Page 28 of Extracted

New fear rattled her spine. Would the men who’d shot at them come looking? What if—

Was that a human voice she’d heard? She stopped pacing and listened, straining to hear the specific noise over the constant jabber of the jungle.

She could have sworn someone had called her name . . .

She walked a few paces in the direction she’d just avoided. Birds cawed and monkeys gossiped but—

“Gemma!”

She gasped and clapped her hands around her mouth again. “Dallas! I’m here!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

She waited, wetting her lips.

Please, let him hear me.

She opened her mouth, but the sound of her name split the air again. This time the voice was closer. Her heart leaped into her throat. “Dallas!”

Movement in the ferns caught her eye. A stick cut through the foliage, and Dallas barged through the vines. Relief made her knees tremble. She grabbed a tree, not wanting to chance running through the ferns and getting bitten by a snake. She waved her free hand and Dallas’s eyes widened.

His lips parted and he picked up the pace, chomping through anything in his path with the long stick he clung to.

Gemma pressed a shaking hand to her abdomen. Tears welled in her eyes. He was here. He’d survived the jump. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t going to die.

Lord, Gemma. Don’t you dare cry.

Dallas sprinted through the brush, his large, muscular form as prominent as a rescue plane above an endless green ocean.

“Gemma,” he wheezed, as he trampled over the living floor at his feet and swooped her into his arms. He crushed her chest to his and carried her firmly against him as he traipsed the rest of the way out of the foliage and to the bare spread on which she’d landed an hour ago.

“Holy shit, holy shit,” he said, over and over in her ear. His sweat dampened her neck and shirt, but she didn’t give a damn.

She let out a choked laugh. “I thought you were dead,” she said, through the tears coursing down her cheeks. So much for not crying.

He set her on her feet and covered her cheeks with his dirt-smeared hands. “I told you I’d find you.”

She brought the back of her hand to his jaw. His face was beet red, and scratches covered his arms beneath a smattering of dirt. “Are you hurt? You look winded. And your arm is bleeding.”

He grunted and swiped his forehead with his short sleeve. “I’m fine. It’s just a cut from a branch. I’ve been running the last little bit, trying to cover more ground.”

To find her. Her heart pitter-pattered in her chest. She brought her arms around his waist and exhaled. “We need to find the plane. We might be able to radio for help and I have water and food in my bag.”

“Mmm. Me too. And my gun would be really fucking dandy right now.” His voice was thick with angst.

“Did something happen?”

“Yeah. Ran into a boa.”

She jerked her head back. “Oh my god.”

“It’s fine. We just need to be really careful.”

She nodded and pulled away to stare at the mess of trees, vines, and miles ahead. She dragged her fingers through her ponytail and pushed down the sense of doom that wanted to suffocate her. They could do this. They had to. “I feel like the plane crashed north of where I landed. But I can’t be sure. I was spinning around and not exactly cognizant.”

Dallas closed his fingers around her wrist. “I think you’re right. Stay behind me and watch where you step.”

His fingers released her, and he led the way through the jungle. Animals continued to bellow, probably to alert their companions to the intrusion. If she and Dallas made it out of here without getting mauled by a jaguar or bitten by a poisonous snake, it’d be a freaking miracle.

Twenty minutes later, Gemma’s feet screamed. She wasn’t going to be the first one to complain, but sweat coated her skin and something about her aroma was attracting mosquitos to her like ants to sugar water. She swatted another one away and huffed.

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