The sound of Clint’s long-suffering breath echoed through the line, ratcheting Noah’s annoyance higher. Maybe he was being a pain in their ass at the moment. Not everyone could be Mr. Perfect like Clint. Finally, Clint said, “Yep. I’ll take care of it. Stay safe, Wild.”
“Always.” Gratitude mixed with a bit of guilt inside him. No matter what other crap they might be dealing with, he could depend on the guys at SSoF no matter what. Still, he couldn’t resist giving Clint a tiny bit of shit anyway. “And get a better tagline, man. That one Levon used is lame.”
“Bite me,” Clint yelled in the background followed by the sound of a closing door.
“Hey, stay safe, buddy,” Levon said before ending the call. “We’ll text you the new details once everything’s finalized. Take care of yourself and your new family. Can’t wait to meet them when all this is over.”
“Thanks, dude,” Noah said, swallowing hard against the sudden lump clogging his throat. But he couldn’t go there now, not with so much on the line. He needed to get Serena and the baby safe first before he dealt with any emotional fallout. “Talk to you soon.”
Noah ended the call, then headed back up to the room to check in on Gracie. When he walked in, he found Serena and the owner leaning over the baby who was asleep on the bed, their voices hushed and their expressions concerned. His pulse tripped with worry. From what he could see, the baby was sleeping and her little face had a slight greyish tinge to it. He was no expert on kids by any means, but that didn’t seem good. The knots in his gut tightened.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, hovering on the threshold for fearing of doing something to make things worse.
“The baby needs a humidifier,” the owner said, glancing back at Noah over her shoulder. “To ease her breathing.”
Well, shit. It was one thing to run down to the drug store when you were in a big city. It was another to conjure one from thin air in the middle of nowhere. “Where the hell do we get one of those?”
“My husband can take you into town,” the owner said. “I’ve already called the pharmacy and they have one on hold for us.”
Relief swept over him in a rush. At least one problem seemed to be manageable today. Except, once he’d endured an hour-long ride over bumpy terrain in a pick-up that seemed to lack anything resembling shock absorbers, he was starting to think he might need to get more than just the humidifier at the pharmacy—he wanted to buy some antacids for himself.
The owner’s husband waited in the truck while Noah went inside the small pharmacy to pick up the humidifier. While he waited in line to pay, several other customers were close by chatting in quiet Spanish. Instincts on high alert, he discreetly tuned in to their conversation as he stood there, thinking maybe he could pick up intel on what was happening in the area and maybe news of any bounty hunters in the town.
Unfortunately, all he heard were their concerns about the gang problem affecting the small village and how the level of violence locally had spilled over from the bigger conflicts in Frederickston. Gangs weren’t unusual in South America, especially with the cartels, so he wasn’t that alarmed and had no reason to the think the activity was in any way connected to him or Serena. But then the two women went on to mention that one of the local gangs was looking for an escaped American woman with a baby and his blood froze in an instant.
“Buenos días,” an older pharmacist with grey hair and leathery skin said to Noah from behind the counter. His white lab jacket contrasted sharply with his deeply tanned face as he asked Noah how he could help him.
Noah blinked at the guy a moment, his mind racing. Behind him, the two women continued going on about how the village didn’t want to get involved in any of that, but their clear disinterest didn’t do much to decrease his sense of foreboding. Staying in the village made Serena and Gracie’s safety tenuous at best. He hadn’t failed to notice that he was pretty much the only white guy in town at the moment, which meant he stood out. In fact, one of the two women behind him caught Noah’s eye now and then turned away fast to whisper to her friend something Noah didn’t catch.
Shit. Just shit.
He hurried up and got the humidifier, then hustled out of the pharmacy and back to the truck. He didn’t want to endanger these villagers any more than he wanted to risk Serena and Gracie’s lives. As they bumped their way back to the bed and breakfast, all Noah knew for certain was that they needed to move again, as soon as the baby was well enough. That was the only way any of them were going to stay safe.
12
Two and a half hours after he’d left, Noah walked back into their room to find Serena in the rocking chair, holding Gracie and humming to her
