Page 25 of Wired Courage

A third time.

Jake was still not breathing. His body remained slack and unresponsive.

The Master sat back on his heels and shook his head.

Connor shuffled forward and laid his ear on Jake’s chest.

The faintest of thumps. He blew another breath into Jake’s mouth, and this time felt the warmth of his friend’s lips, the flush of his skin. “He’s alive!”

The Master rolled Jake onto his side again and thumped his back some more. More foam emerged from his mouth, and Jake coughed and choked, breathing at last.

Connor sat back on his heels in relief. He wiped tears off his face onto his shoulder, laughing weakly. “You’re a tough son of a bitch, Jake. Gave me a heart attack, man.”

The Master barked something to the ninjas. Both of the men’s restraints were removed. The Master covered Jake with a blanket the men brought in and kept him propped on his side as Jake continued to retch and cough, clearing his lungs.

Connor twisted his raw wrists, getting circulation back into his arms and hands. He rose slowly to his feet, feeling every scrape and bruise on his abused body. Cold drafting through the door lifted the hairs on his bare skin, and he covered his genitals instinctively. Jake appeared to be breathing more easily, and the Master looked up at Connor. “You need a bath. Clothing.”

The Master’s English was British-accented and clear, like Sophie’s.He’d been foreign-educated.He had strangely compelling dark purple eyes.

“You didn’t know what she was doing to us?” Connor asked. “Pim Wat?” He hated to speak her name.

The Master didn’t answer. He tucked a bit of blanket beneath Jake’s head to pad the stone as he lowered the man back down. He barked more orders in Thai, and several ninjas brought additional blankets and carefully moved Jake onto one of them. They covered him with a clean one. Then, they lifted Jake and carried him out of the room.

The Master stood. He was tall for a Thai, and moved with a lithe grace that belied years hinted at by lines beside his eyes and a peppering of silver in long braided hair. He gestured to Connor. “Come with me.”

Connor trailed him into the stone-lined hall, but the men carrying Jake were headed in the opposite direction. Connor stopped, looking after his friend.

“They’re taking him to the infirmary. He will be cared for.”That voice. Such a potent combination of compassion and command. Connor followed the Master.

Chapter Twenty

Day Twenty-Six

Wind hit the little yellow dinghy the moment Sophie reached the opening of the atoll’s inlet. The flimsy raft’s bow lifted as waves slapped against it, spray immediately dousing Sophie from head to toe. She pulled down the ball cap she had found in the speedboat’s cabin, squinting into the glare of the sun off the waves.

So much for being able to keep an eye on that distant shore!Instead, Sophie shielded the GPS device underneath her thin parka, and glanced at it periodically to make sure she was still headed in the right direction.

The battle against wind and waves seemed to take hours. Sophie’s world narrowed down to the tiller of the electric motor in one hand, the GPS in the other, and keeping the raft steady.

The flimsy craft was not designed for anything but random floating, and had no real steering. The craft weaved from side to side as the waves pushed back, and without rudder or center hull, Sophie was unable to keep a straight course. She was still a good distance from land when the electric motor gave out.

No sense keeping deadweight on board; there would be no way to charge the battery when she reached the mainland.

Sophie unclamped the motor and let it slip overboard. She also dropped off the heavy, useless battery. Hopefully she could find a more seaworthy craft to get back to the speedboat in; there was no way she would risk this passage carrying a newborn baby.

Sophie extended the collapsible paddle, changed her position to forward in the bow of the tiny craft, and began paddling.

She was glad of all the hours she had spent in the gym over the last two weeks as she stroked deeply into the wind and waves. And stroked. And stroked.

Sophie could tell she was making headway only by checking the GPS with the wind against her—but she was slowly inching forward.

Her mind drifted to Momi as her body engaged in the mindless activity of forward movement.

The first time she had felt the baby kick was a sensation like a feather tickling her insides. She’d been at the Security Solutions office in Hilo that she shared with Jake, and she’d called him inside. Closing the office door, she took his hand in hers, slid up her shirt, and set his big warm palm on her slightly rounded abdomen. She enjoyed the feeling of his fingers against her flesh, the intimacy of their gaze into each other’s eyes as he waited to see what this was about.

Then, that fluttering. This time it was more like tickling bubbles, like the fizz of champagne.

She would never forget the way Jake’s dawn-gray eyes seemed to light with infectious joy, his grin taking up most of his face. “Our baby is really in there!”

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