Calli was still trying to process his first statement. “What could possibly mean as much to you as Vistaria?” she asked, trying to quench the hope soaring in her.
He smiled. “You, of course.” He turned to look at Minnie. “At the end, Duardo understood it better than I did. Don’t sacrifice love, for there is no greater cause and you never get the time back if you let it slip away.”
Minnie smiled. Her cheeks were wet with tears.
Nick picked up Calli’s hand. “I won’t allow Duardo’s sacrifice to be meaningless.” He kissed her hand. Then he took her in his arms and kissed her briefly, then let her go. “We must leave. Now. I have to get you to the boat.”
* * * * *
Twenty minutes later they clattered onto an extended dock, running like crazy for a long sloop tied at the end of the wooden pier, their bags and packs slapping against their legs and backs. Although they had not been challenged again, Nick took no more chances.
He grabbed the rail of the boat and vaulted over the side onto the decking. “Joshua, come with me!” he called as he pushed aside a pair of doors. He climbed down into the cabin.
Calli helped the other two on board and went below, to see what else needed doing. She found both her uncle and Nick standing at a radio, listening. Nick had the microphone in his hands, as if he had been speaking and was now waiting for a response.
Nothing but harsh buzzing and static.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“Shhh...” Joshua told her and shook his head, glancing at Nick.
The radio crackled to life and a tinny, distant voice sounded.
“Soy arrepentido, Nicolás. Ha sido confirmado. Jose murió hace veinte minutos. Sobre.”
“Ah, dammit...” Joshua breathed.
Nick grimaced and looked down at his feet. Then, after a second, he lifted the mike. “Cómo?”
The response lagged. “El fuego enemigo...No vuelva a la ciudad, Nicolás. Ellos estarán en el Palacio antes de interrupción de día...Usted tendrá que encontrar otra manera. Oye usted? Sobre.”
Nick looked at Joshua and it seemed they exchanged a silent communication, for he sighed and said into the mike, “Sí, oigo. Sobre y fuera.” He threw the mike onto the shelf beside the slim radio set and turned the radio off.
“I didn’t get the last part,” Joshua said apologetically.
“I didn’t get any of it,” Calli added.
Nick leaned against the shelf with his elbow, running his hand over his face. “Jose is dead,” he said. “He died twenty minutes ago. Enemy fire, they tell me, along with a hard warning not to go back to the city. They estimate the palace will be taken by the revolutionaries by dawn.”
“I’m sorry, Nick,” she said softly.
“With Jose dead, you can’t go back,” Joshua said. “You must come to Mexico with us. Regroup there and get your bearings. Carmen is there, too. She must be told.”
Nick shut his eyes for a moment. “The fastest revolution in history,” he said.
“It’s not over until you say it is,” Calli said. “As long as you don’t quit fighting, it’s not finished.”
He looked at her and gave her a small smile. It was almost a grimace. “Thank you,” he said.
Chapter Seventeen
The unnatural motion of the mattress beneath her woke Minnie from the shallow sleep she had achieved. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the bottom of the bunk above her. Scattered light bouncing off waves played on the painted wood, reflected through the porthole next to her. The aching hurt and sadness came back, slipping over her like a pall.
“Duardo,” she whispered to the dark.
She deliberately recalled the last moments again, trying to acquaint herself with the fact, for it still did not seem real. It felt as though someone would arrive soon and explain it was all a terrible mistake, so sorry, speak to our lawyers.
She lay remembering Duardo’s words. Nick’s voice, as he translated them. The feel of Duardo beneath her as she lay against him for the few moments she’d have before they took him away—
Abruptly, she sat up and her head slammed into the bunk above. She held her forehead and rolled her eyes, trying to clear her mind and her sight, as a potent mix of excitement and horror burst through her. Mindful of her parents, who slept the sleep of the truly exhausted beside her, she whispered the astonishing fact just to herself, trying it aloud to see if it sounded as hopeful aloud as it seemed in her stressed-out mind.
“He was still warm...!”
* * * * *
Just after midnight they crossed into international waters, the graceful yacht skimming the waves with the spinnaker billowed out full, spraying iridescent foam aside with each crest of water.
Calli emerged from below decks where she had been checking on the family of three sleeping in peaceful berths. She was armed with hot coffee and wore a sweater she had found in a cupboard. Nick sat at the big wheel, a single hand resting on it. She handed him the coffee.
He thanked her distantly. He was pre-occupied.
Calli drank her coffee and watched the moon sparkle on the black waves ahead, leaving him to his thoughts.
Nick stirred. “We’ll be in Mexico some time tomorrow,” he said, taking a sip and dropping the cup into the swinging holder hanging from the console.
“What’s wrong? Is it what Pablo said? You’re not running away, Nick. You’re just regrouping. We both know you won’t leave Vistaria to fend for itself for long.”
“That wasn’t what I was thinking at all.”
“Then...?”
He glanced at her and she recognized discomfort in his expression.
“What?” she asked, a spurt of fear touching her.
“La dama fuerte,” he murmured. “I never asked you if you wanted this. If you wanted me.”
“Oh,” she said inadequately.
“You will never have a normal life with me. I can’t offer you a damn thing. Not even a nation to reside in. It’s just me. And I’m...” He took a breath, let it out. “I’m afraid it won’t be enough. I’ve done nothing but push you away, I know that. I’ve put you through, well, a war. Only I want you to say yes. I want you to stay with me. Always.”
She considered this for a moment.
“The lady stays silent,” Nick murmured to himself. She could hear the note of worry in his voice.
She sighed. “You’d better teach me Spanish, Nick. It seems to be the one thing I can’t teach myself out of a book.”
He plucked her from the deck, put her on his lap and wrapped his arms around her. Before she could gasp her surprise, he kissed her, and this time it was not a brief one. When he let her draw a full breath again, she said, “The wheel!”
“I am watching it,” he assured her, his voice low, deep, the way she remembered it from the first time they had met.
“Always, Nick?” she asked, not quite able to believe he wanted her to stay with him forever.
“Until the end, whenever that may be.” He cleared his throat. “Duardo said it best. Even if the end is to be tomorrow and we only have this day in which I can call you mine, I’ll take that. I will grab it with both hands and be proud and very grateful that you stayed.”
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The next book in the Vistaria Has Fallen series.
Prisoner of War, Book 2
When love means more to you than your own life…
Everyone believes Duardo died on Vistaria, when the Insurrectos rampaged through the country. Minnie’s heart tells her otherwise. She risks everything to steal onto the war-torn island with the help of an unexpected ally.
Minnie is arrested and imprisoned as an enemy spy. The Insurrectos’ infamous intelligence officer, Zalaya, will stop at nothing to extract everything Minnie knows about the Loyalists.
Can Minnie escape? Even if she does, how will she find Duardo? The biggest question of them all--could Duardo have survived, after all?
Fantastically written romantic suspense that will draw you in completely. Complex, hard-hitting, with gutsy characters so real you’ll want to meet them in person.
Buy Prisoner of War now:
https://books2read.com/PrisonerOfWar
About the Author
Tracy Cooper-Posey is a #1 Best Selling Author. She writes romantic suspense, historical, paranormal and science fiction romance. She has published over 90 novels since 1999, been nominated for five CAPAs including Favourite Author, and won the Emma Darcy Award.
She turned to indie publishing in 2011. Her indie titles have been nominated four times for Book Of The Year. Tracy won the award in 2012, and a SFR Galaxy Award in 2016 for “Most Intriguing Philosophical/Social Science Questions in Galaxybuilding” She has been a national magazine editor and for a decade she taught romance writing at MacEwan University.
She is addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and chocolate, sometimes taken together. In her spare time she enjoys history, Sherlock Holmes, science fiction and ignoring her treadmill. An Australian Canadian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a former professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him on-line.
Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey
For reviews, excerpts, and more about each title, visit Tracy’s site and click on the cover you are interested in: http://tracycooperposey.com/books-by-thumbnail/
* = Free!
Vistaria Has Fallen
Vistaria Has Fallen
Prisoner of War
Hostage Crisis
Freedom Fighters
Casualties of War
V-Day
Scandalous Scions
(Historical Romance Series – Spin off)
Rose of Ebony
Soul of Sin
Valor of Love
Marriage of Lies
Romantic Thrillers Series
Fatal Wild Child
Dead Again
Dead Double
Terror Stash
Thrilling Affair (Boxed Set)
Scandalous Sirens
(Historical Romance Series)
Forbidden*
Dangerous Beauty
Perilous Princess
Go-get-‘em Women
(Short Romantic Suspense Series)
The Royal Talisman
Delly’s Last Night
Vivian’s Return
Ningaloo Nights
Blood Knot Series
(Urban Fantasy Paranormal Series)
Blood Knot*
Southampton Swindle
Broken Promise
Vale
Amor Meus
Blood Stone
Blood Unleashed
Blood Drive
Blood Revealed
Blood Ascendant
The Sherlock Holmes Series
(Romantic Suspense/Mystery)
Chronicles of the Lost Years
The Case of the Reluctant Agent
Sherlock Boxed In
Beloved Bloody Time Series
(Paranormal Futuristic Time Travel)
Bannockburn Binding*
Wait
Byzantine Heartbreak
Viennese Agreement
Romani Armada
Spartan Resistance
Celtic Crossing
Kiss Across Time Series
(Paranormal Time Travel)
Kiss Across Time*
Kiss Across Swords
Time Kissed Moments
Kiss Across Chains
Kiss Across Deserts
Kiss Across Kingdoms
Time and Tyra Again
Kiss Across Seas
Kiss Across Worlds
The Kine Prophecies
(Epic Norse Fantasy Romance)
The Branded Rose Prophecy
The Stonebrood Saga
(Gargoyle Paranormal Series)
Carson’s Night*
Beauty’s Beasts
Harvest of Holidays
Unbearable
Sabrina’s Clan
Pay The Ferryman
Hearts of Stone (Boxed Set)
Destiny’s Trinities
(Urban Fantasy Romance Series)
Beth’s Acceptance*
Mia’s Return
Sera’s Gift
The First Trinity
Cora’s Secret
Zoe’s Blockade
Octavia’s War
The Second Trinity
Terra’s Victory
Destiny’s Trinities (Boxed Set)
Interspace Origins
(Science Fiction Romance Series)
Faring Soul
Varkan Rise
Cat and Company
Interspace Origins (Boxed Set)
Short Paranormals
Solstice Surrender
Eva’s Last Dance
Three Taps, Then….
The Well of Rnomath
Jewells of Tomorrow
(Historical Romantic Suspense)
Diana By The Moon
Heart of Vengeance
The Endurance
(Science Fiction Romance Series)
5,001
Greyson’s Doom
Yesterday’s Legacy
Promissory Note
Quiver and Crave
Xenogenesis
Junkyard Heroes
Evangeliya
Skinwalker’s Bane
Contemporary Romances
Lucifer’s Lover
An Inconvenient Lover
The Indigo Reports
(Space Opera)
Flying Blind
New Star Rising
But Now I See
Suns Eclipsed
Worlds Beyond
Non-Fiction Titles
Reading Order
(Non-Fiction, Reference)
Reading Order 2016
Copyright Information
This is an original publication of Tracy Cooper-Posey
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2017 by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Text design by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Cover design by Dar Albert
http://WickedSmartDesigns
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed
in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
FIRST EDITION: October 2017
Cooper-Posey, Tracy
Vistaria Has Fallen/Tracy Cooper-Posey—1st Ed.
Romance—Fiction
Suspense – Fiction