Page 68 of Protecting Maggie
It wouldn’t be easy. Preacher hurt like hell and his teammate wasn’t in any better condition. The soldiers at their side, holding onto them, were already helping to keep them upright as they were force-marched to another location. But Maggie was out there somewhere, and she needed him to figure this out. If he was killed, his team would get her out, of that he had no doubt, but he was motivated to get out with her. He wanted to spend the rest of hislifewith her. And he couldn’t do that if Robertson won.
Preacher hated to lose—and this was one battle he was determined to come out on top.
Maggie lay on a slab of concrete, staring down into the street below. Artem was lying next to her. He’d led her up here after Yana and Borysko fell asleep in another little nook they’d found and made into a home away from home.
She felt exposed and out of her element, but she did what she could to follow Artem’s lead. He seemed much older than his eight years. He’d had to grow up fast. Too fast. It made Maggie sad, but she had to admit that at the moment, she was glad he was here. If she’d been on her own, it would’ve been a disaster. He’d found them water, had scrounged for food in the rubble of what had to have been an apartment building at one time, and was now helping her look for Shawn and MacGyver.
“Where are all the people?” she whispered as they scanned their surroundings.
“They go to safe. West. Away from here.”
“Why didn’t you go too?”
Artem looked at her with his big brown eyes. His face was filthy, his hair matted and dirty. “This is home. Mother and Father are here.” He pointed out into the city, toward the west. “Nowhere else to go.”
Maggie’s heart broke all over again. “But you would be safe if you left.”
“Take Yana away. No family. Not safe. Together safe.”
She wanted to argue that they weren’t safe right now. Not living in unsanitary conditions, scrounging for food, and hiding from Russian soldiers. But she had no idea what she could do to help the children. She could barely lookafter herself. She was so out of her element, it wasn’t even funny.
“Find Ricky and Shawn. Help.”
She nodded. She was still a little fuzzy about what in the world three kids and a woman could do to help two Navy SEALs being held captive by a bunch of soldiers, but at this point she literally had nothing to lose. Without Shawn and MacGyver, she was as good as dead. Roman would win, and that was the last thing she wanted.
She’d gone from never wanting to return to California, to fantasizing about the look on her ex’s face when she strolled up to him and said, “Guess what? I didn’t die!”
“There! Look, Mag. Soldiers.”
Forcing herself to concentrate, Maggie looked where Artem was pointing. He was right. There were people moving through the rubble a few streets over. It was hard to tell if Shawn and MacGyver were with them, but Artem didn’t seem to have that issue.
“Ricky and Shawn there. Take them to church. Good. Good. Can get them out.”
Maggie wanted to shake her head. Tell the boy that he was crazy. That there was no way they’d be able to sneak the SEALs out from under the Russians’ noses. But Artem was already backing off the slanted ledge of concrete. Maggie quickly followed, being careful to keep her head down. The last thing she wanted was to be spotted and shot at.
Once they were back on the ground, she followedArtem as he weaved his way back to where he’d left his brother and sister.
The entrance to the space they’d holed up in was so small, Maggie could barely fit through the hole in the mangled rebar and steel. Of course, the kids had no problem. If Shawn or MacGyver were with them, they wouldn’t have fit at all.
“We get next day,” Artem told her, when she was once more sitting cross-legged, leaning against one of the walls.
“How?” Maggie asked.
The next thirty minutes was spent with Artem telling Maggie his plan in broken English—and Maggie trying to talk him out of it. But in the end, she realized she had no choice but to go along with the boy. He knew this city like the back of his hand. If he said his plan would work, she had to believe him.
Her role was easy. She was the bait.
Swallowing hard, she tried not to puke. Not that she had much in her belly to throw up. But thoughts of everything that could go wrong swam through her brain. If she got lost, or if she wasn’t fast enough, the Russians would capture her, and if she’d thought she was in deep shit in an American prison, it would benothingcompared to rotting away in a Russian cell.
But Artem seemed to think his plan would work perfectly. While she was distracting the soldiers, he, Borysko, and Yana would sneak in through a tunnel they’d found while foraging and get Shawn and MacGyver out. Then they’d all meet up at the edge of the city, in an areashe recognized as being near where her crate had landed, when she was pushed out of the helicopter.
This part of the country had a lot of farmland. The city they were in had to have been the biggest around. Not big like a city back home, but large enough for its citizens to have everything they’d needed. Now, the church in the center of the city was one of the only buildings still standing…and even that could be argued. Half of it was destroyed, but the other half was apparently acting as a kind of meeting point for the soldiers. And it was where they’d taken Shawn and MacGyver.
“Next day, I show you where to walk. Where to lead soldiers,” Artem told her. In any other situation, Maggie would’ve found it adorable how he kept saying “next day” instead of tomorrow, but right now? Terror was swimming in her veins.
“Okay.”
Yana and Borysko had woken up while Artem was telling her the plan, and the little girl ended up sitting against Maggie’s side. She reached over and patted Maggie’s hand while saying something in her native language.
