“I can do this all day,” he’d told me earlier, with that mischievous smile. The same smile I’d seen through the screen a hundred times.
I knew orcs were strong. I wrote in my articles about their physical superiority, enhanced senses and their ability to see in the dark. But knowing something intellectually and experiencing it pressed against a massive green chest are two very different things.
I keep glancing up at his harsh orc features, to confirm he’s real. Yep, still real and carrying me through a Colombian jungle because I wrote his name on a form.
I was planning my escape from that pit, running through scenarios, carving footholds, prying at rotted boards. I’d accepted that no one was coming for me. That the only person who could save Sloane Adams was Sloane Adams.
And then I heard footsteps behind me in the jungle. My greatest fear realized, that someone had followed me. I hid against that tree with a rock in my fist, ready to fight and die swinging.
And then his voice cut through the darkness.
Part of me still doesn’t believe this is happening. I’m waiting to wake up back in that pit, discover this was all a fever dream brought on by dehydration and desperation. But his arms are solid around me. His heartbeat steady against my side. The jungle smells real, the wet earth, rotting vegetation and the faint scent of gun oil from his weapons.
“You’re really here because I put you down as my emergency contact?” The question comes out before I can stop it. “That’s the reason?”
Jonus glances down at me, his stride never faltering. “Well, it’s the reason I was called first. The State Department contacted me when you missed your check-in.”
“And you just... came?”
“I made calls and assembled a team.” He adjusts his grip on me slightly, pulling me closer against his chest. “Your friend has been incredible, by the way. Lucy Rodriguez.”
My chest tightens. Lucy.
“She’s been coordinating with your editor, your family, keeping information flowing so I could focus on getting to you,” Jonus continues. “That woman is a force of nature. I’ve never seen anyone organize a crisis response quite like her.”
Warmth spreads across my chest. “She’s my best friend,” I say quietly. “Has been since college.”
“I know. She told me. She also told me that if I didn’t bring you back alive, she would find a way to make my life very unpleasant. I believed her.”
Despite everything, I almost smile. That sounds like Lucy.
“You didn’t have to come yourself,” I say. “You could have just... made calls. Hired people.”
A growl rumbles in his chest. “You were captured by the cartel. Gods only knew what they were doing to you. I still don’t know entirely what they’ve done to you while it took twelve fucking days to get you out of there. But I’m doing my best to get you somewhere safe for medical attention.”
He talks like there was never another option, like staying behind was simply not possible. “They didn’t rape me,” I tell him. “Not that I didn’t think they never were going to go that route, but for whatever reason they hadn’t yet, maybe because they considered me a high value kidnap? I don’t know why I lucked out that way. But they did, um—” I pause, remembering the beatings, especially when I first arrived, “do other things to me.”
He growls again and seems to move faster.
But I need to know one more thing. “Did anyone else...” I trail off, not sure how to ask. “I mean, did Ryan...” I can’t finish the question, but I need to know if my fiancé even tried.
“The State Department contacted him,” he answers carefully.
“And?”
“He declined involvement. Said the relationship was over.”
The words land like stones. “He declined involvement?” I sputter. “Like I was a business opportunity that didn’t pan out. Like a cartel kidnapping was simply too inconvenient for him to bother with.”
“He’s human,” Jonus says, like this explains everything.
I press against the chest of the orc who flew to a whole other country to pull me out of a pit. “He’s myformerfiancé,” I say quietly.
“What?”
“It’s over between us. It was basically already over, I just hadn’t said the words outloud.” I shift slightly in Jonus’s arms, looking up at the dark canopy passing overhead. The small glimpse of starry sky. “We never actually had much in common. It would’ve been silly for us to marry.” The truth of it lightens in my chest. “We were never in the same place,” I continue, more to myself than to Jonus. “Literally or figuratively. He wanted a version of me that doesn’t exist. And I kept trying to convince myself that ‘fine’ was enough.”
I glance up at Jonus. Is he... smiling?
