Page 31 of What Remains

I start to pull away, but his hands go firmly to my waist, halting me. “Don’t you dare go anywhere,” he says roughly, a near-growl.

I peel back just enough to try and see him, hoping the flashlight from the gun is still angled our way. I can’t make out his eyes, but I know the shape of them. The tension in his jaw. The set of his shoulders under my hands. I know his body like it’s a place I’ve experienced, even though we’ve never been intimate. Never even kissed.

He brushes his thumbs over my damp cheeks. “Actually, maybe we should get up?” He pauses. “Your dad must be terrified.”

“My dad . . .” Tears start again before the words come tumbling out. “I was in Dubai on holiday, and he was close by, but he couldn’t get to me in time. They showed up at our hotel and took me. Your sister was with me when it happened. They hit her.”

He goes dead still beneath me.

“She’s okay. I—I think. They promised if I went with them, they wouldn’t hurt her again. They said they only wanted me. So, I stopped fighting back and did what they said.”

He’s quiet for a few seconds, probably wrestling with the ugly image I painted. “We, uh, should get you inside and make that call to your father. Zoey’s also probably getting worried about what’s taking us so long.”

He eases me off his lap and picks up his weapon. He sweeps the beam of light from the gun along the ground until he finds a safe path. Once we’re both on our feet, he places the 9mm in my hands, then scoops me up before I can object. One arm under my knees, the other bracing my back, he cradles me to his chest with effortless strength.

“But you’re in pain.” If I had known he was hurt earlier, I wouldn’t have let him carry me.

“My back pain is the least of my concerns.” He leans forward, his nose nuzzling mine, which is oddly sweet given everything going on. “Now light our way, will ya?”

I do as he says, raising the gun. Through the shifting shadows, the silhouette of a house emerges up on a hill, one warm light glowing inside.

We barely make it halfway when Zoey materializes out of the trees like some forest-dwelling avenger, rifle in hand. “I was afraid something happened to you two.”

“Had a minor fall,” he says. “We’re fine. Everything good up top?”

She matches our pace on his right. “Yeah, it’s clear. Perimeter is secure. I was waiting to turn on the security system until you two got here.”

Easton doesn’t put me down until we’re on the front steps of our safe haven. “And where are we exactly?” I hand him the gun, and he tucks it at the back of his pants.

“Espiritu Santo,” Zoey answers while letting us inside. “Largest island in Vanuatu.”

“Never heard of it,” I whisper as she steps around me, plucking a leaf from my hair.

Something gentle flickers in her eyes before she sets aside her rifle and shuts the door, engaging the locks. A keypad beeps softly, then she enters another code. “Trip wires are now armed, too. Anyone who tries to get within a hundred meters of this place . . .” She mimes an explosion with her hands.

“If only that woman back there would try and show up,” I say under my breath. “She, um, knows who you both are.” Worried they’ll think I gave them up, I hurry and add on, “I didn’t tell her; she already knew.”

“With what she said to me before I left, I figured that was the case,” she acknowledges.

“We need to get Wyatt and Carter on the phone,” Easton says while removing a new stick of gum from his pocket. He ditched his last piece halfway through our journey.

Zoey glances down the hall. “It’s probably in the office I spotted while I cleared the house.”

Easton pockets his trash, quietly observing me as she takes off. His gaze slants over my orange jumpsuit, and something tells me he’s remembering what he saw back in that room.

I wring my fingers together. Guilt pulls my eyes to the floor as I admit, “I have to tell you⁠—”

“I know.” He leans his shoulder against the wall, a gruff breath falling from his lips.

“You know what?”

“She made you do something for her. Something cyber-related.”

If only that was all. “She has my rig.” I shake my nervous hands out at my sides. “But there’s more.”

“Intel about us? About Falcon?” he guesses, and yeah, that, too, but . . .

“She blew up the hotel I was at in Dubai tonight,” I blurt out, unable to hold in the truth any longer. “Sh—she said if I didn’t give her my password, she’d destroy the hospital where my brother works next. Then hurt everyone else I—I care about.” I’m stuttering, stumbling through my words.