“I guess,” I finally answered. “Right now I’m going to find your sister and get the hell out of here so I know she’s safe.”
“Okay. Let me know when you make it back stateside,” Jett requested.
I agreed, and then we both hung up.
I put my phone back in to my jacket pocket. After it was secure, I shrugged out of my suit coat. It was so damn hot that I was sweating bullets.
I undid my tie and pulled that off, too, shoving it into my coat pocket as well.
Although this country had some more temperate areas, this particular town wasn’t one of those places, and it was fucking July. It wasn’t like Saudi Arabia during the day, but it also lacked any buildings with air conditioning, so the heat was getting incredibly uncomfortable.
I wondered how Dani was faring with her redheaded complexion.
Determined to find her and give her the news that the two women we were searching for were actually safe, I turned and started making my way down the rough street.
We’d ventured into a part of the village that didn’t have many people milling around. Her contact had been farther away from the center of town, which was one reason why I’d let her go ahead of me while I checked in with her brother. The area was fairly quiet, so I’d thought it was safe enough to let her out of my direct line of sight. But only just barely. In reality, I’d be able to see her if it wasn’t for the buildings.
I was almost to the corner when the blast occurred. Later, I’d never remember seeing the young, inexperienced suicide bomber who came into town behind me.
All I’d remember was the way the bomb had exploded like everything in the area was going up in smoke.
Shattering glass.
The force of the explosion knocking me down into the dirt, my head connecting with the street.
For a few moments, I knew nothing.
After that, all I experienced was fear in the debris-filled air as I saw the shop around the corner that Dani had gone to visit, and my determination to get Dani out of the collapsing building even if I had to claw my way in.
Dani
The explosion had taken me completely by surprise, so I’d never quite understood what hit me.
Stunned, I was on the dirt floor, still trying to process what had happened when my mind latched on to one thing: Marcus was outside.
Marcus. Oh, God. Was he safe?
“A bomb. It had to be a bomb,” I muttered to myself. “And it was close.”
I wasn’t unfamiliar with the sound of a bomb exploding, but it had taken a minute to shake off the shock and realize exactly what had happened so close to my location. I’d never experienced the noise quite so loud or so devastating.
The entire building had come down on top of my head. I had a small space to move, but there was no way I could get myself out of the debris. Part of the ceiling was right above me, and between the rafters on the ground, I could see a ton of broken glass.
If I’m in a desperate situation like this…how is Marcus?
He’d been out in the open, exposed to the full force of the explosives.
My eyes were starting to adjust to the dim atmosphere around me, the air still loaded with small particles and smoke.
“Baris!” I tried to call out to my friend who had been across the room from me when the bomb had gone off.
He didn’t answer, and I was hoping he had gotten clear of the falling building. Baris had been close to the exit, so it was entirely possible he was safe.
I kept shouting out my friend’s name, but there was no response.
There were voices outside screaming, so help had arrived, but my heart was pounding as I laid my aching head down on the dirt.
“Please let Marcus be okay,” I murmured in a painful whisper. “Don’t let anything happen to him.”
A tear trickled down my cheek, my heart desperately wanting to deny that he could be injured…or worse.
“I love him,” I said aloud, hearing the words I’d been keeping inside my mind for days.
It was a relief to admit to myself exactly how I felt about Marcus. Honestly, I’d probably always just been a little bit in love with the frustrating alpha male. But it had really grown during the time we’d spent together in Florida and in Colorado. I’d gotten to know who Marcus was inside, and fallen completely, head-over-heels in love for the very first time in my life.
It felt good.
But it also hurt because I knew our relationship would be temporary.
Marcus would eventually have to go back to traveling, and I’d move on to my next story. Problem was, I hadn’t wanted to miss a moment of what was in between those events, so I’d let myself experience the pleasure. I’d pay a high price for indulging, but it didn’t matter.
He’d probably been the only man I could have trusted enough to sleep with after what had happened to me.
It was ironic that the very healing I’d experienced with Marcus would probably break my heart in the future.
“Just let him be okay. I’ll deal with everything else when the time comes,” I whispered, my throat too sore now to speak louder. The smoke and dust was getting to me.
I tormented myself about Marcus’s safety, trapped until somebody came along to help me out of the toppled building. I felt so damn guilty. I’d been the one to get Marcus into this position. If he hadn’t come to Florida to find me, he probably wouldn’t be in this particular border town right now. If not for me, he’d be safe.
I told myself over and over that I couldn’t think about the past, but I still did. If something happened to Marcus, I’d hate myself for insisting that I go with him. Even if he’d still ended up here looking for the missing women, he definitely wouldn’t have been in this area. It was me who had brought him here because I had my own contacts to see.
“Please be okay. Please be okay.”
I chanted the words under my breath, the small phrase becoming my mantra.
I’d come here to help save lives, and I’d quickly regained my confidence and lost my fear of this town and the surrounding area. It hadn’t taken me long after I’d arrived here to get back into the swing of hunting down information. The friends I’d made in this village had greeted me warmly, all of them happy that I was doing okay.
Finally, I’d felt like I was making a recovery from my fears.
I just desperately hoped that I hadn’t gotten Marcus hurt in the process.
If it wasn’t for me, he most likely wouldn’t have been in Turkey right now, much less a border town that evidently had just taken some kind of bomb strike.
He never would have gotten involved in Miami if I hadn’t been chasing after Becker, and it would have been a much lengthier time until we’d run into each other again.
I closed my eyes, the smoke and dirty air around me starting to make them burn like crazy.
Even though I loved Marcus more than anything, I’d give everything up right now just to see him be safe.
I have to find him!