Page 29 of Savage Escape

But Nathan did not lie to himself; it was an integral part of what made him so adaptable. So he laid it out quite clearly in his mind. Sure, he was attracted physically to the woman—who the hell wouldn’t be? But he liked, he realized with a degree of surprise that was almost unsettling, her as a human being. Always had. Damn, it was impossible not to like her.

She was tough with all kinds of sharp angles and could probably kill him with a flick of her pinkie finger. Which maybe would have put off another man, but it seemed to have the reverse effect on him. She was funny, even if she didn’t realize it, and quick-witted. The level of intelligence she possessed was equal parts intimidating and thrilling. Her fight, though, the thing that made her Caden Quinn through and through, was probably what clinched it for him.

“Woke up on the shore later being operated on by this in-fucking-sane—fuck, I don’t even know what he is. He claims he’s got a PHD and was a surgeon, but he also has an invisible friend named Marty and lives in a cave to keep the aliens from finding him... so who knows? I eventually got out of that mother fucking jungle.”

He didn’t justlikeher. Hell, he was half in love with her. He’d always been half in love with her. Maybe it was when she’d hit him with the car, or the first time she grinned at him with that ‘come and get it’ look. Maybe there was nohalfabout it.

“I’m sorry about your team.” Nathan knew firsthand all about betrayal and death.

“Me too.” Her face twisted into cynical angry lines; her lips curled and her chin jutted out like she was resisting the urge to speak. “You know what the real kicker was, though? After he slaughtered my team... he informed the families—my sister that we’d fallen in combat. Not MIA or even rogue, just dead.” Rage crawled into her voice. “Do you know what dead does to people?I was too late—she’d already—fucking dead—like I’d failed—like I didn’t keep my promise.”

“What did she do?” He was pretty sure they were talking about Ezra or Quinny. From what he’d gathered, both were dead and he could probably guess what her sister had done after being told of Caden’s death.

“Tried to kill herself.”

Tried. As in, she tried but didn’t succeed. And hell, it seemed suicide was a Collins family motto. Did none of them have anything to live for outside of each other?

“So, does that mean—is she still alive?” Maybe he’d misinterpreted. Maybe there was actually something in her life that wasn’t tragic and horrible.

“No.”An empty laugh that had his skin crawling burst from her lips. “Think I’d be here if she was still... She found out she had cancer during the same visit. Breast cancer. I came home and there she was, wrists all bandaged and cuffed to the bed like some kinda... Breast cancer. I mean, after everything thing she’s been through, after everything she’s survived—how is it fair that she gets—” Rage melted away and she was back to being nothing more than a sack of organs that somehow still functioned. “She fought it for a while, a few years. She’d be in the clear for a few months, but it always came back. She... I buried her six months ago.”

“I’m sorry.” Nathan could say nothing to make it better, so he didn’t try. He couldn’t fathom losing one of his brothers. He understood the dangers of each of their jobs and knew there was a possibility that any one of them might not make it home, but still, it was a foreign concept that he did not want to even consider.

But to have to watch as one of them withered with cancer. To watch for years as they fought and fought, only to lose and diebefore their time. Before they could make fun of each other for going gray and getting wrinkles and pot bellies.

“She’s dead.” Something in her voice jerked his attention back to her. She all but fell to the ground. “She died. I haven’t told anyone—there was no one to tell. I was holding her hand. Promising her that she wasn’t gonna die—that I would make the doctors fix her. She’s dead.”

Like she hadn’t accepted it before. Like she hadn’t let the truth of it touch her. Like she’d been on autopilot for six months and her mind was just catching up with the rest of her.

She sat still for a long while and just stared at the cement below her. Nathan wanted to hug her or maybe just hold her hand, but he knew she’d attack him if he tried to touch her. So he did the only thing he could. Nathan scooted on his ass until he was right beside the mercenary, shoulders almost touching, and waited. She tensed beside him, but when he made no move to touch her, she relaxed.

“She was four when her mama tossed her at our doorstep.” After a long minute, she curled her fists and lifted her head. “She was always so smart. I mean, Quinny was the brave one and Ezzy was the genius. She could read and count money by the time she was four—I shit you not. If I was too beat to move, she’d swoop in, at age four, make dinner, put Quinny to bed—pay the damn bills even. Honor Roll every year, all top marks and honor classes. She graduated at fourteen and got scholarships. She had just broken up with her boyfriend when...”

“She sounds nice.” What could he say to a heartbroken sister that could make it hurt less? Nothing. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“She was nice,” Caden acknowledged and shot him a grin and then slid back the barest inch as if just realizing he was all but on her. She shifted awkwardly and cleared her throat. “It’s about time for ‘em to come.”

Nodding, the man gave her space and moved to the other side of the tiny room. Mentally stowing all the sudden realizations and the Quinn backstory for later, Nathan stretched his limbs for a bit. He had to focus. They were going to get out and then he’d be able to put his full attention on wooing. Or maybe he should just drag her to his home and let his mother at her.

“See, this is the part I don’t understand.” Nathan felt the need to express some kind of distaste as he positioned himself on the concrete.

“What don’t you understand? Lie there and convulse. Try to work up a froth.” She frowned at him and stood straight.

“What are you gonna say? I mean, I understand that you’re a woman and therefore seem like the lesser threat, but how the hell are you gonna get them to come in? As appealing as your feminine wiles are—don’t you think they would come in earlier if they were going to come in at all?”

If it went the way she’d predicted, Caden, being the more injured and handicapped of the two, would be the one taking all the risk. Which made absolutelyperfectsense to Nathan.

“It doesn’t matter what I say—all that matters is how I say it and what language I say it in.” Caden turned to grin at him from her position at the door. “And hope to hell they aren’t Irish.”

“You speak Gaelic?” Was there anything she couldn’t do?

“Eh,” she shrugged and then grimaced at the movement. “Enough to get by. I can ask where the bathrooms and sandwiches are.”

“Ya know, Quinn, you’re kinda amazing.”

She cocked her head, smiled, and shrugged her shoulders like she was conceding the point. Two sets of boots sounded in the hallway, right on time. Nathan watched as she pivoted, stuck her face in the square cut into the solid metal door, and promptly turned into a quivering mess of snot, tears, and sniffling.

It was a soft and scared voice he’d never expect to come out of her mouth. She sounded delicate and fragile and very much like a damsel in distress

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