Free Playing for Keeps by Cherry Adair

ago. “This place. Donovan.” She absently rubbed a welt behind her ear, then all the insect bites all over her body started itching like crazy. She wanted to cry with frustration. She was scared. Really, really scared.
    Like Alice dropped down the rabbit hole, she had no idea what she’d stumbled into, only that whatever it was, was way beyond her comprehension. “I want out of here. Right now.”
    Jon wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. She saw that he was back with her from wherever he’d just been. Thank God. “Yeah,” he whispered, cupping his palm briefly to her cheek. “I’m with you on the creep factor.”
    He rubbed his hand up and down her arm in a soothing gesture that made her even more nervous. Because, damn it, she could tell from his expression that he, too, was creeping out at this new development.
    She dropped her head to his chest with a thunk. “Oh, damn. I was hoping you’d tell me this whole thing didn’t freak you out as much as it does me.”
    “Sorry, sweetheart,” he said against her hair as he held her tightly against his chest. “There’s a whole lot of wrong going on here. Hang tough while I try to figure out how the hell we get out of this mess.”
    Danica wrapped both arms around his waist. “Speed-think.”

    Dani’s face was white as Raven led her into the room. To Donovan. The glow of fluorescent lighting in the prefab room made the setting surreal. A metal table was pushed up to a large plate-glass partition. Two chrome chairs faced the room behind the glass. On the other side, a hastily prepared operating room filled with equipment. What looked like a couple of doctors and several male nurses stood at the ready.
    Scared shitless, Jon gave Donovan a cool look. He left the door to the room open, for whatever good that would do. The soldiers stood outside. AK-47s locked and loaded. “All right,” he told Donovan, keeping his gaze steady. He calculated how many seconds it would take him to get to the older man, overpower him, and relieve him of the Sig tucked into a holster beneath his jacket. “You have our attention. What the hell’s going on?”
    Much as he wanted-hell-needed-to hang on to Dani, he reluctantly released her so his arms were free in the event he needed to move fast. He’d feel marginally better if he were wearing Donovan’s sidearm, which he would be, given half a chance.
    “TransAir Flight 723 had a series of small bombs on board,” Donovan said flatly, motioning to the medical personnel on the other side of the glass that he needed another minute.
    Minute, my ass, Raven thought, his mind flashing vivid images of Danica subjected to some Frankenstein-ish operation. Ice traveled in a chill streak down his spine. Wasn’t going to happen. He needed a plan. Actually, he needed a lot of things-a few grenades and a shit-load of firepower for starters.
    Donovan started pacing—marching around the small room, hands clasped behind his back. “Security Chief Edgardo Villalba-Vera was behind the attempted murder of the president’s heir and the murder of most of his cabinet. Plan A was the crash, rigged to look like nothing more than an unfortunate accident. Vera was sure that the loss of his son would crush the president’s spirit, maybe even make him leave office voluntarily. At the very least, he would have been more vulnerable to attack in that state.”
    “Other than my wife being on board,” he said, “I don’t see what this has to do with us.”
    The other man kept pacing. “Vera has already tried a coup. Didn’t work, but he did manage to cover up his involvement in it and keep his job. He wants Palacios dead. Because he doesn’t want the public outcry to screw his own chances of attaining the presidency, he can’t appear to have any involvement in assassinating the president. As far as the people, and the president, are concerned, Villalba-Vera is a hero for bringing Miss Cross back here to San Cristóbal to honor her