“Rupert,” Duke muttered. “That sounded like Rupert.”
“Ben—stay with everyone in the van.”
Duke’s voice cut through the smoke and the ringing in Andi’s ears. He was in command mode.
Ben nodded and turned back toward the van.
Andi was already moving with Duke and Ranger.
The scream came again—ragged, human, tearing through the desert night. It scraped along her nerves and pulled her forward at the same time.
Gravel bit through the soles of her shoes as her breath ripped in and out of her chest. Ranger flanked them, weapon low, eyes scanning the dark.
Duke used the flashlight on his phone. It lit the ground enough to show six feet in front of them. At least it was something.
The desert opened wide as they crested a rise.
Over there.
Was that . . . ?
Rupert!
He lay half-sitting in the sand, arms wrapped around himself as if holding his body together by force of will alone. His suit jacket was gone. His bow tie hung loose around his neck. Dust coated his clothes, his hair, his face.
He was shaking.
But he was alive.
“Thank You, Jesus.” The words tore out of Andi before she could stop them.
She closed the space between them and dropped to her knees in front of him, hands hovering, afraid to touch before she knew where he hurt.
Rupert’s gaze fixed on her, wild and glassy, and his breathing sounded sharp and uneven.
But he’d survived.
“You’re safe,” she said. “You’re okay.”
He swallowed, throat bobbing. “I—he?—”
Ranger knelt on his other side. “Easy. Take a deep breath.”
Rupert dragged one in. Then another. His hands clenched into the sand.
“I thought . . . I thought you were all dead.” His voice cracked. “I heard the explosion.”
Andi pressed her palm against his shoulder, solid, grounding. “You’re not hurt?”
He shook his head. “No. He dumped me here.”
Duke crouched in front of him. “Which way did this guy go?”
Rupert lifted a shaking hand and pointed toward the dark stretch of desert beyond the ridge. “That way.”
Andi followed the line of his finger. All she saw was shadow and distance.
“He was fast, like he knew where every step would land.” Rupert squeezed his eyes shut.
