“Even at a run?”
“I’ll manage.”
“Okay, I’ll hold back and cover our rear. Joe will stay here until you are all on board.”
“Why?” she asked, alarmed.
“To provide cover should anybody start shooting.”
“Oh.”
“Once you’re on the plane, I’ll come back for Joe.”
What had been left unsaid was that Linc would be exposed to gunfire longer than anybody. His tall frame not only provided the largest target, but he would have to make the hazardous trip across the clearing twice.
“Here,” he said.
She gazed down at the packages of film he had laid in her hands. “What’s this for?”
“If anything happens to me, at least the film will get out.” She paled drastically. “I’ve been in some pretty tight squeezes, but never quite this tight before. I’m just taking precautions.”
“But this film hasn’t even been opened,” she said, puzzled.
“Yes it has. The boxes contain the film I’ve used. I replaced it in the cellophane wrappings so it would look like new, unexposed film. That, at least, might protect you if...if anyone caught you with it.”
“I don’t want to be entrusted with your film, Linc. I might—”
“Look, if target practice for one of those guerrillas pays off, just make sure the film gets processed and the pictures published.”
“Don’t talk like that!”
He pulled the handkerchief he’d often used as a sweatband from around his head and slipped it over hers, working it down until it hung around her neck. “Didn’t knights of old give a lady they admired a token before they went into battle?”
“Don’t,” she said tearfully. “I can’t stand this. I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t even want to think about it. And you don’t admire me.”
He chuckled. “Yes, I do. Oh, I’ll admit that I could have throttled you when I woke up and found myself shanghaied into a job I didn’t want.” His face lost all trace of teasing then. “But I do admire you, Kerry. You’ve been a trouper when you could have been a real pain in the butt. If I don’t have an opportunity to tell you later—”
“Stop it! You can tell me anything you want to when we get to Texas.”
“Kerry,” he said gently, realizing that her distress could jeopardize her courage when she needed it the most, “I don’t have any intention of dying in Monterico. I don’t want my third Pulitzer to be awarded posthumously. I’ve never considered that there was much prestige in winning prizes if you’re dead. Besides, I want to collect my fifty grand from you.”
He flashed her a brief smile. He had beautiful teeth, she noticed for the first time. They looked startlingly white in contrast to his deeply tanned and bewhiskered face. She didn’t know whether to slap him or kiss him.
But she didn’t dare let her affection for him show. They couldn’t afford to become maudlin now. So she glowered at him. “Any other last requests?” she asked sarcastically.
“If you make it and I don’t, smoke a cigarette for me and have a glass or two of straight whiskey.”
“Bourbon or Scotch?”
“I’m not particular.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah. Don’t take those final vows.”
He moved so fast her mind couldn’t register it before he had hooked his hand around the back of her head and pulled her face beneath his. Close. “I’d just as well die a sinner as a saint.”
He kissed her.