Saving secrets, p.22
Saving Secrets, page 22
No. No sleep. Rhea. Must find Rhea.
I pushed my weight against the post and stood.
The Captain entered the tent, watching me struggle to put weight on my legs. “Sit,” he barked.
I shook my head. “Where is she?”
The Captain stepped closer.
I swallowed against the dryness in my mouth. How long had it been since I drank water? It felt like years. “Where is the pilot? Where is Rhea?”
The Captain edged just a bit closer, leaning his head up to my face. “Victor took her to the northern rebel-held zone where he is meeting the Republic’s Militia. She will be sold today.” He cut free the tie at my wrist. “You once offered me the chance to run. I’ll do the same for you.”
My thoughts spun; my body revolted against the first step.
That bastard sold her to a country worse than this.
I started to move, one step at a time. But something was wrong. It was in the man’s eyes. They didn’t speak the truth. I turned back, rethinking his words, but the Captain held up his pistol.
“Victor’s watching,” he said. “And the pilot. She agreed to come willingly if she oversaw your release. You need to walk. Fifty paces outside the canopy. Wave then keep walking until you’re gone.”
God damn it, Rhea.
I stumbled out of the tent into the misting rain. I was going to find Rhea and bring her stubborn ass back from this damn country of pirates and thugs. And when I did, I would explain how selling herself to save me was one of the most reckless, moronic things I’d ever seen. And then I was going to kiss her. Every single piece of perfect skin.
I heard a whisper at my ear. Payton’s voice. “Down. Get the fuck down.”
On instinct, I dropped my chest to the ground as a bullet zinged over my head. A second grazed my arm.
So much for walking away.
I rolled behind a tree, crouching on my feet. Slight footsteps trekked through the mud. I prepared myself to run straight for the man, hoping to knock him on his ass before he got a second shot. But the Captain spoke first. “Don’t move out from under the canopy until you’re on the northern ridge.” He tossed me his rifle and two clips of ammunition. “This isn’t your war. Get your woman and go home. Don’t return to these mountains. I won’t miss next time.”
Not a problem. I fucking hate this place.
The Captain turned to leave.
“Wait, where is Victor selling her?”
“Along the path to the northern rebel-held zone, twenty miles from the Southern Republic border.” A somberness soaked his voice. “You should run. You don’t want her with them long. Or there won’t be much left when you get ahold of her.”
I didn’t need his warning. I knew of the Republic’s Militia. They had been aiding the rebels for years, hoping if the Armed Spiders grew large enough, they’d overtake the country. Then there would be nothing to stop the expansion of the Southern Republic. They were sick men with revolutionary minds. A dangerous combination.
These men would use Rhea, and kill her when she didn’t cooperate.
I crested the mountain in under three hours, not sure if Rhea had mistakenly told me the wrong beach, or if I hadn’t understood Rhea’s message. There wasn’t a coral reef on this coast; that’s why it made such great shipping lanes for cargo. Between my slight concussion and Rhea’s mixed words, I fought my mind to put together her intentions.
No way in hell would Rhea willingly join Victor, unless she had a plan. The plan being me. Then why the fuck did she tell me to go to the coast?
I stopped in my tracks.
She told me to go where there was a pyramid of coral reefs. There was only one mountain, thought to be a useless piece of land. The locals called it arrecufe muerto because it didn’t hold any precious earth metals like the other mountain ranges. When the locals had mined it, all they found was dead coral at the base where the mountain used to be under the sea hundreds of years ago. From the sky, arrecufe muerto looked like a perfect pyramid with smooth, steep cliffsides.
After two hours, I found myself staring across a deep ravine leading to the base of the pyramid-shaped mountain in the northern rebel-held zone. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. Or how I was supposed to know where to find Rhea. It’s not like the woman would send up a flare for me.
“Come on, my little hellion. You lead, I follow. How do I find you?”
I looked up at the sheer cliff. There was a switchback trail zigzagging up the eastern side, eventually leading out of the country. Along the gravel path, I could see a cargo van inching slowly up the cliffside with half a dozen vehicles in front of it.
Then I saw her. At first I wasn’t sure because it looked like a pale human hanging outside of the truck. And then I saw her jump, rolling off the cargo van.
At first, all I could feel was sheer relief.
She’d snuck away.
That’s my girl.
Then I saw her run toward the edge of the cliff at full speed and jump, straight into the flooded ravine.
My heart stopped.
Why? Why do you always have to do it the dangerous way?
An explosion rocked the entire northern range.
I peered up to find a raging ball of fire sending black smoke into the cloudy sky with bits of wood, metal, and truck raining down from the trail where the cargo van used to be.
Now, that’s my girl.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
REGINN
I RAN DOWN THE FLOODED RAVINE, chasing her floating body. She hadn’t tried to swim. She didn’t even fight the water. My panic increased every moment the river carried her body further away from me.
The rapid current pushed her faster than I could run. I got close enough along the river bank where we became parallel and then dove off the rocks into the brown water. I avoided the debris from the mountain and swam sideways against the rushing water, trying to reach Rhea.
Haw badly did she hurt herself?
The fall was over eighty feet. It would’ve been much higher if the river wasn’t flooded. Please, let her be alive.
I kicked harder, dodging tree limbs as big as houses.
I searched for her body, occasionally losing sight of it when the current pulled her under. Then I spotted her, trapped against two rocks and a mangled log. The combination of debris had stopped the river from taking her further down.
I captured her unconscious body around her waist then turned her over. “Rhea!” I yelled. Her limp figure didn’t move. Her pale chest didn’t rise with a single breath. “Fuck.” I inched us along the rocky makeshift barge toward the shoulder of the river. Each kick was barely enough to keep her head above the water. With the torrential rains, this river bank had become all-consuming rapids. And I fought against it as hard as I could.
“Grab my hand!” I heard a voice yell.
I stared up the rotten log and found Aden. He stood on an adjacent boulder, covered in mud and blood, almost looking worse than me at the moment. Half of his body hung off the rock as he reached down. I gripped his forearm, holding on to Rhea with the other.
“Take her!” I yelled. “You can’t lift us both.”
Aden wrapped his arm around Rhea’s waist. “Got her.”
Without a second thought, I let go of his arm. I knew Aden would do whatever it took to help Rhea.
The current carried me past another large stone; this one I reached for, my fingertips gripping it as my body floated past. It took all my strength to not pass out as my ribs protested my movement, but I managed to pull myself out of the water, onto the rock. Then I used another series of stones and limbs to finally reach shallow water, where I ran.
She has to be alive.
She has to be okay.
It was the only way I was going to make it through. I needed her. I didn’t know when I started needing her beside me. Not for her sake. But for mine.
When I reached Aden’s side, he was on his knees, his hands compressing her chest. “Her heart isn’t beating, and she’s not breathing, Reginn. Breathe for her. I’m on thirty compressions.”
I stilled.
Her lips were tinged blue. She looked pale. Too pale. She didn’t look like Rhea, but a ghost of the woman.
“Now!” Aden yelled.
I fell to my knees, tilted her head back, opened her jaw, and breathed air into her mouth. Slowly, I watched her chest rise as I breathed for her.
Please don’t leave me, Rhea. I’ll do anything. Please stay.
I breathed again.
Aden finished another round of compressions.
I put my fingers over the hollow of her neck, begging to feel her steady pulse under them. Nothing beat under my fingers.
“No pulse. Keep going.”
“This is the fifth round, Reginn.” Shit. How long hadn’t she been breathing? Two minutes? Five?
Aden paused his hands, removing them from her chest.
“What the fuck are you doing, don’t stop!” I yelled.
Aden shook his head, his eyes deadest with determination. “Reginn, this isn’t working. We have one other option.” He pulled a syringe out of his pocket. “Eli’s epinephrine. He saved it in case we needed it.”
“Do it!”
Aden pulled off the cap, and drew his arm back. Then paused. “I don’t know if it’s supposed to go straight into her heart. I mean, Eli didn’t give explicit instructions.”
I grabbed the needle, felt in between her fifth and six rib, then plunged it into her heart. “Please, Rhea. Please. Come on, darling. You have years of fight left. I need you to open your eyes.”
Aden began cursing. “This is not fucking happening. I promised Eli,” Aden choked. “I promised him. We have to make this work.”
I never knew I’d wish for Eli so much. I’d give anything for him to be here instead of me. He’d know how to save her.
I breathed for her again, placing the heels of my hands over her delicate sternum to keep her heart beating. A few more minutes. That’s all we had. After that it wouldn’t matter what we did. She wouldn’t be Rhea even if her heart beat after ten minutes without air.
Rhea took a short, brief breath.
I could’ve sworn I saw her chest rise.
I pulled my hands away, feeling for her pulse. A small thready beat thudded under my fingertips.
“That’s it, Rhea. Breathe.”
She began short, quick gasps which turned into coughs.
“Oh my God. Oh my God, it worked,” Aden said, reaching for the bag he’d thrown down onto the rocks.
I eased Rhea onto her side. She wheezed then vomited more water. “Cough up the water.” I brushed her hair out of her face. “That’s it, darling. Breathe for me. Nice and deep. Aden, did you bring Eli’s ruck? We could try an inhaler?”
I felt a shadow loom over us.
Aden wasn’t beside me anymore. He stood with his back against Victor, and a gun to his head.
“You should’ve left when you had the chance, Aden,” Victor said, yanking Aden back, away from the ravine.
Aden raised his arms. He didn’t turn to face the gun. With his back to Victor, Aden’s eyes spotted his pistol six inches from Rhea’s body then flicked his gaze back to me.
“Can you believe the balls on this guy? I let him run, and he comes back for you. You’re supposed to be dead, by the way, Reginn,” Victor cursed.
“What can I say, I’ve got a special ghost.”
I gently let go of Rhea—laying her on the rock while slipping my fingers over Aden’s pistol, using Rhea’s body to shield it from Victor’s view. I took a deep breath and steadied myself. Six inches in the wrong direction and the bullet would strike Aden. My bullet. Just like I’d killed Payton.
Was this the reason I lived and he didn’t?
Was this the reason I was here and not Payton?
I had to be quick. One draw. One shot. One chance.
I wouldn’t survive if I hurt Aden. But if I didn’t shoot, Victor would finish what he’d started.
Aden cursed Victor. “We trusted you. You were my friend!”
If my shot hit its target, I would kill a teammate on purpose. My choice. His blood would forever stain my hands. It was different killing someone you didn’t know when you wouldn’t remember their face or their name.
But it wasn’t a choice. Not for me. Not when he held a gun up to Aden.
My finger brushed the trigger. I almost pulled the gun out from behind Rhea’s back. But I could’ve sworn I heard Payton’s voice right beside me, plain as day. “Not yet.”
I paused, sucking in another deep breath. “Tell me when, Pay.”
Victor took a step forward, looking down at Rhea, distracted by her frantic gasps.
“Closer. Closer. Now!”
I exhaled, raised Aden’s gun, and squeezed the trigger.
#
RHEA
SO MUCH BLOOD! EVERYWHERE. I couldn’t get a deep full breath into my lungs, but I would never forget the way Victor’s body fell onto the rocks with a soft thud. Reginn’s bullet sliced through Victor. Dead center in the head.
“Knew you could do it,” Aden said, stepping around the pool of blood drenching the stones. “A hair closer to the left than I’d have preferred, but not bad.”
“Shit, Aden. Be glad those aren’t your brains on the rock.”
“I’m going to be sick.” I coughed up mud-tinged river water, then tried taking another deep breath. The piercing pain in my chest caused another shallow inhale. “What the fuck did you two do to me?”
“It was Reginn’s idea,” Aden said.
Reginn sank down to his knees, raining kisses over my face, then he pulled back. “Hi, you tried to die on me. Please stop running away, blowing things up, and then jumping to your death. Then I won’t have to stick you with an absurdly long needle after swimming in class four rapids to save your reckless ass.”
I laid my head back on the moss-covered rock. “Thanks for the save, Wolfy.”
“Can we all agree, I did most of the saving?” Aden said.
“No!” Reginn and I said at the same time.
Reginn smoothed his hands down my face. “Slow breaths, okay? Let me do the fighting on this one. You can take over next round, huh?” He kissed my forehead. “It’s good to see you, Ace.”
I smiled. I loved the way Ace sounded like a dark promise of more. More kisses. More time. More Reginn.
“Aden, a little bit more backup would’ve been nice,” I said.
“Tommy’s on a medical ship. I could be there right now, enjoying coffee and a hot dinner. Instead, I turned around and came back for you two. The explosion helped me find you two, by the way.” He turned to me. “Nice going, Ace. The rest of the country probably saw it, too.”
I held up my middle finger. “You try setting a fire without a match. I did a bang-up job! Excuse me, it’s too big. I didn’t see you getting sold! And why don’t we get a medivac? No, I have to hike my sopping wet ass out of here?”
“You two are the most ungrateful pieces of…” The sound of a rotor drowned out Aden’s words. So instead he pointed to the approaching helicopter. A small white commercial helicopter hovered above us, and Aden’s grin couldn’t be any more smug. “I called for the medivac when I spotted you two in the river.”
“I owe you, again, A-man.” Reginn lifted me, sweeping me into his chest.
Reginn.
God, it felt good to be next to him. He was alive. And his heart was beating next to mine. He climbed into the helicopter and settled me in his lap. He placed headphones over my ears and then a set over his.
“You were right,” he said.
“About what?”
“I should talk to Payton more often. I thought you were crazy, but I heard him today. Hell, Rhea, I felt him.”
I brushed my hand down Reginn’s beard. Over his torn chest. Resting it on his dark wolf. He had to be in pain everywhere, and yet he not only figured out what I’d told him. Hell. This man jumped off a cliff for my unconscious body.
Reginn’s courage made me brave. I shot rebels because of him. I blew up a convoy and jumped off a cliff because I was so sure he’d be there. I couldn’t deny my affinity for living on the edge had finally led me to someone who felt the same about life.
“I’m glad you can hear him. It’s good to have a friend up there watching out for you.” I gently kissed his abused face.
“What does Max say to you?”
It felt like my soul smiled at his question. “He told me you were coming. He calls you my Wolf.”
Reginn laughed. “Okay, you’re creeping me out. Stop that.”
“You asked! It’s not like we’re having full-on conversations all the time. It’s just a few nudges here and there.” I paused. “Why the wolf tattoo?” I had to ask. And I didn’t want to wait until we were alone. I had to know now why it covered his heart.
“It’s because of my nickname in the Army.”
“Then why not Thor’s hammer, or a Viking helm?”
“That wasn’t my nickname back then. Viking is something Stacy started calling me. My name in the Special Forces used to be Beowulf because of the stories I told. My sergeant didn’t believe me, until after our first deployment. Then he learned I don’t embellish the tales. They’re one hundred percent real.”
“I like it, Wolfy.” I grinned, hoping I’d get to see the tattoo again. “I like it a lot.”
Aden cleared his throat. “I need to tell you both something before we get to the medical ship.” When Aden turned his eyes to me, I saw pain, and a blanket of despair covered me in thorns.
“What is it?” Reginn asked, all humor gone from his voice.
“It’s Eli,” Aden said.
No. No. Please don’t say it.
“He saw Victor draw his gun before I did. He took the bullet meant for me. He—” Aden stopped short. “He didn’t make it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
REGINN
Twenty-Four Hours Later
IT FELT LIKE WEEKS SINCE I’d been on the medical ship, but it had only been a day. Conrad closed his office door behind me. He’d asked to meet me tomorrow when I’d showered and slept, but I needed to get this part over with before I could do anything else. I needed to hear him tell me how audaciously we’d failed. We left a team of six and came back a shattered group of four. He cared about the cargo, but his soul was devoted to his people.
