Wolf by Madelaine Montague Read Free Book Online Page B

through mud and getting shot at is a hell lot of fun.”
    The ‘southern boys’ grinned.
    “Guess that goes for rednecks from Wyoming, too, huh?” Hawk quipped.
    Mac sobered. “I guess I thought so when I enlisted.” He nudged his head in a silent command for the others to leave.
    At least Sylvie thought that must have been the signal. They gathered up their empty plates and slid out of the booth. Cavanaugh strolled to the fridge, took the other case of beer and headed up top to pass them out to the other men. Hawk gathered up a roll of charts from the couch that she hadn’t noticed, and returned with them.
    Stacking her empty plate with his, Mac passed it off to Beau and then used his meaty forearm to wipe the table down before he spread the charts. Uncertain whether he actually expected her to look at them or not, Sylvie tried not to be too obvious about glancing at them. He pointed to a speck on the uppermost map. “We’re going to drop you here.”

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    It took a moment for it to sink that he was talking to her and several moments before it dawned on her that he was telling her they were going to let her go. She was afraid to ask if he meant dead or alive.
    “Never been there myself, but if it’s on the map it must be a reasonable sized place. We’ll have to drop up on the coast a few miles from it, but you can follow the beach easily enough. You speak any Spanish?”
    Sylvie swallowed several times against the lump that had formed in her throat.
    “Not … not much.”
    He frowned. “That could be a problem, but it’s a coastal village. They probably have somebody there that could speak a little English. If not, they’ll figure out pretty quickly that you’re American and take you to somebody that can.
    “The cover story is that you were on a boat taken by pirates and managed to get away. That’s close enough to the truth you should be able to carry it off and it’ll explain your presence there without any paperwork.”
    Sylvie wasn’t certain she really believed they were just going to let her go, but relief swelled inside of her anyway, and hope strong enough to make her eyes and nose sting with tears. “You’re going to let me go?” she asked, searching for confirmation in his expression that he wasn’t just saying it to keep her calm until they could dispose of her. She couldn’t really interpret the emotions that flashed in his eyes, though, and she lifted her head to examine the other men’s faces, blinking her blurring eyes to see them more clearly.
    “Hell, baby,” Hawk said gruffly. “Mac told you we weren’t going to hurt you.
    His word’s gold. You can bank on it.”
    Sylvie swallowed a little convulsively. She didn’t remember Mac telling her any such thing. She remembered Hawk telling her they wouldn’t hurt her. Was his word as good as gold, too? Or did it depend on what Mac ordered him to do?
    They all looked uncomfortable, but she didn’t know if that was because they were lying to her and really didn’t intend to leave a witness or if it was discomfort because of her emotionalism or maybe both.

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Chapter Four

Sylvie supposed it was due to the fact that he’d busted the door to the main cabin down that Mac sent her to rest in one of the small guest cabins. She didn’t know, but it did make her feel better to have a door between her and the men even though it also had more of the sense of a prison cell.
    He hadn’t told her when they expected to reach the coast—she wasn’t even certain of what country they were dropping her in since she hadn’t been able to really study the map. She did know it wasn’t the U.S., and that it was South America and the plan was to drop her a few miles from the little town. That unnerved her, particularly when she knew they planned to go in at night, but she had too much else to worry about to dwell on that particular aspect.
    Mac caught her arm, stopping her as she entered the tiny cabin, and she sent him a wary look. He