Delgado swore harshly, then gave a grunt of surprise as a bullet punched a neat hole in the middle of his forehead. Eyes wide, he pitched forward soundlessly.

Ginny jerked as a volley of gunfire filled the arroyo. She heard men shouting and a bugle blare. The colonel had kept his word!

Senator Brandon stumbled, threw his weight into the man nearest him with a piercing howl that Ginny had never heard before. It sounded like a battle cry: it was the perfect distraction.

Moving swiftly, she drew the sharp little knife from beneath her skirt before their guards could react and plunged it into the man nearest her, the blade piercing his heart so swiftly that he dropped like a stone, an expression of shock on his face.

Wrenching it free, Ginny hissed in French to her aunt and the children that they must run and hide. She turned to the other guard and saw in his eyes a flare of rage and fear as her arm lifted. A bark of muzzle fire erupted, smelling of sulphur and heat, an orange spurt close to her face. A sharp pain seared into her shoulder, but her forward momentum drove the knife into the man before he could retreat.

All around her was pandemonium, the sound of gunfire and men shouting washing over her in a blur. Ginny was vaguely aware of a woman screaming when she collapsed atop the guard, her fist still clutching the dagger’s handle, the blade imbedded in his throat. The gagging sounds faded and the wash of damp heat over her hand slowed as she surrendered to the encroaching darkness, her last thoughts of Steve and the children.

46

Pain. Intense pain radiated through her body. Ginny slowly opened her eyes, blinking as faces swam into view, then faded. She closed her eyes again, but heard the relief in Steve’s voice when he said, “She’s coming out of it.”

Then all was dark again, devoid of even dreams.

It took several days for Ginny to stay awake long enough to hear what had happened after she’d collapsed. It was Tante Celine who told her, smoothing back the damp hair from Ginny’s forehead as she spoke soothingly.

“The children are safe, ma petite. Do not fret. All is well.”

“Where…where am I?” Ginny licked dry lips with the tip of her tongue, grateful for the small amount of cool water Tante offered her.

“Laredo. As soon as you are able to travel, you will be going home.”

“Steve? Is he—?”

“Most impatient to visit with you. He has hardly left your side this past week.”

A week! Had she been asleep that long?

Tante Celine smiled. “The doctor gave you something to make you sleep as the pain was so great after he removed the bullet.”

Ginny’s hand reached out, curled around her aunt’s arm with surprising strength. “The senator?”