Page 7 of Last Chance

In less than a minute, the gunfire resumed, this time farther away from the building.

Janie wrapped her arms around her upturned knees. What was going on? Was she minutes away from a bullet ending her life?

Her heart rate skyrocketed as Scar Face raced past her cell again, unlocked another door, and dragged a screaming and crying woman outside.

The gunfire ramped up outside for several minutes and followed by engines cranking up, more shouts, then an eerie silence.

Janie didn’t know which was worse. All the panicked activity or the sudden silence.

For long minutes, she heard absolutely nothing. No signs of life, no activity. Nothing. She frowned. Had Scar Face and his buddies abandoned the place?

Her stomach tightened into a knot. If they had left, Janie and her fellow travelers were in deep trouble unless someone found them in time to save them from starvation or dehydration. The quick glimpse she’d had around the area before the hijackers propelled her into the building didn’t give Janie hope that they’d be found soon.

Jungle. That’s all she’d seen. No neighbors, cars, or sounds of vehicles driving down a road. Nothing but trees.

What she wouldn’t give for her cell phone. Of course, out here in the middle of nowhere, what was the chance of a cell tower being close? Next to nil. Satellite phones would be the way to communicate this far away from civilization.

Janie tightened her grip around her legs and watched the barred window of her door. Was anyone still left in the building?

Listening to the screams and moans over the past several hours had driven her crazy. Silence was unnerving. She lost track of time as she waited, seated on the floor and curled up in the corner.

When she’d almost given in to resignation, the silence was broken. A brush of fabric against a solid surface told her the building was no longer empty. Did her fellow travelers sense the same thing?

With no light in her cell, Janie’s sight was limited to the barred window. She watched and waited for what came next. Was a competing group responsible for the attack on the hijackers? If so, what fate awaited her? Would this group accept she didn’t have ransom money or would they too cut their losses and end her life?

One by one, the doors in the hallway were unlocked. “Clear,” low masculine voices repeated over and over.

English, she realized. These men spoke English. Cautious hope reared its head. Military? Mercenaries, perhaps?

Finally, a face shrouded in shadows appeared at Janie’s barred window. Seconds later, the cell door opened, and a man stepped into the room.

CHAPTER 4

SAWYER UNLOCKED THE cell door and stepped inside. On the floor sat a woman huddled in a corner with her back to the wall. She stared in his direction without making a sound, but he recognized her from the photo he’d memorized on the flight to Mexico.

Thank God. Janie Moran was still alive. How she was treated in her time as a hostage was anyone’s guess. Sawyer feared she’d been raped and prepped for sex slavery. Hoping he was wrong, he said, “Janie?”

She blinked. “Yes.”

“We’re here to take you home.”

Janie breathed deep and gave a brief nod. “Do you have room for the other hostages, too?”

He hesitated. How did he tell her the truth, that the hijackers had shot and killed the others in their haste to escape danger? “You’re the only one here.”

She frowned. “Fifteen of us were taken from the plane. Ten men and five women, including me. Where are the others?”

“I’ll tell you everything you want to know after you’re safe on the jet, all right?”

She swallowed hard. “Who are you?”

“We’re with Fortress Security. Brent Maddox and his wife Rowan sent us.”

Janie’s eyes closed for a moment, then she said, “Promise you’ll tell me what you’re reluctant to say when we’re safe.”

“You have my word.” He’d want to know the truth if he were in her place. Wouldn’t be right to lie to her or to put the burden of telling the truth to her on someone else. Didn’t sit right with him. “I’ll tell you as much as I can once we’re wheels up.”

She smiled. “Military term.”

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