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Jed finally let go of her. She looked outside the window and all she could see below was ocean. There was nowhere for her to go. A leap out of the helicopter would kill her.
The pilot of the helicopter hadn’t even looked at them. Maybe he was used to men throwing women in his helicopter against their will. She doubted he’d help her.
The fight drained out of her and she sank against the seat.
Jed tapped her leg. She turned to look at him. He motioned to his seat belt and she put hers on. He also wanted her to put on earphones with a mic so he could talk to her, but she shook her head.
She didn’t want to talk. She wanted to go home, climb in bed and go to sleep, wake up tomorrow and realize this had all been a bad dream. Then she could go downstairs, open her shop, and it would be like any other normal day.
Normal. Her life hadn’t been normal since she’d met Jed.
She shot him a glare. He was watching her. He looked tense, as if at any moment he expected her to either leap on him or fling the door open and throw herself into the ocean.
She wasn’t that stupid. She was no match for his strength and she wasn’t about to kill herself. She was all about survival, and she’d figure out how to survive this.
Even if she had been stupid enough to get herself into this nightmare.
The drop in the pit of her stomach signaled their descent. She looked out the window to see the first gray fingers of dawn peeking over the horizon, giving her a glimpse of a tiny strip of an island below. And then the copter started to dive. She held on, watching as the island grew larger, and they landed on a clearing just off the beach.
An older guy stood there in camouflage pants, boots and a brown T-shirt. Jed unbuckled and got out first, then helped Elena.
Her ears stopped ringing as the helicopter’s rotors and engines were cut.
“Gen—uh, this is Grange,” Jed said. “Grange, this is Elena Madison.”
The older guy nodded at Jed, then turned his attention on her.
He looked fierce. And mean. Very military, with his precision haircut, rigid stance and his hands clasped behind his back. She felt like she was being inspected and she should stand at attention.
He nodded to her. “Miss Madison.”
“Elena,” she corrected.
“I’m sure you’re tired. Let’s go to the compound.”
Compound? Where were they, Guantanamo?
Grange pivoted and led the way through the canopy of trees onto a well-worn path. Now that it was lighter out, at least she didn’t feel like she was stumbling around in the dark. But she still didn’t like that she had no idea where she was, or where they were going.
r /> Or why she was even here or had been flown here by helicopter.
She shifted her gaze to Jed, who was fixated on Grange’s back. She tried to get his attention but he wouldn’t look at her.
Fine. She stepped up her pace and moved alongside Grange.
“What’s going on? Why was I brought here?”
She didn’t think the man had any ability of movement in his mouth other than grim straight line.
“I’ll explain everything to you after we have you secured.”
“Secured. What the hell does that even mean? I own a jewelry store. I’m not military and no threat to national security. Have I been set up somehow?”
She threw Jed a glare over her shoulder and tried to keep up with Grange, but his long strides ate up the path and she gave up.
Jed stayed with her, though, not once leaving her side. But he didn’t say anything, either, which only made her dig her tennis shoes harder into the soft, sandy surface of the ground.
She wanted to stop, turn around and head back to the beach. But since she didn’t know how to fly a helicopter and she hadn’t seen a pay phone around anywhere, that would be kind of foolish. Maybe there’d be a phone inside the “compound,” and she could call the police.
