Mae’s mind went blank. It was like a switch flipped. Her eyes slammed shut and her brain went offline, unable to stay in the forest, on the dirty, frozen ground, while she was violated as the life was being choked out of her. Nope. Her mind didn’t let her suffer, and for that, she was so grateful.
Instead of staying in the forest, she drifted back to Silver Springs. The warm, cozy bed she shared with Stone. Wrapped safe in his arms. To the night they shared talking about the future with their baby. His hand pressed protectively over her belly. It didn’t matter what came after that moment.
The pressure over her windpipe cleared, and Mae coughed, gasping desperately for air. But still she sank into thefeeling of being back in the apartment she shared so many nights in with Stone. Swaying back and forth with no music playing, just the two of them, heart to steady beating heart, connected in a way she’d never been with anyone else. And would never be again.
“Mae!”
She could actually hear him. What a gift. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Stone had experienced the same thing when he was shot. Hearing her voice call out to him. It certainly was a comforting thing for her mind to do.
“Mae! Michaela, baby, open your eyes. Fuck, please open your eyes.”
Mm. He must be trying to wake her up for breakfast. She loved when he would buy her a warm doughnut…
“Open your eyes and you can have all the doughnuts you want, beautiful. Just come back to me, okay? You’re safe now, baby. You’re safe. He won’t touch you again. Please just open your eyes and come back to me.”
Please just open your eyes and come back to me.She’d said that to Stone in the hospital. Her mind felt so heavy, wanting to keep her in the safety of the darkness she’d forced to consume her mind. But something about those words made her want to seek the light…
“Please, Mae. Come back to me.”
It hadn’t taken long to get the all-clear from Jake, but coordinating things between Max’s team and the local FBI agency out of Oklahoma City had been a logistical nightmare. After an hour of back and forth bureaucratic bullshit on the phone, Sebastian and Max made the call to get on the road. An hour before the team arrived, they’d finally received confirmationof the location where they believed the three women were being held.
Stone sat silent, praying the entire way that Mae was in that building. Because if she wasn’t… if she wasn’t one of the women they were going to rescue…if she wasn’t in the place where the only lead had brought them to… he couldn’t imagine how he would go on.
“We’ll walk in from here. Everyone be on alert. We don’t know what kind of security measures he has in place here. The only goal for our team is to find the women and get them out safely,” Cap instructed. “Let Max and his team worry about Caulleau and whoever else is there helping him.”
The group nodded. Snow crunched under their boots. The air was crisp, clear, and Stone could smell the ice in it. His eyes scanned the horizon before turning back to Hawk who was his partner for the extraction. Hawk nodded, and they moved forward.
A scream sent birds flying out of the trees, and Stone took off. They were outside. Or, at least, one of the women was. He needed to find them. It didn't sound like Mae…
Bright blonde hair came into view, splayed out against the white snow.
Jessie.
She was writhing and lashing out, trying to fight off a man who had her pinned down by her hips. Hawk surged forward, but Stone held out his hand, stopping him.
You take the left side. I’ll take the right.
A single nod from Hawk was all he needed. They moved as one, closing the distance in a heart beat. And before the man even knew what was happening, Hawk’s arm was wrapped around his neck, choking him into submission.
Over the comms, Nash’s voice rang out.“Wings and Reaper. Target three acquired. No assailant.”
They’d found Lo. Stone reached into his pocket andpulled out a handful of zip-ties, taking only ten seconds to hogtie the fucker up, leaving him unconscious on the ground.
“Phoenix and Doc. Target two acquired.” Stone communicated over the headset.
“Jessie.” Hawk dropped to his knees, scooping her up out of the snow. “Thank God. Are you hurt? Did that fucker hurt you?”
She nuzzled down into his chest, her head shaking back and forth. And then her eyes bounced to Stone, who was now on the ground, rifling through his pack to get her a warming kit.
“He has her. I… she screamed for me to run. I was just trying to find something to hit him with. B-But he dragged her back.”
Stone’s stomach flipped as he tossed the medical package at Hawk. “Around that side of the building?”
He didn’t have to wait for her answer.
“Doc. West side of the building. We’ve got Mae.”
“How many guys were here?” he asked as he stood up.
