Chapter 1 #2
She even heard someone calling out her name, telling her and Dagmar to stay where they were.
“Oh my God,” she breathed.
It was hard to believe this was happening.
She’d dreamed about being rescued just about every night since she’d been taken, but never actually thought it would happen.
Since Dagmar was somewhat powerful in his country, her only hope had been that the Danish government might send someone to their aid.
But the voices she heard were definitely speaking English.
“What?” Dagmar asked, startled awake by all the commotion going on around them.
“Stay down!” Lexie whispered loudly, sidling over to where he was lying nearby. “I think we’re being rescued!” she told him excitedly.
“Please, God, let it be true,” Dagmar whispered.
Over the last three months, Dagmar had become more and more depressed.
He wasn’t used to roughing it in any way, shape, or form.
And being sick hadn’t helped. At first he’d been optimistic, sure they’d be released within days.
But with each week that went by, his attitude had changed for the worse.
Lexie could hardly be upset with him for becoming despondent; she’d had her share of bad days.
And it wasn’t his fault he’d been born rich, never having to struggle for anything in his life.
As their kidnappers awoke amid all the shouting, they didn’t do as they were ordered. Instead of putting their hands up and surrendering, they immediately grabbed the automatic rifles they kept by their sides day and night. They fired indiscriminately into the darkness around the camp.
Lexie squealed and buried her head in her arms and tried to make herself as small as possible. The sound of gunfire was loud in the otherwise quiet desert, and all she could think about was how much it would hurt to be shot. She wanted to curl up into a ball, but figured it was better to stay flat.
The sound of gunshots echoed in the desert, sounding loud in the quiet of the night.
The kidnappers were yelling at each other and trying to figure out who was shooting at them, and from where.
Lexie’s heart was beating a million miles an hour.
She was terrified that at any second, one of the kidnappers would haul her or Dagmar up and use them as human shields to try to escape.
She couldn’t tell the difference between the bad guys’ and good guys’ bullets, had no idea if she and Dag were about to be rescued or if their kidnappers would win the battle. If that happened, they wouldn’t be happy about the ambush…would maybe even kill her and Dag.
She knew she was breathing too hard but couldn’t calm herself. She kept her eyes squeezed shut as the sounds of gunfire slowly tapered off. She could hear men yelling to each other in English, and prayed that was a good sign.
“Lexie?” a voice called out.
Lexie slowly lifted her head. She winced as a beam of light nearly blinded her. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Sorry,” the deep voice said from much closer. “Are you all right?”
Lexie lifted her head once more but made no move to get up. She was so used to having to get permission to do anything, she didn’t even consider sitting up or standing. Even when the person talking to her wasn’t yelling and didn’t sound pissed off.
She couldn’t make out the features of the man standing above her, but she could see he was wearing a desert camouflage uniform.
He had on a vest with all sorts of gadgets attached to it.
Lexie’s neck hurt from craning to look up at him, but again, she wasn’t going to move until she was given permission.
“Lexie? Were you hit?”
That’s right. He’d asked her a question. “No. I mean, I don’t think so,” she said softly.
“Can you sit up?” the man asked.
Lexie nodded, even though she wasn’t sure she could. She’d never been as scared in her life as she’d been in the last few minutes. But not one to shy away from doing something difficult, Lexie did her best to shift so she was on her knees, sitting on her heels.
“How are they?” another man asked as he walked over to them.
“Lex is good. Not sure about Dagmar.”
Dagmar!
Lexie quickly turned toward him and saw he was laboriously rolling onto his back and blinking rapidly. His right hand was massaging his left chest, which wasn’t a good sign.
“Shit,” the second man swore, then turned his head and whistled. Before she knew what was happening, three more men had approached their little tree and were crouching next to Dagmar. She could hear them talking to Dag in Danish…but he wasn’t answering.
“Come on, Lex, let’s get you out of the way,” said the man who’d first approached her, reaching down and putting a hand under her elbow. She let him help her stand, leaning on him as he walked them a little bit away from where she’d been peacefully watching the stars a short time ago.
“Are you really all right?” the man asked.
Lexie glanced up—and realized for the first time how tall the man was. She’d never really felt all that short; at five-seven, she was a fairly average height for a woman, but this guy towered over her. “You’re really tall,” she blurted, and immediately scrunched her nose at her inane statement.
But the soldier merely chuckled. “I am. Six-four. It’s a pain in the ass being tall when trying to sneak up on someone. I don’t exactly blend into my surroundings.”
Lexie wished she could see better. There was something about the man that seemed…familiar. But that was crazy. They were in the middle of an African desert. There was no way she knew this guy. “I don’t know,” she said. “No one in camp saw you or your friends until you yelled at them.”
“True. It’s good to see you again.”
Lexie frowned. “I’m sorry, do we know each other?”
“Sorry. Yeah, we did at one time. I’m Pierce Cagle. We went to the same high school our senior year.”
Lexie blinked in surprise. Talk about a blast from the past.
Even if it wasn’t dark, and she wasn’t in the middle of the desert, she didn’t think she’d have recognized him. This wasn’t the halls of their old high school, and he was the last person she’d ever expected to see again. Especially on the other side of the world.
“Midas!” one of the other men called out. “Chopper’ll be here in five!”
The man in front of her gave his teammate a chin lift, then looked back down at her.
“You still go by that nickname?” she asked. There were so many things she should be asking right about now, but that was the question that popped out. She remembered the kids at school called him Midas because of all the gold medals he’d won when he was on the swim team.
He chuckled, actually looking a little sheepish. “Yeah. My mom thought she’d be funny and send me a package when I was in boot camp, addressed to me by my nickname. It stuck.”
“Too bad there’s no water around here for you to show off your swimming skills,” Lexie mused inanely, then immediately regretted it. She was such a dork. Always had been.
But amazingly, Midas just grinned. “Got plenty of that back in Hawaii where I’m stationed.”
“You’re in Hawaii? Really? I’ve always wanted to live there,” Lexie said.
Midas reached for her elbow again and pulled her out of the way of the three men who were carrying Dagmar.
“I can walk,” he complained weakly.
“Yes, sir,” someone said in a Danish accent. “But why walk when we can carry you just as easily?”
“Where are we going?” Dagmar asked.
“The best option would be to go straight to the ship waiting off the coast of Somalia,” one of the other soldiers said.
“But your brother paid for a doctor to be flown to Galkayo. He’s been there for a month, waiting for you to be released.
Your brother was adamant that you go to the hospital there as soon as you were rescued, to be checked over.
Especially after he heard you weren’t doing well. ”
“Perfect,” Dagmar said. “Yes, that’s better. I want to see my doctor. Not some stranger who doesn’t know my history. I’m sure Magnus knew the moment I started feeling poorly. Twin connection and all…” he explained.
Lexie knew all about Magnus and Dagmar’s connection.
He’d talked about it several times over the last few months.
She would’ve preferred to go straight to the ship, but then again, if she was as sick as Dag, and had someone who cared enough to send a doctor just in case she was released, she’d probably want to see them as well.
“Are you okay to walk?” Midas asked her.
Lexie nodded. “Yeah.”
He stared at her for a long moment.
“What?” she asked.
He shrugged. “You’re just really…calm.”
“I’m not really,” she countered. “Inside, I’m a mess. My legs feel like jelly and I’m having a hard time believing this is real. I’ve had dreams like this, you know. Where we were rescued. But I always woke up and was still here, under that tree, trying not to get fried to a crisp in the sun.”
“It’s real,” he told her.
The whirring of a helicopter sounded in the distance, and Lexie turned to look in that direction, even though it was still dark out and she couldn’t see much. She glanced back at Midas. “Are they all dead?”
He didn’t pretend not to know what she was talking about. “Yes. We had hoped to capture at least one of them to interrogate, but that didn’t happen.”
Lexie swallowed hard. When she and Dag had first been taken, she’d tried to not hate their kidnappers.
She remembered hearing one talk about his family…
about his newborn daughter. And how another was the sole support for his elderly parents.
Her kidnappers were human, and many times circumstances drove people’s actions.
Poverty, hunger, and feeling hopeless were all too common in the places she’d lived over the years.
But as time went by, and especially after they’d doubled the ransom amount, she’d had more difficulty feeling even a small bit of empathy for the men. Desperate or not, nothing gave them the right to hold her and Dag against their will and terrorize them for months.