Page 35 of Lord of Debauchery

Camden gave me a side eye before sliding into one of the seats, staring out the window.

“What if they have another goddamn rocket launcher?” James asked, his voice unusually meek.

“Then we’re fucking toast,” Jeff answered.

“You better start praying, boys,” Camden snarled between clenched teeth. He turned his head and he didn’t need to say it.

No one would dare take the bet on our survival rate. What troubled me as much as everything else was why wait until now to try to finish the job? It was the kind of unanswered question that would nag at me for days to come.

I had to give the pilot credit. As I shifted into a seat only one in front of where Kenya had been positioned, I heard her labored breathing. I stared out the window at the bank of dense trees.

“We’re not going to make it,” James snapped.

“Yeah, we will.” Maybe I was being hopeful. But as the plane cleared the tree line, I took a single breath.

“Missile fired,” Camden said, now with zero inflection in his tone.

The plane soared at an awkward angle and whether or not the whooshing sound was imaginary or maybe wishful thinking, Jeff let out a single word indicating the threat had passed.

“Yes!”

I took a larger breath, my mind now acknowledging the agony in my shoulder. While I had a feeling the bullet went clean through, it would need to be cleaned. As if I cared right now.

“You’re bleeding,” Kenya said. Even her voice sounded shaken. “You were shot.”

“I’ll live.”

“You almost got yourself killed. Why did you do that?”

As I turned toward her, almost lashing out, I noticed real concern in her beautiful eyes and instantly softened. “I’ve been through worse.”

“Yeah? Well, I haven’t. Even in combat we were never that outnumbered.” She was obviously more rattled than the attack earlier, constantly flitting her eyes to look out the window. “What is going on?”

The question sounded more rhetorical but the raw fear I sensed pulled at the protective man inside of me. I sat in the seat next to her, trying not to wince while doing so. I could hear a collective sigh from my men as the plane leveled out, finally out of harm’s way.

She turned to face me, gingerly touching the side of my face. “Please tell me you have a first aid kit on this plane.”

I laughed. “We come full service, ma’am. Hey, Jeff. Grab me the first aid kit and maybe a set of clean clothes.”

“You want a drink too?” he asked, doing so in a way I knew he could use one. We were certainly off our game.

“Yeah, but first things first. I think the lady needs one.”

“I also need antiseptic of any kind and I do not want to use liquor,” she growled. “And clean towels.”

“Sure thing.” Jeff’s eyes popped open wide. None of were used to such a formidable woman in our worlds. “Anything else, my lady?”

I lifted my eyebrow, giving a single shake of my head. While I’d always appreciated his ability at shoving aside the crap we often went through, no one else was in the mood for jokes at this point.

“That will do it for now, Jeff. Camden. Check with the pilot. Make certain the plane didn’t receive critical damage. Then arrange for a much larger welcoming party at our final destination.”

Camden nodded. “On it.”

“They were going after you. But what I want to know is why we’re not dead?” When she pressed the tips of her fingers against my bloody shirt, I wrapped my hand around hers, pulling her knuckles to my lips. While she didn’t try to pull away, I sensed just how uncomfortable she was.

“How long were you in the Marines?” I asked, trying to get her mind off the horrific attack.

“Long enough to know when an enemy is feinting.”

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