“Not really,” he hedged. “Yeah, I’ve seen her a couple of times when I’ve stopped at the lab, but it’s not like we’ve had a long conversation or anything. Fuck! She’s hot. How could I not notice her? I suppose I admire her tenacity now, too. I guess I feel like shit because she got hurt while she was doing work for us. We put all three of them in harm’s way.”
I looked at Jax quizzically. His admission was way out of character for him. It wasn’t like Jax didn’t have a good heart, but it was usually hidden by his cynicism. Since I was feeling guilty enough for both of us, I said, “This isn’t really anybody’s fault, Jax. Yeah, I feel guilty, too, but don’t let that shit eat you alive. Lania has been considered a safe country to visit for a couple of years now. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t have even been on Montgomery Mining’s radar. We don’t ever intentionally put any of our employees in dangerous situations.”
I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince; him or me. Nothing like this had ever happened to any of our crews, the remorse about what had happened was actually eating me alive.
Yeah, shit happened, but my brothers and I had never put profit over safety. Anything could happen on remote job sites, but we kept the risk factor to a minimum.
“How in the fuck did the rebels get a foothold in Lania again?” Jax cursed. “Jesus! I thought I’d never have to go back there again. My SEAL team was in Lania way too much a decade ago. I hate that damn country. Hostage situations there never ended well. The rebels had absolutely no problem lopping off the heads of anyone they considered a danger to their way of life, and they hated westerners.”
“I know,” I answered, my voice raspy. “I lost a lot of friends there, too. This group was either hiding in a remote area for years, or they were escapees who weren’t smart enough to stay gone. Marshall has been there fairly recently, and he swore there wasn’t even a hint of violence there. Hell, people are starting to fight over land in that country to build their big resorts. But Lania is a large island country, and some areas are pretty desolate. I don’t doubt that this group could have escaped detection for years.”
“What’s the crown prince’s stance on all of this?” Jax questioned.
“According to Marshall, he’s put out every force he has to search for the rebels and their hostages.”
Jax’s mouth shaped into a halfhearted smile. “So Marshall knows where they are, but the prince doesn’t?”
“Does that surprise you?” I asked, amused.
Jax shook his head. “Nope. Sometimes I think Marshall likes it that way. He has more faith in Last Hope than he does in some foreign governments.”
At the moment, I was glad Marshall had kept the information to himself. “So do I,” I informed my brother. “This one is personal for me, and I’d rather not have someone else fuck it up.”
“We’ll get her out of there, Hudson,” Jax said solemnly in a voice that sounded like a vow. “Even if she’s not alive, we’re bringing her out.”
I didn’t even want to think about the life in Taylor’s beautiful green eyes being completely snuffed out. “She’s alive. Until I know for certain that I’m wrong, she’s alive. Let’s try to get some shuteye so we’re as alert as we can be. My plane, my bed.”
I rose to head to the only bedroom on my aircraft.
“I have no problem crashing here. It’s comfortable,” Jax said. “Was there anything in those reports on Taylor that I should know about?”
My gut twisted.
The files hadn’t just been employee files. Marshall had included as much history as he could get on short notice.
Taylor Delaney hadn’t really had an easy life, and it had felt almost intrusive to read the information about her early years because it didn’t make a damn bit of difference in regard to her rescue.
The report had felt personal to me, which was something I’d never experienced before, and for some damn reason, I didn’t feel like sharing everything I’d read about a hostage with anyone. Even Jax.
“Nothing significant,” I said shortly. “Sounds like she busted her ass to get through Stanford, and I’m not about to let her miss the good parts now that she’s finally done with the hard stuff.”
“I’m with you on that,” Jax said with a huge yawn. “Night.”
“Get some rest,” I advised as I made my way to the bedroom.
I hit the bed immediately, but didn’t sleep as well as I would have liked.
My dreams were haunted by that picture of Taylor during her happier times, and a pair of big green eyes and a mischievous smile that seemed to be begging me not to let her die in Lania.
As I tossed and turned, I just hoped to hell she could hold on just a little bit longer…
Taylor
The only good thing about being half dead was knowing I looked so bad that the rebel leader wasn’t going to come and get me anymore.
He hadn’t since the day I’d tried to make my escape, and had been beaten so badly that nobody would want to see my face or my body right now.
That had been what…a day ago? Two days ago? Shit! I’d totally lost track of the time, but I knew for certain I hadn’t had a drop of water since I’d tried to execute my escape plan.
I’d had a momentary flash of fear when I’d regained consciousness a few moments ago, and it had been completely dark.
It had taken me a minute to remember that nobody was coming to get me anymore.
“What the hell day is it?” I mumbled, the words coming out in a scratchy whisper because my mouth was so dry.
It had been morning when I’d passed out last time.
Was it the same day? The next day? Or a week later?
I had no idea.
I was conscious at the moment, but I knew damn well that death was stalking me.
My heart was racing, and even though I was awake, I was so damn…confused.
Severely dehydrated, I’d been drifting in and out of consciousness, disoriented when I was awake, and too weak to even move a muscle anymore.
I wasn’t going to bullshit myself about how close I was to death.
Every single time I felt that big black hole opening up to swallow me, I wondered if I’d ever open my eyes again.
Honestly, I was getting to the point where, each time I lost consciousness, I almost hoped I’d never wake up.
I wanted to move. Every muscle in my body was cramped, but I didn’t have the strength to try to sit up or roll onto my side.
My appetite was completely gone, but I was so damn thirsty.
Luckily, I hadn’t pissed myself, but it was a little frightening that I had absolutely no urge to pee. Right now, I wished I wasn’t a science geek, and didn’t know so much about the human body. It would probably be better to be ignorant about what happens when your kidneys start shutting down.
Not a damn thing worked in the human body without water.
I grimaced as I tried to move my legs to see if I could get in a more comfortable position, but my leg barely moved an inch, and that small twitch created the most horrific pain I’d ever experienced.
The rebels had landed some pretty hard kicks to all of my limbs, probably to keep me from going anywhere. That prolonged beating session, combined with the pain of having my extremities tightly bound in one position, made moving even a single limb pure torture.