She tried to get a good look at his face, but he was staring down at her chest. He couldn’t really mean that, could he? Surely this was just because they were thrown together, there was more to it than just serendipity, wasn’t there?
“Buzzer,” she reminded him. She needed to get her head on straight.
“I guess you’re right.” He leaned in and laid a gentle kiss on top of her heart, then lifted the vest that was propped up against the wall of safety deposit boxes, next to two makeshift pillows. Asher pulled his satellite phone out of one of the pockets and placed the call. He put it on speaker and watched as she hastily put on her clothes.
“It’s Kane.”
“How’s the Señora?” Asher asked.
There was a long pause. Eden didn’t like that at all.
“There was a complication,” Kane finally answered.
“Just tell me. What happened?”
“Turns out, the bullet weakened her carotid artery. It was a miracle she got to the hospital alive. She hemorrhaged on the table. It took them a while to control the bleeding. She’s finally in recovery.”
“Is she going to be all right? I mean, are there going to be long-lasting effects?” Eden interrupted.
“No, nothing like that,” Kane assured her.
“Then what the hell is your problem?” Asher demanded to know.
“You’ve got Maduro’s men, or Perez’s men, whoever the hell they are, trying to come at the vault from the top at the northwest side. They’re not trying to come in through the front door of the vault, because that door is fucking secure.”
“So?” Asher demanded. “As soon as Suzanne is good enough to talk, or write shit down, she can get us the hell out through the front.”
Again, with a pause.
“Asher, we told you that the building is coming down on the south. Well, it’s getting worse—now parts of it are crumbling in towards the vault. I don’t know how much longer before it’s going to hit the front door of the vault. That’s another reason why the secret police are coming at it from the north.”
“How many of Maduro’s men are there?” Eden asked.
Asher shook his head at her. “Honey, we’re talking jeeps, a tank, and probably forty to sixty men.”
“I think I need the trash can.” She got up off the floor and went into the room. She didn’t need to pee or throw up. She just needed a minute. One single, solitary minute. It wouldn’t be the first time that she thought she was going to die. It was the second. Okay, there had been a few close calls running around the bank, but that was all the same part of this little clusterfuck.
No, that’s not all. She remembered when she was ten years old and her daddy had to find her when she’d fallen off the side of Beecher’s mountain and she’d ended up on that ledge for a day and a half.
Eden looked up at the blackness of the room ceiling. Well, she’d promised not to die then, because it would get her into trouble with her daddy. This time, she’d be pissed if she was going to die. So, it was time to figure out how she could be part of the solution. And, if that solution included making the best of the situation while they waited for their next move, so be it. Not only was she not alone on a ledge this time, she couldn’t think of better company than the handsome SEAL waiting for her on the other side of the door.
Asher somehow managed to hold in a laugh. He knew it would be the lioness who would come out of the room. And there she was, striding barefoot and tall in her ripped pencil skirt and silk top, and she would not be happy if he chuckled.
This was the Eden York who had told him she had ‘some-shit-plan’ that was bound to work. He was pretty sure she planned to take on the tank and thirty of the secret police herself and leave the jeeps and the other thirty men to Asher’s team.
“You’re grinning at me,” she jabbed a finger at his chest. “Stop your grinning, this is serious shit. What did you and your people decide?”
“That you should take charge.”
That stopped her up short.
“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter. You came up with some kind of plan, and I want to know what it is, and see if I approve.”
Ash had not taken a seat at the table, instead piling up the tablecloths in front of the safety deposit box wall, making a nest for them. He held out his arm. “Come here.”
“Why?” she asked warily.
“Don’t you trust me?” he asked easily.
“With my life.” She covered the space between them and knelt down beside him. He had his arm around her shoulders in an instant.
“A translator, huh? What else have you done?”
“I told you, I trained with my brother, Pete. I grew up in Montana. I’m not a girly-girl if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Asher snorted. “Uhm, Earth to Eden. You are too a girly girl. I’ve had my hands and mouth all over your girly parts.”
“You know what I mean,” she said as she snuggled closer. “Now, tell me the plan.”
“The plan is, I’m supposed to call back in a half-hour. Right now, we’ve got eyes on the secret police. According to Kane, they don’t know shit-all about explosives. What they’re putting together is likely to blow backwards and do them a hell of a lot more damage than make any kind of dent on the vault.”
“And how can he be sure, and how soon before that happens?” Eden demanded to know.
“That is the rub. Kane has been
