like it.”
“From what I got out of the men in the short time I was there, he’s been embezzling money from a business partner. I think it had something to do with gun running.”
“Gun running?” Colton frowned. Clearly whatever Trent had gotten himself involved in, he’d messed with the wrong people.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Lexi said. “When he stayed with me, he was out most nights, keeping strange hours. If only I had known...if I had seen or heard something I would have confronted him.” There was no inflection in her voice as she stared out across the cloudless sky. “It might end up costing us all our lives.”
Colton rubbed the back of his neck, but it did little to relieve the growing tension. “You’re not responsible for his actions.”
“You’re wrong.” Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up at him. “I should have seen what he was doing...noticed that something wasn’t right—”
“And then what?” He ran his hand down her arm until his fingers caught her hand. “This wasn’t your fault.”
He studied her in the shadow of the plane. The cargo pants and T-shirt he’d given her hung a bit loose on her figure, but still managed to look both comfortable and flattering. He had a feeling she was the kind of person who could fit in pretty much anywhere. Whether it was a corporate board meeting in the States wearing business attire, or doing fieldwork in the middle of an African village.
In another place and time, he could see himself taking the initiative to get to know her. But after Maggie, he had no desire to jump into another relationship. Ever. Spending his days flying across North Africa had become the perfect remedy for a broken heart. He loved the freedom it brought. The time spent in the air where he felt the closest to his Creator, where he could do some good, and where the past seemed the furthest away. It certainly wasn’t a life he planned to let go of any time soon.
And everything that had happened today had only managed to remind him that life was volatile, and how everything could change in the blink of an eye.
“I’m worried, Colton.”
He caught the vulnerability in her eyes as she spoke and felt a crazy urge to draw her into his arms and tell her everything was going to be all right. That he’d make sure they got to the nearest airport and then on home to the States safely. But he couldn’t make her any promises. They were still at the mercy of the desert, and the men who’d shot down their plane.
He brushed his hand against her arm. “We’re going to figure this out. I promise.”
“But in the meantime, there has to be something else we can do,” she said.
“The plane’s beyond repair. Bret’s sleeping. So for now about the only thing we can do is wait. How about sitting down with me to watch the sunset in the meantime?”
Because he needed to spend the next hour thinking about something—anything—other than the mess they were in, and he knew he wasn’t the only one.
Lexi hesitated at Colton’s suggestion, but already, the sky had captured her attention with its spectacular show of pinks, reds and oranges, lighting the sand in its golden hues. Before long the colors would shift to shades of blue until the vast sky faded into darkness.
“Come on,” he said. “You can tell me more about what you’ve been doing here.”
He led her a dozen or so feet from the plane toward a spot where they could have a front row seat to the incredible nightly display and sat down beside her. “I know you’re working here with a water program. What did you do back in the States?”
She settled into the space beside Colton, mesmerized by the scene in front of her. “I got a degree in engineering, then started working for a company that provides technical support to both public and private clients, specializing in environmental and marine engineering.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“It was, actually. At some point, though, I started doing a bunch of research on third-world countries and their infrastructure, particularly their access to clean water, and what I found shocked me. Almost a billion people are without access to safe drinking water. Two and a half billion don’t have adequate sanitation facilities. And somewhere around three and a half million people die every year because of this.”
“Wow. I knew the figures were high, but I had no idea it was that bad.”
“I probably sound like I’m reading a textbook, don’t I? My dad tells me the reason I came to work in North Africa was because of watching Casablanca too many times.” Lexi laughed at the memory. “But the truth is that this is a subject I feel passionate about. And this became a place where I could live out my faith and hopefully make a difference in the world. And as small as it might be, I’ve seen it change lives.”
“You’re wrong about one thing.”
She looked up at him. “What’s that?”
“It’s no small difference you’re making. To the people you impact, it means everything. The fact that their families now have clean water and they don’t have all the water-related ailments they used to have. The fact that their kids don’t get as sick so they can go to school.”
She stared out across the open sand, amazed once more at all the colors in the sky. The vastness of both the sky and the desert reminded her that they weren’t alone. That the God who had created all of this was still here and real and knew exactly what was going on. Which was why, despite everything that had happened over the past few days, she was beginning to relax.
“What about you?” she asked. “Why are you here?”
“A lot of the same reasons, I guess. After leaving the military, I decided I was done with the service, but not with flying. Bret introduced me to an organization looking for pilots. At first I was pretty skeptical, but I knew I didn’t want to teach flying, wasn’t sure I wanted to go into commercial piloting and certainly wasn’t ready to settle down in a desk job.”
“Are you glad this is what you chose?” she asked.
“I am. Every day is different, making it both rewarding and a challenge.”
But nothing like today, she thought. Today had challenged and stretched them emotionally, and the scary thing was that it was far from over.
She glanced over at the hunky pilot sitting next to her. Her stepfather would like him. A lot. And in another life, Colton Landry was exactly the kind of man she would have liked to get to know better. Because she couldn’t deny the attraction she felt toward the man. But anything more wasn’t an option. She was focused on her own healing after her mother’s death. Avoiding the complications of a relationship had seemed to be a wise decision in that process. Especially with the chance of things turning out the way her last relationship had.
She turned back to watch the colors of the sunset that continued to mute as darkness started to spread across the sky. “What do you find interesting about the desert?” she asked.
Before she’d even signed the contract to come, she’d been intrigued
