Page 122 of Covert Mission
For the thousandth time, I wonder, when will this madness end?
I’m not talking about the non-stop danger this woman attracts like a broken magnet. I’m talking about the craving for her that makes me want to throw her over my shoulder and disappear from the rest of the world.
I close my eyes, simmering in my own personal hell.
The chopper sails over the ground, the sound so familiar to me it’s almost like my own heartbeat.
After a while, she bumps my knee with hers. When I look up, she’s tapping her headset.
I point to the mic button on my own so she knows how to activate hers. “This one.”
“Lucas…”
Her voice—saying my name—hits me and sinks in deep.
She almost smiles, and my throat gets tight. Her color is flushed now, her eyes have the sheen that’s left after an adrenaline high.
I thought she was beautiful before…
Now she’s devastating.
“You have every right to be mad at me.”
“What I’m feeling, Camile, doesn’t even fit in the same world as mad.”
That’s the last thing that’s said until the helo starts to descend. Camile leans toward the open door. Confusion creasing her brow.
“Is that the bus?—”
I interrupt her. “The bus I thought you were on until I pulled it back from hanging over the edge of the canyon wall. It was real fun thinking you were on there.”
Her mouth slides open.
“Ohhhh.My god. I’m so sorry… The bus must have crashed after we passed it. I got off the bus not far outside town…”
“Why you did is one of many unanswered questions.”
The ground comes up to meet the skids and the rotor above us slows. I reach across and unfasten her harness. “Move out. We’re picking up my truck. Then we’re getting to the bottom of a lot of shit. I don’t care how, but it’s happening.”
ChapterForty
I keep one eye on the satellite phone laying on the console of the truck. I can’t believe I haven’t gotten a call back from PCI after leaving two voicemails. One on the emergency line and one for my handler… the CEO.
I don’t have much time.
Lucas and Evan are talking to the bus driver and the mechanic. But that will only go on for so long. I need to get that call before he gets back in the truck.
I tear off another fingernail. My head is throbbing. And I’ve run out of names to call myself. Given myself a headache, and called myself every name in the book.
Yes, I’m the idiot.
I slept with Lucas. I did it. I’m the one who put all my hard work in the trash can.
Yep. Me. Myself. And I.
God. I’m so pissed at myself I don’t even know what to do. I was hoping that I’d have some space in Carollia to figure out an angle to fix this. But then the whole MI6-style extraction thing happened…
There goes another nail. I’m running out of fingers.