11. Nolan
11
NOLAN
The woman was the only one left by the time we cleared the first floor. My heart was racing, the image of the blood on the floor in the room where Lilah had been held prisoner burned into my mind.
Was it Lilah’s? The thought made me want to tear the people responsible limb from limb.
Then Rafe’s voice sounded in my ear. “I’ve got her.”
Relief flooded my body, but it was quickly followed by fear.
“Is she okay?” Jude asked. He was walking in front of me, headed back toward the stern of the boat.
The hesitation was so brief I might have imagined it.
“I think so,” he said.
“The woman is still loose on the boat,” Jude said.
“Not a priority.” Rafe’s voice was curt, all business. “There was a control room. Security cameras, computers, a radio.”
Jude swore. A radio meant one of the guards might have radioed for help before we’d killed him.
“On our way to the stern,” I said.
“Copy that,” Rafe said. “See you there.”
Jude and I moved faster. I was eager to get off the boat before we were met with more resistance, but even more than that, I wanted to see Lilah, wanted to lay eyes on her, see for myself that she was okay.
We thundered up the stairs, past the second-floor landing, and emerged into the living room. A guard lay dead on the floor, a perfectly round bullet hole marking his forehead.
Rafe was on deck when we got there, and with him, Lilah.
I didn’t make the decision to pull her into my arms. It was unprofessional, dumb even, especially with the other woman still loose on the boat.
But it was reflex, the need to hold her close, feel the beating of her heart, instinctual, like the need to breathe.
She wrapped her arms around me and I kissed her head.
I pulled back to look at her, smoothing her hair, inspecting her for injury. It only took me a second to realize that she wasn’t okay. Her breathing was labored, her skin pale.
“I feel funny,” she said.
I fished in my pocket for the bottle of beta-blockers I’d brought from the rental house, my own heart thudding in my chest. I was so fucking scared I could barely get the cap open.
“You brought my meds?” she asked, her green eyes wide.
“Wouldn’t travel without them,” I said, fishing out one of the pills.
I gave her the pill. She’d barely put it in her mouth when she started to slump to the deck, her legs giving way.
I reached out for her, caught her on the way down.
“We’ve got to get off this fucking boat,” Jude said. “If one of the guards radioed for help…”
“Let them fucking come,” Rafe said. His face was a mask of rage, his voice low and menacing.
I understood the sentiment. I wanted to kill the men who’d done this to Lilah, who’d brought her so close to death. But that wasn’t the most important thing.
She was.
“No, we have to get Lilah out of here,” I said, lifting her into my arms and heading for the ladder to the dinghy, still tied up behind the Artemis .
“Go first,” I told Jude. “I’ll hand her to you.”
When I looked down, I realized she was out cold. I tried not to think the worst: that her heart had been irreparably damaged by being without her meds, that the pill I’d given her was too little too late.