“Ryder,” she said when he went to shift her into a fireman’s carry, “don’t call me honey.”
Pain cut through him as cleanly and efficiently as any blade. He deserved that—and more—but it didn’t make it any easier to hear.
As carefully as he could Spider maneuvered Abigail, doing his best to block out her quiet moans, and then he stepped out of the small building and into the jungle.
This time he didn’t even notice the oppressive heat, his sole focus was getting Abigail to the extraction point. His team would get the Burns girls there, hopefully the children were uninjured, but either way their first stop would be a medical facility because at the least the girls would need psychological help.
Spider hadn’t gone more than about four steps when he heard it.
Gunfire.
Looked like their cover was blown.
As much as he’d love to go tearing off through the jungle with no thought but getting Abigail to safety, Spider knew he couldn’t do that. He had to go slowly, carefully, it was just him against an unknown number of subjects and he had Abby to think of. This cartel was known for being particularly brutal, they made an example of anyone who got in their way, and ruled this entire area with an iron fist making it one of the most dangerous in Mexico. This wasn’t the first time that Spider and his team had performed a rescue mission on Luis Perez’s compound, and he doubted it would be the last.
Slowly, he made his way through the jungle, it was a good five klicks to where the helicopter would pick them up and even though Abigail was small and not much extra weight, she was extra weight, and carrying her would slow him down.
He made it only a half klick or so from the building where he’d found Abby when he heard the sound that chilled his blood.
Footsteps.
Followed by voices.
Perez’s men were nearby.
With Abigail on his shoulders he didn’t want to engage them unless he was given no choice. Shooting them was out because he’d be broadcasting his location, but he couldn’t hold onto Abigail and use his knife.
“Are they coming?” Abigail asked softly, and he could feel her entire body had gone tense.
“They won’t find us,” he said confidently.
“Ryder, put me down and leave,” she implored. “I’m sick, I’m dying anyway, just leave me and go.”
“I am not letting you die,” he growled. Abigail was sick, and without treatment she would die, but if he left her here when one of Perez’s men stumbled upon her she wouldn’t be getting a quick death. They would torture her mercilessly until eventually her body succumb to her illness and the injuries they would inflict upon her. He was not letting that happen to Abigail, and besides he was a SEAL, he could keep her safe and eliminate any danger.
Hiding himself and Abby behind a large tree, Spider kept one hand on Abigail’s hips to keep her steady while his other gripped his knife. Abby wasn’t the only one who was tense, his entire body was coiled and ready to spring into action if they were found.
As the footsteps grew closer, Spider found himself holding his breath. He always knew there was a chance he wouldn’t come back from a mission, he had accepted that fact, he did whatever he had to, to make sure he and his team made it home in one piece, but never had the stakes been so high.
Never had the woman he loved been here in his arms.
The sole responsibility for making sure she lived was on him.
The footsteps grew closer.
The voices got louder.
And then he saw them.
Four of them, armed, arguing with one another, annoyed that the security breach had interrupted their fun with one of the women.
Spider watched and waited and prayed the men passed without incident.
Just as he started to relax and believe that they had just bypassed trouble, Abigail began to cough.
He dropped to the ground, pulled Abby into his lap, supporting her weight as he clamped a hand over her mouth and prayed that the men had been far enough past them that they wouldn’t hear the muffled coughing, but he knew that they would. The jungle was quiet and the sound traveled, the men would have heard it and be circling back this very second.
He had just failed Abigail.
10:06 P.M.
“I’m sorry,” she wheezed between coughs. Abigail knew that the men who had just walked past them would still be close enough that her coughing fit would have alerted them to their presence here.
She had just signed hers and Ryder’s death warrant.
He should have left her.
She didn’t want anyone to die because of her.
“I’m leaving you my pack,” Ryder whispered, already setting her on the ground and covering her with leaves and sticks. “If I don’t come back, you take this and you get yourself out of here. My team knows you’re here and someone will come for you. You just get to someplace safe.”
There was no way she was walking away from here on her own and they both knew it. She was too weak, and besides, sooner or later one of the men here would stumble upon her.
Besides that she didn’t want to be alone.
For month after month she had been trapped in that prison. No one talked to her, and whoever brought her food simply threw it in through the bars and left. Then Ryder had appeared out of nowhere and now he wanted to leave again.
Although she knew she was wasting whatever time he had to try to enact some sort of plan, Abigail curled her fingers into his clothes and clung to him. “Don’t leave me,” she begged, and she really hated to beg. She was a strong, independent woman who had been looking after herself most of her life, but right now she wasn’t herself. She was a vulnerable, needy shell of a person who was terrified out of their mind.
“I have to,” Ryder said briskly, but she saw the indecision in his blue eyes. “I’ll be back as quick as I can,” he promised.
She just stared at him.
They both knew he might not come back.
Abigail might not know how many men had just walked past them, but she knew there had to be hundreds of them out here, she didn’t think she had seen the same man twice in all the months she had been here. Ryder was outnumbered and wouldn’t want to shoot his weapon and draw every man in the area’s attention.
Because he was trying to protect her.
“Trust me, Abby,” he said, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth he flinched.
They both knew she didn’t trust him.
At least not with anything other than her life.
He’d decimated her trust both times she’d offered it to him and she didn’t think her heart could risk a third time.
Still, since she did trust Ryder to get her out of here alive she gave a small nod.
Ryder gently uncurled her fingers, straightened, then paused and stooped to kiss her forehead, then he was off, running noisily through the jungle.
He was trying to get their attention, lead them away from her, she knew better than most that Ryder possessed the ability to move silently, he was deliberately making a racket so that he could lead the men away.
He was risking his life for her.
His actions melted a little of the ice she had coated her heart in to protect it from being broken again.
Her chest burned, her head ached, her mind longed to check out and fade into nothingness but …
Ryder was here, and Eric too, no doubt the rest of his team as well, she didn’t want anything to happen to any of them. They’d come here to rescue her. How could she live the rest of her life knowing that one or all of them had died in her place?