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Starting the engine, Shark drove out of the garage, twilight falling as they waited for the car seat. As soon as they were on the road, he took her hand and pressed it against his thigh, covering it with his own. Her only response was to turn her hand palm up and lace her fingers through his. When he glanced at her, she was sitting with her head tipped back against the headrest, her eyes closed, as if absorbing the invigorating rush of the wind. She looked serene and relaxed, but he could see the rigid tension along her jawline, as though she had her teeth clenched. Shark tightened his hold on her hand, refocusing his attention on the road, his own jaw tensing. He felt as if he was standing at the edge of a deep, dark precipice, with very little room to adjust, and if he made one wrong move…. He shifted in his seat. He didn’t even dare think about it. It was already settled between them. They would reconnect once they were both back in Virginia Beach.
Shark didn’t relish driving on these roads at night. There weren’t any streetlights, and the roads were poorly maintained, really rough in spots with no shoulder to speak of, especially on some swaths of highway with a sheer drop-off to the beach below.
He stiffened when Benard called out, “Someone’s behind us!”
A pair of headlights loomed up in his rearview, then a burst of ping, ping, ping and the shattering of the SUV’s driver’s side mirror, which wiped any last doubt out of Shark’s mind about who was following them. He pushed Maddy down in her seat while bits of glass flew as the mirror disintegrated, leaving only a part of the shell hanging from the vehicle. This vehicle, like all the ambassador’s vehicles, was bulletproof, even the glass. They were home free if he could maneuver well enough to get them to the airport where they would have to break off the chase or risk retaliation by the guards stationed there.
He swore softly when he realized there were two more sets of headlights behind them. He scowled at the mirror and floored the gas pedal, pulling away.
Whoever was chasing them was in jeeps, not the best vehicle for power, but they were gaining. Benard returned fire out the crack in the back window while Fabrice and Cassidy were huddled in the back seat, the woman’s body draped over her son, and Cassidy over both of them.
Then the head jeep barely missed hitting them broadside. The other car spun while they fishtailed, and he braked then made a deep right, speeding toward the highway.
“Shark. Watch out!” Maddy screamed.
Several shots hit his driver’s side window, but the glass held. He needed to stay a moving target, the speedometer at eighty. The jeep didn’t give up. “You want to play chicken, you fucker?” Shark growled.
“OhGodohGodohGod!” Maddy mumbled as the man lifted his gun and took aim again.
“Hold on!” Shark veered left, coming so close they sheared off the rest of the side view mirror, then crashed into the right rear. The jolt threw them back into the seats, but Shark never stopped, struggling to keep the car on the road and moving. The other guy wasn’t so lucky as Shark forced him into the shoulder. The jeep’s rear end slid sideways and flipped on its side. It rolled twice and was still sliding as he flew onward.
He kept speeding. “One down, two to go,” he said. The two other jeeps sped past the crash. “Benard,” Shark called out. “There are some homewreckers in that duffel. Let’s slow them down if we can,” he called out.
Maddy’s eyes widened. “Homewreckers?” she squeaked. “That sounds really…dangerous.”
“They are.” He grinned like a fool. Thermobaric grenades could collapse buildings, hence the name. “Charges that will stop those bastards dead.” He took a hard curve around a lush hillside, and Benard released one of the grenades. The lead jeep swerved, but the one behind it wasn’t so lucky.
The flash of the ordnance lit up the night. Benard readied the second one, then suddenly the SUV started to wobble, shake, and Shark lost traction on the road, veering down a slope, rattling his teeth. He heard the metal of the second homewrecker hit the back of the SVU. His heart in his throat, all he could do was hang onto the wheel for dear life.
The earth buckled beneath them, great clods of it flying everywhere, dirt, plants, trees, and debris rained down on the roof of the vehicle, sending the SUV shooting off the uneven ground into the air like a ramp.
“Brace yourselves!” Shark yelled, but it would be a moot point if the homewrecker that Benard dropped went off. It was his last thought as they went airborne.
* * *
Twister and the team went through the embassy one last time to make sure they weren’t leaving anyone behind. As predicted, the crowd thinned outside the embassy, and he was relieved because they had a slow-moving bus filled with most of the staff. Brawler was going to be driving the beast with Dagger, Easy, and Flash riding shotgun to protect the passengers. The ambassador, deputy ambassador, RSO, Tex, Twister, and Bondo would take the limo, Bondo driving.
The C-17 would be waiting for them once they made it to the airport, approximately less than fifteen minutes from the embassy. He was one of the last people out of the structure when the ground beneath his feet started shaking violently. Twister wasn’t able to even stand as chunks of mortar from the embassy started raining down on him. He tried to get away from the building, his mind registering that this wasn’t a minor tremor like the ones that had shaken the ground yesterday. This was a big one…at least a seven. Something struck him in the back, and he went down.
He could hear shouting, people screaming in the background, but more rocks and debris buried him until he couldn’t move. Then within his tomb, he coughed and worked at breathing until suddenly, he blacked out.
* * *
The prime minister raised his glass of fine wine to the cabinet. Everything had gone completely like he envisioned it would. The cabinet was desperate for him to take over as interim, and it would be a matter of time before he would be sworn in as the new president.
After the toast, he went to sip his wine and suddenly he felt like he was falling, like from the high height of a rollercoaster, but he realized suddenly that he wasn’t moving, it was the floor. It was as if something picked up the palace and set it down with a jolt. The meal in his gut rolled queasily and everything on the table started to shake, clatter, and roll, plates and fine crystal slipping to the floor and smashing. As the powerful shaking continued, everything around them fell, books, bookcases, vases, plants, the chandelier above the table making a violent tinkling until it let go and crashed into the middle of the table, sending glass shards everywhere, his face stinging with pain. Then the ceiling collapsed. His aide grabbed him as people scattered toward the French doors on the side of the hall. He burst through with his aide, and they ran away from the collapsing walls, through the gardens. People were screaming, their cries cut off as mortar, dust, and debris flew into the air.
He watched in horror as the palace, the new one they had built to withstand an earthquake, fell into rubble in front of him and his brave aide. He would never admit that he had instructed the disgruntled engineers to rebuild it by skimping on the regulations, while he pocketed the generous payout from the international community. If it hadn’t been for the man’s quick thinking, he would still be inside and as dead as the cabinet.
This was a disaster, but he was already trying to think of a way to spin it, gather international sympathy in the wake of the assassination and now this devastating earthquake.
This would work to his advantage. He could rebuild Haiti to his specifications, make this his private domain while he robbed the world blind as the aid rolled in.
He smiled, braced by his loyal man. There was always a silver lining.
15
Secretary of State Eleanor White looked out over Washington, her nerves jumping as she checked her watch. The ambassador should have left the embassy ten minutes ago. She grabbed her briefcase, preparing to head to the White House’s situation room to monitor the evacuation of the rest of the diplomatic mission in Haiti.
