Page 5 of Finding Lexie
“When the chopper arrives, close your eyes so sand doesn’t get in them,” Midas ordered.
“How will I be able to get to it if I can’t see?” Lexie asked.
“I’ve got you.”
The longing those three words invoked was immediate and intense…and surprising.
She’d always been a loner. Perfectly happy moving from place to place, country to country, all on her own. She didn’t have close friends or family. Hadn’t had a serious boyfriend in years. She liked being single. Liked being able to travel the world.
But after what she’d been through in the last three months, Lexie fully understood just how alone she was in the world. Her dad hadn’t been the best father, and he was gone now. They’d moved around too much when she was growing up to build any close friendships. She hadn’t gone to college, and the people she’d met through Food For All were great, but they were busy moving around and helping others, just like she was. And she was fine with that.
Therefore, over the years, she’d forgotten what it felt like to lean on someone.
Maybe she’d never known the feeling.
But those three words coming from Midas made her long to experience it.
“Lex?” he asked.
“Sorry, yeah, I heard you,” she told him quickly, doing her best to throw off her melancholy. As soon as she got a shower—and drank a dozen huge glasses of cold water—she’d feel more like herself. “But if I trip over sand, I’m gonna be mad at you.”
Midas chuckled. “I seem to remember you being very even keeled. Have you ever been mad at someone in your life?”
Lexie was amazed all over again that this man remembered anything about her. He’d impressed her in high school. He was popular back then, but he hadn’t been an asshole about it. He’d never looked down on other kids and he’d stuck up for them when they were being bullied. He was friendly…and had even mostly hid his disappointment when he’d been paired with her for a project.
She shrugged. “Being mad doesn’t really help the situation.”
“True.”
It was shocking how one second they were standing in the dark desert, chatting about nothing in particular, and the next it was like they were engulfed in a wind tunnel. A helicopter appeared as if out of nowhere, its rotors sending sand flying in all directions.
Lexie immediately closed her eyes against the onslaught and couldn’t help but lean into Midas. She felt his arm go around her back as she huddled closer to try to keep from being pummeled by the sharp grains of sand. She had no idea how he was able to see, but when she felt him move forward, she didn’t hesitate to shuffle alongside him.
“Hold your hand up,” Midas said loudly in her ear after a minute or so.
Keeping her eyes squeezed shut, Lexie did as he ordered. Immediately, she felt her hand being grabbed by someone else. Before she could adjust, she felt as if she were flying through the air—and then the sand was gone.
She squinted her eyes open and saw that she was inside the chopper, and Midas was climbing in behind her.
A man dressed exactly like Midas pointed to the other side of the helicopter, and Lexie immediately went to where he’d indicated. She slid to her butt and watched as Dagmar was loaded and half a dozen other soldiers climbed onboard.
Someone handed her a headset and she slipped it over her ears, sighing in relief at the immediate silence.
Midas came over to sit next to her, and he adjusted the mouthpiece closer to her lips. “Can you hear me?”
Lexie nodded.
He smiled at her. “Good.”
She wanted to ask where they were going and what would happen next, but suddenly she was incredibly exhausted. The adrenaline that had coursed through her veins when the shooting had started was waning and she was finding it hard to keep her eyes open.
When Midas put his arm around her shoulders and tugged her closer, she went willingly. Her head landed on his shoulder and she sighed. She heard the soldiers talking to each other through the headphones. They were concerned about Dagmar’s condition and were discussing the stop they were going to make in Galkayo.
But Lexie only vaguely listened. Once the door to the chopper closed and she felt the huge machine lift off, it was as if her body and mind completely shut down.
She was safe. Her kidnappers were dead. Nothing else mattered.
* * *
