Page 18 of Bound to the Guard

He holds himself back, respecting my boundaries even as his pheromones thicken in the air, wrapping around me like a protective shield. “You survived. You fought, and you survived, and you made it here to deliver Jade’s message. You’re incredible.”

The heat of a blush creeps up my neck, and I duck my head. I don’t feel incredible. I feel small and broken, and so utterly lost. But Damien’s confidence urges me to believe his words.

Sebastian’s fingers fly over the keyboard, his brow furrowed in concentration as he traces the path I described along the highway. As he works, he mumbles under his breath about the average walking speed for someone who is only five foot three and how long I rested.

“Do you remember any mile markers?” Damien asks.

“No,” I whisper, wishing I did.

“What about any landmarks?” he presses. “Did anything on the road stand out to you?”

About to shake my head again, I remember a large patch of gravel. “There was a truck turnaround for oversized vehicles across the highway. Does that help?”

“It does.” Sebastian clicks on the screen, and the map zooms in, inching along the highway. Eyes glued to the screen, I spot it as the camera sweeps past.

“Wait!” I point to the screen. “Go back.”

He does, the gravel patch almost invisible between the frames.

“Good catch.” Damien leans forward, intent on the TV. “Do you remember how long you walked along the highway before you saw it?”

I bite my lip. Time is one of those things that has grown hazy over the last year. “Maybe two hours?”

Sebastian mutters as he calculates how far I could have traveled.

When the camera pulls backward, moving into the heavy forest, my heart pounds. I want to bury my face in the soft comfort of the blanket and hide from the memories threatening to overwhelm me.

It takes effort to keep my head up because, as much as it terrifies me, as much as my heart races and my palms sweat, this is important. If we locate the compound, they can find Jade.

Damien moves to sit on the edge of his cushion. “Search for access roads.”

“I know,” Sebastian hisses.

The camera zooms in on a building.

Damien pulls the hand-drawn map back out. “No, it’s too small. We’re searching for a compound with multiple outbuildings. Probably a generator and its own water source, too.”

Sebastian zooms back out and keeps searching. Another small building appears on the map, a narrow access road connecting it to a larger one. He follows it, and an L-shaped building comes into view.

“There.” My hands tremble. “That’s where they kept us. That’s where Jade is.”

Damien compares the image to the map. “It looks about right.”

“That’s it,” I insist, throwing off the blankets and pillows to scramble off the couch and point to a corner of the building. “This is where I escaped. A small window in the utility room at ground level. They kept us in the basement right here. I’m sure of it.”

And I am sure, with a bone-deep certainty that surprises me. Because even though the buildings are from a different angle, even though the roads are unfamiliar, I know it in my gut.

This is the place that will haunt my nightmares, the place where I knew I would die. This is the place where Jade is still trapped, waiting for someone to come and save him.

Sebastian’s fingers fly over the keyboard as he pulls up more information about the location. “It’s less than a two-hour drive from here. If you leave now, you can be there before sunrise.”

My heart lurches with fear. Damien is going?

Sebastian gathers up his laptop and heads toward the door. “I’ll brief the others. We have an extraction team on standby. Meet them in the garage in ten minutes. Aaiden and Caleb will want to move now.”

My breath comes faster, my palms sweating as panic rises like a monster, threatening to consume me.

Damien must sense my distress because he grabs the blanket and brings it to me, swirling it around my shoulders like a cape and snugging it close at the front without touching me. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. You don’t have to go back. We have trained men for this kind of thing. Nothing will happen to you.”

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