Page 62 of Brawler
She pressed her forehead to his, eyes closing like the weight of it was too much to bear. “I just need time to breathe through it. To make sense of what’s happening to me.”
Brawler closed his eyes, the ache in his chest both savage and stunning. She hadn’t forgiven him. But she hadn’t walked away either. In a world where everything could be stripped from him in an instant, that was enough to keep him standing.
After a few moments, they pushed on, cutting uphill until the undergrowth thinned and the ridge opened before them, a sweep of green falling away to the horizon. For the first time in hours, the canopy lightened.
Relief lasted a heartbeat.
The brush ahead erupted. Armed men poured out, rifles raised, voices barking.
“Run!” Brawler bellowed, shoving her hard toward cover as gunfire split the air. Terror ripped through his chest, savage and unrelenting for her. That flash of red hair, that small, fierce body, her devastating wit, too bright, too fragile in a jungle alive with danger.
If they touched her, if they so much as breathed wrong in her direction, he’d burn the world to ash. Anyone who tried to take her wouldfuckingdie.
He threw his rifle up, unleashing fire with brutal precision, every round a vow carved in lead to keep her safe. Beast lunged at her heels, driving her forward, his whole world narrowing to that fleeing figure he could not lose.
Then the world ignited.
The first round smashed into his right side, low on the plate carrier. The sledgehammer blow rocked him back, air rippedfrom his lungs in a violent punch. Stars burst across his vision, the rifle slipping in his hands, his mind refusing to fall.
The second tore across the top of his left thigh, hot, ripping, blood spilling fast down his leg. His knees buckled. He fought for breath, fought to stay upright, because he couldn’t leave her unprotected.
But darkness crashed in anyway, merciless and absolute, dragging him under with her name locked in his chest.
She heard the grunt,sharp and low, and whipped around just in time to see him fall back. One second he was all thunder and fury, firing like he could hold the jungle back by sheer will, and the next he was on the ground, blood streaking down his thigh, his massive body crumpled in the dirt.
Her scream ripped loose, raw and broken. “No!”
He didn’t move.
Her heart stopped, then detonated. The jungle tilted, breath seizing in her chest. For one blinding instant she thought she’d mis-seen it, that he’d push up with that unstoppable strength of his, bark at her to keep running. But he lay sprawled, the dark bloom on his thigh spreading.
The world blurred. Gunfire cracked, branches shredded overhead, voices shouted in Spanish, but none of it mattered. Nothing existed but him, sprawled on his back, unmoving.
No.No, God,no. Nothim. Notnow.
Her chest caved in, pain tearing through her ribcage like claws. It didn’t matter that he’d infuriated her, that he’d broken her heart only hours ago. None of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was that he was lying in the dirt, bleeding, and she couldn’t breathe without him.
She lurched toward him, boots sliding in the mud. Beast was already at his side, barking, snarling, standing over his body like a living shield.
The two men who’d chased her before were closing, rifles raised, their faces locked in on her, her death in their eyes. But she’d rather die than lose Brawler.
She barely registered the SEALs storming the ridge, their rifles spitting fire in disciplined bursts, their battle cries cutting through the chaos like a war drum. The cavalry had come, the entire jungle shaking under their advance, but all Emily could see was the man who had shoved her toward safety and taken the bullets instead.
She surged forward, desperate to reach him, and an iron band clamped around her waist, jerking her off her feet.
Flash dragged her hard into the cover of a ravine, his body shoving hers down into the leaf litter. His chest crushed her, his weapon angled over her head, firing sharp, controlled bursts.
She fought like a wild thing, nails clawing, tears streaming hot down her face. “Let me go! He’s hit! I have to get to him!”
“Stay down!” Flash barked, voice breaking on the words, but she didn’t stop fighting. Every muscle in her body strained, desperate to break free, desperate to crawl through the hellfire and lay her hands on the only thing that mattered.
Her heart felt like it was being torn out of her chest. None of it mattered anymore, not her dissertation, not her anger, not the betrayal that had carved them open. She only wanted him alive. She only wanted Brawler.
Flash pressed harderinto the mud, firing in bursts, cycling targets with a precision that was all muscle memory. But the edges of the fight bent wrong.
The jungle didn’t sound right.
Each crack of gunfire stretched, echoing too long, as if it came from underwater. Branches writhed in the corners of his vision. Shapes flickered between the trunks, not men, not animals, shadows with faces he almost recognized. They watched, patient, hungry.
