Page 21 of Rescuing Nathaniel

“N-no.” Against his neck, Ava shook her head, and he could feel moisture dotting his skin as she cried. “He was … he was the one who … who took me.”

They hadn't talked much yet, so he didn't know any details about her abduction, or what she’d seen and heard while being kept captive, but knowing that man was the one who had taken her made him want to track him down and kill him.

Kill all of them.

Every single one who had been complicit in Ava’s pain and suffering.

As though sensing that roaring need inside him, Ava lifted her head, her fingers curling into his dive suit. “I’m scared,” she whispered, a small flicker of shame in her eyes as though she feared he might think less of her for admitting her fears out loud.

He didn't.

If anything, he admired her even more. It wasn't easy to tell someone when you were scared. But fear was part of life. Nathaniel couldn’t remember a time when he hadn't lived in constant fear for his life, first around his violent father and then in the SEALs.

The fear he felt right now was different though.

Because it wasn't fear for himself, it was fear for the trembling woman in his arms.

Leaning in, he rested his forehead against hers for a moment before straightening. “I'm scared too,” he whispered back, making her startle in surprise.

Once again emotions were thrumming between them, and once again, coward that he was, it was too overwhelming for Nathaniel, so he bailed.

Sliding Ava off his lap he stood. “I’m going to scout around, make sure there are no more of them coming, then we need to get moving,” he informed her, his tone brisk, not because he didn't care but because he was starting to fear he cared too much.

He was getting too attached.

Something he could not allow to happen.

Bringing a partner into his life was the last thing he was interested in, especially someone like Ava. She was too good for the likes of him.

“O-okay,” Ava murmured, curling in on herself.

Nathaniel feared he was being a little jerky, but he really did need to make sure they were clear to keep moving, and it was only self-preservation that made him cut down any connection between him and Ava when he felt it building.

But he didn't like the fear on her face, so he added, “I’ll be right back.”

“You shouldn’t say that, you know. It’s bad luck. If they say it in a horror movie it means they're the next one to be killed,” Ava told him, making him chuckle.

“This is no horror movie, Aves, and I have no intention of dying.”

“Feels like a horror movie,” she muttered as he headed off into the trees.

That was something he couldn’t argue with. More often than not, his life had felt like a horror movie. Bathed in blood, pain, and destruction. At first, that hadn't been his choice, he hadn't asked to be born into a family with a raging alcoholic as a father and a mother who was too afraid to take her kids and run. But it had been his choice to immerse himself in the darkness of the world as a SEAL. A decision he’d never once regretted, and right now, with Ava to look after, he was more grateful than ever for the skills and training, backed up by years of experience, that were the only things keeping her alive.

Confident no more men were coming, he headed back for Ava. He’d carry her for a while, put some distance between themselves and the men after her, and then they needed to talk. He needed to figure out if the trafficking ring had any bases in this area and he had to be careful of who they made contact with, and while Ava wouldn't know that, anything she did know would help him to make the right decisions.

As he approached her, he felt it before he saw it.

She wasn't alone.

Standing about a dozen feet away from Ava’s hiding spot was the man who smelled like cigarettes and mothballs.

While he might not know where Ava was exactly, the man scanned the area like he was aware of her presence.

Rage like Nathaniel had never felt before clouded his vision.

No one was hurting Ava.

No one was taking her back.

---