"It's going to be okay. I won't let it be anything but okay." He leaned to kiss her once fast, then again slower—buenos dias hormones—before he inched back. "I'll join you both in a minute when I'm, uh..." He stilled her rocking h*ps with a groan. "When I'm not so visibly turned-on."
She arched up on her toes to brush her lips against his tensed jaw. "Gracias."
"You're not helping," he growled.
Laughing, Sara retrieved the breakfast tray and backed out of the room, wanting to savor every second of their time together before she entered the real world again. And no question, there were very real-world concerns piling up outside their temporary haven.
Crossing into her daughter's room, Sara set the metal tray on the bedside table by the pitcher of orange juice. "Thank you for staying with her."
Keagan glanced up from his laptop with piercing blue eyes, discerning eyes at odds with his casual beach bum facade. "No problem. I enjoyed the quiet."
Sara tucked already perfectly smooth covers under her daughter's chin, pressed a hand against her forehead—cool, thank heavens—and leaned to rest her cheek against Lucia's baby-soft skin. She whispered a brief prayer of gratitude in Spanish before straightening.
Keagan closed the laptop and retrieved his half-empty coffee mug. "The Colonel filled me in on the gist of things about the past few years and your escape. Are you up for some more discussion so I can hear your take?"
"Of course. But could we stay in here please? I don't want to be away from her any longer than I have to."
"No problem." He pulled two chairs side by side in a corner of the room where they could talk quietly, but she could still see Lucia. "What made you decide to leave Chavez's place after so long?"
"A couple of things actually. Ramon was beginning to tighten his security, more and more as he grew paranoid after his cousin died—Allesandro Aragon." The drug-running bastard had committed suicide by blowing up his yacht rather than surrender to the authorities. "Ramon ranted about how the local government's unfair targeting had driven Allesandro over the edge."
"How do you know this?" Keagan peered over his coffee cup. "I thought you were secluded?"
More fear stung along her skin as if a hundred of those brown spiders attacked her. For so long, Ramon had watched her, dissecting her every word and move. Shaking free of paranoia that was totally justified proved difficult even when she knew people were looking out for her best interests.
"I wasn't completely cut off from information in his compound, simply fed news filtered through Ramon while trying to evaluate its worth based on old knowledge."
A niggling new fear teased through, worries about what she might have missed or misinterpreted? What other things could Ramon have kept from her? What kind of world would she be returning to? Potential land mines could be all around her and she would never know. Panic weighted the air, every dragging breath more difficult than the last.
For so long she'd dreamed of escaping, and now she wanted to stay in this safe house with Lucas and Lucia where it was, well, safe.
The room narrowed, the edges pulling in darker.
"Mrs. Quade?"
Mrs. Quade?
Keagan's call snapped her back, the edges of the room lightening again. She'd been married for five years and never once used her new last name. Ramon had stolen too much from her. She wouldn't let him have even a second more.
"Si. I am sorry for drifting off for a moment. There is much to process." She gripped the arms of her chair and continued, "Ramon also grew less careful in keeping secrets. I began to hear things, which brings me to my second reason for leaving. After Aragon's death, Padilla gained power since Ramon lost his major ally. Padilla decided the time had come to launch an attack."
She breathed, in, out, slowly, carefully to stop the panic attack from returning. "I'd given up waiting for a miraculous rescue—ironic, isn't it, how close you were? But I still do not understand why, after so many years of turning a blind eye to men like Aragon, would local officials decide to clear the snakes from the jungle? And the United States is helping?"
Would Keagan even answer her? Perhaps she should have asked Lucas, but he seemed so bent on cosseting her, she doubted he would discuss any of this in detail.
Keagan hooked an ankle over one knee, flip-flop dangling from his jostling foot. "Cartina doesn't want to become another Colombia, so overrun with crime that tourists avoid the place like the plague. The crime stakes upped a notch with the infiltration of terrorist factions into South America demanding a piece of Aragon's drug money."
"Why not eliminate Aragon, Ramon and Padilla all at once?" Even though the thought of reentering the world set off nerves in her stomach, she couldn't stem her overflowing curiosity after so long having her mind stifled. When she'd worked in the embassy, she'd been privy to world secrets. That long-suppressed side of her clamored to be fed.
"That's a mighty large undertaking and terrorism is already spreading our people thin all around the world. Sometimes it pays to let folks clean up their own messes when possible. Think about it."
The pieces slid into place. "With Aragon out of the picture and no longer in Ramon's camp, his power lessened, which emboldened Padilla. So you sat back to wait for them to kill each other."
"We didn't exactly 'sit back.' They're being watched."
"Which is how you finally found me."
"Yes, and that's enough for now." He waved toward the breakfast platter. "I should let you eat. I'll tell the Colonel we're through. Have a nice breakfast, Mrs. Quade."