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“How are your eyes? Can you see anything?”
Her mother tried to open her eyes. “Light hurts still. I’ll manage. I’m ready to get out of here and go home.”
“Me, too.” She was going to have to try the door, which she figured would be locked. She took her mother’s hand and led her to the door, tried the knob.
It turned.
“Door’s not locked.” Why should he when he had the bomb in the closet?
Bastard.
She turned to her mother. “Stay very quiet, and be ready to run like hell. Don’t let go of my hand.”
Her mother nodded, squeezed her hand. “I love you, Elena. I’m sorry.”
Elena pulled her into a hug, tears welling in her eyes. “Nothing to be sorry for. And I love you, too, Mom.”
Her first priority was getting her mother as far away from the bomb as possible. That was their best chance at survival. The second option was to find a phone so she could call for help. She knew Grange and Jed would be tearing the world apart searching for them.
That gave her comfort. They’d find her and her mom. In the meantime, she’d do whatever it took to get them out of there and away from that lunatic Pete. She had to get her mother out of this house and now.
She inched the door open and peeked out. The room they were in was at the edge of the hallway. She could see a living area and kitchen. Two men holding guns were in the kitchen having a beer and staring out the open back slider toward the beach. No sign of Pete.
“Stay here,” she whispered to her mother, and inched out of the room, wanting to take a look around the edge of the wall.
They were right at the front door. If she could somehow get past those men in the kitchen, or if the men would go outside, she could grab her mom, get out of the front door and make a dash to freedom. She didn’t know how big that bomb was, but if they could clear the house, maybe they’d be okay.
Maybe.
She slipped back inside the room and partly closed the door, giving her mother a report of what she’d seen. She kept watch over the guards, hoping and praying they’d walk outside. All she needed was thirty seconds.
Then she heard the loud roar overhead, and the guards went running.
She grabbed her mother’s hand. “Let’s go now!”
FIFTEEN
Nothing like a couple of low-flying fighter jets as a diversion. Jed was thankful Grange knew people in high places. The flyover should provide enough of a distraction to get Pete and whoever else was working for him scrambling to figure out what the fuck was going on.
They beached the Zodiac boat on the back side of the island and leaped out, weapons drawn, while a helo and the jets hopefully kept Pete busy on the main side. Jed and Grange ran like hell toward the house, ripping through underbrush, foliage slapping them in the face and arms as they rushed to get to Elena and her mother.
“You see anything that isn’t Carla and Elena, shoot it,” Grange said, having no problem keeping up with Jed.
That was already Jed’s plan anyway. He figured every person on this private island was hostile.
They reached the clearing. Jed didn’t even pause as he ran through the open back door.
“Elena!”
No answer. He checked every room in the small house, but she wasn’t there. Neither was her mother.
“Front door is open,” Grange said, heaving big gulps of oxygen and dripping sweat from their extended run. “Maybe they got out.”
“And maybe Pete took them out when the jets flew over.”
Grange nodded. “I’ll go out the back and retrace. You take the front. Check in.”
“You got it.”
