About the book
He's left her twice before why should she believe this time is any different?
Abigail McNamara feels like she always has to prove herself and could never live up to her family's expectations. Her grandfather was a SEAL, her father was a SEAL, her brother is a SEAL, and, oh yeah, her brother's ridiculously hotter than hot hunkalicious best friend is also a SEAL. She’s loved Ryder since she was twelve but he’s broken her heart twice already and she’s vowed she won't ever trust him again.
Every guy knows the code you don’t have sex with your best friend's little sister. If you do you don’t get caught. If you fall in love with her you don’t break her heart. And if you earn her trust back you don’t walk away. Unfortunately Ryder “Spider” Flynn did all that. When Abigail is abducted and help prisoner for fourteen months by a sadistic sociopath that changes everything. Now all bets are off but he has to keep her alive long enough to prove to her he deserves a third chance.
SAVING RYDER is the first book in the Saving SEALs series by USA Today bestselling author Jane Blythe. Each book in this emotional and action packed military romance series can be read as a standalone!
Chapter 1
June 14th
9:23 P.M.
The air was hot.
Sticky.
Even though the sun had set and thick clouds covered any moonlight that might otherwise light the way, making the jungle virtually solid, inky black, the temperature had yet to drop.
Ryder “Spider” Flynn adjusted his rifle in his hands as he crept through the Mexican jungle. His SEAL team had been dropped off about a klick back, the plan was that they would split up to find the kidnapped girls. The three young daughters of a US Senator were only nine, twelve, and thirteen, and the compound where they believed the children were being held was vast. The quickest way to find the kids and get them out was to cover as much ground as quickly as possible, hence the fact that he and his team had split up.
It should be a simple rescue mission, but if his years as a SEAL had taught him anything it was that nothing was ever simple.
A slight shift in the atmosphere had him freezing. He’d long since learned to trust every one of his senses, including his sixth sense, and right now it was buzzing a warning. Someone else was nearby.
Scanning the surrounding area, his night-vision goggles picked up two heat signatures only twenty yards or so to his left. Because he had to make sure that one of them wasn’t one of the abducted girls, Spider veered off his course and silently approached the unknown subjects. As he moved through the jungle, he exchanged his rifle for a knife. The rifle would get a quicker result, but using it would alert everyone in the area that they weren’t alone, and that wasn’t conducive to a smooth rescue mission.
Hushed voices muttered in Spanish, and he could make out the orange glow of cigarettes. The accompanying smell nearly made him gag, it didn’t matter how many years had passed since he’d been in that house that smell had the power to transport him back through time.
Shrugging off the dark memories, he dismissed the two men, they weren’t a threat to him and he had to find those girls. The longer he and his team took to find them, the higher the chances that something could go wrong.
The men here weren’t just dangerous, they were the kind of men who had no conscience, no soul, they would do literally anything to make money. Trafficking guns, drugs, women, and children, these men didn’t care who they hurt, the idea of their victims having rights never even entered their minds.
Spider had seen the aftermath of what men like this did more times than he wanted to count. This wasn’t the first rescue mission he’d been on, these little girls weren’t the first ones he had snatched out of the clutches of the devil. He’d seen things, and heard things. Things he could never wipe out of his mind, things that haunted him, things that crept into his mind when it was vulnerable in sleep.
Silently, Spider made his way toward the center of the compound. According to the maps they had there were at least a dozen buildings here, and any one of them could be where the Burns children were being kept.
Ahead of him, he saw what looked like a small one-room building made from concrete blocks. As he got closer he saw an empty hole where the door should be, and when he looked through it he saw one heat signature.
Someone was in there.
Praying it was one of the Burns girls—and that so far no one had done anything more than terrify her—he carefully stepped through the opening, cleared the room, and then approached the prone body on the floor. The room was separated into two halves, one had a table and chairs, the other—where the body was—had nothing. Metal bars ran from the floor to the ceiling, trapping whoever it was on the other side of the room with no hope of getting out.
The body was too large to be one of the Burns girls, but it was clearly someone who was being held against their will, and there was no way he was walking away and leaving them here. Rasping, shallow breathing told him that whoever this person was they were ill.
Removing his NVG he pulled a small flashlight from his pack, the light would be noticeable if you were looking for it, but it wouldn’t draw any attention his way. Scanning the walls he saw a key ring hanging on the far wall and snatched it up, unlocking the gate that separated him from the captive.
As soon as he had it open, he dropped down beside what he could now see was a very slight woman. She had a long tangle of bronzed brown hair, was curled up in a ball facing away from him, and she was naked.
His stomach clenched.
He didn’t have to use his imagination to figure out what the woman was doing here and what had happened to her.
She hadn’t stirred at his presence which meant she wasn’t in good shape. He’d check to see what medical treatment he needed to administer to get her mobile then he’d radio his team and tell them they’d be bringing an extra victim with them.
Knowing that if the woman woke up to see a huge man in fatigues leaning over her, she was liable to freak out, and not only was he not good with hysterical, traumatized victims he didn’t want to alert anyone to his presence.
Gently he laid a hand on her shoulder. “Ma’am, can you hear me? My name is Spider, I’m a US Navy SEAL, I’m going to get you out of here.”
Carefully, he eased the woman down onto her back, noting the heat in her skin implying a fever, and her breathing was even harsher up close. Her body was tiny, she was nothing more than skin and bones, and he wondered how long she had been here to get to this condition.
Quickly and efficiently, he ran his hands up and down her body checking for broken bones or open wounds, when he found none, he reached up to brush a matted lock of hair off the woman’s face, and gasped.
No.
It couldn’t be.
Shining the light directly in her face a rush of shock flooded through him, followed by relief, then elation, quickly followed by horror. The rapidly changing emotions left him shaky although that probably had more to do with the woman lying beside him.
It was Abigail McNamara.
Baby sister of his best friend and fellow SEAL Eric ‘Night’ McNamara who was here somewhere on the compound.