Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
If this situation wasn’t so fucked up, I would’ve laughed.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought this was a crazy idea.
One of the guys with the guns walked over to where the bus was trying to get through, and he started to point in the opposite direction of where the van's wheels were pointed.
The bus driver fixed his wheels, and then we all watched with bated breath as the top of the passenger bus started to tip.
“If it falls completely over,” Audrey mused, “it should be okay. The mountain will catch it.”
I snorted, and continued to watch as the roof of the van scraped along the tree roots that were growing out of the hill.
“He’s going to make it,” someone said from behind us.
It sure looked like it would.
“He made it,” I breathed.
Amos stuck his thumb out the window at the man in the fatigues, and I grinned.
“Our turn!” the driver exclaimed.
I held my breath as the same gun-toting man guided us through as well.
“Oh, fuck,” I heard Audrey groan, and then she buried her face into my shoulder between the seat and the window.
I didn’t pat her head like I wanted to. I couldn’t.
Not with my hands clenching so tightly on the ‘oh shit’ handle above my head.
And, with little fanfare, our bus rolled through the small gap, and I watched in amazement as the driver got us through without a single scratch.
“Thank Christ.”
My eyes connected with the man in the fatigues, and I realized rather quickly that whomever that man was, he sure as fuck wasn’t military.
I just hoped I never figured out what, exactly, he was.
***
Four hours after we disembarked from the boat for this adventure, we were in line to get back on the boat, sunburned and cranky.
“You got your card?” I asked.
She nodded, pulling it up to show me, and nearly dropped it into the water.
I caught it, and then looped the sparkly red lanyard that she’d bought the first day we were on the cruise around my neck.
It seemed more convenient to carry the little white card around your neck rather than carrying it in your pocket.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She smiled up at me tiredly.
“Yes,” she murmured softly. “Tired and ready to take a nap. Though, I’m kind of hungry, too. I don’t know what I want more, sleep or food.”
“Food,” I answered. “That way we can sleep as long as we want to without being woken up by hunger.”
I knew from experience that hunger always woke you up, even when you were tired as hell.
I’d been in the Navy. I’d been a Navy SEAL. I knew the hardships one faced when you had no other option but to go to sleep hungry.
When it came to being stealthy or going hungry, when your life was on the line, you learned to live with being hungry.
“I agree,” she sighed. “Jesus, they need to move those freakin’ pirates. They’re holding shit up.”
The pirates, the people who took the souvenir photos with you that the cruise line then tried to sell to you later on, glared at her.
“A little quieter next time,” I teased her. “I think that they’re at every port. You don’t want them accidentally stabbing you with one of their plastic swords, do you?”
She snorted and followed me all the way into the belly of the ship and didn’t say another word until we were back on the fifteenth floor and in line to get food from the buffet.
“You never told me why all these law enforcement officers are on this cruise,” she murmured as she placed a sandwich onto her plate. She followed the sandwich up with something that seemed to resemble egg salad.
“Several officers, state, county and local, from certain areas in a portion of the South were given a free vacation as thanks for ‘serving and protecting’ the citizens that we are sworn to protect. We believe it was some big Southern businessman, but nobody has been able to neither confirm nor deny it. A total of two hundred and sixty-seven officers, and their spouses or significant others were given the opportunity.”
“How did each officer get chosen?” she asked.
I piled five pieces of fried chicken onto my plate and then mounded the rest of it up with macaroni.
“At our place, it was chosen by our chief. He chose me because, apparently, I was the first one to pop into his mind.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d been about to turn him down, when you expressed interest in going.”
Her smile was satisfied.
“That makes me happy.”
I followed her out onto the ship’s deck where the tables were less crowded together. We grabbed a spot that allowed me to see the TV, taking the seat that allowed me to keep my back to the wall.
She took the seat beside me and leaned her head against my shoulder as she nibbled on her food.