Ryder stood, keeping a steadying hand on her shoulder, then picked her up and wrapped her in a towel, carrying her to the bed. When he started to dry her off she put her hands on his.
“I can do it.”
The look he shot her was doubtful, but he nodded and turned his back to give her privacy. “You tell me if you feel weak or dizzy.”
“Okay.” It was a fair compromise because she was weak and she was dizzy and she didn’t want to pass out, fall over and hurt herself giving Ryder another thing to have to deal with.
It took her far longer than it should have but Abigail managed to dry herself and pull the shirt over her head before her strength gave out.
As though he could read her mind, Ryder asked, “You doing okay?”
“Actually, I could use some help,” she admitted.
Immediately Ryder was at her side, he took hold of first her left wrist and then her right, and pulled her arms through the shirt’s sleeves. Then he pulled the pants up her legs, lifting her hips to get them into place, before slipping socks back on her feet.
“There,” he said and smiled as he perched on the edge of the bed beside her. “How do you feel?”
“Exhausted.”
“No wonder, after what you’ve been through.”
She nodded her agreement and watched as Ryder picked up her wrist. Was it her imagination or did his fingers caress her skin before settling on the inside of her wrist to take her pulse? They definitely lingered before he released her.
“Where’s my brother?” she asked, looking around the small shack. There was no one here but the two of them and she wondered if Eric and the rest of the team were patrolling outside.
Ryder hesitated then met her gaze squarely. “We missed the helicopter. The others took the children and got out.”
“The children?”
“We were here rescuing three little girls, a senator’s daughters.”
Realization dawned quickly.
They weren’t here for her.
They hadn’t even known she was here.
They had been looking for those children and stumbled upon her by accident.
Tears burned the backs of her eyes, and she sank deeper into the pillows she was propped up against. Maybe they had never been looking for her. She and Eric weren’t exactly close, and Ryder had walked out of her life for the second time almost three years ago, she had friends and colleagues but no family, no one who loved her, who would move heaven and earth to find her.
“No.” Ryder’s harsh exclamation had her eyes snapping back up. “We looked for you, Abby. No one gave up on you. Not your brother, not your friends, and not me. We would have kept looking until we found you, okay?” When she nodded he reached out, hesitated, but then cupped her cheek in his hand. “I’m so glad we found you, these last fourteen months have been hell, knowing you were out there, not being able to find you, not knowing what was happening to you … I don’t think I’ve taken a full breath until I found you in that cage.”
Surprised to hear such heartfelt words coming out of his mouth, Abigail searched his eyes trying to figure out if he was telling her the truth or if he was just trying to console her, just trying to be nice because he pitied her. That wasn’t what she wanted, she didn’t want to be pitied, she wanted to find someone who loved her for who she was and didn’t want to change her to conform with their own ideas on who she ought to be.
And that someone wasn’t Ryder.
She would do well to remember that.
“How are we getting out of here if it’s just you and me?” she asked.
“A team will be coming in to extract us in a few hours.”
“What are we going to do until then?”
“You’re going to try to eat something and then rest and conserve your strength. Your fever might be going down but you’re still a very sick woman.”
His hand was still on her face, and his thumb was brushing lightly across her skin making it tingle, and she could remember how his hands on her body had affected her when they had been together. He was staring at her like there was something he wanted to tell her, but he seemed to think better of it because he leaned in and touched his lips to her forehead, holding them there for a second before he released her and stood to rummage through his pack.
Ryder Flynn confused her.
He looked at her like he cared about her, like he wanted her like a starving man wanted food, but his behavior said the exact opposite.
Tired, her eyes fluttered closed and she was out before Ryder could give her anything to eat.
7:42 P.M.
The sun was setting, and Spider was starting to get antsy.
That didn’t happen to him very often, his childhood had taught him how to remain calm even under the most horrible of circumstances because when you weren’t calm you drew unwanted attention. Drawing unwanted attention could prove deadly—both in his childhood home and in his job.
But when something involved Abigail it threw him through a loop.
Since she was asleep again he reached out and touched her. Letting his fingers stroke her hair and then the soft skin of her cheek, he didn’t want to wake her because she needed the rest, but at the same time he couldn’t resist her.
He had it bad.
Always had.
He’d done his best to keep his distance, believing it was better for her not to be involved with someone like him, but now he knew he had been fooling himself. He could never stay away from her.
Abigail stirred beneath his touch and leaned into it making him groan. How he wished that they were anywhere but here, that Abby hadn’t been abducted and held captive, that he hadn’t broken her heart, that she wasn’t lying there fighting for her life. He wished it was just the two of them, curled up in his bed, a fire crackling in the fireplace, classical music playing in the background, nothing in the whole world but the two of them.
“Ryder?” she mumbled.
“Here, babe,” he assured her. Every time she woke up she asked for him and he couldn’t deny that he liked it. He wanted her to need him, maybe it was a little caveman of him to want the woman he loved to need him, but he did, and it was nice to be needed.
“My head hurts,” she whispered.
She’d been complaining about a worsening headache each time she regained consciousness and he was becoming concerned. Her temperature had fallen, but her breathing was still rapid and shallow, her pulse was weak, and although he’d managed to get her to eat a little it didn’t seem to help her regain any strength. He’d held off as long as he could but it seemed like it was time.
Straightening, he grabbed a syringe from his first aid kit. “I’ll give you a shot of morphine.”
Abigail nodded, not even bothering to open her eyes.
At least she hadn’t hallucinated again since her fever had broken. Seeing her fear so raw was enough to bring him to his knees. He’d do anything to make it so this never happened, but the best he could do was stand by her side as she dealt with the fallout.
And he was sure that would be a lot worse than Abigail thought.
She claimed the men here hadn’t done anything to her but throw her in that cage and leave her there, but that didn’t make sense nor did it fit with what she’d been saying while she was burning up with fever. She’d been terrified of a man who had hurt her, she’d begged not to be hurt again and he had a feeling that something had been done to her between the time she was grabbed and the time she remembered waking up in that cage. If he had to guess, he’d say she’d been drugged and the drugs had wiped her memories, that or her brain was trying to protect her.