’t make any sudden moves.” He lifted his cell phone, listened, sighed, and stuck it in his pants pocket. She had no idea where his weapon came from, but he had a lethal-looking gun in his hand again when he stepped out of the truck.
She’d never been around weapons and couldn’t get used to seeing so many of them.
He kept gazing all around the Jeep while reaching in with one hand to help her out on his side. Hers was crunched. He cut off the headlights.
“Do we still have a chance?” she asked in a whisper.
“Not right now,” Carlos answered just as softly.
Two men stepped into a shaft of moonlight flooding a rise fifty feet away. One carried a rifle he pointed at her and Carlos. The other guy held what she would guess was a grenade launcher-based on what she’d seen in movies-at his shoulder. Now that she thought about it, that was probably what launched the smoke bomb.
“Follow my lead until we get a chance to escape,” Carlos whispered. “You’re just some chick I dated. Got it?”
Just when Gabrielle was ready to admit defeat, the confidence in those words stoked another rush of belief in this man. She nodded, ready to fight as long as he did.
The two men strolled forward until the one with the automatic weapon held on them stopped a few feet away. “Hello, Carlos.”
“Hola, Turga.”
“Toss your weapon and cell phone away.”
Carlos complied. “You have a falling-out with Baby Face?”
Gabrielle hid her surprise at how Carlos and this man talked like old friends.
“No’ really.” Turga would be invisible if not for the whites of his eyes. He was black everywhere, face and hands, clothes, knit cap, boots and weapon. A heavy smell of cigarettes burdened the fresh air not tinged by the smoke bomb. His English came out in a choppy Turkish accent. “Baby Face became unavoidable casualty. Good thing he found her first.”
“What do you want her for?” Carlos made it sound as if Gabrielle’s only value had been supplying him with a vehicle.
“Very funny. You after same thing.”
“After what?” Carlos snorted. “Baby Face had business with me, not her.”
“Really? So you know of his big deal?” Turga eyed him warily, but Carlos had planted a seed of curiosity.
Carlos shrugged. “Didn’t get a chance to hear the whole deal and didn’t really give a shit when I caught him trying to grab my woman.”
Turga snorted as if unconvinced.
“Let her go, Turga. She’s just made the mistake of getting involved with me.”
Gabrielle gave Carlos her solid vote right then. She didn’t know who Baby Face or Turga were, but Carlos was the only one in present company who hadn’t tried to kill her.
“You think I’m stupid?” Turga asked in a tone that rippled across Gabrielle’s skin. “Prove she’s your woman.”
How could he possibly prove that? Not that Gabrielle wasn’t prepared to back him up and agree to anything Carlos said, but doubt took root in her exhausted mind.
Carlos sighed. “Fine.”
He turned to her. She looked up at his face, determined to do her best to convince Turga they were together.
But she wasn’t as prepared as she’d thought when Carlos pulled her into his arms and dipped his head. He covered her mouth with his, kissing her with more passion than any other man she’d ever kissed. He held her safe, protected.
She hadn’t been held or hugged in years.
Her defenses fell without a battle.
Her heart raced along with the frenzy of nerves and wild desire that spiraled up out of nowhere. She curved her hands around his neck, clutching. He drew her closer. The kiss overwhelmed her senses, drowning her in pleasure.
She moaned.
“Okay, enough,” Turga ordered, then scowled when Carlos continued. “Give me a break.”
Carlos slowly lifted his lips from hers, paused, and touched her lips once more briefly, then peeled her off him.
When he moved her to his side, he kept his arm protectively around her shoulders.
She worked to keep her knees from buckling.
Carlos tightened his grasp on her shoulders, which she took as a silent message to hang on and pull herself together.
She reached around his waist and squeezed to let him know she had it together.
One side of his mouth curved up, acknowledging her message. “Let her go,” Carlos repeated. “She won’t say a word.”
Turga stepped close to Carlos and smiled, the white teeth glowing against his dark face. “Don’t think so. You cost me good man. Eye for an eye, and all that.”
“Don’t tell me you actually care about losing someone.”
Turga’s grin widened. “Very funny. No, but he was better shot than that one.” He tilted his head at the other guy holding the grenade launcher.
“Unavoidable casualty.” Carlos smiled sarcastically.
Turga flipped his rifle quickly and used the stock like a club to ram Carlos in the stomach.
He broke away from Gabrielle, bent double with a pained grunt, then sucked a breath and straightened.
She reached for him and Turga grabbed her.
Carlos snarled and moved so fast Gabrielle had no idea how he’d jerked her away from Turga and pushed her behind him.
Turga flipped the rifle up in just as quick a motion, which ended with the tip of the barrel an inch from Carlos’s nose.
“Should kill you right now, but only a careless man wastes a resource without first bleeding it dry. One wrong move and I wound her. Start walking.” Turga motioned toward the helicopter with his rifle.
She let Carlos take her backpack, but Gabrielle wasn’t handing her laptop over to anyone as long as she had a choice. Carlos walked them both ahead of Turga and kept a snug grip on her arm. When they reached the edge of the woods, an explosion rocked the ground.
She swung around to see flames bloom from where her Jeep had been and the second guy running toward them.
Guess that was a grenade launcher he toted.
Sirens wailed from the highway, growing louder.
Gabrielle stumbled on the rutted ground next to the helicopter, and Carlos caught her at the waist. He lifted her inside the craft, then climbed in, settling next to her on the backseat.
