Page 39 of No Escape

“Yes.” It came out in a choked whisper, catching Sarah unaware. She hadn’t realized she was becoming emotional. “Thank you…for everything.” Damn! Her eyes were burning and she bit down hard on her bottom lip to keep the tears from flowing.

“For everything, angel?”

She swallowed hard. “Yes.” As their eyes clung, Sarah could sense the turmoil running through Clint. He was a big, macho male, yet the man staring into her eyes now was a hero to her. And in spite of his rugged, dominant personality, he’d shown her his human side that could be caring. Especially when passion ruled his actions.

Without warning, his face tightened and his eyes turned dark and stormy. “I don’t have fucking time for anyone in my life…”

A knife twisted in Sarah’s heart. “I didn’t ask you.” Is that my quiet, composed voice?

“We don’t even like each other,” he snapped.

“Not at all.” Sarah agreed, aware her voice was shaky with emotion.

“Oh, hell!”

All at once, Sarah felt his hands drop to her shoulders as he pulled her against him. He kissed her long and hard. It was a kiss filled with passion and a kind of sadness for things coming to an end, of things that couldn’t be. It was a kiss of farewell. It had to be because there was no room in his life for anyone. Hadn’t he just said so? When he ended the kiss, he turned and walked away.

As soon as he was out of ear shot, Sarah released a sob, her eyes remaining on Clint as he looked into the distant sky. She wiped at her eyes, praying she was under control before facing him again, confused at the emotions churning through her. Only the woman in her understood them all too well.

She heard Stan’s plane long before seeing it.

“He’s here.”

She followed Clint’s gaze but still didn’t see anything. Pushing herself away from the boulder, she stepped next to him, just barely able to make out a tiny speck in the sky. After a few seconds, the plane broke through the clouds and came into view. As it moved closer, she realized it wasn’t as small as she thought it would be.

“Stand back.”

She backed up to lean against the rock she’d been sitting on, holding her breath. Her eyes were glued to the plane’s wheels as they just missed hitting the jutting edge of the cliff, before Stan set it down safely on the ground and continued past them. Sarah had a brief glimpse of the man behind the wheel and watched the aircraft run down the small field before finally coming to a stop. She released a sigh of relief.

Clint was already moving forward. “Come on, Stan’s turning around. We’ll board…”

She pushed away from the boulder. “Ouch!”

His head snapped in her direction, his eyes narrowing. “What’s wrong?”

She glanced down at her hand with a mild frown between her eyes. “I think something just bit me.”

“What?” He moved to her side instantly, frowning. His eyes scanned the area where she’d been sitting.

She shrugged. “It was just a spider, I think.” She’d seen several crawling about.

Clint’s gaze followed hers to the rocks, his eyes turning hard. “What did it look like?”

“I don’t know; it was just a spider. Brown with lots of legs.”

“Let me see where it bit you.” He reached for her hand, his eyes narrowing on the tiny red spot between her pinky and ring finger. It didn’t look like much.

“It was just a spider, for goodness sake.” She pulled her hand away and started walking. “Come on, or we’re going to miss our flight.”

In the next instant, gunfire erupted around them. Stunned, Sarah jerked to a halt and turned in the direction it had come from. She barely had time to take in the small army of men running toward them before Clint took hold of her arm and began dragging her with him.

“Run!”

Sarah didn’t need to be told twice. Especially when more shots whizzed past them to ricochet off the rocks at the cliff’s edge. They were almost at the plane when she stumbled, unable to keep up with Clint. Swearing, he jerked her to her feet and pushed her ahead of him. Sarah glanced behind her once to see that one of Raul’s men was too close for comfort. Wide eyed, she screamed, “Clint!”

“Keep going!” He turned around.

Sarah raced toward the plane, which Stan had managed to turn around. Just as she reached it, a side door opened and Stan dropped a set of stairs to the ground. At the same time he reached down and nearly yanked Sarah up and into the plane.

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