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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“We need to get out of here,” Preacher said under his breath.

“Yeah,” MacGyver agreed.

The day before, they’d been marched through the destroyed town to the church where they were currently holed up. Half of the building was nothing but rubble, but the other half was miraculously still standing. He and MacGyver were currently in what used to be the nave. Pews were on their sides and strewn about the space, the stained-glass windows were broken to pieces, but the space was otherwise intact. There was one bored-looking soldier in the nave guarding them, and the rest were either outside or in the narthex, the small space just outside the worship area.

There were windows they could climb out of, but without any weapons, they’d surely be shot before they were able to get outside. Preacher tried to come up with a plan, but his body hurt, his eye was still swollen shut, and he hadn’t slept much the night before. And he couldn’t stop thinking about Maggie. Wondering where she was, if she was all right, and how the hell he’d find her when his team showed up.

Preacher still had no doubt they would come. He just wanted to try to avoid any one-on-one combat if he could help it. The last thing they needed was to somehow get the US any more involved in this conflict than they were already. World War III breaking out because of his actions wasn’t something he wanted to contemplate.

“Can we take him?” Preacher asked, using his head to indicate their guard, who couldn’t have been a day over eighteen, if that. It was well known that many Russians were being conscripted into military service. It was entirely possible this kid hadn’t wanted to join the army but had no choice. Then again, it was just as possible he was proud to be serving his country.

“Yeah, but then what? His buddies outside will probably hear what’s going on and rush in. And while we might be able to get his weapon, I’m not sure that’s enough to take on an entire platoon.”

“Can’t you MacGyver something to get us out of here?” Preacher asked, half joking.

“What? You want me to build us a time machine? A portal like in Star Trek that will beam us somewhere else? Frankly, I’d like to beam myself to a beach in the Caribbean, but since that’s impossible, I’d settle for literally anywhere other than this damn building.”

“A portal will work,” Preacher said calmly.

“You’re so weird,” MacGyver grumbled.

Preacher couldn’t help but smile. He was weird, but since his friends were just as odd, he didn’t really care. “Think they’re going to feed us today?”

“Considering they didn’t feed us yesterday, no. Besides, they’re looking pretty lean themselves, they’d be smarter to keep any food they have for themselves.”

Preacher didn’t disagree. He’d just hoped that maybe if someone got close enough, they could somehow overtake them and steal their rifles. Without any firepower, they were definitely at a disadvantage. Their exceptional hand-to-hand fighting skills wouldn’t help if they were shot before they could get close enough to knock someone out.

“Right. So we wait?”

“Lookin’ like it,” MacGyver agreed.

“I hate waiting,” Preacher mumbled. “I can’t help but wonder where the hell Maggie is. What she’s doing. If she’s scared to death and hunkered down in some ruin of a building.”

“Same,” MacGyver said. “Those kids have been through hell. And seeing us getting beaten probably didn’t help.”

Both men fell silent. Sounds of the building creaking ominously around them seemed loud in the relative silence of the building. The soldiers talked quietly amongst themselves just out of sight, and the guard in the nave with them sighed, as if irritated that he’d been given such a boring assignment.

“I hope Maggie is smart enough to be as far away from here as she can get,” Preacher said after a moment. “Heading west is the best thing she can do. She’s bound to run into others who can help her, maybe someone who speaks English who can get her in touch with someone from the US.”

“She’s smart,” MacGyver said. “And I have no doubt she’s far away from here…and has taken the kids with her.”

What the hell was she doing? Maggie crouched behind a large pile of bricks as she stared at the church across the street. Artem and his siblings had left her about ten minutes ago. They were going to circle around to the back of the church and make their way in through a maze of concrete, rebar, and glass to the back of the nave. They’d seen both Shawn and MacGyver sleeping in there before the sun came up.

It was up to her to provide the distraction they all needed to sneak the guys out of the church and to safety. She would meet up with them at the edge of town, near one of the many fields that littered the countryside. She had no idea what would happen at that point, but she couldn’t worry about that yet. She had enough to worry about right this second.

Mainly, why the hell she’d thought this would work. How was she going to distract all—she counted the soldiers again, hoping against hope the number wasn’t as high as it was a minute ago, the last time she’d counted…it wasn’t—six of the soldiers standing just inside the broken doors of the church.

She couldn’t see Artem or Borysko but knew they were waiting on her to do her part of the plan before they moved. But Maggie couldn’t seem to make her legs work. She could sneak away, go back to the hidey-hole they’d stayed in last night. She wasn’t brave. Wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing.

But the alternative was for Borysko to be the bait…or worse, Yana. And that wasn’t going to happen, not as long as Maggie had breath in her body. No, she had to do this.

Taking a deep breath, she looked behind her at the escape route she and Artem had scoped out earlier. Over the pile of bricks she was currently hiding behind, down the street, under the precarious-looking slab of concrete, through a confusing maze of rubble, down another street, then going in and out of as many buildings as she could, hiding in or under one of the many burnt-out cars if needed.

Anything she had to do to hide, to keep from being caught, was what she would do.

Her heart was beating out of her chest, her adrenaline was making her feel sick and shaky. But it was now or never.

Taking a deep breath, Maggie stood up.

One of the soldiers outside the nave shouted something, making Preacher straighten up where he sat and look in that direction. Their guard was also looking where his comrades were gathered—and not at the men he was supposed to be guarding.

Footsteps pounded on the ground as shouts from the soldiers outside got farther and farther away. They were leaving! Chasing after someone was what it sounded like, and at the moment, it didn’t matter if it was a rabid hippopotamus leading the men away from the church. All that mattered was that they were leaving the place unattended.

He and MacGyver had no plan, but they weren’t about to let this opportunity pass them by. They moved swiftly and silently toward their guard. Because his attention was on the door, he didn’t even notice MacGyver before he wrapped an arm around his neck from behind.

Preacher grabbed his wrist, making sure he didn’t have a chance to fire off a round. The last thing they wanted was for any kind of ruckus bringing the other soldiers back to investigate.

It didn’t take long for MacGyver to render the young soldier unconscious. Preacher relieved him of the rifle as MacGyver eased him to the ground. The kid would be out long enough for them to get the hell out of there. But how? It was likely the soldiers who ran off would be back soon, and Preacher didn’t want to get caught slipping away .

As if they shared a brain, both men turned to head to the back of the nave, toward the ruined altar. There had to be a way out that way.

“Ricky! Here!”

Turning, Preacher saw a dirty little face peeking out from behind a huge piece of steel. It had fallen from the building next to the church, piercing through the wall, leaving a large hole and glass everywhere.

“Artem?” MacGyver asked incredulously.

“Yes. We go! Here.”

MacGyver didn’t hesitate. He got to his knees and crawled behind the steel beam. “Where’s Borysko and Yana?”

“And Maggie,” Preacher added as he followed behind his friend.

“They here. Come. We go.”

This wasn’t a time to ask questions, but the thought of Maggie being with them, and safe, was almost overwhelming for Preacher. The boy led them through a maze of rubble and debris. In some places, Preacher wasn’t sure he and MacGyver would fit. But somehow they did. And when they emerged, the church was nowhere to be seen. The boy had led them through a maze of destruction that was at least a block away from the church itself. It was genius—and dangerous as hell. But then again, they were living in the middle of a war zone, so the thought was a little ridiculous.

To his relief, Borysko and Yana appeared out of nowhere. They were safe .

“Run now,” Artem said.

“Maggie?” Preacher asked again, worried again, now that he wasn’t seeing her anywhere.

“She meet. We run.”

Preacher didn’t like that answer. Not at all. Where the hell was she?

Then a thought struck him. What made the soldiers at the church run off the way they had…?

No. She wouldn’t.

Terror hit him hard .

“Artem—where’s Maggie?” Preacher asked sternly.

“Easy,” MacGyver warned. He’d picked up Yana and was holding her against his chest, his other hand on Borysko’s shoulder. The kids were safe, and his teammate was obviously relieved, but Maggie was still out there somewhere. Preacher wasn’t going to go easy . Not until he knew where she was.

“She run. Soldiers run to her. She not let bad guys get her. No jail.”

Preacher’s mind spun. Artem was confirming his worst nightmare. She’d used herself as bait to lure the soldiers away from the church.

No. No, no, no!

Then he didn’t have a chance to say anything else as Artem took off, leading them through the bombed-out city he’d learned to navigate so well. Preacher wanted to shout out his anger and worry. Wanted to go back and find Maggie. It was all too possible that the Russians had captured her already. Were even now beating her, the same way they’d done to him and MacGyver.

But getting himself caught again wouldn’t help her. She’d sacrificed herself to free him, and he couldn’t ignore that. It was an incredibly humbling feeling. Preacher expected that kind of sacrifice from his teammates. He’d do the same for them. But Maggie wasn’t a soldier. Wasn’t a SEAL. She’d already been through hell. And yet, she’d been willing to do whatever it took to save him.

Determination filled him as he ran. The second he had a chance to find out what the plan had been, he was going back. To find her. To chew her out for doing something so reckless—and kiss the hell out of her for doing it all the same.

Maggie was exhausted. In her previous life, she was anything but an athlete. Now, she’d spent hours evading the soldiers. They’d been way more tenacious than she or Artem had thought they’d be. They seemed absolutely determined to find her.

She’d done her best to hide from them, but every time she managed to find a place to catch her breath, the soldiers weren’t too far behind. Maggie figured it was because she was leaving footprints or something for them to follow, but even when she climbed up into a building that felt as if it was about to collapse at any moment, or shimmied across an electrical wire that thankfully wasn’t live, into another building, the soldiers still found her trail.

She was dehydrated, terrified, and beginning to think it might be easier to just let herself be caught. But as soon as Maggie had the thought, she dismissed it. The soldiers hunting her were pissed . She had no idea what they were saying, but it was obvious they weren’t happy that she was managing to elude them.

Wanting to go west toward the field where she was supposed to meet up with the others, Maggie had actually turned east instead. The last thing she wanted was the soldiers accidentally running into Shawn, MacGyver, and the kids. But she was running out of places to hide, and she was shaky with the need for water and food.

“This sucks,” she whispered softly, simply to hear something other than the ominous creaking and groaning of the rubble around her…and the angry Russian words being yelled as she was hunted down.

Something hit her arm, and Maggie flinched, petrified. It happened again. Then again. Looking up from where she was crouched behind a burnt-out car…she realized it was raining.

The second she had the thought, the gentle rain turned into a deluge.

Smiling, she tilted her head up and opened her mouth. It wasn’t a lot of water, but it was something—and it tasted divine.

To her surprise, the shouts of the men looking for her disappeared .

Peeking out from around the car, she saw three of them running the opposite way. As if they were afraid they’d melt if they got wet. Maggie wanted to laugh. Wanted to collapse in relief. But this was her chance to get farther away from the soldiers. To work her way around the city back west. Toward Shawn.

She had no idea if Artem’s plan had worked, but she figured it must have, simply because the soldiers had been concentrating so hard on her. If they’d recaptured Shawn and MacGyver, or found them trying to escape, she thought their attention would be on them , to make certain they didn’t escape again. Not on chasing her all over the city.

Being bait was way scarier than she’d thought, and things hadn’t worked out as easily as she and Artem had hoped, but thanks to the rain, maybe, just maybe , things would turn out all right.

She slowly made her way through the city, taking short breaks when she could. Trying to stay on the outskirts, away from the church where the soldiers had made their home base.

She’d just crawled out from under another burnt-out car when she came face-to-face with a Russian soldier.

He was soaking wet, just like her, and he looked just as surprised as Maggie.

She froze. The rifle he held seemed more scary up close and personal. She held her breath as they stood there staring at each other in the pouring rain .

Then, to her shock, he said something fast and low—and pointed at the building behind her.

Maggie turned, trying to figure out what he was trying to say, with no luck. She looked back to find the soldier glancing almost nervously over his shoulder. He said something else and gestured to the building more urgently.

She took a step backward, toward the opening in the rubble, and the soldier nodded quickly and waved his hand as if to hurry her along.

Maggie had no idea what was happening, but she moved fast, ducking under the beam hanging precariously across the doorway and pressing her back against the wall once inside.

As soon as she was out of sight, another soldier joined the first. Peeking out through a small hole in the wall, Maggie realized just how close a call she’d had as the second soldier bent down to look under the car she’d crawled out from under sixty seconds earlier. The first soldier said something to the newcomer…then gestured to the very building where she was hiding.

Her breath caught in her throat. Was he ratting her out to his friend? Telling him where she’d gone? But she was shocked again when the second soldier simply nodded and they both started walking down the street, back the way she’d just come, stopping occasionally to look inside other buildings, and under and inside more cars.

The soldier—he’d hidden her! She could only assume that he’d told his buddy he’d already searched the building where she was hiding. Maggie didn’t know why he’d done that, she was just grateful that he had. War was a nightmare for both sides. The Russian soldiers weren’t bad people; they were doing what they’d been ordered to do. Okay…some of them were probably bad. Just as some US soldiers were bad. She knew that from experience. Roman Robertson was the worst example of what an assumed “honorable and brave” military member could be.

Fatigue ate at Maggie. All she wanted was a warm, dry bed, an extra-large supreme pizza, and a gallon of water. And Shawn.

She couldn’t have three of the four, but she could have the one she wanted most. She just had to keep moving.

More cautious now, hoping there weren’t more soldiers lurking around, Maggie stepped back out into the pouring rain, toward where she hoped she’d find Artem, Borysko, Yana, and MacGyver, and most importantly Shawn, waiting for her.