Page 35 of The Hero
The thought should’ve been outrageous, even scary, but instead it centered her. She loved him already, despite just knowing him for days, and there was no way they’d made it through everything they had, only to be caught now.
Pressing her lips together, she did her best to block out the sounds of someone crashing through the trees behind them and yelling something in Thai.
“There it is,” Kendric panted.
Looking up, Marlowe saw the fence. It looked huge and foreboding. The curls of barbed wire at the top made her wince; they were almost as tall as she was. How the hell were they going to get across that?
She hit the fence hard—and was surprised when she felt it give under her weight.
“Up, Marlowe. Start climbing!” Kendric said.
Instead of heeding his order, something made her look down. When she’d run into the fence, it swayed more than she thought it should’ve. She fell to her knees and started digging the dirt and leaves away from the chain-link.
“Marlowe! What are you doing? We need to get over this. Now!”
But she knew she’d never get over that barbed wire. Not without shoes. Not at her height. She frantically dug faster.
She heard a noise behind her, and glanced over her shoulder to see two men coming at them from the trees.
Their time was up.
Kendric didn’t even hesitate: he charged the men, meeting them head on.
It was an eerie fight. No one said anything. All Marlowe heard were grunts and groans as the three men did their best to subdue each other.
Torn between continuing to free the bottom of the fence—she was getting close, she could feel it—and helping Kendric, she ultimately stood. Shrugging off the backpack, she looked around for something she could use to help him fight.
“Go, Mar!” he yelled as he struggled with the men. “Damn it,go!”
She continued to search her surroundings. Shewasn’tleaving without him.
The two men were some sort of security. From what she could see, neither had a gun, which was a huge relief. The last thing she wanted was either her or Kendric being shot when they were so close to freedom.
Just when she was feeling utterly frantic, she finally spied a large tree limb. Running toward it, she blanked her mind from anything but what she needed to do.
By the time she turned back to the fight, Kendric had incapacitated one of the men, who was lying on the ground, moaning. But it looked like he was losing the battle with the other one.
The security officer had pulled a knife and was doing his best to slice Kendric to ribbons as they fought. Marlowe hovered as close as she dared, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Her chance came when Kendric grabbed the man’s knife arm, and they seemed to come to a brief stalemate, each trying to force the other’s hand.
Rushing up behind the officer, Marlowe swung the branch as hard as she could. She was smaller than the man, but more determined than ever to end this.
The branch hit him on the side of his head and immediately shattered into hundreds of splinters as it made contact.
For a moment, the man stood stock still, his eyes wide with shock. Then he crumpled to the ground in a heap.
Marlowe stared, equally shocked. Crap! Had she killed him? That hadn’t been her plan. It was bad enough she was thrown in jail for having drugs; murdering someone would surely get her the death penalty.
“Come on,” Kendric said, grabbing her hand and twirling her around, back toward the fence.
Snapping out of her stupor, Marlowe once again went to her knees. “Help me, Kendric!” she cried. “It’ll be easier to go under than over!”
For a moment, he hesitated, but then he was next to her on his knees, frantically digging as best he could with his bare hands. With his help, it wasn’t long before there was a small space under the fence.
“Go!” Kendric exclaimed, pushing her to the ground. He wedged the backpack so it was holding up the part of the fence they’d pried from the dirt. It was going to be a tight fit for her, and Marlowe wasn’t sure Kendric would be able to fit at all. But he didn’t give her a chance to protest. He grabbed her calves and pushed her forward.
She slithered and squirmed on her stomach, and with Kendric’s help, she was suddenly on the other side.
