Page 25 of Her Reluctant Hero
“I’ll be right there,” he said through his teeth.
Isabella was sitting at the table with her new friend and his family, laughing, eating like a starving person, when Alex joined them. Her smile was bright with mischief when she looked at him.
“Everything all right?” she asked, as if she knew just what he’d been doing.
He grunted in response and sat at the end of the bench when others made room for him.
“We were gone so long, they thought we were having sex.”
He grunted again. She was trying to get a rise from him, and she was, just not one he was going to show her.
“They didn’t have any socks, but they gave me some sandals.” She held up one foot with a simple leather sandal on it.
“You won’t get far in those.”
“That’s the good news. They’ve got a truck.”
Thatwasgood news. His mood improved immediately. “How much?”
“Not for sale, but they’ll give us a ride into Tegucigalpa. That’s where we’re heading, right?”
“Right.” There would be a third party there to keep him from doing anything else idiotic.
“We leave after breakfast.” She beamed at him. “Did I do good?”
“Thank you for not leaving me there,” Isabella said softly as she settled in between one of Vicente’s burly sons and Alex on the old Ford’s bench seat. “I know you wanted to leave me.”
“I have orders from the DEA to bring you in,” he said.
She sobered. “Of course. Orders.”
“How long is it to Tegucigalpa?” he asked Vicente’s son.
“Six or seven hours.”
Alex sat back, impatient to have this mission accomplished already. To get Isabella Canales out of his hair.
“At least we won’t be walking,” Isabella said. “You can get some sleep.”
As if he could relax with her all pressed up against him. “Yeah, sleep.”
“I suppose it’s too much to hope this thing has air conditioning,” she continued cheerfully, clueless about what lay ahead. “But I’m going to sleep.”
“Knock yourself out.” Maybe then he’d be less aware of her.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the seat once Vicente’s son started the engine. She shifted, and shifted again, and again.
Her eyes popped open after just a few minutes. “I can’t sleep. I’m too excited. Tell me a story.”
He snorted, looking out the open window at the passing jungle. “I’m no storyteller.”
“I don’t want you to make up one. I want you to tell me about your girl. What’s her name?”
He turned to look at her. “Rebecca. Why are you so determined to know about her?”
“Because I want to know what kind of woman makes a man like you fall in love.”
“A man like me?”
