Page 65 of Duty Devoted

“That’s suicide. They’ll kill you.”

“That’s better than what he’s got planned for you.”

“No.” Her jaw set. “He won’t shoot me. You heard him, he’s been chasing me for days. He’s not going to kill me now.”

“Lauren—”

“Listen to me.” She gripped my shoulders. “Pretend I’m your hostage. Put your gun to my head and use me to get us to the boat.”

“Absolutely not.”

“It’s the only play that doesn’t end with you dead.” Her eyes blazed. “He wants me alive. That’s our advantage.”

“Ten seconds, my dear!” Mateo’s voice hardened. “We have better things to be doing than wasting the dawn on this filthy pier. We could be getting to know each other.”

“Logan, please.” Her hands found mine, pressed the Glock against her temple. “Trust me. Like I trust you.”

I hesitated, muscles locking. But she was right.

“Stay close,” I said. “Move when I move. We just have to make it to the boat.”

And pray to God they weren’t late. If they didn’t show up in two minutes, then Lauren and I would be walking into a dead end.

I pulled her against me, one arm around her waist, grasping the uninjured side, the other holding the Glock to her head. My hand trembled slightly before I forced it steady.

“We’re coming out!” I shouted. “I’ve got the woman! Anyone shoots, she dies!”

I kicked the door open and emerged, keeping Lauren’s body between me and the weapons pointed our way. The dock stretched behind us, dark water beyond.

Every instinct I’d developed over years of combat screamed against this position. Using her as a shield violated everything I’d been trained to do—protect civilians, never endanger them. The Glock pressed to her temple felt like it weighed fifty pounds. My hand wanted to shake, to pull away, to point the weapon anywhere but at this woman I’d sworn to protect.

“Ahh…” Mateo stood beside the lead SUV, his white linen suit unmarked by the destruction around us. “So, not afriend. He’s been keeping you from me?”

“Back up,” I commanded, beginning our slow retreat toward the pier. “Everyone stays where they are, or she gets a bullet.”

The words burned my throat. Using Lauren’s body to block sight lines from twenty armed men made my skin crawl. I could feel her heartbeat where my arm wrapped around her waist—too fast, but steady. Trusting me even as I held death to her head.

“Help me,” Lauren called out, her voice pitched perfectly between fear and hope. “Please, Mateo. He kidnapped me from the clinic. I…I wanted to come to you, but he wouldn’t let me.”

I felt her performance hit Mateo exactly where she’d aimed—his ego. His chest puffed slightly, that smile growing more satisfied. Of course, she’d wanted him. Of course, this was all amisunderstanding that could be fixed once the soldier was dealt with.

Mateo smiled, following at a leisurely pace, his men spreading in a semicircle. “Why would you kill such a fine specimen of a woman? Leave her with me unharmed, and you can go.”

“Right.” I kept us moving backward, boots finding the pier’s warped planking. “Because you’re so trustworthy.”

“I’m a man of my word.” His smile widened. “Besides, what I have planned for her requires her very much alive.”

Lauren shuddered at his words, but we kept moving backward on the pier.

“If that’s what you want, then it would be in your best interest to let me get on one of these boats and leave,” I said, the words tasting like ash.

We were twenty feet onto the pier now. The water looked black below us.

“You know what I’ll do to you if you hurt her?” Mateo’s voice turned conversational as he followed us onto the pier. “I’ll start with your knees. Kneecaps are fascinating—did you know they float? Cut the tendons just right, and they slide up the thigh like marbles. You’ll never walk again, but you’ll live.”

We were thirty feet out now. Where the hell was my team?

“My beautiful Lauren,” Mateo continued, his tone shifting to something almost tender. “I think you will make a fine wife. Make strong, healthy sons. I will show my father how much you adore me. You will show him he was wrong.”