Diana Palmer Collected 1-6: Soldier of Fortune / Tender Stranger / Enamored / Mystery Man / Rawhide and Lace / Unlikely Lover

The radio went dead. Gabby stared at it helplessly and then at Laremos.

“Madre de Dios,” he breathed. “I should have realized…Carisa!” he yelled. A stream of Spanish followed, and Laremos grabbed one of the weapons. He thrust it into Gabby’s numbed fingers.

“Carry it. I will teach you to use it when I must,” he said curtly. “Come, there is no time. Aquilas!” he yelled, and the short man who’d driven in from the airport with them came running in. There was another stream of Spanish.

“My men will cover us,” Laremos said curtly. “We must hurry. The smugglers will not care who are terrorists and who are not, they will cut us down regardless. Aquilas says there are government troops not too far behind. But we cannot involve them.” His wary eyes sought hers. “You understand?”

“Because of the rescue,” she said, smiling wanly. “It’s all right, señor. Just, please, get me to J.D.”

He looked at her searchingly. “I understand. But do not underestimate the group, señorita. We were once…quite something.”

He led her out of the house, and together they headed quickly into the jungle. She carried the heavy weapon with no real sense of its weight and no earthly idea of how to use it. As she followed Laremos through dense undergrowth at a breakneck pace, she wondered what her mother back home in Lytle, Texas, would think if she knew where her only daughter was.

“Quick, get down,” Laremos hissed, pushing her under the dense foliage and cautioning her to be quiet.

She froze, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. She felt weak all over. What would happen if they were seen? She couldn’t fire the weapon, she didn’t know how! Her eyes felt as if they were going to pop out of her head, and she wished she were with J.D. Laremos would do his best, but if she had to die, she wanted to be with Jacob when it happened. Her eyes closed and she prayed silently while sweat poured down her cheeks.

There was a wild thrashing nearby, and she had a glimpse of ragged-looking men with rifles. She knew without being told that they were the drug smugglers Laremos had spoken about. They were muttering among themselves, but they didn’t seem to be looking for anyone. They were joking and laughing, their weapons hung over their shoulders as they trailed through the jungle.

Gabby bit almost through her lower lip as she studied the weapons they were carrying. She could feel terror in her throat, strangling her. What if they were spotted? There were worse things than being killed, especially for a woman. Her eyes closed. The bravery she’d thought she had was nowhere to be found.

It seemed to take forever for the men to march out of sight and finally out of earshot.

“Courage,” Laremos whispered. “We will wait just another minute and then proceed.”

“We can’t go back to your finca?” she whispered back, hating her own cowardice.

He shook his head. “This is only a small part of the main force. Unless I am badly mistaken, the rest are camped at my finca.” He shrugged. “The government troops will come and drive them out. But for the meantime, we have little choice. We either try to join our comrades or risk being killed.”

“I’m much too young to die,” she told him with a quiet smile. “How do I shoot this thing if I have to?”

He showed her, quickly and efficiently, and she felt a little more secure as they started out again. But her eyes darted every which way, and she was so afraid that she could taste the fear in her mouth. Death seemed to lurk behind every tree.

She was learning something about courage. It wasn’t being unafraid. It was being stubborn.

It was slow going. They had been walking for over an hour when suddenly gunfire erupted all around them.

“Oh, my God,” Gabby squealed, dropping down with her hands over her head, the rifle falling to the ground.

“Don’t panic,” Laremos said tautly as he came down beside her. “Listen.”

She heard bullets whizzing, but Laremos was grinning!

“What…?” she tried to ask, gathering enough courage to grab her weapon and hold on to it with cold fingers.

“The Uzi,” he whispered. “I know the sound, oh, so well, señorita,” he said with a grin. He moved behind a tree and peered out into the jungle. All at once, he stood up. “Archer!” he yelled. “Here!”

Then there was a flurry of wild movement, crashing sounds, gunfire, and explosions, and in the middle of it came J.D., with a small, dark-haired woman under one arm and the Uzi under the other. Around him, Shirt and Apollo and Semson and Drago were covering each other and firing on the run as they joined Laremos and Gabby.

“Martina, Gabby,” J.D. said as he piled in with them and let go of his sister. “Okay, honey?” he asked Gabby with a quick glance.

“Fine, now,” she whispered shakily, clutching the weapon.

“They’re right on our tails,” J.D. said. “Apollo, got any of that C-4 left?” he yelled.

“Working on it right now, big man,” came the reply. “Just enough to make a big splash. We’ll have to draw them in.”

“Tell me when,” J.D. called back.

“That group of men you ran into were probably drug smugglers. They’ve taken my finca,” Laremos said. “We barely escaped in time.”

“I’m sorry about that,” J.D. said as he reloaded the small automatic weapon.

“Are you both all right?” Gabby asked J.D. in a quavering voice as she crawled over to Martina and clutched the frightened woman’s hand.

“A few scratches, but we’ll make it,” he returned, but his eyes were fierce and tormented as they searched Gabby’s face. “How about you?”

“I’m learning to be a crack shot,” she replied with a nervous laugh. “Laremos even told me how to cock this thing.”

“If you have to fire it,” J.D. said intently, “be sure you brace it hard against your shoulder so that the recoil doesn’t break a bone. Take a breath, let half of it out, and squeeze the trigger, don’t jerk it.”

“I’ll be a natural,” Gabby told him, but she was trembling.

“I wish I could help,” Martina whispered shakily. “But I’m so tired…!”

“God knows you’ve reason to be,” J.D. said. He ruffled her hair. “But you’re a trouper, sis.”

She managed a smile for him. “Like my big brother. I knew you’d come, I knew you would. Thank God for your Special Forces training.” Martina added with a laugh, “But however did you find these other men?”

J.D. and Gabby exchanged a quiet look. “I hired them,” he said blandly. “Roberto can reimburse me.”

“My poor darling.” Martina sighed. “He’ll be so frantic.”

“How are we going to get out of here?” Gabby asked J.D.

“Wait and see.” He glanced toward Apollo. “Ready?” he called.

“Ready!”

“I’m going to draw them out for you. Don’t let me down!”

“J.D., no!” Gabby burst out as he leaped out of the brush and started firing toward rustling noises in the undergrowth ahead.

She lost her mind. Afterward it was the only explanation she could come up with. The enemy came forward in a rush, and suddenly Gabby was on her feet. She saw a sniper taking dead aim at J.D.; she turned and lifted the heavy weapon and sighted it and pulled the trigger.

It was a miracle that she even hit the man’s shoulder, her aim was so wide. But she did, and with terror she realized that he had taken aim at her and was about to fire.

“Gabby!” J.D. yelled wildly.