Shielding Gillian (Delta Team Two #1) - Susan Stoker Page 0,20

before pushing Andrea forward. They both slid down the inflatable slide.

Before she was ready, Alberto jumped onto the slide himself, dragging Gillian with him. The second their feet hit the tarmac, he was yanking her upright and pulling her toward the small plane waiting for them.

People were running around everywhere. Confusion was rampant. The freed hostages didn’t know which way to go. Some were heading for the small plane, but others had turned and were running off to the right, toward a man wearing all black. Gunshots rang out, but there was nowhere to find cover.

Alberto wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her against his chest. Gillian’s hands went to his arm and she tried to pull it away from her throat. He was cutting off her air, and the only thing she could concentrate on was getting oxygen into her lungs. As they walked backward, Alberto raised his rifle and shot at the men and women running in the opposite direction, then laughed when screams sounded around them.

“Stop fucking around!” Luis yelled from behind them. “Get to the plane!”

Gillian fought then. She was not going to get on another plane with these heartless assholes. She knew if they got her onboard, no one would ever see her again. Not her parents, not her best friends, no one. They’d abuse her, hurt her, then discard her body deep in a jungle somewhere.

She wasn’t just going to let that happen.

Alberto was obviously surprised by her struggles, because he stopped shooting and dropped his rifle. It was slung around his back with a strap, but he needed to use both hands to try to subdue her.

No matter how hard she struggled, though, Gillian couldn’t escape Alberto’s hold. It wasn’t until she heard Luis swearing in Spanish that she realized they’d reached the smaller plane.

Before she could process what was happening, Andrea screamed. Poor little Renee was also crying from somewhere nearby.

Gillian distractedly noticed that Leyton must have followed them off the plane. He was standing nearby. He wasn’t helping her, or Andrea, or even Renee. He was just standing there watching, almost as if he was in shock.

She wanted to yell at him to run, to get away from the plane and the hijackers, to save himself, but she didn’t get the chance.

One second Gillian was standing, and the next, she and Alberto were on the ground. They’d smacked into Andrea and Luis, hard, and all four of them went down. The other couple was now under them. They were lying at the bottom of the three steps leading into the twin-engine aircraft, Luis yelling in Spanish and trying to get to his feet.

Renee was curled in a ball nearby, crying for her mom.

Everything was chaotic and confusing and happening too quickly for Gillian to process.

A loud gunshot rang out—and everyone seemed to freeze. The sound of glass breaking came immediately on the heels of the gunshot, and shards rained down on the foursome at the bottom of the steps.

“Dammit!” Luis shouted before he finally extracted himself from Andrea and stood. He turned to scramble up the stairs, but another gunshot filled the air, and the leader of the hijackers slumped against the very stairs he was attempting to climb.

Andrea screamed again.

Alberto wrenched Gillian to her knees, but before she could gain her feet, one more shot rang out…

And Alberto slumped against her.

She felt wetness splash against her face before she went down again, Alberto’s weight pinning her to the ground.

Andrea continued to scream, Renee continued to cry, and Gillian had the uncharitable thought that she wished they’d just shut up. She could hear more screaming and crying all around her.

Struggling to get out from under Alberto, Gillian heard more gunshots, this time much closer. Flinching with every one, she decided to stay where she was. It was irrational, but somehow she felt safer hiding under Alberto’s dead body than standing up and exposing herself to flying bullets.

It might’ve been two minutes or two seconds, she wasn’t sure, but the sound of silence finally registered in her ears.

Then, “Gillian!”

She’d recognize that voice anywhere.

Walker.

Renewing her attempt to get out from under Alberto, Gillian tried her best to wiggle free. She struggled for only seconds before shoving the man’s body off herself. Turning her head, Gillian looked into the concerned gray eyes of Walker as he ran toward her.

He looked very different than the last time she’d seen him. Gone were the gray airline coveralls. Now he was dressed in black, even