J.T. struggled not to fight against the darkness. Only a slight haze permeated the hood the Rubistanians had placed over his head, but it sure as hell blocked the ability to see where they were taking him.
The very reason the Rubistanians had done it.
He kept reminding himself these soldiers couldn't know for sure who they'd captured from the warlords' caravan. Of course they would have questions and concerns about foreign military on their soil. And now that they were in official hands, chances of getting out alive were a helluva lot stronger than a couple of hours ago.
Rubistanian and American relations might be strained, but they weren't outright hostile. Rubistan didn't want to be the next Iraq.
Steady. Focus on images of Rena's face. Think about getting home. Return alive with honor.
Brusque hands guided him out of the jeep. He heard others move with him. His three crewmates?
"Stay calm," Scorch whispered. "Be low-key. Remember your training. Everybody here?"
"Roger," J.T. answered.
"Here and cool," Spike muttered low.
"Yeah," Bo grunted.>Rena flipped pages of her gardening magazine, reclining on the sofa, her head propped by two pillows, her feet up on the armrest. Hot chamomile tea steamed on the coffee table. Cool air conditioner blew through the silence. A totally peaceful way to end the day.
If it weren't for the fact one of those pillows under her head carried J.T.'s scent.
He'd always had a distinctive air. Earthy, sexy. And, ohmigod, how pregnancy heightened her sense of smell, leaving her all the more susceptible to the woodsy soap swirl curling through her with each inhale.
She flipped pages, lingered on an herb garden layout. Odd how smells became associated with emotions. She'd been pruning her oregano plant when she'd heard about J.T. overseas. She still couldn't eat spaghetti.
But a single sniff of J.T.'s soap, and she found her eyes drifting shut so she could isolate that one intense sensation. Remember the very second she'd met the man and he'd bombarded all her senses. The magazine flopped onto her chest.
In those days, he'd been a C-141 loadmaster, stationed in New Jersey. She and three friends from her private girls' school had piled into her car and driven over the New York state line for a peek at those flyboys at their air show.
One look at J.T. and she was toast. She still firmly believed she would have fallen for him, no matter what her background. She hadn't felt the same tug to any of the other fly-boys that day.
But her past had made her a pure sitting duck for the explosive attraction that rolled over her the first time she saw him. She didn't stand a chance thanks to the combination of her all-girl environment and lack of experience. What teenage boy would risk her father's displeasure by dating her?
J.T. had quietly dared plenty when it came to risking her family's "displeasure," and she would have loved him for that alone.
Still she could remember the feel of his hand on her elbow as he'd steadied her along the back ramp into the plane. And then he'd been waiting for her when she exited the side hatch. She never knew who he'd convinced to take over for him, but suddenly he was free to escort her around the air show.
He'd bought her a hamburger and she totally forgot what fillet mignon tasted like, just knew nothing could be as good as that charbroiled burger mixed with her first taste of love.
The telephone rang, jarring her out of her fog.
She pitched the magazine onto the coffee table, reaching for the cordless phone beside her teacup. "Hello?"
"Hey, babe, it's me." J.T.'s voice rumbled through the receiver.
Her elbow tingled with the phantom memory and damned if she didn't crave a hamburger.
Tucking the phone under her chin, she sank deeper into her pillows, releasing a fresh whiff of J.T. "Hey there to you, too. I thought you were supposed to take off an hour ago."
"Weather delay. We're leaving soon though. Thought I'd check in to see how your doctor's appointment went today."
She stifled down defensiveness. Just because he cared about the baby didn't mean he wasn't concerned about her, too. The two weren't mutually exclusive. "Everything looks good—really looks good. They did an ultrasound."
"Ah hell, I wish I could have been there."
"I have a picture here for you. It shows so much more than we saw with Nikki and Chris. The newer technology is amazing."
"Then it's probably not a waste, after all, that we got rid of the old baby things, what with the improved stuff on the market."