Free Justified Means (Book One) (The Agency Files) by Chautona Havig Page A

watched as the helicopter hovered a few feet from the ground before Karen pushed the pack from the edge and gave the signal to go.
    From his peripheral vision, he saw Erika ’s movement and waited, forcing himself to remain relaxed, until she decided to pounce. Would she choose to try to hit him over the head? The thought caused him to shift slightly as he waved— better to be safe than sorry. He stifled a snicker as she rushed at him with every ounce of her one hundred twenty-two pounds. The split-second question was, step aside and let her rush the air or catch her and swing her around like a child and save her from an almost certain fall?
    As tempted as he was to catch her, he knew the swing could encourage vomiting. Just in time, he stepped aside as Erika rushed to tackle him. She stumbled, fell to her knees, and scraped her chin. “Great, another injury to clean and keep from infection.” Guilt tried to take root in his heart but he couldn’t help the twitch of amusement at the corner of his mouth.
    “ You knew I was coming!” Erika’s accusation merely stated the obvious.
    “ I did.”

Chapter Eight
     
    Fury exploded in her heart until Erika was sure she ’d kill him. “I can’t believe you let—” She grabbed her head, spun in a disoriented circle, and vomited.
    With a grumpy fa ce that contradicted the gentleness and tenderness he displayed, Keith helped her into the house and grabbed a bottle of water. While she retched into a dishpan, Keith rubbed her back, handed her water, and wiped her face and mouth with a wet washcloth—none of which endeared her to him. More irritable than ever, Erika lashed out at him, but to no avail. He seemed immune to her tirades.
    “ Drugs! Do you know how addictive drugs are? I can’t believe you did that to me! I said I wouldn’t be a problem! I begged!”
    “ I know. I’m sorry. It’s just what we have to do.” She slapped his hand away as he tried to wipe her mouth after another bout of vomiting, but it didn’t seem to faze him.
    “ Feel so weird.”
    “ It’s the side effects. Drink some more.”
    “ I don’t want to drink more! I’m puking here!”
    “ You’d rather puke with something to come up than have dry heaves. Besides, dehydration means we have to sedate you and give you an IV. That’s really not what you want to happen.” He pushed the water bottle into her hand and then wiped his face with his sleeve when she used the “sport top” to squirt him with it. “That’s not helping.”
    “ But I feel better.” As if unable to ignore the opportunity for irony, her stomach heaved again. “Ugh, why do people think this is so wonderful?”
    He shook his head. “I don’t know, Erika. Drink up.”
    “ I don’t want to ‘drink up.’”
    Before she could squirt more water at him, her body rejected the last infusion of liquids and spewed it all over his feet. He unwound a few paper towels from the roll Karen had dropped and mopped up his shoes. “I’ll wash them later. Come on, Erika. Take a drink. Squirt me if you think it’ll make you feel better, but get some more liquids in you. If you get dehydrated, you’ll vomit from that too, and it’ll just make it worse.”
    She broke away from him, furious that he acted so nonchalant about having drugged her and the misery it produced, but at the door, he stopped her. “You can’t leave the cabin right now, Erika. I’m sorry.”
    “ You are not! What a hypocrite! So, I don’t like your method of keeping me quiet, and now you’re going to lock me up even tighter? What kind of—”
    “ We were just evicted from our cabin because they found us. Do you get that? Erika, they found us! That cabin is on fire right now. They burned it, probably assuming—or at least hoping—we were still in it. Dead. If we hadn’t left, we’d be dead. Do you hear me? Dead.”
    “ But you still drugged me!”
    “ Yes I did, and if we had to leave right now, I’d give you a half dose and do it again,