“Good. A medical professional is always beneficial to have around.” Silver moved back, and Sully could make out the rustle of medical supplies being placed back into the case.
They sat in silence for several minutes, waiting for Ransom and Branch to signal for them to get into position. The crack of a branch on the nearby shore electrified the air.
“Everyone down.” Silver’s tone was urgent, and he was relieved when Jane and Addy dropped to their bellies. Even Wyatt, the other civilian contractor who was not nearly as adept as Addy, seemed to sense the tension in Silver’s voice and crouched down in the bottom of the boat.
Sully adjusted night-vision goggles over his head and gripped the assault rifle at his side. When he rolled to his stomach and trained his rifle toward the tree line, pain ripped through his leg. He clenched his teeth and pushed down the discomfort. Several tense minutes passed before the crunch of boots on the riverbank was audible. He trained his scope toward the men. They had rifles slung across their chests and didn’t bother masking the sounds of their heavy boots or conversation. The people indigenous to the region would make no sound at all.He couldn’t make out their conversations, but earlier, Addy told them the traffickers were speaking Quechua. Once the danger passed, she’d let them know what the men were talking about. Ransom and Branch should’ve made it to the boat by now, but there hadn’t been a signal from the direction of the catamaran. Silver was easing the boat away from the shoreline, while he kept his scope on the men carelessly moving about.
“Can you make out what they’re saying?” Silver asked Addy.
“They’re waiting for the boat to drop off hostages. They seem uneasy, worried that the other group won’t make good on their delivery. They have buyers lined up.” Addy lifted herself up from the bottom of the boat, while Jane remained still. He wanted to go to her, make sure she was okay, but the next steps of their mission were critical.
They picked up speed and the damp, warm air moved over his skin.
“Tangoes on the catamaran are neutralized,” Silver said under his breath. Cries sounded from the boat. Fuck. Missions like this were why he became a SEAL. Ones that rid the world of a small slice of depravity. Missions that left you heartsick were a stark reminder of why they did what they did. Sully moved their boat around the larger vessel, pulling it close against the aluminum siding. Ransom approached the side of the boat and Silver cast him a rope, which he tied off on one of the boat rails. Ransom disappeared for a moment before returning with a small child. He glanced in Jane’s direction. She was standing up against the side of the boat, eyes trained on the little girl. Addy and Silver cradled the trembling child and got her situated near Jane. One by one, they helped the women and children into the Navy craft. He wasn’t surprised that the children immediately gathered around Jane. They crouched around her, buried their faces against her body, and sobbed. The shrill voice of a womanspeaking English cut through Jane and Addy’s gentle and reassuring murmurs to the children.
“Get your hands off me.” Fucking hell. That must be the ambassador’s granddaughter. The woman’s high-pitched shriek was going to alert the men who were awaiting their shipment along the shore. “Why are my wrist still tied? I feel like I’m going from one hostage situation to another.” She continued to bitch as Ransom and Branch helped her into the boat.
“Our priority is getting everyone to safety.” Silver barely masked his annoyance. “We’ll take care of everyone’s needs as soon as we’re in a safer position.”
“We all know the reason you’re here. That reason is me. I should’ve been the first one off that boat.”
The woman’s whines underscored the strength of Jane’s character. She hadn’t complained once and had done her best to help from the moment he encountered her in the water. When the children were lowered into the boat, Jane immediately began to assess them and see to their needs. The woman currently moaning about the SEALs’ mistreatment of her was fully clothed and appeared unharmed, unlike Jane. There was no doubt in his mind that the woman he rescued had suffered at the hands of those men. Bile rolled in his gut when he thought about what they might’ve done to her, yet she was still able to share her strength and goodness with the children crying quietly against her.
“Think we found Wyatt a new friend,” Branch joked, referring to Addy’s assigned civilian partner, who had done nothing but bitch and moan since stepping foot on the aircraft that brought them to South America. If he wasn’t so annoyed with the woman’s complaints he would’ve laughed at his teammate’s joke.
Silver started the nearly silent engine. The water barely rippled around them as they cut through it. Sully helped Addypass out thermal blankets, water, and protein bars to the newcomers and settled on the bottom of the boat next to Jane. She shivered despite the blankets wrapped around her.
“You’re cold. Let me get you another blanket.” He started to stand.
“No.” Her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Her fingers were so cold, so small, and the surge of protectiveness he’d felt since rescuing her in the water intensified. “The moment you sat down, I instantly felt warmer. I’m okay, but I appreciate you looking out for me.”
He snorted. “What you are is brave. You’re impressing the hell out of me, Calamity Jane. Just know if you need anything, you only have to ask, and I’ll do my best to get it for you.”
She met his eyes, and for the first time, he was able to read her expression in the floodlights the traffickers used to locate her in the water. They appeared to be a shade of brown, and for some reason, he couldn’t wait until daylight so he could pinpoint the color. What he could see was the sincerity on her face. The woman he’d gotten out of the water would go out of her way to help a bunch of trained SEALs complete their mission. When he realized he’d been staring, he glanced away. Just because he was injured didn’t mean he wasn’t still part of the mission. He needed to be alert and have his temporary teammates’ backs.
It had been a long time since he’d served with anyone but his teammate Red. They’d just returned from a personal mission to help a SEAL veteran locate his woman’s closest friend, Thalia, who had been taken over the border into Mexico right before he got the call to aid a Virginia SEAL team. He was taking the place of a man whose call sign was Joker, also Addy’s twin. Not only had Joker been pulled from the mission because he was belligerent that his civilian sister had been contracted by the Navy due to her knowledge of the indigenous people in theregion but his wife Sam was going to give birth to their child any day now.
The light pressure on his arm directed his gaze back to Jane. She was slouched over at an awkward angle with her head resting against his bicep. He sat frozen for a moment, trying to pinpoint why it felt so good to have her lean into him for comfort. Maybe it was the exhaustion of her harrowing experience, but he sat a little taller with the knowledge that if this woman hadn’t felt safe with him on some level, she wouldn’t have passed out cold against him. He carefully repositioned her, drawing Jane into his side, and wrapping one arm around her shoulders. If a threat appeared, he could move quickly enough.
He winced at the throbbing pain in his leg. The Amazon wasn’t a good environment to get a wound, and he knew Jane had been right. Infection was most likely imminent, but the mission had gone relatively smoothly, and they’d be back on U.S. soil soon. Even if his injury did go south, he wouldn’t regret joining the Virginia SEAL team or helping rescue these women and children from a horrific fate. And Jane. There was something about the woman that just drew him in.
He looked up to see Ransom approaching. The man crouched down beside him and lifted his chin toward Jane, who was still out cold. “When we got on the boat, one of the traffickers was already dead. Knife cut to the femoral artery,” Ransom said. He couldn’t help his arm from flexing more firmly around Jane’s shoulders. “Another was close to bleeding out from a puncture wound to the neck.”
Sully hissed out a breath. “How?” His chest tightened, thinking of all the reasons Jane might’ve been temporarily untied.
“Ambassador’s granddaughter was complaining about the blood spatter that got on her when Jane attacked them. They…were violating her and she grabbed one of their knives.”
The growl rumbled low in his throat. People could become the worst versions of themselves in stressful situations, but the ambassador’s granddaughter griping about blood spatter in the face after what Jane had been through was unforgivable.
There was a rustle off to the side, where one of the young girls, no more than ten years old, was tugging on Addy, sobbing. “The men started to untie me,” the little girl said in relatively good English. “They were talking about doing bad things. She gave herself to them instead. It was so awful. I feel so—”
Addy pulled the girl into a hug, letting her cry against her shirt.
“Fuck,” he breathed in a low tone. His chest ached for the children, but also for Jane. And just as certain situations could bring out the worst in people, others rose above the terror and did what they could to survive. To help others survive. Jane had let herself be violated so that a child didn’t have to endure the horror. That was fucking bravery. That was valor. The badass by his side had stabbed her attacker with his own knife, then turned it on another one of the traffickers. The bullet he’d taken in the leg was painful but impersonal. What she’d gone through? Even if he didn’t know exactly what her attackers had done, they’d been close enough for her to bury a knife into them. She’d suffered something personal. Something degrading. Painful. Again, there was a burn in his chest as recognition of what this woman had done for another human humbled him. He didn’t see that type of goodness often, not to this level.
Before thinking, he dipped his chin and placed a kiss on the top of her head. “Crazy brave,” he whispered even though she was asleep. “I’m going to get you home. No matter what.”
Chapter Three
