Page 18 of Rescuing Nathaniel

Groggily, she blinked open her eyes. It took a moment for everything to sink back in, the reality of her situation to catch up with her, but once it did, she looked around for who she knew was the source of the worried voice.

It was dark now, it had been light when she’d fallen asleep, but now it was pitch black. So dark she could hardly distinguish between the back of the cave and the front. The front was ever so slightly lighter, about the darkest gray you could find, but she still couldn’t see where Nathaniel was.

If she didn't have a former SEAL and a former Delta Force operator on her Cyber Team at Prey, and she didn't spend half her time around other former special forces operatives, she would have been shocked and unnerved by Nathaniel’s ability to blend so thoroughly into his surroundings that she couldn’t spot him even though she knew he was close by.

“You awake, Aves?”

The voice was closer than she realized, and when she turned in the direction it had come from, she could just make out a shadowy form pressed up against the rocky wall of the cave.

“Yeah.” Barely, but it was going to have to do. “What's wrong?”

“Company.” Not only did these guys have an ability to blend in like they were designed for camouflage, but also to talk without their voices making much of a sound. And not in a whispering kind of way. It was like you could hear the sound, but it didn't carry. How did they learn to do that?

And why did she care right now?

Company didn't mean the same thing it had when she was a kid. Back then, it had meant that she had to be dressed up and be on her best behavior because they were having a dinner party with rich, influential people, and her parents wanted it to go well. It didn't mean the same thing as it would if she was back home right now either. At home, company meant she and her friends were having a few other friends over for a casual meal filled with chatter and laughter.

But here and now company meant danger.

It meant that Nathaniel was right and someone from the boat had alerted the rest of the ring that she had escaped. They had to know she’d taken the life raft because they’d been searching the ocean for her, so they’d also be searching all the beaches in the area where she might have washed up.

If she hadn't been so weak and sick, Nathaniel wouldn't have needed to waste time allowing her to recuperate. He would have just run through the jungle until he found a way out.

Now they were both in danger because of her.

“Sorry,” she croaked out as she fought back tears. Crying right now was only going to make things worse, and it wouldn't make her feel any better.

“First the endless thank yous, now the apologies. Stop with the manners, Aves.”

Since she knew Nathaniel’s words were meant to help put her at ease, she pretended they did even as they didn't. Ignoring the burning pain in her stomach, Ava rolled over onto her side, barely managing to contain her cry of agony.

It was only knowing it wasn't just her life on the line if they were found but Nathaniel’s too that had her keeping it in.

Biting her top teeth into her bottom lip, she forced herself to keep moving. Up onto her hands and knees, then she crawled toward Nathaniel, needing to be close to him right now. He was safe in a world that had become anything else.

Knowing about the atrocities people committed against one another through her work at Prey and living it firsthand were very different things. When she got back home—and she wasn't ready to accept that wasn't a certainty—she was going to have a whole new perspective regarding her job. A whole new respect for what Tobias and Josiah, the other two members of the five-member cyber team, had been through in Delta and the SEALs.

“How did you know they were there?” she whispered, trying to stop her voice from carrying like Nathaniel did.

“Saw the lights.”

When he nodded toward the cave entrance she could see moving lights in the distance. They bobbed about like flashlights being carried, coming from down the beach, not the ocean.

Someone was walking around out there looking for them.

Looking for her.

To take her back.

If that happened, there would be no second chances.

This was it. The only chance she was going to get. If she wanted to live, she had to do whatever Nathaniel told her to do. Without hesitation and without question.

“What do we do?” she asked, proud when her voice only trembled a little bit.

“We need to get into the trees and then make our way back the way they’ve come.”

“Are there going to be more of them in the jungle?” That was a question she was pretty sure she already knew the answer to, but still, she asked and waited for his answer.

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