Page 36 of The Hero
Not pausing to kiss the ground or rejoice that she was actually in Cambodia, Marlowe twisted toward him. “Your turn.”
He looked at her, then up at the top of the fence, then behind him at the two men, who’d begun to stir. She had a moment to be glad that she hadn’t killed the man with the tree branch, but then panic set in.
“Kendric! Come on!”
“I’m not going to fit,” he said with a small shake of his head.
“Yes, you will!” Marlowe cried, truly panicking now. “You have to try!”
She was more relieved than she could say when he lowered to his belly.
“Give me your hands!” she ordered. “I’ll pull.”
He ignored her and did his best to squeeze under the fence.
He was right. He wasn’t going to fit.
“No, no, no!” Marlowe chanted under her breath as she fell to her knees next to his head and began digging once more. She flung dirt behind her as she frantically tried to deepen the hole. Tears fell from her eyes, unnoticed as she worked.
The security officer Kendric had knocked out was now on his feet, stumbling toward him.
Sobbing, Marlowe grabbed Kendric’s shirt and pulled as hard as she could. But all she managed to do was pull the material up to his armpits and practically strangle him.
He grunted as he kicked out at the man, who was trying to grab hold of his legs to pull him backward.
Screaming in rage and terror and frustration, Marlowe wrapped her arms under Kendric’s armpits and used all her strength to hold on to him, to pull him onto the Cambodian side of the border.
One second, she and the security guard were having a tug-of-war contest, and the next, she landed on her ass in the dirt—with Kendric half in her lap.
For a moment, she and the security officer were both frozen. Staring at each other. Then he let out a series of what Marlowe could only assume were swear words.
She looked down and saw that Kendric had rolled to his back. He was lying there motionless, a grimace on his face.
“Kendric?” she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
He took a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes and met her gaze, she couldn’t read the emotions she saw there.
“You did it,” he whispered.
For some reason, Marlowe shook her head in denial.
“No, you did,” he insisted. “I wasn’t getting under that. No way in hell. I didn’t fit. I shouldn’t have made it through, but with your refusal to give up ... here I am.” He sat up, pulling his shirt back down to cover his torso, and yanked her against him.
Marlowe snuggled into him, not caring that they were sitting in the dirt. That the security officers were both yelling at them now, threatening them with all sorts of awful things, no doubt, if they didn’t come back to the other side of the fence.
Marlowe and Kendric ignored them. She buried her face in his neck and straddled his waist. He held her so tightly, it almost hurt. But she wasn’t going to complain. In fact, she never wanted to let him go again.
They didn’t sit there for long. It was inevitable that the security officers would call for backup and soon the area would be crawling with more cops. Probably some with guns. And Marlowe wasn’t willing to take the chance that they’d be shot through the fence.
They got to their feet and took their first steps away from the border, their arms around each other, the other men shouting in their wake.
“The backpack!” she said, looking behind them.
“It’s not important,” Kendric said. “We can find new clothes and food. We don’t need it.”
Marlowe nodded and turned her back on Thailand. She couldn’t ever go back, she knew that, but it wasn’t as if she’dwantto go back. In fact, all she wanted to do was get home and never leave the States again. She’d had enough of traveling.
They stumbled along together, her without shoes and Kendric hurting from the slashes he’d received from the knife fight and the puncheshe’d taken. They went into a line of trees, and it was a huge relief not to be able to see that damn fence. They were leaving Thailand behind once and for all.
