Page 7 of Rescuing Nathaniel

Didn't he?

Panic pounded her system, making her dizzy as she quickly turned her head to face Nathaniel, and reached out to grab his hands.

“Don’t leave me here, please,” she begged, hearing the hysterical note creeping into her voice. “If they find me, they’ll take me back. If I'm too sick for them to treat, they’ll cut their losses, kill me, and take whatever organs are still good. If I’m not too sick, they’ll just put me back in that room, tie me back down to the bed, and keep taking my organs until there are none left.”

For however long since she’d been kidnapped, Ava had managed to hold it together, keep her fear under control, and wait for an opportunity to escape. Now that she’d found one and was so close to being free, to be left behind to face death either at the hands of her abductors or to the infection that was slowly claiming her body was too much.

She didn't want to die.

She wanted to live.

Nathaniel might be the only thing standing between her and death, and she couldn’t let him just leave her behind.

“Please,” she babbled, aware of his lips moving but unable to make out the words past the rushing sound in her ears. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me. Please.”

Clawing at his body, she managed to drag herself up off the floor of the boat and attach herself to Nathaniel. He was bigger and stronger than her. Even if she wasn't ill he would be able to dislodge her, but somehow her panicked mind didn't get that.

It just thought if she held onto Nathaniel, he’d have to take her with him.

Pain and fear swirled inside her, drawing her back into the darkness of unconsciousness, but Ava still clung to the SEAL, begging and pleading, until it was too late, and she sank down into the black, unsure if she would ever surface again.

* * *

February 29th

9:21 P.M.

Ava passedout in his arms, leaving Nathaniel staring at her with his heart clenched in his chest.

Her pain …

Her fear …

Never in his life had he felt anything like it.

In his career in the SEALs, of course, he had seen horrific things. Seen men and women, sometimes even children, dying terrible deaths. Seen the destruction men on a power trip could leave behind in their wake.

Even as a child, he’d heard wails of pain that felt like they chilled your blood, turning it into icy sludge that was no longer capable of traveling through your veins.

No stranger to other people’s fear, he had never had such a visceral reaction to another person’s pain before in his life.

It left him feeling shaky, and he was sure he was trembling every bit as much as the body that he held cradled against his chest.

Maybe it was because he knew how strong Ava Hendricks had to be not just to survive her ordeal but actually find a way to save herself. He didn't need to know anything else about her. She had held it together enough while in pain and sick, to keep alert and attentive for opportunities to escape and then grabbed hold of one when it presented itself. She’d gotten herself to a lifeboat and gotten it into the water. She’d done the impossible.

And then all of a sudden, it all caught up with her, and he’d witnessed her break down.

How could he not be affected by that?

Any indecision he’d felt before now evaporated.

There was no way in hell he was leaving this woman behind regardless of any orders he might be given.

Activating his comms, he kept Ava tucked close against him, unwilling—or perhaps even, in this moment, unable—to let her go.

“Report,” his commander’s voice came down the line.

“I found an unexpected package,” he informed his commander.

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