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“Yeah?”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m defending you.”
“With a hammer?” Lola asked sarcastically.
At least now I knew what I was holding. I flipped it in my hand, testing the weight of it. “Stand back, Lola. I’ll take care of this.”
I heard her snicker in amusement, but didn’t care. My honor as a man was at stake. I swung hard as a dark figure approached. I felt the end of the hammer connect with his flesh, then spun and took out the next person who approached me. All around me, the sound of grunting and flesh being torn filled my senses. Lola’s hand was on my back, guiding me where I needed to go. I was fighting on pure instinct at this point.
A figure approached from the right, rushing to me in a blur. I turned and swung with all my might, giving a satisfying grunt as the man collapsed at my feet. Using only my good eye, I scanned the area, catching only blurry figures, but none of them were coming at me. That was a good sign.
“Is that it? Did we get them all?”
I felt Lola pat my back. “You did good, Cap. You did Maggie proud.”
“That’s right,” I nodded. “Let it be a lesson to all of you that while I may be down, I’m never out.” I pointed my hammer at them for good measure.
“It’s just us, Cap,” Hunter said in a bored tone. “You don’t have to prove you’re still a man.”
Was that what I was doing? Maybe I was. After all, that dream while I was out of it really hit me hard.
“You know, we could have handled things.” I turned at the sound of Craig’s voice. “It’s okay to sit out one time.”
“Wolf, let me ask you a question…when you were trying to win Reese over, what did you do?”
“I…uh…took her for a joy ride.”
“You kidnapped her,” I snapped. “You convinced her to marry you and you had Knight shoot you.”
“Right, but that was about convincing her to give me a chance. Maggie’s not even here,” he said in confusion.
“You’re right. She’s not here, but what happens when we get home? Everyone will want to know what happened down here. How do you think it’ll sound when my wife asks what I did and I tell her I was poisoned and then poisoned again? Oh, and then I sat curled up in a corner while others fought to protect me?”
“Okay, I see your point,” Craig answered.
“When I return home, I can hold my head up high and tell the woman I love that I bravely fought off our attackers with only a hammer while I was mostly blind.”
A throat cleared behind me.
Of course, Lola would point out the one thing that made me look weak. “Fine, I did it with the guidance of Lola.”
Hunter chuckled. “Yeah, maybe don’t mention that part.”
22
ROB
“Come on!”
I slammed my hand down on the steering wheel as the engine smoked on the side of the dirt road. I’d gotten maybe a mile into the jungle before the Jeep died a horrific and painful death. I didn’t know jack shit about fixing cars, and that blinking dot on my screen had vanished quicker than I could say Jack Robbin.
I flung my door open and got out, stomping around the vehicle, as if that would help a damn thing. I yanked the hood open and stared at the engine inside. It was smoky. That was the extent of my assessment. I turned and stared off into the jungle, trying to come up with some way I could help my friends, but not a single idea came to mind. I could hoof it back to the airport, but then what? I could stare at the walls a little more? Field more calls from Maggie? None of that would be helpful.
The only way to fix things now was to move forward. Staring at the engine block wouldn’t help matters since I barely knew what an engine block was. Maybe at some point in my youth, I should have stood outside with my old man as he stared at the engine. He didn’t know anything about fixing cars either, but at least I would know what to say as I did nothing.
Grabbing my pack out of the passenger seat, I secured it to my back and started hiking through the sweltering heat. I held my tracking device in my hand, hoping that little light would start blinking and guide me in the right direction. It would be foolish to stay on the side of the road, not knowing who might be headed this way. If the guys were in trouble, that meant any other unwanted visitors could be in trouble also. I needed to keep hidden. I quickly made my way through the trees, just within sight of the road. Anyone driving along wouldn’t be able to see me, but I could see them and, hopefully, recognize if they were a danger to me or not.