“Ryder,” she said helplessly, she’d been alone for months now and it was weird having people around, besides, she’d been independent from the time she was a little girl, she didn’t want to have to rely on anyone else.
“I know, sweetheart,” he said sympathetically, before hoisting her up for Matthew to catch.
It didn’t take them long to reach the top branches, and although she helped when and how she could, Abigail had to admit that without Ryder and Matthew she wouldn’t have made it.
Exhausted, she was glad when Ryder wrapped his arms around her trembling body, she feared without him holding onto her she very likely would have toppled right back down to the ground.
Before she’d even managed to catch her breath, she saw lights approaching.
The men were coming.
8:29 P.M.
Spider had Abigail pressed between the trunk of the tree and his body, if they were spotted and shot at, then there was a chance that she would miss the bullets when they started to fly and survive.
Until he was hit and she fell.
He knew the only reason she was sitting upright was because the trunk was behind her and his body was in front, the combination of the two kept her propped up, but even so she was draped across him. Shivers wracked her body, and when he pressed his fingertips to her forehead he found her skin was still flushed, she was still running a fever, still in need of urgent medical treatment.
Voices wafted up to them as the men—at least fifty of them—began to trail past the trees where he and the others were perched.
Spider found himself barely daring to breathe.
One wrong move and this extraction would all go to Hell.
While he knew he and his team could sit up here for hours without drawing anyone’s attention, it was Abigail that he was worried about. She was still running a fever so there was a chance that she could start hallucinating again, but what he was more worried about was that she would have another coughing fit.
Although she had tried to stifle the last one it had been loud enough to draw the attention of Perez’s men, giving their position away, and they had only just managed to get away without anyone getting hurt. If she started to cough now every one of the men beneath them would know where they were, and every one of them would fire their weapons. He and the others would fire back, but they were basically sitting ducks up here, especially with a sick Abigail limiting their movements.
The men were passing by, fighting amongst themselves, they didn’t bother to attempt to be stealthy, Perez’s men were not known for their skills, but they were known for being bloodthirsty. He’d seen the evidence of what they had done to a rival drug lord when the man had attempted to takeover Perez’s compound. It hadn’t been pretty. Those men had been brutally tortured alongside some of Perez’s own men who had been deemed to be traitors.
No way was he letting that happen to Abigail.
Just because they had kept her alive for fourteen months and, according to her, not laid a hand on her, it didn’t mean that this time around she would be afforded those same protections.
The last of the men were passing by, and Spider was just letting himself start to relax when Abigail suddenly jerked upright, her panicked hands pressing to her mouth.
She was going to start coughing.
There was no way for her to stop it.
The best they could hope for was that the men’s arguing amongst themselves and the fact that they had already mostly passed on by would be enough to save them.
Shoving her back firmly against the tree trunk, he put one hand behind her head to cushion the impact and pushed her hands out of the way to put his other tightly over her mouth. Spider winced because he knew he was hurting her but there was nothing he could do about that now. They had to muffle the sounds as best they could if they wanted to live.
Abigail pressed her hands over his as though they could further dampen the sound with three hands rather than one.
Then it came.
Tears leaked out the corners of her scrunched up eyes and Spider was sure they were from a mixture of pain and fear as her body began to spasm as coughs tore through her damaged lungs. Spider could feel Wolf watching them anxiously as the man moved slightly so he partially blocked them with his body.
No bullets came.
No shouts that they had found the intruders.
Nothing but the sounds of the men disappearing off into the jungle.
Abigail shuddered and slumped against his hold, and he cautiously removed his hand from over her mouth and pulled her closer, rubbing her back as he held her close. He knew how scared she was, how badly she was hurting, even if he bought that no one had laid a hand on her all these months—which given her hallucinations he wasn’t sure he did—being locked in a cage, alone, for so long deprived of human connections, was a horrific form of torture. She had been isolated and broken down little bit by little bit, and when they got her back home he wasn’t sure what kind of woman he would find.
That his Abby was gone was a given.
No one could go through what she had and come out of it the same person they had been before.
What he did know was the new Abigail would be every bit as strong as the old one had been.
He knew that without a shadow of a doubt because the Abigail he had seen over the last twenty-four hours still possessed the core of who she had always been. She was still fiercely independent, and she still cared more about others than she did herself. How many times had she begged him to leave her because she didn’t want him to get hurt trying to save her? How many times had she worried over the safety of him and Wolf’s team? Enough that he knew his Abigail was still in there, he just prayed that she wouldn’t shut everyone out and instead let him and her brother and her friends be there to support her as she rebuilt her life.
They waited several minutes to make sure that the men had well and truly moved on before they started to move.
“Time to go, Abby,” he whispered against her ear.
“So tired,” she mumbled back.
“I know, honey, but not long to go now, the men are looking for us in one direction, and we’re heading off in the opposite one. All you have to do now is hold on for a short walk then we’ll have you on the helo and get you someplace safe where you can rest.”
“A short walk?” She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “I know what you SEAL guys are like, a short walk for you is a grueling hike for most people.”
Wolf chuckled beside him and Spider grinned, his girl was toughing this out like a boss. “Lucky for you, you won’t be doing any walking then. All you have to do is hold on and enjoy the ride.”
“I’m not going to enjoy going back down the tree,” Abigail said and made a face.
“We got you up, we can get you down,” he assured her.
She gave him a doubtful glance but didn’t complain when Wolf dropped down onto the next branch and he lowered her down into the other SEAL’s arms. Passing her backward and forward between them they got her safely to the ground where Spider sat her down and grabbed his canteen.
“Here, Abby, drink something.” He took hold of her chin and tipped her head back as he held the bottle to her lips. She swallowed a couple of mouthfuls before pushing the bottle away. She was still dehydrated and would need IV fluids as soon as they got her on the helo.