Page 116 of Fighting With Light

Kai follows her, and Emerson and I cover them.

I glance behind me, and realize we miscounted. The women are sitting in front of the five kids, trying to protect them. Fear is written all over their faces, and indignation flies through me. I’ve seen that look before. I’ve seen it on my mother when my father was beating her and forcing us to watch.

Aelia holds out her hands and drops into a squat. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. Can everyone run?” she asks. They look at her, not understanding what she is saying, so Kai jumps in.

He speaks to them in Spanish, and a few of them nod. But they all clearly don’t understand what he’s saying. “Come on, Two, we need to go,” I grunt, and peek out of the tent.

Emerson looks behind him and spots two of the women pulling away from the others. He says something in Russian. They perk up at that and nod rapidly. Aelia gestures for them to stand, and she reaches for the smaller child, who can’t be older than seven. Kai grabs another small girl, and the other women pick upthe younger ones. I spot the woman who we saw being dragged, and she’s curled up in a ball, beaten and bloody. I reach for her, and she shies back.

“Quiero ayudar, quiero ayudar mi amiga,”I want to help, I want to help my friend,I tell her. She looks at me with distrust in her eyes, and I smile, holding my hand up. She stands slowly with my help.

“We’re running out of time. That distraction will only last for so long,” Emerson says as he straps a small girl to his chest with the Velcro from his vest straps.

Aelia has one, and Kai has another. He tells them in Spanish to hide their heads, don’t look, and hold on tight.

These women look severely malnourished, and I’m not sure how far we will get, but we have to try.

Emerson gestures for us to move. He checks out the tent, and I follow closely behind. He runs across the small path and up into the trees where we came from. The little girl strapped to his chest keeps her head tucked into his neck, and her small hands grip onto his t-shirt.

I wish I could blow this place to hell.I should have brought C4.

Covering everyone from the back end, my brothers and the other women run across the path.

Aelia hands the girl she was holding to a woman able to carry her and we pull up the rear as we run into the mountainside with Emerson leading the way.

A couple of bullets whiz by, and I twist to drop the shooters like a sack of potatoes. Another gun goes off, and Aelia shoots a man straight through the heart. We cover each other, making sure no one follows us into the mountainside.

When we get deeper in, I hear a grunt, and I turn to fire, only I find a man, one of the guards, holding a gun tomy woman’shead with his arm around her neck in a chokehold. I sense Kai come up to my side, pointing his rifle at the man.

The guard is too close to Aelia, a bullet could kill her, too. He takes a step back as if he’s trying to take her, and I growl, trying to determine if I can makethe shot. Fear so real I can taste it on my tongue as it fills my veins. I don’t know what to do.I don’t know what to do.

“Debería desollarte vivo por tocar lo que no te pertenece,”I should skin you alive for touching what doesn’t belong to you.I tell him. He smiles at me and I know I have to act or lose her.

“Three,” Kai drawls. I keep my eyes on Aelia as they take another step back, and she struggles with the guard trying to leverage her weight. He moves just right, and I shoot him straight through the eye. She drops with the body and grumbles, pushing him off.

Aelia leaps to her feet and glares at me.

“You know I had him, I was reaching for my knife,” she snaps and wipes her hand across her face, smearing blood.

I scoff. “Like hell, you did, he was about to put a bullet through your skull.”

I would have died right then and there if he did.

“Well, you could have at least waited for me to move because now I’m covered in blood.Gross,”she groans.

“I’m just glad it’s not yours,” I mutter.

She drops her hand from her face. Blood is still splattered across it and down her neck, and yet she has never looked more beautiful. Our eyes lock, and I can’t read them in the dark, but I can feel them. I can feel her steady scrutiny on me and it’s almost too much to bear.

“I will kill for you, princess. Always.”

The lip gloss she’s wearing mingles with the blood on her lips, and I reach up to wipe it off. “Good because I’ll help you bury the body.”

“Guys, we’ve got to go. You can make heart eyes at each other later,” Kai says, trying to hurry us along.

We take off at a full run, following Kai. “What did he say?” I hear Aelia ask Kai.

He glances back at me and then continues forward. “He said he should skin that man alive for touching what doesn’t belong to him,” he breathes, and dodges a branch.