Page 6

CHAPTER 6

March 2 nd

2:43 P.M.

It was only when the world seemed to be spinning around her so fast that she felt like she was about to throw up, that Ava conceded defeat.

“Nathaniel?”

As soon as she said his name he was there, right at her side, sliding an arm around her waist as though he already sensed what she needed.

“You ready to take a break?” There was a slight hint of reproach in his voice, and she knew it was because he’d already told her several times that she was pushing herself too hard and they needed to take more regular and longer breaks.

But they couldn’t do that.

Cigarette and mothball man had come back. She had no idea why, she hadn't made a sound, and it was clear he hadn't known anything about Nathaniel. One moment she’d been hiding in the leaves, counting the seconds and hoping Nathaniel returned quickly, and the next, she’d looked over to see the man from her nightmares standing right there.

At first, she wasn't sure if he’d seen her, but he didn't move any closer to her hiding spot, and it looked like he was searching around. As though he knew she was close but not where exactly.

Then her avenging angel was there.

Mere seconds after she’d spotted Nathaniel approaching, he’d killed the man who haunted her nightmares, and she couldn’t be more grateful for that.

Actually, she was grateful for everything Nathaniel had done for her, including the fact that he was there with her, a steady, sturdy presence that she could lean into when the world just wouldn't stop spinning.

“Yeah, I'm ready for a break,” she managed to whisper, and was so glad when he eased her down to the ground and propped her up against a tree. Although he’d carried her at first so they could put as much distance between themselves and the dead body he’d left behind as possible, as soon as he said he thought they were far enough away, she’d insisted on walking.

Not a plan Nathaniel had been happy about.

So they’d compromised. She’d walk for a while then he’d carry her, then she’d walk for a while, then he’d carry her. This was her third go walking, and honestly, she wasn't sure she had the stamina for a fourth.

“What's your call sign?” she asked Nathaniel as he passed her his canteen and she took a few tentative sips of water, not entirely sure they would stay down. She was a little surprised he’d told her his real name instead of his nickname when he’d introduced himself. Then again, he probably assumed she was just a random victim when he found her, and she’d think it was weird if he gave her some odd name, he had no way of knowing she worked for Prey and was constantly surrounded by special forces operators.

“It’s Than,” he replied as he took a drink when she pushed the canteen back into his hands.

“Than? Like short for Nathaniel?”

“When we were in BUD/s I had a habit of constantly saying that I’d rather be swimming than whatever we were doing. I guess since than is in my name, someone thought it would be a funny nickname,” he explained.

“You really love the water, huh?” Not surprising since he had opted to join the SEALs but it seemed he loved swimming more than most.

“Nothing I love more than being in the water.”

Something about the way he said it had her wanting to ask a million more questions, but if one of her mother’s lessons had stuck it was that you don’t go prying into someone’s personal life. Sure, Ava was attracted to Nathaniel, and she even thought he was attracted to her, too. But this was not the time to be doing anything about it.

As he leaned back against the tree trunk opposite where she was sitting, Nathaniel fixed her with a look that told her she wasn't going to like what he was about to say.

Still, she forced herself to maintain eye contact even when she wanted to look away.

“We need to talk,” Nathaniel said, a gentleness to his tone that tapered the firmness just enough to make it impossible for her to be mad at him.

“Talk about?”

“You know what, Aves. I need to know everything you know.” There was an apology in his gaze, but he didn't take the words back.

She’d thought she would have more time before she needed to relive every aspect of her ordeal. Of course, she knew she was going to be interviewed when she got back. She would be asked a million questions, and she’d have to answer all of them. This trafficking ring was dangerous and they had to be stopped. She was the only victim to escape so she was the best lead anyone would ever have.

But she wasn't ready.

Not yet.

She needed more time.

“We can start slow. Can you tell me about how you were abducted?”

It seemed she wasn't going to be given the luxury of time. As much as Ava would love to focus on surviving until they got home, she was going to have to talk about it sooner or later anyway, so maybe having a run-through with Nathaniel first would make it a little easier when she got back home and the real debriefings began.

Being as detailed as she could, Ava ran through the evening she’d been taken outside the bakery. Nathaniel interrupted only occasionally to clarify something specific. His presence was reassuring, he watched her carefully, but didn't make her feel like he was just waiting for her to fall apart.

“Can you tell me about when you first woke up? Were you on the ship?”

“I didn't even know I was on a ship until I escaped,” she replied. “When I woke up, I was on a hospital bed in a small hospital room. Well, it looked like a hospital room. At first, I thought maybe I'd been in an accident or something. There was a nurse taking blood and when I started begging her for answers, a doctor walked into my room along with a guard carrying a gun. That’s when I knew something was wrong and I remembered being abducted and drugged.”

Her voice hitched as those memories flashed through her mind in vivid color like she was reliving them even as she knew she was safe with Nathaniel. Free from their clutches.

“The doctor told me why I was there. He didn't try to hide it from me. Just told me I was going to be cut open and sold off piece by piece.”

She must have shuddered at the memory because Nathaniel moved closer, hesitated for a moment, and then reached out to take her hand.

“Was it always the same doctor you saw? The same nurses? Guards?”

“Sometimes it was different ones. I think over the course of … however long I was there … wait. What is today’s date?”

“March second.”

“That means I was gone … for almost two weeks. It was a few days after Valentine’s Day when I was taken.”

Weeks.

She’d only been gone a couple of weeks.

It felt more like a lifetime.

“You’re alive, Aves. And you escaped. That’s what you need to hold onto,” Nathaniel said as he squeezed her hand.

Giving him a grateful smile, she went back to what she’d been saying. “I think there were probably around two dozen or so doctors and nurses I saw over the two weeks, but there were usually the same six or so I saw the most. They didn't talk business in front of me so I don’t know much. Don’t even know how many other people like me were on that boat.”

For the next hour or so, Nathaniel peppered her with questions. Details on the men and women’s appearances, ages, accents, demeanors, interactions, and a million other tiny things she probably wouldn't have even thought about if he hadn't outright asked her.

The more questions he asked, and the more she had to search her memories to find the answers, the more her head ached. A dull throb at first, right behind her eyes, grew as she worked hard to give accurate answers to Nathaniel.

She didn't want to get anything wrong, no matter how small because the weight resting on her shoulders was heavy. These people were dangerous, and they weren't going to stop just because she got away. They had a lucrative business running and they wouldn't give up that money for anything.

Not unless someone forced them to.

Right now, she was the only one who had the information that could potentially bring them down.

That pressure had the dull throb growing until it pounded like someone was hammering between her temples.

“Okay, Aves, that’s enough for now,” Nathaniel said, and his hands grasped her shoulders as he laid her down to lie on her back.

“Can answer more,” she mumbled, but her voice slurred, and she realized she’d been pushing too hard. She was still weak, recovering from major surgery and infection, lost in the jungle, traipsing around in nothing but a hospital gown, with not enough food or water to sustain her flagging body.

“Not right now you can't,” Nathaniel said firmly. “You need rest.”

“You need intel.”

“Not more than you need rest. This isn’t all on your shoulders, Aves. People are hunting these traffickers, and I was able to plant the tracker. It’s not up to you to singlehandedly bring down an organ trafficking ring.”

The problem was it felt like it was.

And it was an enormous pressure.

One she wasn't quite sure wouldn't wind up crushing her to smithereens.

* * *

March 2 nd

5:17 P.M.

Nathaniel muttered a curse as he heard it.

The unmistakable sound of footsteps.

Whoever these people were, they might know how to grab innocent victims off the streets without getting caught, but they had no idea how to move through the jungle without giving themselves away.

Ava had only just drifted off to sleep, and she so badly needed the rest. She was recovering, but it was slow. Without painkillers and antibiotics, nutritious food, and plenty of fluids, along with a whole lot of uninterrupted rest, she wasn't going to keep improving.

In fact, she could even start going backward.

Carrying her over his shoulder had started her wound bleeding again, even though there had been no alternative. She couldn’t walk the whole way out herself, and he needed to have his weapon ready if they needed it. Which meant carrying her over his shoulder was a necessity no matter how much it kept aggravating her wound.

Maybe he’d pushed a little too hard with his questions, but he’d wanted to know if any of her doctors, nurses, or guards had been of Mexican descent. If they had, he would need to tread extremely carefully when they reached a village. Especially given their strange attire. He was wearing a wetsuit, she was wearing a hospital gown, and they didn't look like they were two lost hikers or any other believable story he might have been able to weave.

Now, though, he was going to have to wake her up, throw her over his shoulder, and make a run for it. Hiding wasn't going to work as easily this time around because if the men had backtracked to where they thought they had already looked for Ava, it was because they’d found the dead body of the man who had abducted her.

If they had found the body, there was every chance that they also knew she wasn't alone.

What were the chances that a five foot two woman, with a slender build, who had been operated on against her will, was weak and hurting, would be able to snap the neck of a man almost a whole foot taller than her and with easily a hundred pounds on her?

“We gotta go, Aves,” he whispered as he snatched her up and threw her over his shoulder.

Ava cried out, but the sound was muffled, either because her survival instincts had immediately kicked in or because she was too weak to make much of a noise he wasn't sure, but he hoped it was the former rather than the latter.

“Someone’s coming,” he added as he ran, hoping he could calm her, although nothing was calming about that news. Still, he didn't want her to panic, make more noise, and draw attention to them.

While he was definitely outnumbered, he wasn't out-skilled. His training was impeccable, and he had years of experience backing it up. He’d trained and operated in many different environments, including the jungle. The terrain was familiar to him, Ava’s slight weight was nothing that would slow him down, at least not in the short term, and he was armed. As far as Nathaniel was concerned, he was in a reasonable position, even if things could be better.

Up ahead was a river. He’d been sticking close to it the whole time because he knew sooner or later it would lead to a village or a town. Assuming the men searching for Ava would think she would find it and follow it, he hadn't kept them too close, but now he headed right for it. If he could get to it, they could hide in its depths, and hopefully, whoever was trying to track them would move on by.

Because he was carrying Ava, and because he had to move fast, Nathaniel was leaving behind a trail that if he had more time, he would have been able to do a better job of concealing. Still, he did what he could. Jumping over fallen logs and tree roots when he could, making slight changes to his direction often, and avoiding anything, like trees with branches that would be easily snapped, and wet parts of the ground that would leave footprints, whenever possible.

When he reached the edge of the tree line, he paused.

Only after scanning the river and spotting no people did he carefully make his way out.

Again, luck was on their side, and he spotted the scraggly remains of a fallen tree trunk that jutted out into the river. That was perfect, they’d get in the water, hold onto it so the current wouldn't draw them further downstream, and the branches would help to provide a little cover making them even more difficult to spot.

“I’m not as good a swimmer as you,” Ava said nervously as he walked along the tree trunk.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to be. Can you hold your breath and confidently stay under water?” He wasn't sure what he was going to do if she said no. Maybe attempt to swim them to the other side. Hopefully, she wouldn't need to stay under for long, if the men were following his trail, they’d likely assume he’d come out of the trees to make running easier, then when they didn't spot him, assume he had veered back into cover and continue on.

“Yeah, I can go under without panicking, not sure how long I can hold my breath for, though,” Ava replied. Already her breathing was labored, and he knew she had to be in excruciating pain from having her wound bounce around against his hard shoulder.

“We’re going to do this together, yeah?” Shifting her around so she was in his arms, he tried not to worry at the sight of her pasty pallor, the dark circles under her eyes, the lines of strain around her face, or the exhaustion that seemed to waft off her in waves.

“Together,” she echoed and gave him one of those determined little nods of hers.

Easing them both into the water, Nathaniel was pleased to find it wasn't as cold as he’d been expecting, in fact, after running it was pleasantly cool against the exposed skin on his hands, neck, and face. Ava also didn't seem to mind the temperature of the water, and he shifted them both to what he thought would be the best position with the most cover.

Almost as soon as he got them both situated, he heard the shout of voices.

Three figures appeared coming out of the trees.

“We’re going to go under. If you have to come up for air, try to tilt your head so just your nose and mouth come up, take in another breath, and then go under again. Keep your movements slow and controlled, and the rest of your body still,” he rattled off commands and then watched to make sure Ava took a breath and went under before doing the same.

Between his love of water from childhood and his SEAL training, he could hold his breath underwater for a solid three minutes at least, his longest was closer to four. He doubted Ava was going to last a minute, though, so he kept himself attuned to her and when he felt her begin to panic, her body’s instincts pushing her to find oxygen, he came up with her.

The three men were still there, but thankfully, they had their backs to the river.

Down he and Ava went again.

This time she didn't last half as long before she was pushing back to the surface to take another breath.

She was doing everything he asked of her, keeping her head tilted back, not allowing much of herself to breach the surface, but this time, their luck had run out.

One of the men happened to be looking right in their direction, and from the shout, Nathaniel knew they’d been spotted.

“Breath, Ava, big as you can take,” he ordered, right before he grabbed her and yanked her under along with him.

Hoping the men assumed he would head for the shore on the other side since the river wasn't all that wide, instead, Nathaniel allowed the current to help and swam along with it down the river.

Bullets flew through the water around them, and he prayed like he’d never prayed before that neither he nor Ava got hit. While he’d gladly take a bullet to spare her, if he got shot, he wouldn’t be able to protect her like he was now, and they’d both be sitting ducks.

When he felt Ava begin to panic, he swam for the surface, popping up only long enough to let her take another breath while he ascertained the position of the men shooting at them. The current had dragged them a good distance away, and the men were still looking at the river as though they expected him to cross it rather than travel down it.

Pulling Ava back under, Nathaniel swam with everything he had, desperate to get Ava away from the danger circling around her, and for the first time in his life, he was grateful for his abusive father. Because if he hadn't been constantly looking for excuses to get out of the house and found the ocean as his escape, he might not have had the skills to get them both somewhere safe.