Page 117 of Duty Preserved

As if he could read my mind, he put a hand on my arm. “Did you get the girl?”

I laughed a little. “Yeah, I got the girl.”

“Then even if I could turn back time, I would still follow you.” He winced as they adjusted the stretcher. “Because now I know my bar tab is covered by you for life.”

“I think the last thing you need is more shots.”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to need.” He managed a weakened laugh, trying hard not to move the wounded part of his body. He let go of my arm, and they loaded him up into the ambulance. I watched the doors shut.

Faith arrived after the first responders. She wasn’t law enforcement and she wasn’t medical, but she came. She walked through the farmstead with her leather satchel and her KWS uniform and took in the scene with an expression of absolute shock on her face.

She spoke to the officers, then to Zayn. She looked at the buildings, the vehicles, the men being loaded into transports. Then she found me.

“Excuse me, Mr. Hughes. Is this your idea of protecting?” she said.

“I’m sorry, Faith, but I couldn’t wait and risk them hurting Sarah.”

“Well, officially, I have to condone such extreme levels of violence. It’s tricky from a publicity point of view.” She leaned in close. “But I’m glad you got those fuckers.”

She leaned away and brushed at her uniform as if there was something unbecoming on it. “Nasser can be processed by authorities for all the crimes he committed. Not just the ones here, but at every other reserve as well. And clearly, all of this—” She gestured around at the bloodstained grass, the body bags for Nasser’s men, the bullet-riddled buildings. “All of this is his fault as well. You had to utilize necessary force to protect KWS personnel from harm. Is that understood?”

“That is understood.” She extended her hand, and I shook it.

“Now, I have a lot of paperwork to do, and you need to go take care of you know who.”

She walked back toward the officers, and I went to find Sarah.

Zayn must have sent some rangers to retrieve the trucks after law enforcement showed up. Sarah was sitting on the tailgate of one of them. Her boots hung above the dirt. Her arms were wrapped around herself.

I climbed up beside her and sat down. The tailgate dipped under my weight. Our shoulders almost touched but not quite.

For a while, neither of us spoke. The night had settled back over the bush, and Sarah’s hands were trembling in her lap.

“Why did you come for me?”

She hadn’t asked how I’d found her. She hadn’t asked what had happened. The question was simpler than that. And harder.

Why. Why did I drive into the dark with one man against a camp full of armed men. Why did I risk my life and Andrew’s to go after her in the middle of the night with nothing resembling a plan.

I looked at her. The bruise darkening her jaw. The raw lines at her wrists. She was holding herself together with whatever she had left.

“Because there was no version of this where I didn’t.”

She watched me.

“You were in trouble, and I was going to come get you. That’s all there was to it.”

I let that sit, then said the rest.

“You are worth every risk I took tonight, Sarah. Every single one. And I would take them all again.”

Her face changed. Not the way it had broken when I’d found her in that room. This was something deeper and older, a thing she’d been keeping hidden with everything she had, and my words had pulled it into the light.

Her eyes filled. The tears came without sound, running down her good cheek and then across the swollen one. She didn’t wipe them away.

“Sarah.”

“I need to tell you something.” Her voice was thick and unsteady. “About why what you just said—” She pulled a breath in through her teeth. “About why that matters more than you know.”