Colton felt the strap of the shoulder belt catch, then pull tightly across his chest as Issa accelerated, leaving behind the confines of the Kasbah. The same seeds of alarm that had been planted when he’d first received his sister’s call that Bret had been kidnapped had sprung to life again. Because this was far from over. Just when he’d thought his brother-in-law was safe, everything was—once again—crumbling down around them. And this time he wasn’t sure he knew how to put an end to the continual nightmare.
Bracing one hand against the seat in front of him and the other on the armrest, he studied Lexi’s grim expression as she sat in silence beside him. Like he’d told her, he’d been in situations where he’d been convinced there was no way out alive. Circumstances where comrades had lost their lives beside him, and that still haunted him. But there was one major difference in this situation. He and his fellow soldiers had trained in combat, expecting to encounter death. It was an inevitable risk of their job. And while it was something he’d prayed wouldn’t happen, that possibility had always been there, lingering in the back of his mind. Today, though, it was the urgent sense of duty to bring his brother-in-law—and Lexi—home safe that had him focused.
He turned to look out the back window of the 4x4 to see if they were being followed. Visibility was limited. The sun had yet to make its appearance over the horizon, but rays of light were already spreading across the orange sand.
“Do you see them behind us?” Issa asked from the driver’s seat.
“No, but that doesn’t mean they’re not back there.” All he could see was the never-ending desert being bathed in the obscure yellow light of the sunrise. And the winds were strong enough that the dust didn’t allow him to discern if there was a vehicle behind them.
Which would hopefully give them the same cover, as well.
“I’m not surprised,” Issa said. “It’s hard to see more than fifty meters ahead of us, and it’s getting worse.”
Something else to worry about. As well as Issa knew this desert, to be out here now with the winds picking up wasn’t a wise choice. Sandstorms were common in this part of the world and could overcome a vehicle in a matter of seconds. But what other choice did they have?
He turned back to where Bret lay against the front passenger seat with his eyes closed. The jarring of the vehicle as it sped across the sand was anything but comfortable. This wasn’t what Bret needed. He was supposed to be resting, not on the move, running for his life.
Colton leaned forward and grasped the injured man’s shoulder. “Bret...are you okay?”
He just groaned and turned his head.
“Bret?”
Still he wouldn’t answer.
Colton felt his forehead for signs of a fever, but he didn’t seem hot. Only clammy.
Issa shifted gears as they went up a slight embankment. “When I spoke to Sara late last night she told me she’d given him something to help him sleep. I’m guessing it should wear off soon, but until then I suspect he’s going to feel extremely groggy.”
Colton sat back against his seat and gripped the armrest again.
What are we supposed to do, God? Take a risk and ask my team to meet at an airstrip or try to make it all the way to the border?
The airstrip was less than an hour away, and flying would get them to Morocco sooner, and it would avoid the long trip across the desert. But if Issa was right, if Salif’s men were covering the surrounding airstrips, sending his team to meet them wasn’t a chance he wanted to take. Which meant their only option was to lose the men who were after them and head for the border.
“You’re worried.” Lexi caught his gaze, her words more of a statement than a question.
“Issa knows this area better than most. If anyone can get us to safety, he can.”
Colton frowned at his own words. What he said was true, but they’d somehow sounded hollow. Salif’s men knew this desert, as well. And they clearly had resources that included weapons and the ability to shoot down a small plane out of the sky. Which meant that the four of them were outnumbered and outgunned. If the men who were after their group caught up with them...
He reached out and squeezed Lexi’s hand a moment before letting go. “What about you? You okay?”
“I guess that’s up for interpretation,” she said, but he didn’t miss the determination in her eyes. “Twenty-four hours or so ago, I was facing being held ransom for who knows how long. Now I’m speeding across the desert with a group of armed men closing in on us, and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do beyond pray that we’ll make it out.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. Praying. Sometimes it’s hard to not wonder what lesson God might be trying to impart to me.”
“Maybe He’s just trying to teach you to rely on Him,” she said. “That’s what I keep coming back to. I’ve spent so much of my life trying to control situations, but living here the past few months has changed all of that. I’ve learned that I can’t get around the red tape in this country. I can’t fix every broken water system, or especially get things done quicker. And right now there’s nothing I can do on my own to change any of this. Just hold on for dear life and trust.”
He’d already come to admire that attitude. That determined set of her chin. The fact that despite being caught in a situation that would have most people in a complete panic, she had yet to allow fear to immobilize her.
He couldn’t help the image of Maggie with her polished nails and red lips that surfaced in his mind. He wondered how she’d cope with a situation like this. Especially wearing one of the five-hundred-dollar suits she wore every day to the law firm she worked for. Which wasn’t really a fair comparison. Maggie was smart and ambitious and had no qualms confronting an opponent head-on. But dealing with poverty, sickness and insurgents in the desert? Somehow law school didn’t prepare you for this scenario.
Or maybe nothing could prepare you for this. Maybe it was nothing more than the circumstances they’d now been thrown into. Circumstances that forced each one of them to dig up every ounce of strength they had left.
“Just so you know, I’m speaking to myself more than to you,” Lexi said, holding tight to the armrest as the 4x4 flew across the bumpy sand. “Trying to convince myself that somehow this is all going to end up okay.”
The wind was blowing sand through the cracks and crevices of the vehicle, making his nose itch and his throat scratch. There was still no sign of any other car behind them, but he knew they were out there. Besides the worry about the men who were after them, there were plenty of other things to be concerned about—like running out of fuel or getting lost.
“It’s getting worse,” she said, staring out the window.
The howling winds seemed to cut right through the vehicle. A wall of sand rose up beside them. Issa took his foot off the gas, but it was too late. Darkness swept across the desert, blocking the light of the rising sun and turning visibility to zero in a matter of seconds.
“Hold on, everyone,” Issa said.
Colton felt the tire on the driver’s side hit something. The Jeep flipped once then somehow managed to land upright with one of the side windows shattered on impact. Sand swirled against his face like sharp needles. He turned to check on Lexi, but he couldn’t open his eyes.
“Lexi... Bret?”
But the roar of the sand was all he could hear in response.
* * *
Lexi kept her eyes closed tight, praying for the sand and dust swirling through the car to settle. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Her nose and throat felt as if she’d swallowed sandpaper. The temperature seemed to have risen in the past few seconds, adding to the discomfort of the suffocating conditions.
She listened for the others in the car, but all she could hear was the deafening sounds of the wind surrounding her. She managed to take off her seat belt, then pulled the scarf she’d been wearing around her neck and wrapped it around her face. But it wasn’t enough to stop the sand from scraping against her face and neck.
She fought the panic. She’d heard of the blistering sandstorms that swept across the desert at the blink of an eye. And of men losing their way and dying from dehydration. She hoped that if she didn’t move, she’d be okay. Issa and Colton would find a way out of this. All they had to do was wait for the storm to subside.
She remembered one of her coworkers was planning a romantic a trip into the desert on her next anniversary. Rennie had talked about the endless sand dunes, caravans of camels, camping among the Bedouin and watching the stars at night. No doubt there was beauty in the desert that she’d learned to appreciate, but not this way.
Then, as quickly as they had started, the violent winds began to calm.
She opened her eyes and saw Colton’s solid form beside her.
She felt his hand against her arm. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, suddenly overwhelmed by emotion. The past two days had left her in a constant state of uncertainty.
“I’ve heard about sandstorms, but this...” She could barely describe it. The terror and fear that had swept in along with the wind.
“What about Bret and Issa...?” She let her voice trail off.
There was no movement from the front seat.
Colton grabbed her hand and helped her out of the vehicle. Bret’s door was open, and there was no one in the front seat.
“This doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Why would they have left the vehicle?”
“I don’t know.”
She tried to shove away the looming panic. She wasn’t sure how long they’d sat, waiting for the storm to pass. Five minutes? Ten? The two men had to be nearby. Neither would have risked moving out of the vehicle in the storm. And yet for some reason they had. She glanced out across waves of sand surrounding them. Now that the winds had died down the sun was shining just above the peaks of the dunes. She knew how confusing it had been when the storm had hit. And with Bret so weak, he could have woken up and panicked.
She turned back to Colton, feeling a sense of urgency grip her. They needed to get as far away from the men after them as possible and yet they couldn’t leave without finding Bret and Issa. “What if Bret tried to escape the sandstorm? Issa must have realized it and went after him.”
“It makes sense. He was groggy and confused.” Colton jumped up on the hood of the car in order to see farther. “They still couldn’t have gone far.”
But there was no trace of Issa and Bret. And the wind had erased any footprints. She glanced back in the direction they’d come from. Neither were there signs of the men after them.
Colton jumped out of the car, then headed for the back of the vehicle, pausing beside a flat tire. “We definitely hit something back there.”
Lexi felt a surge of adrenaline rush through her. If the other men were still behind them, they now had no way of escape.
“Should we try to go after Bret and Issa on foot?” Her heart was pounding. She needed something concrete to do.
Colton shook his head. “I’m afraid we’d get lost looking for them. If Issa’s out there with Bret, he’ll be okay.”
“You don’t know that.” She shouted back at him, tired of constantly trying to prove she could handle everything that was going on. Tired of always trying to be okay. “We don’t know that any of us are going to make it out of here alive.”
Lexi pressed her lips together, regretting her sudden outburst. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You have nothing to apologize for.” He walked back around the car to where she stood. “Nothing at all.”
She bit her lip so she wouldn’t cry. She was exhausted. Bret and Issa were missing. There were men out there looking for them. And now they were stranded in the middle of the Sahara with a flat tire on top of everything else.
Colton pressed his hands against her shoulders. “I’ve seen your strength, Lexi. Don’t give up now. Issa knows this desert well, and is also extremely resourceful. And he would have been prepared for a situation like this. We need to make a quick inventory to see what we’ve got, and I need to change this tire, so that we can go as soon as they come back.”
She nodded her head and took a deep breath. He was right. Panicking wasn’t going to help.
“He’s better prepared than I imagined,” Colton said, opening up the back. “Besides the spare tire, there are several jugs of water, a shovel, a few jerry cans full of fuel, a first aid kit and a couple blankets.”
“Okay. We’ve also got the backpack you brought with you from the plane.” She grabbed it out of the backseat and started digging through it. “There are some water bottles, a first aid kit and a few power bars, along with yours and Bret’s passports.”
“At least we’ve got some food and water,” Colton said, pulling out what he was going to need to change the tire. “What about the sat phone?”
“I think Issa had it with him in the front seat.” She hurried back to the front of the car and pulled it out, then paused to look under that driver seat. Issa’s handgun was gone.
“His gun isn’t under the seat,” she said.
“He must have taken it with him when he went to look for Bret.”
Lexi heard the hesitation in Colton’s voice. Something seemed off.
She looked down at the sat phone she was carrying. It still amazed her that Issa and his family could live in the middle of the Sahara and yet be so connected to the world. But she knew how important modern technology had proven to her. At times it had been her only link to the outside world. It gave her a chance not only keep in contact with the aid organization she worked for, but also with friends and family back in the States.
And gave Issa the ability to contact Salif or one of his men and strike a deal to trade Bret.
“How well do you know Issa?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Is there a chance that he’s not the friend you think he is?”
“Why would you say that? He’s done nothing but protect us since he first found us after the crash.”
“I know, but think about it. If he were to make a deal with Salif’s men... All he’d have to do was hand over Bret for a percentage of the ransom. Ten...maybe twenty percent. That’s a lot of money.”
“No way.” Colton shook his head.
“Just think about it, Colton. Issa and Bret disappear in the middle of a sandstorm. Issa’s weapon is also gone. Something doesn’t add up.”
“He gave me a weapon, and there was no way he could have known about the storm or any of this. And if he wanted to turn us over to Salif’s men, he could have done that back at the Kasbah, or even better when we ran into the men on the way to the Kasbah.”
“I don’t know. If they offered him more money...convinced him to help them. I don’t want to be right, Colton, but none of this makes any sense.” She glanced at the weapon next to him, knowing that any second now Salif’s men could come into view and that they would barely have a fighting chance.
“I think you’re wrong.”
“Okay. Then tell me what we should do.”
“Try to get my team on the sat phone while I change the tire. They need to be warned not to show up at the airstrip.”
She sat down outside in the shade of the car and powered up the phone. Having something to do was the distraction she needed. The first time the connection failed. She tried again a second and third time, but again, both connections failed.
“Are you getting through?” Colton asked.
“No. So far I can’t get a signal.”
He continued to work on the tire, avoiding the obvious questions. Where were Issa and Bret? And where were the men who’d come after them at the Kasbah? It was clear that her words had upset him, but while he might not agree, she couldn’t just dismiss the possibility.
Lexi brushed aside a loose strand of her hair from the corner of her mouth. “The battery is charged, so that’s not the problem.”
“I do know that the atmosphere can interfere with the reception from the satellite, and after the storm that just hit,” he said, “honestly, I’d be more surprised if we did get through.”
She worked on trying to get through for a couple of minutes.
“Tell me about the town you grew up in,” he said, tugging on one of the lug nuts. “Big city or small town?”
Her brow rose at the question. She wanted to know more about him. But not here. Over dinner at some nice restaurant, or at a picnic in a park.
“Small town on the coast of California. My grandparents owned a local five-and-dime store, then sold it to my parents when they retired.”
She tried the connection again. If they didn’t get through, his team most likely would walk into a trap.
“Wait... I think it’s finally connecting.”
He hurried over to her and she handed him the phone.
“This is Colton,” he said putting it on Speaker.
“Colton... This is Jake. We were just getting ready to send someone after you.”
“I need you to hold off on that.”
“Hold off? I don’t understand. I was told your plane went down.”
“The men who took my brother-in-law...they’re watching the airstrips. If you land, there’s a good chance they’ll be there waiting for you.”
There was a short pause on the line. “But what about you and Bret?”
“We’re going to try to get to Morocco and the embassy by car.”
“That sounds risky. There’s got to be another airstrip these guys aren’t watching.”
“But we have no way to know. They’re already spread out across two countries.”
“I still don’t like the idea of leaving you on your own.”
“I’m not sure how long the battery on this phone will last, so I’m going to need to keep it turned off, but we’ll plan to check in every six hours.”
There was nothing but static in reply.
“Can you hear me?” Colton asked.
Silence.
He let out a huff of air. “We lost the connection.”
“Do you think he understood?”
“I hope so.”
“Maybe meeting your team was worth the risk. They can’t be at every airstrip across the desert.”
“Before we do anything, we need to find Bret and Issa. I’m almost done changing the tire.”
The sound of an engine roared behind them. Lexi turned around. Another 4x4 came over the ridge of a nearby sand dune headed right toward them.
“Any chance these are good guys out on a morning drive?” Lexi asked, taking a step backward.
He grabbed his gun off the top of the car “I’m not going to count on it.”
She wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.
Three men stepped out of their vehicle, guns pointed at her and Colton.