too far, but ease the grip slightly.”
“You heard the captain,” Jones told the men. “Give them ten more feet of breathing space. But if Greene even sneezes, take him out with everything you’ve got.”
The men followed their orders, dropping back several steps but never taking their aim off Greene. When they reached their mark, Jones shouted for them to stop.
“Is that better?” Payne asked. “I did like you wanted, as a sign of good faith. I didn’t have to, but I did. Now, why don’t you do the same for me? Why don’t you give me something?”
“Like what? The only thing you want is the girl, and do you know what? I can see why she means so much to you. I had a chance to check her out in the shower, and let me tell you, she’s one tasty piece of ass.”
Normally, Payne would’ve gone after somebody who made a comment like that, but in this case he all but welcomed it. He realized it was an opportunity that he could use to his advantage.
“Jeez,” he said to Ariane, “you should consider yourself lucky! You’ve always wanted to hook up with an NFL player, and he sounds pretty interested. This might be your big chance.”
Calmly, as if she wasn’t in a life-or-death struggle, Ariane turned her attention to Greene. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew that she was supposed to distract him with conversation. “You played in the NFL? Oh, my God, that is so cool! What’s your name?”
But before Greene could speak, Payne answered for him. “That’s Levon Greene. I told you about him, remember? He’s the linebacker I met while playing basketball. You know, the one with the bad left knee.”
“You have a bad knee?” she groaned. “How horrible! That’s one thing I always hated about sports. The moment a player gets hurt, their opponents take advantage of it.”
And then she proved her point.
Slowly, she lifted her left foot until it was directly in front of Greene’s knee. Then, she thrust it backward with as much strength as she could, ramming it into his kneecap at a perfect angle. The pain from the blow caused Greene to howl in agony, but more importantly, it caused him to loosen his grip on her neck, which gave her the chance to get away.
The instant she dove to the ground Payne raised his weapon like a quick-draw artist and fired. Jones did the same from farther back, and the two of them filled Greene with enough bullets to take down a polar bear. Shot after shot entered his chest and neck, causing his body to dance to the rhythm of gunfire. It continued to do so until both of them had emptied their entire clips into the man they had once considered a friend.
When the firing stopped, the MANIACs charged forward to deal with Kotto and Drake and the slaves that remained in the tunnel, but Payne wasn’t worried about any of them. His only concern was Ariane, and he ran to her side to see if she was all right.
“I’m so happy to see you.”
“I love you so much,” she insisted, crying tears of joy on Payne’s shoulder as they sat on the ground. “I can’t believe that you found me.” She sobbed for an entire minute, clinging to him like a favorite stuffed animal. “But what took you so long? I thought you were supposed to be like Rambo or something.”
Payne laughed loudly, thankful for a girl who was able to keep her sense of humor despite all that she had been through. “Hey, you said you were looking forward to the long weekend, so I figured I should take my time in getting here.”
“A long weekend is one thing, Jonathon, but an entire week is quite another.”
He smiled, wiping away her tears with the cloth of her cloak. “Look on the bright side. It’s already Friday, so by the time we get back to America, it will actually be the weekend again.”
Ariane sighed as she pulled him against her chest.
She never wanted to let go of him.
Jones was hesitant to break up the tender moment, but he needed Payne to decide what they were going to do with Kotto and Drake. “If you don’t mind,” he said, “I’d like to borrow Jon for a minute before you two start shagging on the damn ground.”
Ariane glanced at Jones and gave him a warm smile. She knew that he’d risked his life on several occasions during the past