“He was all for it. He can’t get enough of Nan. Guess he recovered from that texting hiccup a while ago.” He chuckled. “He was more than happy to have her come along.”
I laughed harder at the memory of Nan sexting her grandson accidentally and the pure horror that Keith went through. Mark even got Doc Roberts in on the fun, and he made him agree to a mandatory psych meeting.
“Oh, did Mark ever have a—” My sixth sense had me reach forward to grab Mike’s arm, and we both ducked, as he had caught sight of something too. He turned slowly to sign, and I motioned for him to veer off in the opposite direction while I stayed low and slowly made my way deeper into the forest. I crawled forward silently. Every sound was heightened inside my head as my body wove in and out of the brush and grass until I reached a hollowed-out tree trunk and I pressed my back up against it.
Click, click, click. I sent the others a message via our version of Morse code. Three quick clicks and two short told me Cole understood.
With my entire body hidden from view, I stayed put for hours, hyperaware of the cartel as they ran by the path that was only about ten feet from me. We must have stumbled on to their main route, and I knew better than to try to budge from my position while they were on the move. Each time I even thought about it, another cartel would come racing by. Mike had checked in and said he was taking cover not far from me. He was stuck in the same shit luck situation I was. By the time the sun had moved across the tree line, we were still holed up tight.
“Country?” Mike’s nickname for me whispered over the radio just as I had done another sweep of the path in a vain effort to find any escape.
“Yeah?” I whispered.
I closed my eyes, pissed I stumbled into their territory and hadn’t seen the signs.
“I have Tripper in my sights. At nightfall, he’ll head toward your room.”
A sense of relief rolled over me. Mike could see me, and I was to head east at nightfall. Okay.
“Ten-four.” I lifted my rifle and scanned the horizon until I heard the triple click on the radio to show Mike’s position.
Darkness swept its cover over us, and I checked my watch. I’d wasted thirteen hours sitting here, and it was time I moved.
Voices suddenly found their way to me, and I desperately scanned the area for the thousandth time. Bullets sprayed across the ground, kicking up bits of dirt. Some came so close to my knee it spasmed, and I nearly bolted. Only my training held me in place as I tried to figure out how they knew I was there. I desperately scanned the trees around me and, sure enough, spotted a camera. Shit! There was one high above me a few yards away. I never would have seen it, except in the dark I could see a small light blink from it. Squinting, I wondered if there was a live feed attached to it or if it was one they would have to revisit later. If so, I wondered just when that visit would come.
Shit! I tried to become as small as possible and held my gun close to my chest.
“I can hear your heartbeat, soldier,” a voice said nearby through his thick accent.
Slowly, I clicked my radio to put the word out to Mike that I was okay.
“That’s fine,” he called out. “We can wait. We are very patient men. We will do just like before and remove you each one by one.”
I could hear laughter from some other men, and I felt my fingers get twitchy against my gun. I knew better than to move. They fired more shots in the opposite direction from where Mike and I were, and I began to realize they couldn’t know exactly where we were or even if we were there. Two more hours they taunted with stories of how they’d killed some of my North Rock family. Maybe it was true and maybe it wasn’t, but regardless, it ate away at my soul, and I longed to jump up and blast the smiles right off their faces.
Many scenarios went through my mind about how we could get out of this, but their camp just continued to grow. As