The snark started to creep back in, low and cautious.
“Think Grif’s got real coffee, or is he on that mushroom shit, like Edge is?” Scout muttered, earning a light smack on the back of the head from Edge and a growl from Grif.
Rowan ignored them. His focus was on the woman across from him. Her eyes were closed, but the tight line of her jaw told him she wasn’t sleeping. Every muscle in her body was coiled, like she was ready to bolt at any second.
He knew he should be debriefing with Gael, planning their next move. He should be thinking about the bills piling up at Stronghold, about the fact that this payday was enough to keep the ranch afloat for at least the next six months. But all he could see was the raw terror in her eyes, the echo of the trauma he’d seen in his own twin. The weight of the promise he’d given Camden Moore to bring her home settled on him, heavier than any ruck he’d ever carried. Because while he was technically keeping his promise, he already knew life for the Moore family, and especially for the woman across from him, had changed forever.
Gael slid into the seat beside him. “We’ll be wheels down at Garrett Ranch in about four hours. They’ll have an ambulance standing by with a full medical team.”
Rowan nodded. “Good.”
“You did good, Ro. Getting her out.”
“We did good,” he corrected. There was no way he was allowing Gael to diminish what going back to that jungle meant to him. “How are you doing?”
“She trusts you.”
Okay then, we’re just going to ignore the question, are we?
Rowan made a mental note to talk to Joel and have him do a headspace check with Gael, then glanced at Enya. “She trusts the guy her daddy sent. That’s all.” He wasn’t fooling himself. Trust wasn’t something you earned in an hour. It was built over time, or forged in some kind of shared hell. Right now, he was just a tool, the tool who got her out of there and was bringing her home.
“TOC wants to know if we should put a call through to her folks,” Gael said quietly. “You wanna do it?”
He hesitated; they should make that call. Correction, he should make that call because he was the commander and this was his op. But the thought of talking to the man, of trying to explain the state his daughter was in, felt like a bridge too far. He looked at Enya, at the way she flinched when one of the guys tossed a bottle of water to another, and decided that was one of those tasks Theo was always insisting he could delegate.
“No,” he said, the decision solidifying in his gut. “Have Theo make it. Tell him to confirm that she’s alive, she’s safe, and where we’re going. That’s all he needs to know right now. The details can wait.”
Gael studied him for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay. And when we land?”
“You’re taking the team home. Ask Garrett or Montgomery if you can take the jet back to Kentucky.”
Gael’s brows drew together. “And you?”
“I’m staying with her.”
“Rowan—”
“She can’t be alone, Gael, not yet.” He was about to remind Gael how he’d been when he’d come back from there, but bit back the words. Now was not the time to remind him of that. “I’m the only one she’ll let near her.” He hated how true it was. He hated the responsibility of being her safe harbor. But hating it wasn’t enough to stop him from being the one who would get her from point A to point B without her shattering. “I’ll stay until her parents get there. Then I’ll find my own way back.”
His brother thankfully didn’t argue. He just squeezed Rowan’s shoulder and got to his feet, “Okay then, if that’s what she needs, then that’s what you do.”
“Yeah.”
The flight passed in a state of suspended animation. Rowan didn’t sleep like the others. Instead, he watched Enya, marking the slight easing of tension in her shoulders as the IV fluids did their work, relieved at how her breathing deepened into something resembling actual rest. He was a sentry on watch, and she was his entire sector of fire.
When they landed at the private airstrip on Matt Garrett’s Texas ranch, the setting sun was painting the sky in violent streaks of orange and purple.
The jet door opened to the familiar face of Garrett himself, his expression grim and professional, and he ducked his head and entered the plane.
“Good to see ya, Salieri. It’s been a while.” Matt’s gaze flicked from Rowan to Enya and back again. “Ambulance is here, they know the score.”
“Good to see you too, Garrett.” Rowan shook the former Delta Force Team Panther’s hand. Having been a POW before his discharge from the army, if there was anyone besides Gael who understood how Enya was feeling right now, it was most likely Matt Garrett. Rowan was about to touch Enya to wake her, then figured that might not be the best thing to do.
“Enya? We’re here.”
She jerked awake at the sound of her name but didn’t say anything.
“We’re back home.” Rowan continued, “It’s time to get you to the hospital.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Matt shepherd the other men out of her line of sight.
