Page 16 of Protecting Josie
Josie wasn’t sure at first that she’d liked the nickname Nate had given her, but it was growing on her. Of course, she wished she could tell him her real name, but since her voice still didn’t seem to work, it wasn’t exactly possible at the moment.
Kevlar reached up to his ear and seemed to fiddle with the receiver, then half-yelled to be heard over the rushing wind, “We’re on our way with tangos hot on our heels. Roger, we’ll be ready. It’ll be good to see you too. Out.” He looked at her, then Blink. “Hold on, you two, we’re almost there.”
Josie swallowed hard and glanced ahead of them. All she saw was open water, but she knew somewhere out there was the “safe” zone. They just had to get to it before the men giving chase caught up to them.
She saw it before she heard it. A helicopter. It seemed tiny in the distance, but as they got closer and closer, it grew in size.
“That’s it. Our way out of here!” Nate shouted.
Something occurred to Josie then. How the hell were they going to getintothe helicopter? She wasn’t sure, with no one out here patrolling the waters, that the people chasing would care about a borderline. She watched with trepidation as they raced closer and closer to the chopper.
Soon it was above them. The huge machine banked to the right and circled around so it paced them, heading in the same direction as the boat they were in kept driving at the same breakneck speed it had been, never slowing.
A door opened on the side of the helicopter—and a rope dropped from the opening.
Oh hell no!
Josie was not climbing up a freaking rope while driving a million miles an hour! She wasn’t a circus performer. She couldn’t do it!
But she should’ve known Nate would never ask something like that of her.
“All we have to do is hold on,” he told her, his mouth close to her ear. “They’ll pull us up with a mechanical winch. Just hold onto me and I’ll keep you safe, Spirit. I give you my word.”
For some reason, she believed him. He hadn’t broken any of the promises he’d made to her so far. She was terrified, scared shitless, but then again,everythingthat had happened to her recently was scary and horrible. Why would this be any different?
And yet, it was. She wasn’t alone this time. Ayden hadn’t been able to protect her; honestly, he hadn’t even tried. He panicked when he realized what he’d done, that he’d accidentally taken them into Iranian waters. He even tried to blameJosiewhen the men had boarded. Of course, it hadn’t done any good. He’d been shot seconds after unsuccessfully trying to throw her under the bus.
But this man? He didn’t panic when things went wrongminutes after they’d been freed from their cells. He was calm, cool, and had done everything to protect her as they fled.
Nate stared down at her, as if waiting for her agreement on what was about to happen. That was another thing she respected about this man. He didn’t force anything on her. Made it seem as if she had a say in what was happening. She didn’t, but she appreciated the effort anyway.
She finally nodded.
“Good. Hamburger or salad. They’ll soon be ours,” he quipped, then looked up at the dangling rope. He stood, and Josie did her best to brace his legs. Which was ridiculous. It wasn’t as if she had the strength to keep him from falling due to the erratic motions of the boat. Still, it made her feel as if she wasn’t quite as helpless as she felt to be helping in some little way. Thankfully, Kevlar was on his other side, further stabilizing Nate as he reached for the rope.
To her amazement, Nate quickly manipulated a portion of the long rope into a loop and secured it around his hips. Then he motioned for her to stand. Apparently, they would be going up first. Joy.
Josie stood up—and immediately fell back on her ass as the boat went over a fairly large wave.
He frowned and held out his hand. Josie gripped it and, with his help, managed to get herself up against him. He and Kevlar looped the rope around her waist, and then under her butt. “Hop up!” he yelled against the wind.
Josie didn’t understand. She frowned at him.
He didn’t explain further. Instead, he simply put his hands on her butt and lifted. Automatically, Josie wrapped her legsaround him, locking her ankles together at the small of his back.
“Hold on!” he yelled.
It was then that she realized all three of them would be going up at the same time. While Nate had been helping get her situated, Kevlar had quickly attached himself to the remaining length of rope that she’d thought was just “extra.” He’d be dangling under the two of them.
Josie had a moment to pray that the rope was strong enough to lift three bodies at once. That it wouldn’t break and send them all plunging into the water. That whatever mechanical contraption would be hauling them upward would be able to function with their combined weight.
Then her terror was suddenly focused elsewhere. Over Nate’s shoulder, Josie saw several men in the boats that were pursuing them, aiming what looked like rifles on steroids straight at their boat.
A squeak left her throat. She wanted to yell for Nate to watch out. To point out the fact that they were about to get shot, but her voice wasn’t cooperating.
She hissed as she felt pressure on her ass, and suddenly they began to ascend at a rapid rate. To her horror, they were about a dozen feet up when she saw the man who’d driven them to freedom fall over in the bottom of the boat.
He’d been shot!
