Just for show...or was that something more?
Cale was laughing and saying something, playing his part. Gunner responded, but Sydney was lost.
She actually wished that this moment could be real. That she was just a happy honeymooner. A woman with Gunner.
But this wasn’t her life. She had a mission. A rescue. A civilian who needed her. She’d get the job done.
She’d get her man, too.
Gunner’s arm wrapped around Sydney’s shoulders. He steered her toward the entrance to the resort. She took a deep breath and slipped into her role.
* * *
LOGAN’S BODY WAS pressed tightly to the ground. He kept only his head up as he peered through the binoculars to get a visual on the small camp that sat at the base of the mountain. Not a typical rebel group, from what he’d been able to tell. These guys were armed to the teeth, patrolling constantly, and that one tent to the back...the one that housed the hostage...
There’d been no movement from that tent for the past four hours. Logan knew that fact for certain, because he’d been unmoving in his own position for that time.
He shouldn’t have come out alone, he knew that, but before he brought Sydney out there, before Gunner got the rebels in his sights, Logan just had to be sure of his target.
An armed guard headed toward the tent, lifted the flap, and went inside. Logan stopped breathing.
Then the guard came out again, leading the hostage. Logan’s fingers tightened around the binoculars as he stared at that prisoner. Long hair and a beard that hadn’t been trimmed in what looked like months. The man was walking with a faint limp.
This wasn’t a hostage who had been taken a few days ago. This was a man who had been held for a very, very long time.
Logan stared at the man’s face.
And knew the mission was going to be personal.
* * *
GUNNER TIPPED THE bellman and shut the door. Then he flipped the lock and turned his attention to Sydney.
She stood in front of a big bed, her blond hair framing her face. Her eyes were wide and fixed on him, but she wasn’t smiling.
Sydney looked nervous. An unusual situation for her. As far as he knew, Sydney was never nervous.
He took a step toward her, and she tensed.
What the hell? “Sydney?”
She shook her head. Then she smiled and gave the light laugh that always made his chest ache. “I swear, I feel like I’m on a real honeymoon.”
If only. He wouldn’t say he hadn’t thought about what it would be like to marry her, because he had. Too many times. Even when she’d been planning to marry his brother, he’d thought—
She should be mine.
Then Slade had died, and he’d hated himself for the jealousy he’d felt.
“Are you...are you okay with being back here again?” Sydney asked him quietly.
He strolled toward the window, then looked out over the lush resort. Within the resort’s walls, everything was beautiful, perfect. But there were other parts of Peru that were savage. Dangerous. Once you left the city and journeyed into the jungle, civilization truly faded away. “I’ve been back here a few times since his death.”
“You have?” Surprise lifted her words.
He knew she’d stayed away. But he’d had to come b
ack. “I tried to find him.” Again and again. “My grandfather would have wanted him brought back.” I wanted him back. He shrugged, trying to push away the past. “But I couldn’t find Slade.”