Page 15 of Going Rogue
He started to think silence would be his only answer when she spoke.
“No.”
“No?” Did that mean she liked it? That she’d be willing to do it again? His pulse jumped at the possibility. “So if I—”
Her hand on his shoulder pulled him to a stop. “Do you smell it?”
Turning, he beamed her with the light, and she covered her eyes. “Agh! Would you turn that off for a minute?”
“Sorry.” He gave a sheepish grin she couldn’t see as he clicked the off switch. “What is it?”
“Something cooking, maybe? I smell smoke.” She brushed past him, asking, “Can you see anything?”
He would’ve turned the light back on, but she grabbed his hand and pointed. “There. See it?”
Following her direction, he could barely make out the light gray haze of smoke rising against the backdrop of the night sky. Something burned, which could be good or bad. They might find a camp of friendlies, or they might walk into hostile territory.
Either way, it made sense to investigate. Water was their most precious commodity, and the camp might have some they couldacquire. “Yeah, I see it now.”
When she would’ve tugged her hand free, he held on, lacing their fingers together. He felt her initial resistance, but she capitulated with a soft sigh. “Maybe they’ll have food.”
Her stomach growled; he knew she had to be starving. Who knew what those fuckers had given her when she’d been locked up. At least he’d eaten an MRE before attempting his rescue mission, but the energy from it had evaporated hours ago.
A primal urge spurred him on. If his woman was hungry, he’d find her some food.
With her capable hand encased in his, Crane gave it a squeeze. “Let’s find out.”
CHAPTER 6
Crane
“Ahl al-ard!” Twin gasps followed the exclamation before two little boys raced into the array of tents at the encampment, screaming the term over and over at the top of their lungs.
Crane wasn’t certain, but he thought they’d called him a monster. It’d be comical if the situation were different. He slowly rose from where he’d been crouching behind a water trough carved out of a metal barrel. His stomach churned with unease, not knowing who the kids had gone to tattle to.
Somehow, he’d managed to let the boys sneak up on him. They’d been as silent as the shadows cast by the camp’s sparselighting, so much so that they could’ve put a spec-ops team to shame. At least, it was what Crane chose to tell himself. Their superior desert skills had allowed them to get the jump on him,notthe fact that he’d been distracted by thoughts of Rogue.
They’d separated to conduct reconnaissance at the camp they’d found after following the signs of a fire. But being apart meant he couldn’t stop worrying if she was okay.
“What the hell, Crane!” Rogue appeared at his side. She’d been surveilling the north side of the camp while he’d taken the south.
Not that she could see his face, but he winced as he turned. “The good news is, if there are kids here, it’s probably not a militant camp.”
She didn’t say anything as they hovered on the edge of the temporary settlement, out of the stream of its light sources, though it seemed the people in it used only oil lamps or battery-operated lanterns. No electrical poles had made it out here.
He reached blindly for where he thought her hand would be and connected with thesoft skin of her forearm. Giving it a squeeze, he said, “It’s your call. If you want to pull chocks, I’m right behind you.”
“Sheep are grazing to the north.”
Her answer wasn’t necessarily an answer, but he’d become accustomed to the way Rogue’s brain worked. “You think they could be Bedouins?”
He felt her arm gesturing and turned to follow the movement before she huffed out a breath with a quiet warning. “I guess we’ll find out.”
The beams from several flashlights bobbed as the people carrying them drew nearer.
Crane kept his eyes trained on the lights while his hand inched toward the assault rifle he carried. He whispered, “You’re sure?”
Rogue’s reply came as a soft grumble, which made him grin despite the adrenaline tensing his muscles. “You owe me dinner.”
