Eileen Wilks [Tall, Dark & Eligible 03] Michael's Temptation (pdf)

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obvious you've never traveled with children. There are thirteen of them, and
Sister Constancia is fifty-seven, Sister Andrew even older. I can help."
"This isn't a blasted car trip to see the Grand Canyon!"
"It's not a forced march with trained infantry, either. My skills will be needed
as much as yours will."
"Dammit, you are not "
"Keep your voice down. You're frightening the children."
The nuns and most of the children were in the main room, packing food. Two of
the smallest children had followed A.J. into the girls' bedroom and watched with
big, bewildered eyes while she grabbed blankets and clothes and tried to shape
them into packs the older children could carry. One little Rosita started to cry,
more in confusion than real distress.
"There, sweetheart." A.J. stroked the toddler's head but didn't stop to pick her
up. There was too much to do, and too little time. She met Michael's eyes. "You're
doing what you feel you have to do. So am I."
Michael cursed under his breath. Then he kissed her once, hard. His eyes were
bleak. "Forget the rest of the stuff. We're moving out now."
Two hours and five minutes after Scopes first told him about the rebel soldiers,
Michael had his ragged troop moving down the trail. They'd done well,
extraordinarily well, to move as quickly as they had, he thought. Especially since
the thirty-some adults were responsible for three times that many babies,
children and adolescents.
Manuel had nearly managed to be left behind. He'd been very disappointed
when A.J. found him hiding in the big mango tree at the start of the trail.
A smile touched Michael's mouth. Alyssa had been right. This wasn't going to
be like any forced march he'd ever been on.
His smile didn't last. They might have pulled off the evacuation faster than he'd
expected, but they were still cutting it close. Too close. Soldiers could move a lot
faster than the villagers. Even if they amused themselves for a couple of hours by
torching huts and killing livestock, they'd still catch up with the villagers before
nightfall.
So the bastards had to be slowed down, or diverted entirely.
Fifteen minutes after the last of his charges had vanished around a bend in the
trail, Michael uncoiled from his position next to a pine that leaned out over a
deeply cut gully, where he'd been watching for any sign of the rebels. He
shouldered the CAR 16 that Banner had left with him and moved a little farther
up the trail.
"How's it coming?" he asked Scopes.
"She's ready," the smaller man said, straightening. "Didn't have time to put her
deep, but she'll do the trick. Bring down plenty of dirt."
Scopes always referred to explosives as female, for what he claimed were
obvious reasons. "We don't want half the mountain falling on the trail," Michael
warned. "The villagers will need to be able to clear it when they come back."
Scopes gave him a wounded look.
"All right, all right. You know what you're doing." Michael looked at the setup
one last time. On one side of the trail was a small chasm crammed to the top with
trees, saplings and brush. It would take many hours of machete work to hack a
path through that. On the other side was a rough, steep hillside that climbed into
a stubby peak even more impassable.
Scopes had dug into the loose dirt where the slope was steepest, setting a
charge that should take a bite out of the mountain. What was up would come
down. And cover the trail.
If they were lucky, the renegade soldiers would never know how much trouble
he'd gone to on their behalf. If their goal was to make straight for the border,
they'd use the trail to the west of the village and never see the avalanche Scopes
dumped on this one. Michael believed in luck. He courted it. He didn't rely on it.
Scopes was laying the fuse. "Don't make it too short," Michael said. "I know you
like to watch your babies go off, but I'd like fifteen minutes between us and
whatever goes flying."
Scopes sighed and reeled out a little more fuse. "You got it."
A minute later they were moving up the winding trail, the fuse burning merrily
behind them. They didn't run, just kept a good, steady pace, walking quickly
enough to catch up with the villagers.
"I still think you shoulda let Banner do a few fly-bys," Scopes said. "Let him
open up the guns on his bird a few times, and those sons of bitches would think
twice about making trouble."
"Try to remember that we're assisting in the peaceful evacuation of civilians
a deviation from our original orders, but one that doesn't put egg on Uncle Sam's
face. Strafing a bunch of former soldiers on the losing side of a war is another
story."
Scopes's assessment of those "former soldiers" was obscene, and one Michael
agreed with. "Think the Colonel will let Banner bring back the big bird?"
"I heard a rumor once that the Colonel does have a heart."
Scopes snorted. "Can't believe everything you hear. But those kids& "
Michael nodded. However much trouble he and Scopes might be in for
expanding on their orders so drastically, they could still hope the Colonel would
agree to provide nonaggressive emergency backup for the children. The Cobra
was big enough to lift most of them if things went south and if it got here in
time. "He's going to be plenty unhappy with you and me, though."
"Yeah, yeah. You gave me the pitch already. So maybe I lose my stripes.
Wouldn't be the first time. I'll get 'em back." He glanced at Michael. "Colonel's
gonna come down harder on you than me, anyway."
"That's the price I pay for getting to wear those pretty silver bars on my dress
blues."
"I know how much you like looking pretty for the ladies. Speaking of which& "
He cleared his throat. "You were putting out some pretty strong signals about the
Reverend."
"I knew you could take a hint." Since Scopes's idea of subtlety meant
substituting PG-rated equivalents for the obscene part of his vocabulary,
Michael's "hint" had consisted of threatening to tie Scopes's tongue around his
throat if he gave A.J. a hard time.
"Yeah, well & I just wondered if you and she were, like, a permanent thing."
"Thinking of trying your luck?"
"No, no, nothing like that. Though she is a looker. I just never saw you get all
touchy about a woman before."
"I plan to marry her."
Shock held the other man silent for a few minutes. "You set the date?"
"Not yet. She turned me down."
"Well, hell."
"Yeah." Michael stopped, looking back. "Shouldn't the charge have gone off by
now?"
"Pretty quick. So, she got someone waiting back home for her or something?"
Michael supposed he should be flattered that Scopes thought the only reason a
woman would turn him down was a previous involvement. "No, she's a widow
whose husband was shot to death in front of her. She's got a problem with guns."
There was a good chance that she'd see him use his again, soon. If Scopes's boom
didn't close the trail off as thoroughly as they were hoping& Michael's lips
tightened. "How long was that fuse?"
Scopes grinned. "Hey, I'm good, Mick. Watch this. Five, four, three& "
The ground walked. Sound slapped his ears. On the other side of the mountain,
dust rose into the air.
"No, no, ninita, that wasn't devils after us," A.J. bent to comfort the little girl who'd
run to her, screaming. "Remember? Se�or West told us how his big boom would
make the earth shake."
The little girl sniffed and nodded.
Several other children had crowded close to A.J. and Sister Andrew. Most were
looking back along the trail, where the dust thrown up by the explosion was
slowly settling, falling out of sight behind the mountain's shoulder.
"I wish I could have seen it," Manuel said sadly.
She suppressed a grin. The boy had certainly tried. Good thing Sister Andrew
had insisted on a head count. "Then maybe it would have been you flying up in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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