Neal frowned, trying to pinpoint why he didn’t feel vindicated. “Not exactly,” he said thoughtfully.
“Did you really set Benedict’s phone to ring when you handed it back?” Breck called across the dining room, interrupting them.
Mary laughed, looking up at him. “I just set a timer,” she explained with a shy shrug. “Anything to be disruptive.”
“Honey, you are a mastermind,” Breck said with approval. “Let me bring you guys dessert.”
Despite having polished off several plates of Chef’s braised pork cutlets and tender vegetables with red potato wedges, Mary and Neal both accepted the tall, fluffy slices of angel food cake smothered in fresh berries and whipped cream.
Neal was chasing the last blueberry across his plate when he heard the distant sound of chopper blades, and his restlessness finally made sense.
It was several moments before Mary noticed it, and Neal spent those moments watching her face as she savored the last morsels of her cake.
“What is that?” she finally said, listening.
“That was Plan B,” Neal said cryptically. At her quizzical look, he explained. “That’s my old team. I called them as soon as we got free of the first group of guards. You’re hearing a heavy helicopter, just a few minutes out.”
Mary’s eyes grew wide, but she took that as beautifully in stride as she had their entire adventure.
“How does that feel?”
It was a valid question, and one that Neal didn’t have an answer for, even when they were standing together at the parking area at the top of the resort outside the gates—the only clear, level place at the resort with space for a landing.
Mary stood close beside him, clinging to his hand. Though he suspected that it was for her own comfort, he took an equal amount of strength from it. She shielded her eyes as the helicopter whirled to a landing, but Neal just squinted at it in the darkness. Judy would be using radar to make the landing, and she must know that he was already there, waiting at a safe range by the gate.
Watching his team exit the lit helicopter was odd, the familiar shapes of their shoulders beneath the armor they were wearing; the way they each moved and held their weapons; and the other, more subtle differences that weren’t apparent until they stepped into the light by the gate.
Judy had dyed her hair a deep nut brown and let it grow out a few inches more than Neal had ever expected she would, almost to her shoulders. Gobber still had no hair, and refused to wear a helmet except to battle, but he had more years of wrinkles in his face, and there was a new scar by his ear. Jessy was still tiny and fast, but had braids in her black hair now, and a stiff motion that suggested a healing shoulder injury.
Remmy—Neal’s gut glenched. Remmy still had that too-young look, as red-headed as Neal was, but twice as freckled, with big innocent eyes in his round face. When Neal met his gaze, Remmy flinched so quickly Neal almost doubted that he’d seen it, but when he looked at Judy, he knew at once that she had seen it too, and that it was the last confirmation she'd been waiting for.
She gave a quick, professional gesture, and Thomas, who was giant and dark-skinned and hadn’t aged a day, was swiftly behind Remmy, disarming him with practiced hands before Remmy could even blink. Jessy lowered her weapon in a not so subtle way, keeping it trained on Remmy.
“You got here fast,” Neal said, not wanting to comment on the action, even as Remmy started to protest, “What’s going on guys?!”
“Don’t make it worse,” Judy warned him. “I had my suspicions before I heard from Neal. You couldn’t expect someone like Lewis not to rat you out, could you?” She added a few choice insults, then turned her back on Remmy and said blandly to Neal, “We didn’t want the Costa Rican authorities to get here before we could. Jurisdiction often comes down to who gets there first, and I’m not letting that asshole slip through my fingers again.”
Scarlet had appeared at Neal’s side without his notice, a fact that would have alarmed him with anyone else. “Well, we certainly appreciate having this mess cleaned up as quickly as possible,” she said, all business. “This way, please.”
Not one of the soldiers had a problem accepting her authority and falling into step behind her, each of them giving Neal a grin and a not-so-gentle punch in the shoulder as they went past. All except Remmy, who only glared.
“I can’t believe you’d take his word over mine,” Remmy grumbled. “You don’t even know where he’s been for ten years.”
Judy was the last to pass, and she alone stopped at Neal, and after a moment of staring at him, broke into a grin and enfolded him into a fierce hug. “You son of a bitch,” she said fondly. “You could have called sooner, you know. They’ve got phones here, I hear.”
She stepped back and inspected Mary with critical eyes.
Neal wanted instinctively to step between them, but paused.
Mary swallowed. “How do you do,” she said formally. “I’m…”
“You’re Neal’s mate,” Judy finished for her. “That’s good enough for me.”
Without further formality, she gave Mary a punch in the shoulder and turned to follow the rest of the team into the courtyard where Scarlet had Lewis and his men lined up in duct tape restraints.
Mary rubbed her shoulder and turned mystified eyes to Neal.
“Sorry,” Neal said. “Judy takes a little getting used to.”