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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Where is she? Something’s wrong,” Preacher said for what seemed like the hundredth time. MacGyver had physically restrained him when he’d tried to leave earlier, saying it was stupid for him to go and get lost along with Maggie. Everything within Preacher had rebelled. Wanting—no, needing —to find Maggie and make sure she was safe.

But the more practical part of him knew his friend was right. He had to trust that she was not only okay, but that she would make her way to the meeting point when it was safe for her to do so. The rain was coming down almost sideways now, which sucked, but hopefully it would also make it easier for her to get through the city unseen.

It was eerie that there were no other people lurking around. The city had been mostly abandoned after the missiles destroyed it…and no one had even thought about making sure Artem, Borysko, and Yana were safe. That ate at Preacher, but he could tell it absolutely pissed off MacGyver more. He wanted to warn his friend against getting too attached to the children, but he knew it was too late. Hell, the man was thinking about a marriage of convenience just so he could keep them. It was definitely too late.

“She’ll be here,” MacGyver said, answering Preacher’s earlier question about where Maggie could be.

The five of them were huddled under a makeshift shelter made out of a piece of corrugated tin and a bunch of the tall grass that grew in the farmlands around the city. Artem had set up a system to gather the rainwater, and every time the empty tin can he’d found filled up, he made sure his brother and sister had their fill before taking any for himself.

But Preacher couldn’t concentrate on anything but Maggie. He vaguely heard MacGyver talking to the children, getting to know them better, entertaining them, but he kept his own focus trained on the city, hoping and praying Maggie would appear.

He knew some strong women. Remi, Josie, Wren…they were all tough as nails. Not to mention Caroline, Fiona, Cheyenne, and all the others. But seeing Maggie’s strength firsthand was incredible. Never had he met anyone who was able to keep going when the odds were stacked so high against her. Two years was a hell of a long time to be punished for something that wasn’t her fault. Technically, yes, she was transporting drugs, but since she didn’t know th ey were there and had no intention of selling them, she’d been punished unjustly. She’d been set up.

And then there was the harassment she’d put up with since her release. She was terrified of Robertson, and with good reason. She knew firsthand the power he wielded…and Preacher had finally learned for himself how absolute that power seemed to be.

And now she’d been kidnapped and dumped in a foreign country in the midst of a violent conflict, and despite being frightened, exhausted, hungry, and out of her depth, and without any experience whatsoever, she’d acted as bait to give the kids an opportunity to save him and MacGyver.

Preacher was overwhelmed. Humbled. All he wanted to do was hold Maggie close and never let go again. Tell her how impressed he was. What a great job she’d done. That he’d do better at keeping her safe from now on. Because the truth was, he’d done a shit job so far.

He hadn’t believed that Roman Robertson was her ex—and look where that had gotten them. Yes, he’d gotten to her side as soon as he saw her tumble from that crate he’d pushed out of a fucking chopper. But then he’d gone and gotten himself captured.

It was definitely time to step up. To show her that he would go to whatever lengths were required to keep her safe. But first, he needed to find her.

He was done sitting around waiting for her to show up. Fuck the soldiers. Fuck the rain. Fuck it all. With his renewed vow echoing in his head, Preacher turned to MacGyver. “I’m going to go find her.”

In response, MacGyver pointed over his shoulder.

Turning, Preacher squinted into the pouring rain and saw a figure standing not too far from where they were holed up, looking around as if searching for something.

Maggie.

Preacher was up and moving before he’d even thought about what he was doing. The rain soaked through his clothes in an instant but he barely felt it. All his attention was on the woman standing in the rain, looking lost and scared to death.

“Maggie!”

She turned, and the absolute relief and joy on her face nearly brought Preacher to his knees.

“Shawn!” she exclaimed, running toward him.

Preacher met her halfway. She slammed into him, but he didn’t fall. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. The bruises he’d received at the hands of the soldiers throbbed and his eye was still mostly swollen shut. But the aches and pains were forgotten now that Maggie was back in his arms.

He buried his nose in her hair and lifted her off her feet. Maggie’s legs came up and she hooked her ankles together behind him, clinging to him as a child might.

“Maggie,” Preacher whispered against her skin.

They stood like that, plastered together as the rain fell around them, for two solid minutes. Then the vow Preacher made to protect her kicked in, and he turned. He needed to get her under cover, and not only because of the rain. The last thing he wanted was one of the soldiers spotting them. They’d been lucky enough to escape once. Preacher didn’t think that would be allowed to happen again.

Maggie lifted her head as he carried her toward where the others were huddled in their makeshift shelter, and she studied him. “Your eye,” she whispered.

“It’s fine. Once the swelling goes down it won’t look so bad,” he told her. “The tape—you got it out of your hair,” he blurted, noticing that the duct tape that had been wrapped around her head was gone.

“The rain got it really wet, and I was able to work it out,” she told him with a shrug.

“Are you all right?” Preacher asked with a frown. “What happened? What took so long for you to get here? Are you hurt? Did they see you?”

To his amazement, Maggie chuckled.

How the hell was she laughing? He had no idea. After everything she’d been through, she was in his arms fucking laughing . It was a miracle. She was a miracle.

“Could you have asked any more questions right in a row?” she asked.

“Yes. I have a million more, but those are the most pressing at the moment,” he told her, stopping in front of the small shelter. “Need you to let go so I can get you inside.”

Her legs slid from around him and she stood. He helped her crawl under the piece of tin and out of the rain, then cupped her cheeks. He held her gently, staring at her precious face. Her hair was plastered against her head, she had a nasty-looking scrape on one cheek and dark circles under her eyes, but she was here. In his arms. Alive. He’d never been so thankful for anything in all his life.

“I love you.” The words came out more as an exclamation than a tender declaration of love.

Her eyes widened as she gripped his wrists tightly. “What?”

“I love you.” This time Preacher had more control over the words. “You amaze me. I’m in awe of you. I love everything about you. Your tenacity, your strength, your compassion, your ability to do what’s needed no matter what the situation. I haven’t done a very good job of having your back, but that changes now. When we get back to California, he’s going down . You’ll stay with me so I can keep you safe. I’ll get whoever I need to involved to make sure he doesn’t hurt you ever again.”

“Shawn,” Maggie said. It was hard to tell if the water on her face was tears or raindrops, but it didn’t matter.

“I mean it. I made a mistake in not believing you immediately. I’ll never make that mistake again. If you tell me the sky is green and the grass is blue, I’ll fight anyone who says differently.”

“I understand why you had concerns,” she said, letting him off the hook.

But Preacher didn’t want to be absolved of his sins. “No,” he said with a firm shake of his head. “You had no reason to lie about who your ex was. I was just so surprised, I wasn’t thinking clearly.” He ran a hand over her head, squeezing out some of the water from her hair. “I can’t believe that asshole had the balls to have me and my SEAL team deliver those crates. If he thinks we’re going to just let this go, he’s dead wrong. That last mission, and this one, he’s misappropriated government property. Sending us on unnecessary missions is not only an asshole move, it’s fucking illegal. And let’s not forget kidnapping and attempted murder.”

“It’s not going to be easy to put the blame on him. He wasn’t the one who showed up at my door. He didn’t put me in that crate. And he didn’t physically fly the plane.”

“Wrong. The list of people who could’ve gotten you on that plane, inside a crate being sent to the Ukraine on a SEAL mission, is tiny. He’s fucked himself. He’s done, Maggie.”

She sighed and leaned forward, resting her forehead on his shoulder. Tenderness swamped Preacher. He’d seen her as a stoic pillar of strength, but at the moment, he could feel that she was finally at the end of her rope.

“Shawn?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you too,” she said with a shy smile.

Everything within Preacher shifted at hearing the words. He hadn’t told her about his feelings so she’d feel obligated to reciprocate. But now that she had? His entire life changed in that instant.

It was weird how just having a roof over her head, the man she loved, and their little group all together once more, made the last few hours seem not quite as scary as they actually had been. When she’d first arrived at the rendezvous point, Artem had held out a tin full of water to her, and rainwater had never tasted better. Amazingly, even though there was no food, the water went a long way toward making her belly feel full.

Shawn held her against him, keeping her warm, and she felt safe. It was ridiculous really, because none of them were really safe. But the gray afternoon skies, the fog in the air, and the sound of the rain hitting the tin roof gave the illusion of hiding out in a cozy nook. It was enough to make Maggie relax for a short while. To forget that she was in a foreign country on the other side of the world from California. To forget the man who’d put her there would surely do whatever was necessary to make her permanently disappear next time.

For now, she was content to give Shawn her weight as they exchanged information about what had happened while they were apart. She listened with bated breath as MacGyver told the story of how they’d escaped the church, and how Artem had led them through the city to this little hideaway in the countryside.

Now it was Maggie’s turn to tell her story.

Knowing Shawn wasn’t going to like what she’d been through, she did her best to downplay the entire thing. “I stood up from behind the rubble I was using as cover, and the soldiers near the church saw me immediately. They shouted and I ran. I think most of the guys who were guarding you two came after me, which was the plan. It took a while, but I lost them. I got turned around though, so I wandered for a bit before finally seeing a building that looked familiar. And…here I am.”

“No,” Shawn said sternly. “I want to hear it all. The real details this time.”

Maggie sighed. She’d hoped he’d take her story at face value and leave it at that. But she should’ve known better. Looking over at Yana, she saw the little girl was fast asleep. Both boys had their gazes locked on her though. She didn’t want to scare them, but then again, nothing she said would be much of a surprise after everything they’d seen. They’d been living through this hell for quite a while.

“I couldn’t lose them,” she said quietly. “No matter where I went or what I did, they were right there. I heard a gunshot once, and it scared the crap out of me. I thought they were going to shoot me in the back. I managed to slip through a crack in a building that was too small for them to fit through. But the building was in bad shape. I thought it was going to collapse on top of me. I quickly went out the other side before the soldiers could go around and trap me in there.

“They tracked me for hours. Just when I thought I couldn’t run anymore, it started raining. And for some reason, that sent the soldiers running in the opposite direction. As if they were scared to get wet. It was strange, but I was definitely happy.

“By this time, I was well and truly lost, and far away from the route Artem and I had discussed. But I knew I had to head west to find all of you. I went down this one road, and it dead-ended. It reminded me too much of how you guys got captured in the first place. I managed to climb to the top of the rubble blocking my way, then it collapsed under me.

“I thought that was it. That I was dead. But somehow I was able to ride the concrete down instead of getting buried under it. I was sure the noise would bring the soldiers running, so I stayed hidden nearby for quite a while. Finally, when I thought the coast was clear, I started walking again.”

Maggie felt Shawn’s arms tighten around her.

“I don’t know how you guys have done it,” she told Artem and Borysko. To her surprise, the younger boy crawled over and took her hand in his. He didn’t say anything, but the nonverbal support meant the world to Maggie. Gave her the strength to keep talking.

“I went into one building that didn’t seem too damaged. It looked like it had been some kind of office or something. It smelled horrible, like nothing I’ve ever smelled before. I thought maybe I could find some food or something, so I started looking around. Toward the back, the corner of the room had collapsed. There were bricks and concrete everywhere. There was a desk in the middle of the rubble, and when I got closer, I saw…”

Maggie took a deep breath before continuing.

“An arm. A woman was under there. Dead. That was what I’d smelled. I don’t know why it surprised me so much. I mean, there have to be more bodies around with all the destruction, but I hadn’t expected to see it. She wasn’t hurting anyone. Was simply doing her job, minding her own business, then boom! The bomb hit and the building collapsed around her. It isn’t fair.”

“Shhhhh,” Shawn murmured, nuzzling his nose against her ear.

Maggie realized she was crying. Why, she wasn’t really sure. She was safe, for the moment at least, and Shawn and MacGyver were all right.

“Why does he hate me so much?” Maggie whispered, not sure how or why she’d transitioned from talking about her harrowing flight from the soldiers, to Roman. “I didn’t do anything to him. I was a good girlfriend!”

“Of course you were,” Shawn soothed.

“He laughed at me,” she said, admitting something she’d never told anyone else. “He came to see me in prison once. I asked him why he’d done it. Why he’d set me up to take the blame for his actions. He shrugged and said, ‘Because I can.’ Then he laughed. Said it was a rush to have complete control over someone’s life.”

She felt Shawn stiffen against her, and saw MacGyver’s lips press together.

Taking a deep breath, she did her best to rein in her emotions. “Anyway…I left that building and continued heading in this direction. Took refuge under a car for a short break. When I crawled out, I ran straight into another soldier. He was younger. We surprised each other. But instead of shooting me or yelling, he told me where to hi de. Then when one of his fellow soldiers arrived, he steered him away from me. That small act of compassion gives me hope for humanity. That’s probably stupid.”

“It’s not,” Shawn reassured her.

Borysko squeezed her hand.

“When they were gone, I continued out of the city. Not too much later…I found you. Or you found me,” Maggie said with a small shrug.

“We found each other,” Shawn said.

And for some reason, those four words resonated within Maggie. Somehow in the shitshow that was her life, she and Shawn had found each other. Their lives were polar opposites, and yet…here they were. It was crazy that her ex had kidnapped her, locked her in a crate, and shipped her across the world. And the fact that he’d planned for Shawn to be the one to push her crate out of that chopper just showed how evil Roman was. It was a miracle that the sturdy crate broke open when it landed. That Shawn noticed there was a person inside, and he was able to get out of the helicopter before it took off and left her there.

They were meant to be together. They were going to make it home, figure out how to stop Roman from ruining anyone else’s life, and live happily ever after.

She had to believe that. If she didn’t, everything she’d been through would be for nothing. And that was unfathomable.

Borysko let go of her hand, patted it, then scooted back over to MacGyver. Yana was in his lap, and Borysko leaned against MacGyver’s side as if he’d done it every day of his life. The SEAL lifted his arm and wrapped it around the boy’s shoulders.

Looking at them made Maggie happy and sad at the same time. These orphans were desperate for love, and MacGyver obviously had that in spades. But as soon as they were rescued, the children would be alone all over again. The thought was devastating.

Shawn’s lips touched her temple, and she looked up at him.

“You’re amazing,” he said softly.

But Maggie shook her head. “I just did what I had to.”

“That’s not true and you know it. MacGyver and I would’ve figured a way out of that church eventually. Or my team would’ve arrived and gotten us out. You could’ve stayed hidden and safe with the children.”

“At what cost?” she demanded. “You getting beat up some more? No, thank you. Josie has told me stories about how Blink was tortured when they were in those cells. I wasn’t about to sit back and let the same thing happen to you, Shawn. Not if I could do anything about it. Besides, I know what it’s like to be held against your will. Both from being in that damn crate and from when I was behind bars. It’s not a good feeling. I wanted to do whatever I could to help you escape.”

He stared at her for a long time, and Maggie couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. “What?” she finally asked.

“I love you,” Shawn said. “With every word out of your mouth, I think I love you more. You were meant to be mine, just as I’m meant to be yours. When we get back home, I’m going to do a better job of being your partner.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Maggie whispered, even though his words sent warm and gooey feelings throughout her body.

“It means I’m not going to let you out of my sight until Robertson is neutralized.”

Maggie gasped. “You can’t kill him!”

To her surprise, Shawn chuckled. “Neutralized doesn’t necessarily mean killing him. You’ve been watching too many science fiction shows.”

Maggie wrinkled her nose. He probably had a good point. In the shows she loved to watch, neutralize always meant ending someone’s life.

“I’m going to use all my contacts to dig into Robertson’s life. Expose every dark nook and cranny. I’m going to have every decision he’s made in the Navy scrutinized. Interview those who have worked for him. Men on SEAL teams he’s had deployed. Find previous girlfriends. Every part of his life will be looked at under a microscope. He’s going to suffer for what he’s done to you, Maggie, but he should be more worried about everything else we’re going to dig up. I have a feeling there’ll be plenty that’s more damning…not that what he’s done to you isn’t bad enough, just?—”

“I know,” she interrupted. “He feels as if he’s untouchable. There’s no telling how many more lives he’s ruined simply because he could.”

“Exactly,” Shawn said with a nod .

They listened to the soothing sound of the rain on the tin roof. After what had to be an hour or more, long after Artem and Borysko had lain down next to MacGyver and fallen fast asleep, Maggie worked up the nerve to ask a question that had been rolling around in her brain. “Do we know when they’ll come to get us?”

By “us” she really meant Shawn and MacGyver. She wasn’t even supposed to be here.

“Soon,” MacGyver said.

“What do we do when they come? What should I do?” she asked nervously.

“You stay by me,” Shawn said. “I’ll get you home safely.”

She had a lot more questions, but for once, Maggie swallowed them down. She trusted Shawn. If he said run, she’d run. If he said hide, she’d hide. This was his area of expertise, not hers. She’d learned that the hard way. Hide and seek would never be a game she enjoyed again. Not after it had been a life-or-death thing for her today.

“Okay,” she said belatedly.

“Sleep, Maggie,” he said.

“What about you?” she asked, suddenly finding it almost impossible to keep her eyes open.

“I’ll be fine.”

Maggie wanted to protest, tell Shawn he needed to sleep too, but the sound of his heart beating steadily under her cheek was too hypnotizing. One moment she was awake, and the next, she was deeply asleep in the arms of the man she loved.