Page 117 of Hidden Agendas (Tempting SEALs 4)

“Kell is here,” she said again, softer this time. She had no idea what his wife sounded like, but she was giving it her best shot. “He’s come to rescue you, Nathan.”

He blinked back in confusion.

“Don’t you want to go home?”

His hand shook.

“I want to go home, Nathan. I just want to go home.” She wanted to lie in Kell’s arms, she wanted to hear him whisper to her again. “Let’s go home, Nathan.”

“Home is gone.” His hand gripped the knife tighter. “Home is gone. Goodbye.”

“STOP THAT FUCKING COPTER. STOP it now, goddammit.” Kell sprayed a round of gunfire at the copter as it lifted off, wavering for a second before banking and heading out to sea and taking

Fuentes with it.

He was escaping again.

“Son of a bitch.” Throwing the assault weapon over his shoulder, Kell sprinted the few feet to the cell where Emily was being held.

Kell jerked the Beretta from the holster on his hip, shot the lock free and burst into the room. Into hell.

“Fuck!”

Naked, aroused, a homemade knife held in his hand, Nathan jerked Emily from the cot and pushed her behind him.

Irish blue eyes stared back at him in madness as Emily’s dark eyes, wide with terror, watched him hopefully.

“He’s drugged,” she gasped. “The Whore’s Dust. A lot of it.”

“Shut up,” Nathan yelled, the knife wavering in his hand. “Stay away from her. Let her alone.”

Not his fault. She mouthed the words silently; tears tracking down her cheeks as Nathan dragged her closer to him.

That was his little fox. Always fighting for someone else.

“Nate.” Kell kept his voice low despite the desperation clawing inside him. “Let’s go, Nate. It’s time to evac.”

Nathan blinked back at him. “Evac?”

“The chopper is outside, Nate. Time to get the girl out of here and go home. Your wife is waiting for you, Nate. You gonna disappoint her?”

For a second, Kell swore he saw a hint of sanity in Nathan’s eyes.

“They found the tracker,” Nathan growled. “The heel won’t work.”

God! They would have cut that damned tracker out of the heel of his foot. Son of a bitch.

“We don’t need it, Nate,” he said softly. “Come on, man, let’s go home.”

“I won’t let you hurt her,” Nathan growled. “They left her here to hurt her. So you could hurt her. I could hurt her. Someone was going to hurt her.”

“Not anymore, Nathan. We have Fuentes and Clay,” he lied, his eyes locked on that knife. “Let’s go home, man.”

“Home?” The knife wavered as he seemed to stumble.

And then Emily moved. How she did it, how she knew to do it, Kell had no idea. Before he could jump for her, her elbow slammed into Nathan’s undefended belly as her other hand locked beneath his wrist and pushed at it just enough to give Kell the chance to jump for Nathan and pull her free.

Free. He shoved her behind him, staring at Nathan carefully as rage flickered in his eyes a second before he slumped back to the wall.

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