Nowhere to Hide(24)

One of the biggest surprises for Cav was that Lia had come with a solid plan for rebuilding the school’s program, keeping classes ongoing while new teachers were located and hired. They would know that they would be protected so they didn’t have to worry about giving their lives in order to teach.

There was such fight and so much heart in Lia—maybe that’s what appealed to him so strongly. Cav suspected that the scars on her face and neck had come from violence done to her, probably while in the Army. It was actually rare that a mechanic from a motor pool would be outside the wire, the fence that protected Bagram from attack, but while there were drivers for such trucks, she had hinted that she was working in the garage, not as a driver.

Being a mechanic suited her, he thought. She had the smarts, for sure, and her keen eyes seemed to miss nothing. He wondered what she saw behind his own façade. Did she also feel that palpable connection he felt with her, or was it just one way?

He watched the armada behind him move steadily along, keeping the required distance between vehicles. Up ahead, the taller jungle trees were becoming visible, and the rounded, undulating mountains clothed in various textures and shades of green closed in on them. Cav looked at his watch. In another two hours, they’d be well into the northern highlands and near La Fortuna and Lia’s home.

Lia was clearly enjoying her nap. The corners of her mouth were soft, no longer tight and drawn inward. The stress on her face was gone, showing just how beautiful she really was when not feeling under threat. Cav fantasized briefly, wondering what her curly hair would feel like if he ran his fingers through that short, shining mass.

He wondered why she had cut her hair so short. Even some men’s hair was longer than hers! Yet, there was nothing mannish about Lia.

Cav remembered being in Afghanistan, his hair nearly to his shoulders. He’d worn a thick, unkempt beard for the duration of his deployment there because every SEAL wanted to blend in like an Islamic male, with long hair and bearded faces.

Lia didn’t seem to care if she fit in or not. Clearly, her passions were for those children of La Fortuna. She was like a mother bear, growling and standing her ground, pleading for help for them. And her cries hadn’t fallen on deaf ears. Robert and Dilara Culver were just as passionate about backing Lia’s ideas and her plan for building a new school.

But Cav had a feeling that if Lia needed to fight her way through something, she had the guts to do just that. She might be slender and underweight, but Cav would never dismiss her inner strength and her sense of purpose.

Cav had always liked fighters. He also liked survivors because he’d been one himself. Maybe that was what had drawn him so powerfully to Lia.

The road went from a four lane down to a two lane, and the armada slowed accordingly. The trees were over a hundred feet tall, standing like proud soldiers on either side of the highway. They blotted out the sun as the vehicles climbed slowly but surely into the mountainous jungle area.

Lia slowly awoke as the van left the asphalt and slowed down, the tires crunching on the dry dirt road that led to La Fortuna. Her mind felt spongy and she groaned and slowly sat up, realizing she’d slept on her left side. The van rattled and trembled over the rutted dirt road, and she glanced over at Cav.

He turned, noting her half-closed eyes. “Sleep well?”

Lia muttered, “It felt like I’d died.” Rubbing her eyes, she looked around, seeing that the sun had changed and gone to the west, slanting across the tops of the jungle trees that surrounded them in every direction. The small town of La Fortuna sat a mile away, its colorful stucco homes looking to Lia like Easter eggs.

“We’re almost home,” she whispered expectantly, sitting up and adjusting the seat.

Cav said, “Home. That has a nice ring to it.”

Lia’s mind still wasn’t functioning. She felt as if she had cotton jammed between her ears. “It does, doesn’t it?” And damn it! She couldn’t help but think what it would be like be drawn to a man like Cav.

Whoa! She stopped herself suddenly. What craziness was this? Lia felt a headache coming on. Damn. She got these when she was under severe stress, and she was definitely there, about as stressed as she could be.

“Does The Spider or his guards frequent La Fortuna?” Cav asked her.

“Rarely. We’re more apt to run into them at the local grocery store. Why?”

“Just wondering.” Cav’s eyes swept the dirt hillside that sloped gently into a bowl. La Fortuna sat down in a depression so he could see everything around the small village. It was nothing but bare dirt slopes. Why wouldn’t plants grow around it, or had someone cleared the area of jungle vegetation?