Page 84 of Wicked Ambition

“Oz won’t be alive to say a word if you stay.”

The hesitation lasted a microsecond. “Don’t leave the clearing,” he ordered softly. “If you hear footsteps headed this way, retreat silently into the shadows. Don’t go back into the rainforest unless you have no other choice.”

“I will.”

“Ma’am, I expect you to defend me when the Wizard reprimands me.”

“I will,” she promised.

With one last shake of his head, Rusty adjusted the night vision thing on his helmet and headed out of the clearing. Hedisappeared into the shadows. Ayla had the binoculars to let her see in the dark on her own helmet, but she didn’t lower them.

She shook too hard to do anything except drop onto the stone bench.

Her pulse pounded so loudly she wouldn’t hear someone walk up to the clearing. She was a problem solver. Heck, it was even in the job description for a public relations specialist. Sitting, knowing she was a liability if she tried to do anything to help, tore Ayla up.

The argument she’d had with Oz replayed through her brain.

All I wanted to do was keep you and our baby safe.

Ayla had a new perspective on what he said now. Maybe she didn’t appreciate the lying, the subterfuge, but if he’d told her his plan, she would have ditched him and gone out on her own. Or tried to anyway. Because she hadn’t grasped how dangerous the situation was.

Oz knew. Hehadbeen trying to protect her by keeping her on the sidelines.

If he emerged from this alive, Ayla would tell Oz she was sorry. That she understood now. Sure, she’d been scared since she arrived in Puerto Jardin, but once she had him by her side, some of her fear subsided.

Enough that she underestimated the danger.

Gunshot! She’d never heard one in real life before, but she identified it easily.

Her stomach twisted, but this had nothing to do with morning sickness and everything to do with terror.

Taking a thousand airplane flights or parasailing would be better than going through this. Heck, she’d rather ride a camel in the Australian Outback.

Memories of all the things that left her scared, sitting at the hotel with one of her parents, while her sister went out on an adventure with the other, seemed so silly now.Thiswas fear.Mule rides in the Grand Canyon, kayaking in Portuguese caves, hang gliding at?—

Another gunshot stopped her thoughts, and Ayla nearly called Oz’s name. She put a hand over her mouth to stop the sound.

If he died, she’d mourn for the rest of her life.

So many things she was afraid of, including taking a chance on Oz.

Maybe that was why she’d been so angry. Better to end their relationship than to risk heartbreak later. Not that she didn’t have a right to be angry about his manipulating her, but she’d done this with other men she’d been involved with. As soon as things got serious, she chickened out.

Pollita. Little chicken. That’s what she was. A chicken.

Not that Oz said he wanted more with her than co-parenting their child. She was reading too much into a night of sex. Okay, two nights of sex.

There was more shooting. Not just one shot at a time, like earlier, but this sounded like an actual gunfight.

Was there anything she could do that wouldn’t make the situation worse?

What would Io do? For damn sure her sister wouldn’t be sitting on a bench, wringing her hands while the man she loved and his friends were in danger of being killed. Her twin was inside that house. Ayla knew that in her heart even if she couldn’t sense Io at the moment.

Distraction.

She could distract the mobsters, couldn’t she? Something that wouldn’t put her at risk. Ayla looked around, but short of tossing rocks at the house, she didn’t see anything. Just thinking about Oz’s reaction to her getting close enough to get within throwing range made her rule that out.

Ayla blinked back tears. When it came to anything involving a risk, she was a failure. She shook it off. There wasn’t time to feel sorry for herself.

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