Soldier of Fortune by Diana Palmer Page A

enough to make a big splash. We’ll have to draw them in.”
    “Tell me when,” J.D. called back.
    “That group of men you ran into were probably drug smugglers. They’ve taken my
finca,
” Laremos said. “We barely escaped in time.”
    “I’m sorry about that,” J.D. said as he reloaded the small automatic weapon.
    “Are you both all right?” Gabby asked J.D. in a quavering voice as she crawled over to Martina and clutched the frightened woman’s hand.
    “A few scratches, but we’ll make it,” he returned, but his eyes were fierce and tormented as they searched Gabby’s face. “How about you?”
    “I’m learning to be a crack shot,” she replied with a nervous laugh. “Laremos even told me how to cock this thing.”
    “If you have to fire it,” J.D. said intently, “be sure you brace it hard against your shoulder so that the recoil doesn’t break a bone. Take a breath, let half of it out, and squeeze the trigger, don’t jerk it.”
    “I’ll be a natural,” Gabby told him, but she was trembling.
    “I wish I could help,” Martina whispered shakily. “But I’m so tired…!”
    “God knows you’ve reason to be,” J.D. said. He ruffled her hair. “But you’re a trouper, sis.”
    She managed a smile for him. “Like my big brother. I knew you’d come, I knew you would. Thank God for your Special Forces training.” Martina added with a laugh, “But however did you find these other men?”
    J.D. and Gabby exchanged a quiet look. “I hired them,” he said blandly. “Roberto can reimburse me.”
    “My poor darling.” Martina sighed. “He’ll be so frantic.”
    “How are we going to get out of here?” Gabby asked J.D.
    “Wait and see.” He glanced toward Apollo. “Ready?” he called.
    “Ready!”
    “I’m going to draw them out for you. Don’t let me down!”
    “J.D., no!” Gabby burst out as he leaped out of the brush and started firing toward rustling noises in the undergrowth ahead.
    She lost her mind. Afterward it was the only explanation she could come up with. The enemy came forward in a rush, and suddenly Gabby was on her feet. She saw a sniper taking dead aim at J.D.; she turned and lifted the heavy weapon and sighted it and pulled the trigger.
    It was a miracle that she even hit the man’s shoulder, her aim was so wide. But she did, and with terror she realized that he had taken aim at her and was about to fire.
    “Gabby!” J.D. yelled wildly.
    Simultaneously she pulled the trigger again, forgetting to brace the gun in her terror. She was knocked to the ground when she fired. There was a burst of gunfire and, suddenly, a huge, horrible explosion that rocked the ground.
    “All right, let’s hit it!” First Shirt yelled out.
    J.D. dragged Gabby to her feet, and his face showed such terrible fury that she closed her eyes. He didn’t even speak. He jerked the gun out of her hands and pushed her ahead of him as he bent to lift Martina to her feet.
    “Are you all right,
señorita?
” Laremos asked gently as he joined Gabby.
    “My shoulder hurts a little, but I’m…I’m fine,” she whispered. She started to turn around, to look behind them, but J.D. was suddenly there.
    “Don’t look,” he said in a tone that dared her to argue. “Get moving.”
    He was a stranger now, a man she’d never known. His face was like stone, and there was something wild and dangerous in his eyes and in the set of his big body. She didn’t say another word. She kept quiet all the long way through the jungle.
    “Where are we going?” she finally asked Laremos as they kept moving through the endless jungle.
    “In a circle, around my
finca,
” he told her. “We have hopes that by now the government troops have rounded up the smugglers. Apollo has gone in to check.”
    “So quickly?” she asked, brushing back a strand of matted hair from her sweaty face.
    “So quickly,” he confirmed. “Your shoulder, it is better?”
    “A little bruised, that’s all,” she said. She