Page 118 of Covert Mission

I help a small woman leading a goat down the steps. She wraps her arms around my waist and hugs me so hard she squeezes the air out of me. She speaks to me in Spanish. “You saved our lives.”

One by one the bus empties, with every passenger, my nerves amplify. My heart rate gets more unsteady.

When the driver climbs out, his face is covered in a sheen of sweat. He shakes my hand, but he’s too choked up to speak.

I’m a fucking wreck, too.

My stomach has taken up residence in my boots.

“Did you see a woman with red hair?” I hold up my hand. “She’s this tall.”

“Si, she was on the bus. But she got out.”

“When?”

He shrugs. “I’m not certain. Miles ago. By the roadside.”

Evan skids to a stop next to me. His panicked expression matches mine.

“What do you mean on the roadside?”

“She had to get out. I couldn’t wait. The rebels were coming…”

Oh, fuck. “The truck…”

Both Evan and I take off sprinting for the helicopter that’s currently blocking the entire road.

ChapterThirty-Eight

“You can let me out here.”

“No. No. Not here.”

My brows go up. “Really, this is fine. I can walk from here.”

The man keeps on driving. He’s going too fast too. I grab the oh-shit bar as he nearly takes out a scooter.

I need to get out of this truck before I witness a fatal collision. That’s the last thing I want to see today.

I shout over the blaring music. “Right there, that intersection is fine!”

“No, no.”

I press my feet into the floorboard. He hangs a hard right, making me shriek.

Oh my god.

A lady at the intersection almost got hit.

“Soon,” he says in Spanish. His sun-baked face is a mask of determination as he weaves in and out of traffic like we’re in an Indy car race.

I get ready for a fast exit.

I’ve never been to Carollia before, but it’s chaos. A tangle of traffic. Tiny streets. Colorful businesses, food carts. Swarms of people. And this guy’s going to kill someone.

“I… I, um… Can you go slow, please?”

He slams on the brakes and swerves to the side of the road, then turns into a lot that’s surrounded by a big chain link fence.