Page 18 of Redeeming Meg

Meg took his phone and forced them to slow as she peeked around a bend. A rat scurried by, disturbed by the light, and she jumped.

“God, I hate rats,” Spence said.

Tessa watched the thing disappear into the gloom. “Pocket dogs are highly intelligent and capable of forming emotional bonds with their owners. They have excellent memories, can handle complex tasks, and show empathy toward other animals.”

An odd silence fell as they all stared at her.

She shrugged. “What?”

“Pocket dogs?” Spence echoed.

“Out of all of that, that’s what you got?” She rolled her eyes.

Declan grabbed the phone. Meg held on. “Let me scout ahead,” he said to her.

“No.” She wouldn’t let go. “We stay together, no matter what, until we get to the embassy.”

Damn bullheaded woman.

Water dripped from a crack in the bend as she continued on, turning her back on him. A portion of the wall had crumbled, filling their path with mud and stones.

“Surprise number one,” Spence muttered.

“Don’t suppose you have a shovel in your bag of magic tricks,” Meg muttered to Declan.

“We’ll have to go back,” he said. “We’ll look for a tool to dig our way through.”

She climbed the hill of mud, shining the light through a tiny opening at the top of the debris. “I can squeeze through.” Turning, she flipped him the phone and pulled out hers, flicking on its light. “This is where we part ways.”

“The hell we do,” he said.

Spence reached for her. “Meg, don’t you dare!”

Tessa shimmied out of her bulky jacket, pushing it through behind Meg, flashing both men a grin over her shoulder, and flopping onto all fours to follow.

Declan growled loud enough to startle another rat, gripping Tessa by the ankles and hauling her back. “Fuck that. Meg!” he yelled through the opening, spotting her in the light bouncing off the walls beyond the mudslide. “Get your ass back here.”

“When I have the USB,” she told him. “Ghosts, remember? In and out. Be ready to join me at the evac site.”

He stretched an arm toward her, his head clipping one of the overhead rocks. “We’re a team, goddammit. We do this together.”

The light faded to nothing as she gave him one last glance and took off running.

SEVEN

Leaving her team behind was best for all of them. That’s what she told herself as Dec’s yells faded away.

She raced along the ever-shrinking passageway, assuring herself that she could move more quickly and efficiently without them. Keeping them safe was her highest priority, even above getting the red bag.

Protecting them had always been a high priority, but she hadn’t realized until they were closing in on the embassy that it had become her number one goal.

This tunnel had to be centuries old, and she wondered what it had initially connected to and who had used it all those years ago. Her heart felt as stuck in a time warp as it was, slowly disintegrating under the weight of the present.

She didn’t suffer from allergies, but the heavy rot was causing her eyes to water and her nose to run. Following the winding path, she came upon another partial landslide of stones that forced her to crawl on hands and knees to squeeze past it.

She clawed at the ground with her free hand, the memory of Declan’s embrace flashing through her mind. To be held again felt foreign, and yet her body ached for another chance to sink into his solidness.

He’d forced her carefully constructed walls to crumble, and she hadn’t been able to repair them fast enough. Offering the truce had been a Hail Mary—her only way to shield herself against the flood of emotions seeing him and hearing him insist he still didn’t regret saving her over Jessie had caused.

---