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  “Nica, he’s going to be alright. We have to believe that. Your mother is right; your dad is a strong man. He’ll find a way to come back to us.”

  I heard her sob once. “I hope so, Lex.” Then the phone cut off, and I stared at the screen.

  “Oh, Jesus, Clare. I can’t lose Alex. I can’t do this again! This is what I was afraid of!” The tears exploded from me, and she held me tightly to her. After I calmed down, we began to walk toward my place.

  “I’m going to stay at your place tonight. I don’t have classes until noon, so I can get back early tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” Typically, I would have told her to go, but I really didn’t want to be alone tonight.

  As we walked into the building, I was tempted to go to his door and just touch it. Was that weird? Yes, probably. Once upstairs, I grabbed my laptop, and Clare and I sat down on the couch side by side, the news on the television as we tried to find out anything else.

  That’s how the next six days went. We heard nothing new, only replays of the same video over and over on different news channels and websites. Clare had gone home the next morning, but we stayed in close contact. I texted back and forth with Nica every day and even spoke with Annie a few times. She kept telling me that no news was good news. However, I wasn’t so sure. Not after the little bit that I’d learned in the classes that he had been teaching.

  Surprisingly, Ralph was very supportive and checked on me throughout the days. Thankfully, he didn’t try to take advantage of the situation either. In fact, Ralph even tried to find out more for me through Jake, but either Jake didn’t know anything, or he was tight-lipped about it.

  I was right back to where I was five years ago. Moving through my days on autopilot and sleeping at night when my mind would shut down enough to allow me to. I played through our last conversation so many times and prayed that he would return. When he did, I’d find a way to make him realize that what we had was more important than his work. I’d find a way to get him to stop, to find another job if that is what it took. If he cared about me the way I cared about him, he’d consider it. Now I had to continue to hope he returned—alive.

  Valentine’s Day arrived, and I sat staring at the message on my phone from Nica. Her competition was today, and she’d made me promise to be there. It was the last thing I wanted to do, yet part of me wanted to be there. If for no other reason than to give Alex’s daughter a hug and hold a little piece of Alex close to me one more time.

  It had been ten days now since the news had broken about Alex being taken hostage. There had been only one other report concerning him, and in that they announced that at least two of the hostages had been found dead, eighteen were still missing. I couldn’t bear to wonder if he was one of the dead—missing was terrible enough—and I stopped watching the news.

  I sipped my coffee, and as I swallowed, my stomach churned, and I raced to the bathroom. I leaned over the toilet and released the light bit of food I had in my belly. Just what I needed, a freaking stomach bug. Ugh.

  Or maybe it was the stress of everything. It could have been stress. It was probably the stress and not eating well the last week. I’d barely slept, and food had tasted odd. It was all I could do to get something into my stomach in the first place.

  A knock on my door grabbed my attention, and I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand as I went to answer it. Clare stood on the other side, her smile wide and a bag of pastries in her hand.

  The sight of the bag sent me racing back to the bathroom, and the dry heaves began.

  “Are you sick?” I felt her cool hand on my forehead. “You’re not running a fever. Are you getting the flu?”

  “I don’t know,” I said when I could finally talk. “I haven’t felt well the last few days. It’s probably the stress of everything.”

  She was watching me closely as I wiped my face with a wet washcloth and then brushed my teeth. As I rinsed my toothbrush, I eyed her in the mirror. “Why are you staring at me?”

  “Any chance you are pregnant?”

  “No,” I replied, and then immediately my mind started going through the calculations. My eyes must have gone wide because Clare began to laugh.

  “You’re pregnant.”

  “I don’t know,” I said to her as I turned. “Oh, my god! What if I am? How am I going to raise a child without a father?”

  She took me by the shoulders. “Let’s deal with one thing at a time. Go sit down on the couch, and I’ll run down to the drugstore and pick up a test.”

  I nodded to her, unable to speak as thoughts of having a child without a father accosted me. My stomach rumbled, and I felt slightly faint as I took a seat. I lay back with my arm thrown over my eyes as I heard her gather my house keys off my hook and leave.

  I was still in the same position when Clare returned. “Go pee on the stick.” She tossed a package on my stomach.

  “Clare, what am I going to do if I’m pregnant?”

  “Well, for starters, you’re going to stop drinking on Tuesday nights,” she replied as she dropped her coat over a chair. “I got you a four-pack. Go take one of them.”

  I rolled off the couch, feeling light-headed as I got to my feet. This had to be stress. I could easily be late for my period because of fear, too. In the bathroom, I read the directions and then followed them, leaving the test on the counter before washing my hands and going back to the living room.

  Suddenly, I was starving and pulled open the pastry bag she’d left on the table. I dug into the muffin and glanced at Clare, who had a knowing smile on her face. “It’s stress. I’m not pregnant.”

  “We’ll find out in a couple minutes,” she said, and I continued to eat. My gaze kept sliding back to the bathroom, and she glanced at her watch after another moment and got to her feet.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to go check the test.”

  “No, wait!” I called and tried to get to my feet, suddenly dizzy again.

  “Sit down, I won’t look at it. I’ll just bring it back in here.” She left the room, and I sank back to the couch, putting my head in my palms until she was seated beside me. “You ready?”

  “No. I’m not,” I whined.

  “Come on! This could be good news!”

  My head snapped up. “How could me being pregnant and alone be good?”

  “You wanted a child; let’s see if you are going to have one. You’re not alone, Lexi.”

  I nodded, and she held her hand out, her palm closed over the center part of the stick to hide the results. She uncurled her hand, and I stared at the screen. Tears began to pool in my eyes, and then I hung my head and sobbed.

  Chapter Twenty

  Alex

  I leaned back against the hard brick, wishing I was anywhere but here. The cells we were locked in were barren and cold. We’d been separated when we were first brought here, two of our security team killed, and the rest put amongst the cells to keep us apart.

  I’d been stabbed in the thigh and had a shirt tied tightly around it. The bleeding had stopped, and I was lucky they hadn’t hit a major artery. I had no doubt that I was getting an infection in the wound and had thoughts that it would be my downfall. My head throbbed, my jaw ached, and I was glad the two cuts to my head had finally scabbed over. Although as I flexed my jaw, one of them stretched taut, and I felt it pull open. If I was lucky enough to get out of this, it was going to require a few stitches or a little plastic surgery to clean it up. Not that I cared about a scar. I was more worried about what was going on in other parts of the world—namely back home.

  By now, I assumed that Annie had heard. Which meant Nica knew too. Was she wondering if she’d ever see her father again? Was she sitting up at night, thinking over the small amount of time that we’d spent together? I knew I was. I’d gone through every memory of her multiple times, and now I was praying for more.

  That first night I’d arrived, I’d had a bad feeling, but things had gone well the next day. It wasn’t unti
l our next stop that things had gone wrong. We’d come into a small town where we’d been promised shelter overnight. An hour after we arrived, we were ambushed, and the people we were staying with were part of the plan. We’d had no chance as we’d quickly been surrounded by armed men, and while two of our guys fought to take control, I knew that with ten armed men on us, and our guns an arms-length away, we did not have the upper hand. I watched as a guy named Weaver and another man that I didn’t know well went down and put myself between the armed men and two of the civilians. I’d gone peacefully, as had the rest of our group, but even though we hadn’t fought with them, that didn’t mean that we weren’t injured.

  Most of the people with us had been beaten. By the grace of God, the woman with us hadn’t been raped, and I think that is why I’d taken the beating that I had. I’d gotten in the way after they locked us up, and it took four of them to put me down. Somehow, they had marked me as the leader of the group, and although I wasn’t, I took the responsibility.

  I’d been knocked around, kicked, stabbed, and had a gun put to my head. I knew that if anyone saw the video that they forced me into, then they knew we were in bad straits. Now it was a waiting game.

  Either someone would try to rescue us, or we’d die one at a time. Some of us might die from injuries, others from medical issues. One of the men with us was a diabetic, and he wasn’t getting any medication for it. I’d heard through the bars that he wasn’t fairing very well.

  Now we waited. We ate the small ration of food that they gave us each day and sat staring off into space, lost in our own thoughts most of the time.

  Angela, the woman with us, had her head resting on my good thigh. She’d been knocked out a couple days ago when she’d asked to use the bathroom, and I was pretty sure she now had a concussion. I shifted my back slightly, and her eyes opened and latched on to mine.

  “Sorry,” I murmured, and she tried to smile at me as she sat up and put a hand to her temple.

  “Don’t be sorry. How long was I out?”

  “Probably ninety minutes or so,” I told her.

  She shifted against the wall beside me. “Didn’t feel that long. I feel like I just closed my eyes.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  “Do you think we’ll get out of here alive, Alex?”

  “I don’t know, Angela. I hope we do, but it’s been about a week, maybe longer. Hard to tell when we have no windows.”

  She nodded slowly. “Do you have anyone at home waiting for you?”

  “I have a daughter,” I told her. “You?”

  “My kids are in college; I just got divorced. It’s why I decided to do this. The money was good, would have paid for both their educations.”

  “I hear that,” I replied.

  “You’re not married?” she asked softly.

  “No, divorced, although I was just starting to get serious with someone before I left.”

  “Do you think she knows?”

  “I don’t know, but she kind of broke things off with me when I came over here. She lost two people very close to her in the war and didn’t want to lose someone else.”

  “Ever wish you hadn’t come?”

  I chuckled. “Just about every hour since we ended up in this shithole.”

  “Do you love her?”

  “Yeah, I think I do. I could picture us starting a life, having children, building a future.”

  “Then, when you get back home, you need to find a way to stay there and build that future,” she said seriously.

  I studied her. “I think you might be right, Angela. I hope that when we do get home, she’ll take me back, and we can figure something out.”

  “Don’t let love go, Alex. Life is too short.”

  “That it is, Angela.”

  “Tell me about her,” she said.

  “You don’t really want to hear about it.” I gave her a lopsided grin.

  “On the contrary, I think we could all use a good love story.” She shrugged. “Besides, what else do we have to do?”

  “True.” As I began to tell her how we met and all that had happened in the short time we were together, the other three people in our cell with us sat up to listen too.

  Over the next few hours, they all began to share their stories. We talked about our families, our hopes, and our dreams. Maybe it was our way of saying goodbye to our former life—or perhaps it was a way to share hope with one another that we’d make it out of there alive.

  It was at least another day or two before our hopes of returning to our prior lives took an instant nosedive.

  There was a huge commotion outside the cells, and men were yelling in Arabic and rushing about. One of the cell doors was yanked open, and shots were fired into the cell. Angela and I locked gazes as a few screams rent out, and I knew that this was it. I could see it in her eyes that she knew it too. I took her hand and squeezed it tightly, giving her as much reassurance as I could.

  There was more gunfire outside the cells, and then our captors ran out the opposite way. Could it be possible? Were they really here to free us? Please, God, let it be so!

  We all got to our feet, huddling toward the far corner, and I shifted my body in front of the others, my job to protect them until the last moment all I knew. Deep husky voices spoke English words, and I closed my eyes for a brief moment as thankfulness washed over me.

  The lock rattled, and then there was a solider dressed all in black. I knew the uniform, knew it was one of ours. A second guy came in, and his bright-white teeth practically glowed in the darkness as he grinned. “Well, damn, Shadow, it’s good to see you standing upright.”

  “Jump?” I said, and then he was coming toward me, and I threw my arms around him. “Jesus, Jump, I can’t believe it’s you.”

  “Come on, you two. You can kiss later,” another guy joked as he came over to check on the people with me. “Anyone injured who can’t walk?”

  “Alex was stabbed in the leg,” Angela was quick to say. “The rest of us are well enough to walk.”

  “Okay, then let’s get out of here,” he said and hustled them out of the door in front of me. Jump put his arm around me, and I held on to his shoulder to support myself as we rushed out behind them. Nine other service members were gathering the others, and I noticed three of them had bodies hoisted over their shoulders.

  “Shit, is that Trevor?” I asked quickly.

  “No, I’m right here, Alex.” I turned quickly to see him coming out of another cell. “I’m alright.”

  Thank God. Not that I wanted any of these people dead, but I sure as hell didn’t want my good friend dead. They hustled us out and down several long hallways. A few more shots were fired, more yelling ensued, and finally, we were outside, and the sound of the chopper blades was never so welcomed.

  Jump had left my side to watch our backs as we loaded, and Angela helped me get on board. We crowded in, and two of the three bodies were lying on the ground in the center of our helicopter. The other one must be in the other chopper. I took Angela’s hand as the service members jumped onto the sides, and the helicopter began to lift.

  Jump glanced at me and gave me a thumbs-up. I nodded at him and then put my head back against the seat. We were going to make it home.

  “I can’t believe we were held for ten days,” I told Jump as I limped out of the hospital. “I have to get home. I have somewhere to be.”

  “Yeah, does it include a hot brunette?”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, that and my daughter.”

  He helped me to the taxi. “I’ll catch you stateside. You take care of yourself, Shadow.”

  “Thanks, man. You watch your back and get home safe.”

  He nodded and then left me to get to the airport. “Alex!” A voice yelled for me, and I turned to see Angela rushing toward me.

  “You on your way to the airport?” I asked as she joined me.

  “No,” she shook her head, “I’m gonna finish what I started. Hopefully, the third time will be the
charm, and we’ll get to where we need to be.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “Yeah, I am. Are you on your way home?”

  “I am. I have a cheerleading competition to attend.”

  She laughed and then threw her arms around me. “Take care of yourself, Alex. Go find Lexi and don’t let her go. I can never thank you enough for all you did.”

  “You’re welcome, Angela. Be careful out there.”

  “I will.” She kissed my cheek, and then she was gone, and I slipped into the taxi and was on my way.

  My body ached, and I was fighting one hell of an infection in my leg, but I was going to live. The doctors had wanted me to stay another day in the hospital, but I’d promised two ladies that I would be back by Valentine’s Day. One of those ladies might not care, but I knew the other would.

  At the airport, I called Jake and talked to him briefly. He’d passed the information on to Annie and told her I’d asked her to keep it on the down-low so I could surprise Nica.

  On the plane ride home, I took the necklace out of my pocket and stared at the charm. I was determined to get Lexi back, and I’d already decided that our future was more important than any job could be.

  I laid my head back against the seat and promptly fell asleep.

  I slept almost the entire trip back to New York and had to change planes. By the time I got to my home airport, my leg was throbbing, and all I wanted to do was crawl in bed with a bottle of whiskey, but I had other things to do now.

  I arrived at the sports complex to find young people everywhere in bright-colored uniforms. Big bows in their hair, sparkles everywhere, and overdone makeup. Holy cow!

  I paid for my ticket and then slipped into the main arena, wincing at the loud music and strobing lights near the stage. I let my eyes adjust to the darker audience lighting and searched the place for Annie or my daughter. Something caught my attention, and I looked harder as I realized it was my daughter in a group of girls heading toward the stage.