Damian made his way down the aisle of the plane as he returned to his seat. He hated sitting in the passenger section of a plane, finding he much preferred being in the pilot’s seat since learning how to fly during his extensive training with the navy. He had gotten up to stretch his legs a few minutes before, certain that they must be getting close to their destination. The fasten seat belt sign came on when he was three rows back.
He reached his seat to find Paige dozing and was grateful Kel had managed to upgrade them to business class. Just the advantage of not having someone sitting beside them was worth whatever the upgrade had cost.
The moment he sat down, Paige shifted in her seat, her head sliding down until it rested on his shoulder. He stared down at her, something inside of him softening.
He thought of their time together the night before, of the kiss they had shared, of the nightmare she had suffered as a teenager. Her story and her obvious struggle in sharing it touched him. Not only had she lived through a frightening event, but she didn’t seem to recognize that her instinct had been to help those around her, even when she was struggling herself.
He worried a bit about her abhorrence of guns, especially since the Saint Squad routinely wore sidearms. Then he caught himself. He barely knew Paige, and here he was trying to figure out if his profession would be a deal breaker in their relationship.
He looked past her to see the clouds out the window. Trying to take his mind off the woman beside him, he considered his possible courses of action when they arrived in Maracaibo.
His first instinct was to go straight to Canaima, but he fought against that, knowing how long the odds were that he would stumble across his squad in such a vast area of wilderness. He could do it, given enough time and a helicopter, but with the civil unrest in the country of his birth, he doubted he could secure both without alerting the government that something was amiss.
He certainly couldn’t go after Morenta alone with only Paige as his backup. No, he would have to be more creative in searching for information and the trail that would lead to his squad.
He felt the plane start its final descent and saw where water gave way to land. Paige stirred beside him again, and her eyes fluttered open. She straightened in her seat, and when she looked up at him, he saw insecurity reflected on her face.
Hoping to calm them both, he reached for her hand. “Everything will be fine,” he said in Spanish, aware that she could speak a limited amount of the language.
Paige’s response was a subtle nod of her head and a squeeze of his hand. This was foreign territory for her, but as she looked up at him with those chocolate brown eyes, he realized this was foreign territory for him as well.
* * *
Paige stood silently beside Damian as he checked them into their hotel, curiosity eating at her. Kel had made their travel arrangements, but she had assumed they were going to stay with Damian’s family to keep with their cover story.
Instead, Damian had instructed their taxi driver to bring them here to a hotel overlooking Lake Maracaibo.
He spoke rapidly in Spanish. She could pick out words here and there, but not enough to really know what was going on.
The clerk slid two hotel keys across the counter to Damian. After thanking the man, Damian turned, handed one key to Paige, and put his hand on her back to guide her to the elevators.
Paige held back her urge to question Damian about why they were here as they followed an older couple into the open elevator car.
Though it took great effort, she waited until Damian unlocked a hotel room and motioned her inside before she asked, “Why are we staying here?”
“I don’t want to take any chances. Kel told me the reason my squad left me behind was because of my family,” Damian said. “Besides, if a Colombian drug lord really is behind my squad’s disappearance, I don’t want to take a chance that my presence might put anyone in danger.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Paige stood awkwardly by the door and held up her room key. “What’s my room number?”
“Actually, we’re both staying in here.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t worry, it’s a suite.” Damian walked her farther into the room, where a table and four chairs occupied one corner. A couch stretched along the wall beside the window, and a television sat on a dresser across from it. He motioned to a door to the right. “You can take the bedroom.”
“Can I ask why we’re sharing a room?”
“Security.” Damian dropped his bag beside the table and crossed the room. Standing to the side of the window, he peered outside.
“Security?” Paige repeated. “Security for whom?”
“Both of us.” He shifted to face her. “If we’re in the same room, we know any knock on the door is a potential threat.”
“Or we could look through the peephole to see who’s on the other side.”
The intensity that came into Damian’s eyes surprised her. “If Morenta really is behind all this, he and his men are just as likely to shoot through the door as they are to wait for one of us to open it.”
Paige felt her face pale, the gravity of what they were trying to do suddenly weighing on her. “I’d better try to call Vanessa.” She dialed the number and was concerned when it rang once and then went to a generic voice-mail account. “She isn’t answering.”
“Did she say where we should meet her when we got here?”
“I never got the chance to tell her we were coming. I only talked to her for a minute last night, but she ended the call suddenly, and when I tried calling her back, her phone had been turned off.”
“Do you think her phone is off now?” Damian asked.
“That’s my guess.”
“Do you know where she’s staying?”
“No. She didn’t tell me.”
“I’ll check in with Kel,” Damian said, retrieving his own phone.
He made his call, but he did more listening than talking, so Paige couldn’t make out what they were discussing. A couple minutes later, he hung up, and she asked, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. One of the leads he uncovered gave me an idea of how we might track down Morenta,” Damian said.
“What about Vanessa?”
“She wouldn’t want us to sit around all day and wait for a phone call,” Damian said. “Is there anything you need to put in the hotel safe before we go?”
“You want me to come with you?” Paige asked.
“I may need your help to blend in.” Damian located the safe in the closet and opened it. “Don’t worry. You won’t be in any danger. If I find out what I need to, I can have a cab bring you back here.”
Paige took out the various items Ghost had given her. “Should I bring any of this with me?”
He looked through the toys, as Ghost called them. He picked up a small spray bottle that looked like it contained body spray. “Is this a marking spray?”
“Yeah.”
“We might be able to use that.” He slipped it into his jacket pocket. “Go ahead and lock everything else in the safe except for the bolivars. We may need the cash to secure some weapons.”
Paige swallowed but did as he suggested. She separated out the money and handed him a stack of bills, then locked everything else in the safe.
Damian separated the bills further, stuffing some into his front pocket and putting more in his wallet. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Paige followed him out the door, once again wondering how in the world she had ended up here.