Free Army of Two by Ingrid Weaver Page A

do?”
    “Hardly. I told you before, Chantal, I don’t give up.”
    “Then you have another plan?”
    “I’m working on one. The first order of business is finding a place to spend the night. We both need rest or we’re not going to be any good to anyone. This place is too close to the main lodge. Do you have any other outbuildings?”
    She tried to push her emotions aside and think rationally, the way he was. It wasn’t easy to do when her feelings were as jumbled as they were now. “Besides the garage, only the woodshed, but that’s even closer.”
    “Too risky.”
    “There were some housekeeping cabins in the next cove but we stopped using them when I took over the resort. They were too rough to fit into my vision for the place.”
    “I didn’t see any cabins on the map in the lobby.”
    “No, they wouldn’t be on it, but—”
    “Quiet,” he whispered, snapping off the flashlight. The boathouse was plunged into darkness. “Listen.”
    Men’s voices drifted through the air. They were faint, yet in the absence of any other noise, it wasn’t hard to distinguish the words.
    “Don’t know why we have to check it again. Knox’s just being paranoid.”
    “Sure, Taddeo, but he pays good.”
    “Yeah. I think we should be getting a bigger share, seeing as how Benny’s not pulling his weight.”
    “Huh, not a bad idea.”
    A pair of lights appeared beyond the window on the far side of the boathouse. They moved along the shore, as if following the path from the staircase.
    Chantal’s blood turned to ice. The voices weren’t coming from the walkie-talkie this time. They were coming from outside.
    Mitch gripped her arm and spun her toward the nearest canoe. “Get underneath,” he whispered.
    She had no problem obeying that order. Without giving a thought to the layer of dust or the deck spiders that could be on the floor, she dropped to her stomach and slid into the hollow beneath the center of the overturned hull. An instant later, she felt Mitch’s weight on her back.
    He shifted to one side in order to switch off the walkie-talkie at his belt, then aligned his head with hers. His breath touched her ear. “Don’t move.”
    She nodded. The voices were more distinct and approaching fast.
    Mitch eased farther up her body. He brought his elbows beside her shoulders, laid the gun on the floor in front of her face and pointed the barrel toward the door. “No sound.”
    She nodded again.
    “And if all hell breaks loose, roll into the water,” he whispered, fitting his finger on the trigger. “I’ll meet up with you where the trail curved to the lake.”
    There was no time to ask him what he meant by that or to tell him she had no intention of going anywhere without him. Before she could draw another breath, the door swung open and the big overhead lights were switched on.

Chapter 6
    T he boards beneath Chantal’s cheek reverberated with heavy footsteps. Through the curving gap between the floor and the canoe gunwales, she could see two pairs of military-style boots. They were almost beside her. She couldn’t see the men’s faces. That meant the men couldn’t see her, didn’t it?
    Or so she hoped. But her heart was beating so loudly, they must be able to hear it.
    How big was the hole in the canoe’s hull? She was facedown so she wouldn’t be able see it without turning her head. What if the hole was right above them? What if the shadows weren’t dark enough to hide them? What if the men could—
    Mitch lifted one hand from the gun and squeezed her fingers.
    Chantal clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering.
    “Nothing.” It was the one who’d been called Taddeo. “Just like I thought.”
    One set of boots, the larger ones, moved past her. She followed them with her eyes as far as she could but didn’t dare to move her head.
    “What’s in there?”
    “Geez, Dodson, relax. It’s just a bunch of boat stuff.”
    Chantal tensed. She felt Mitch do the same. They’d left the storage