White Dawn: A Military Romantic Suspense Novel (22 page)

She nodded. “I just need a minute…”

“No.” He shook his head. “Now, Carmen.
They’re getting stronger with each passing second. You need to dig
deep.”

It’s mental. You know, now, that
you’re stronger than you think
.

She swallowed. She was so thirsty! With
a growl that pulled from her belly, she pushed herself to her feet
and worked her way over to the guards. They
were
recovering.
They both had color in their faces again and they were breathing
more easily.

“I’m wearing steel-toed boots,” Carmen
told them. “Try anything and I’ll
kick
you in the balls. My
feet are working just fine.”

“
P
uta mierda
,” one cursed
thickly.

She ignored him and dug through their
pockets, taking her time. She came up empty-handed and forced
herself to her feet. “Whoever designed these uniforms is an idiot,”
she said. “There’s only two pockets. Where’s the pocket for
ammunition? For a silencer? For food?”

She picked up one of the rifles and
kicked the other toward Garrett and far out of the guards’ reach,
then made her way back to Garrett. She had very little energy left
and her shoulder was starting to feel like it was on fire. “No
key,” she told him. She stayed on her feet. She wasn’t sure she
would get up again, if she sat down.

He nodded. “You need to go, then.” He
said it calmly.

“Go?” she asked stupidly.

“Leave. Get away. Give me that rifle
there and I’ll make sure the guards don’t make a sound. You’re
free. You can step through the door and sneak out.”

“And
leave you behind?
” The
outrageousness of the idea stole her breath. “They’ll kill you when
they find I’m gone.”

“They could have killed us already,”
Garrett said coldly. He shifted on the floor, flexing his extended
shoulder, trying to ease it. “They need us for something, so
they’re keeping us alive. They won’t kill me if you go, because
they’ll lose whatever leverage they think they have with us.”

Carmen caught her breath as she realized
exactly what the leverage was. “I’m not leaving,” she said, trying
to speak firmly, but her voice shook. “Not unless I find a way to
take you with me.”

Garrett looked up at her. He swallowed.
“You have to go,” he said, his voice low. “I have to know you’re
out of this, that you’re safe.”

She lowered herself to her knees, moving
stiffly. Now her head was level with his. She looked at him. “Not
without you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Damn it, Escobedo,
don’t you get it?” His voice was harsh, even though he was keeping
it low. “I had a hard enough time sitting here watching the guards
paw you when they put you in here for the medic to work on. I don’t
know what they’re planning for us, but that was just the overture.
I know that. You know that. I don’t want to have to live through
this. Not again. Not when it’s you.” The harshness has shifted to a
hoarse whisper. His eyes were glittering in the low light and he
looked away. He was breathing hard.

Carmen cupped his face with her hand,
feeling the scratch of bristles against her fingers and palm. She
turned his chin so he was looking at her again. There was pain in
his eyes, mixed up with old hurts.

“
I’m
the leverage, Garrett. Not
you. You were just a bonus. Taking you takes away the unit’s
direction and motivation. But I’m the daughter of the former
president. I’m the current Loyalist president’s niece. They’re
going to parade me out somewhere where Nick can see me and force
his hand. If I’m gone, you’re useless to them.”

Garrett’s gaze flickered over her face.
“If you’re gone, I don’t care,” he said gruffly.

“I care,” she replied. “I love you,
Garrett.”

His breath caught. He looked at her.
Really
looked at her, instead of trying to find a way to
argue her out of staying.

“So I’m not going anywhere,” she
added.

“Stubborn…” Garrett muttered.

She dropped her voice even lower and
moved her lips to Garrett’s ear. “I’ll play weak,” she murmured.
“I’ll watch for an opening. You keep telling me if you watch long
enough, there’s always a break.”

“Always,” he said. “But you might have
to go through hell to get to it.”

She nodded. “Hell, I can manage. It’s
these assholes who are going to drive me crazy.” She looked back
over her shoulder at the two guards, who were slowly stirring,
pushing themselves up on their hands. “I could just shoot them,”
she added more loudly.

In the end, she didn’t shoot the guards,
although she had seriously considered the idea for a brief moment.
But she doubted she could shoot straight with only one arm working.
Garrett might have managed it, but if
he
shot the guards,
the retribution would be worse.

In the end they waited for someone to
come and rescue the guards, which they did a few minutes later.
There was a flurry of concern over what Carmen had done to them,
but she was pretending to be prostrate with weakness, her head on
Garrett’s thigh and no one tried to rouse her.

They didn’t cuff her, either. No one, it
seemed, had a key and the two hitched guards had to hobble out of
the room in a dignity-stealing three-legged walk. A guard was put
outside the door and another in the room. This one sat on a folding
chair in the far corner, his rifle on his knees, glaring at them as
if he was daring them to try anything.

They didn’t speak. Garrett’s fingers
stroked her face and temple and Carmen actually drifted off to
sleep. She woke some time later and blinked in the darkness.
Garrett shook her shoulder again. “Someone’s coming,” he whispered
in English.

She sat up. The chair where the guard
had been sitting was empty. “The guard is outside?” she asked.

“Both of them. But there are more
coming.” Garrett caught her arm. “Whatever happens, promise me that
if a break opens you’ll take it. No matter what.”

“Maybe,” she said carefully, knowing
that nothing would entice her to make a break if she couldn’t bring
Garrett with her. “But you should run if you get the chance,” she
added.

Garrett stared at her, his lips parting
as if he was about to protest loudly. Then he sighed. “And now I
know why you won’t consider it. It’s simply inconceivable.” He gave
her a grim smile. “So, both in, or both out. No other way.”

“That sounds good to me,” Carmen told
him, as the door opened. She leaned against him, trying to look ill
and pathetic, as five Insurrectos marched into the room. An officer
followed them. He had white hair, but his face didn’t match the
hair. His eyes were black and soulless. “Get them on their feet.”
His voice was completely without emotion.

They were hauled to their feet and
Garrett worked his shoulder stiffly, wincing. Carmen cried out as
the guard tried to yank her up by her injured arm. The officer
snapped, “Hurt her at your peril, gentlemen.”

The guard’s eyes got very big and he
licked his lips, suddenly nervous. He helped her up with the
gentleness of a man with his first date.

Carmen reached out for Garrett and he
helped her stand, his arm around her waist. It wasn’t difficult to
look shaky, for her shoulder was throbbing painfully and her head
was light.

But the longer she stood, the clearer
her thoughts became.

They were marched down a corridor lined
with normal-looking office doors, into a room that looked like an
empty reception area. There was even a desk in the corner for the
receptionist. That told Carmen where they were—the Garrido silver
mine on
Las Piedras Grandes
. They must have been brought
here on the train they hadn’t been able to stop.

They were pushed out through a door,
into a still, muggy night. There were floodlights bathing
featureless dirt in front of them and they were pulled apart and
told to stand.

A guard thrust a big piece of card stock
into her hands, as another did the same with Garrett. “Hold it up,
against you,” the guard told her.

She looked down at the card. There were
letters on it, but before she could read it, he lifted the card and
thrust it up hard against her chest, making her wince. “Like that,”
he snapped. “Now hold it there, whore.”

As so they had stood for what felt like
hours and hours. They weren’t given any explanation for what they
were doing. But Carmen knew that they were both being waved at the
Loyalists. Was Nick out there somewhere, hidden, but watching?

The idea gave her hope. She and Nick
hadn’t always got along, but his reputation as
el leopardo
rojo
was deserved. He had resources and connections and the
will to match. If Nick was nearby, or any of his trusted Loyalists,
then the break they were looking for might come sooner than either
of them expected.

But nothing happened, except that the
night seemed to grow warmer, not cooler. The air was thick and
almost stifling. There wasn’t a hint of a breeze. The Big Rock was
usually one of the windiest places in Vistaria.

Then they were led back inside and
Carmen made a great show of stumbling and reeling, like she was at
the last of her strength. The officer the Insurrectos called Ibarra
made his comment about having the medic check her once more,
telling her the Insurrectos were buying her act.

They were led back into the storage room
once more and the door shut on them. Garrett wasn’t cuffed this
time and the guard stayed outside the door. Garrett moved around
the room, looking in the cartons and prying up the lids on the
metal boxes. Most of the metal boxes were locked and the cartons
were full of paper records.

Carmen caught his arm as he moved closer
to where she was sitting on the folding chair. “Garrett, I think a
break is coming.” She spoke softly.

Garrett tilted his head to look at her.
“You don’t have a crystal ball in that top. I’d have noticed.”

She tugged at his hand. “Hunker down. I
don’t want to speak too loudly.”

He lowered himself down so he was
looking her in the eye. Then she realized that he was studying her
with professional disinterest. “I’m fine,” she said
impatiently.

“You’re white. Is there much pain?” he
asked softly.

“A little,” she lied. In fact, her arm
felt like it had turned into a forty pound anvil. The bullet wound
itself was burning.

“I watched the medic,” Garrett said. “He
did a good job, considering the circumstances. But infection is a
real possibility.”

“I have killed anything that has ever
tried to infect me. I don’t get sick,” Carmen told him. “Listen,
Garrett. I think a storm is coming.”

He blinked. “A storm.”

“A bad one. You grew up in Wyoming, so
you wouldn’t know the signs. But Vistaria tends to get badly
smacked around if a storm goes through because a single island
thirty miles wide isn’t enough land mass to slow them down. They
tear right across the island. I’ve seen maybe a dozen hurricanes
and the weather always starts out just like it is now. Muggy, hot
as hell and no wind. But I don’t think the Insurrectos have
noticed. Not these ones here.”

Garrett cupped his chin thoughtfully,
his thumb beside his mouth. “I’ve haven’t seen one. Ever.” He
looked around the room thoughtfully. “Will these buildings take
it?”

“They’ve bolted them onto poured
concrete. The walls might stand, but the roof is vulnerable.
They’re all prefabricated,” Carmen said. “I was looking around
while they had us standing outside. If I was going to guess, I’d
say the big building over that way—” and she pointed, “—would be
our best bet. It looked like it had poured concrete walls. Even if
the roof goes, the walls will stand and that will help with the
wind, but that’s not all of it.” She hesitated.

“Tell me,” Garrett urged her.

“South Rock is a tiny island, compared
to mainland Vistaria. If the center of the hurricane passes
directly over it, or even nearby…” She bit her lip. “The wind will
hit the west side of the rock first and that’s fine—there’s big
cliffs there and that will protect that side of the island. The
wind will pass over the island. On the east side, there are no
cliffs at all, just a gentle slope down to the beaches there, where
the resort used to be. The wind will push the water out to sea.
It’s
that
powerful. But when the eye has passed, the wind
changes directions.” She gripped his hand. “All the water comes
back and then some,” she finished.

“Storm surge,” Garrett murmured.

“The northern tip of Vistaria was
completely submerged by a tidal wave, in the 1970s,” Carmen said.
“Thousands of people were lost.”

Garrett got to his feet and stared at
the wall behind her. Beyond that wall was the big building she had
spotted when they were outside. He pressed his hand against the
plaster wall. “If these walls are prefabricated, then the corners
will be weaker than the walls themselves.” He looked down at her.
“How soon, do you think?”

He was trusting her. Taking her word for
it.

Carmen bit her lip. “There’s no wind
yet,” she said, “so it’s hard to tell. But once the wind starts,
then it’s a matter of a few hours. The worst hurricanes are always
tightly compacted, spinning faster than the weaker ones and drawing
everything in. They move faster than the weak ones, too. So if it’s
a very bad storm, then once the wind starts, it will arrive
quickly.”

“There’s no window here,” Garrett
muttered. “We won’t be able to tell if the wind starts.”

“Yes we will,” Carmen assured him.

He looked at her, a brow lifted.

“We’ll hear it,” she said.

Joshua groped his hand across the nightstand,
reaching for his cellphone, which was buzzing frantically. It was
face-down, so there was no screen glow to tell him where the damn
thing was and he was only half-awake.