Page 26 of Freedom Fighters
They both grinned when they saw her and Efraín gave a low wolf whistle.
“You want to keep your balls intact?” Carmen growled at him.
He grinned. “For you, Carmencita, I would risk my balls.”
“Luckily, you don’t have to. You’re not my type, Efraín. And I have a knife strapped to my thigh to back that up.”
Efraín threw his hands into the air. “My heart is broken!”
“This isn’t a party outing,” Garrett growled from behind them. “Efraín, get in the Jeep.”
Ledo wasalready clambering into the back of the Jeep, where two small jump seats unfolded.
Efraín shrugged and climbed in with him and took the other seat.
Great, Carmen thought. That left the passenger seat for her, right next to Garrett. She didn’t for a moment think Garrett would let her drive.
Garrett strode past her and dumped his heavy medical bag at Efraín’s feet. He looked very different fromthe scruffy, bearded man she had walked out on a few hours ago. He had shaved and washed and it looked as though he may even have trimmed his hair. It had been brushed and lay neatly against his head.
Nothing would remove the thick waves, or the pale color that would draw attention to him in this nation of black-haired men and women. Garrett hadn’t bothered trying to appear to be a local. Hehad brought his medical bag and he was wearing clean, almost-new jeans and a jacket over his V-necked teeshirt. He looked westernized. Even civilized.
“Get in,” he told her.
Carmen closed her mouth and climbed in, glad that the traditional skirts of Vistaria weren’t pencil skirts. She wouldn’t have been able to bend her knee enough to get up into the seat.
Garrett started the Jeep without lookingat her. That was fine by her. If he ignored her the whole way, she could relax—as much as one could when driving into Insurrecto territory.
* * * * *
Once they were on the sealed road toValleLeñosa, Garrett picked up speed, until he was just under the posted speed limit. The movement of the air around the open Jeep picked up Carmen’s skirt and blew it backward.
She fought with the silk, pushingit back down over her knees. She didn’t have enough hands to contain the voluminous yards of silk.
Garrett laughed. “Wrap it around your knees and sit on the rest,” he told her. “I won’t slow down just to preserve your modesty.” He had to speak loudly to be heard over the wind.
Carmen fought to gather the yardage together and do what he suggested. She tucked the excess under her knees and liftedher thighs to push it beneath and relaxed when it didn’t billow up into her face once more.
“The knife is a nice touch,” Garrett said.
She glanced at him and was startled all over again by his clean face. On this side, the scars were minimal. “I can’t hide a gun, wearing this.”
“I don’t want to be in a position where we need guns. This is in and out, as soft-shoe as we can manage it. It’s marketday inLeñosa. There will be Insurrectos everywhere.”
Carmen looked away, out at the passing trees. It was going to be a long ride.
* * * * *
It was hard to find parking when they arrived inLeñosa. Most of the locals came on foot, although there were enough people living farther than walking distance from the town that cars choked the crossroads at the center of the valley. Garrett drove aroundslowly, as they all watched for a parking space. He had picked up a black Vistarian flat-brimmed hat from the back of the Jeep and put it on as they had entered the town limits. It shaded his face and eyes as his straw cowboy hat did yet didn’t look incongruous among all the other Vistarian hats.
“I don’t like driving around this way, exposed,” Garrett muttered.
Carmen tapped his arm. “There,”she said, as another Jeep backed out of a narrow stall.
“That will do.” He wheeled into the opening, cutting off another car, then shut down the engine. “Efraín, you’re with me. Ledo, Carmen, watch our backs.” He hauled the medical bag out of the back of the Jeep, then looked down at it to check that the red caduceus was visible. He turned the bag around so it was. Even in Vistaria, the US medicalsymbol was well known.
The market itself was at the other end of the block on which they had parked. Even from here, the noise from it was loud. It was a friendly sound. A beckoning sound.
As Carmen and Ledo trailed after Garrett, scanning to see if anyone took any interest in him, she turned her face up to the sun for a step or two, appreciating the mild, cloudless day and enjoying the feminineswish of skirt hem around her knees. She had been wearing jeans for weeks and weeks. The raw silk sheath dress she had worn to Calli’s wedding felt like a long time ago.
