Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Zita’s ears were ringing. Was that even possible when there was absolutely nothing to hear? Was it her imagination? Probably. Just as it was as dark as night, the creaking of the ship had stopped a while ago. Leaving her in silence. It was worse than hearing the ship moan around her.
Was she dead? Zita didn’t think so, but she wasn’t sure.
With her right hand, she pinched her thigh, hard.
“Ow!” she said out loud, breaking the silence. “That hurt!”
Relief swam in her veins. Right, she heard herself speak, felt the pain of the pinch. She wasn’t dead then.
That was good…wasn’t it?
Sighing, she wanted to do something. Wanted to somehow help herself. But honestly, there was nothing constructive she could do. She’d tried to find something to use to bang on the walls, tried to wrench open the door, tried yelling…all with no luck.
This sucked.
The only thing she could do was think about her life. About the people who would be upset that she was gone. Her parents, of course. Her brother. A few of her coworkers back in California.
Sage.
It was inevitable that her thoughts turned again and again back to the man who’d made her happier than she’d been in a very long time.
Being with Sage was easy. He was considerate and went out of his way to do nice things for her.
He was fun to be around. Polite to everyone he met.
Sexy. Great in bed. Not selfish in the least. And he was a great friend, which was obvious from watching him around his pilot buddies.
He wasn’t perfect, which was good. The last thing Zita wanted was someone who never messed up. Who never said the wrong thing, never embarrassed himself, who didn’t seem real.
She didn’t want to think about what he was going through right now.
Hated that he might be blaming himself for her disappearance.
It wasn’t his fault, or hers. They hadn’t done a damn thing wrong by acting on their attraction for each other.
Sage wasn’t wrong to say no to Carmen. And they’d taken Silas’s threat seriously…
they just never expected him to do anything so drastic.
The truth was, sometimes bad things happened to good people. And the fault lay with Silas. And Carmen. She really wanted to get out of here so she could tell the cops what Silas had told her about that bitch. How getting rid of Zita was her idea.
It was unbelievable. If she could write—which she couldn’t—and she wrote a book where someone was kidnapped and left for dead, simply because someone else wanted to have sex, any good editor would call bullshit and tell her to rewrite the thing because that was a ridiculous reason for the big ol’ drama in a book.
But it did happen. Was happening. To her.
However, Carmen had underestimated Sage.
And how quickly he and Zita had come to care about each other.
Even if Carmen showed up in Norfolk and pulled out all the stops to seduce Sage, Zita knew without a doubt he wouldn’t give her what she so desperately wanted.
Sick of her thoughts, and tired of lying on the hard, cold metal bed that reminded her too damn much of what dead bodies were put on in the morgue, she sat up…and immediately felt dizzy.
Shit. Same thing happened the last time she sat up, and she knew it was a bad sign. Zita was trying hard to stay positive, but it was getting more and more difficult. What were the odds that Sage could find her in time?
Honestly? Slim.
She sat on the edge of the metal bunk with her head bowed and tried to breathe slow and even.
Not to let her heart rate get too fast. She couldn’t control much of anything else, except for her thoughts and what she was doing right this moment.
One minute at a time. That’s all she had to get through.
As she sat there with her head down, eyes closed, and doing her best not to lie back down and give up completely, Zita thought she heard something.
It wasn’t one of the voices of the ghosts she imagined were on the ship. It wasn’t one of the creaks or groans that were so familiar by now. It was…
A bark?
That couldn’t be right. What the hell would a dog be doing in here? That thought just made her sadder. That another living creature could be as trapped as she was.
But then, by some miracle, she thought she heard her name.
And it happened again.
Shit! She wasn’t hallucinating!
Zita shot to her feet—and she had to grab the upper bunk to keep from face planting as the room spun around her.
“I’m here!” she screamed as loud as she could. “Help!”
She paused to breathe, praying she really wasn’t dreaming. That she really had heard her name twice…that someone was looking for her.
“Zita!”
If she had any extra moisture in her body, she would’ve started bawling right then. “Yes! It’s me! I’m here! Help me, please!”
Then she heard the bark again. There was a dog out there. Zita was confused, but she didn’t care if there was a hippopotamus outside the door. She’d been found!
Seconds later, she heard banging on the door to her prison, and she couldn’t stop smiling.
“Zita!”
The voice was muted, the metal of the door and the ship doing its best to steal the sound away, but she knew without a doubt that it was Sage.
He was here! He’d found her!
“Sage!” she yelled back.
For a moment, she heard nothing, and she had the thought again that maybe she was asleep and dreaming. Maybe she wasn’t being rescued. Maybe she’d completely lost her mind down here in the absolute silence and darkness.
Until she heard her name again.
“We’re going to get you out, Zita! Sit tight! The door’s locked and we don’t have the fucking key!”
He was muffled, but it was still so good to hear Sage’s voice, Zita’s legs gave out. She sat hard on the metal bunk, barely feeling the pain that shot up her spine. He sounded stressed out and pissed way the hell off. But nothing had ever made her happier in her life than to hear his voice.
Zita relaxed. It didn’t matter how long it took for them to get her out, Sage wasn’t going to leave her. He’d stay right there outside the door until it opened and he could get to her.
“You hear me?” Sage asked.
“Yes!” she yelled back.
Her shoulders slumped, her head falling back, and it suddenly felt as if she was a thousand years old.
How much time had passed? A day? Two? A week?
She supposed it didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that Sage had done the impossible.
He’d found her. Many people—men, women, children—weren’t so lucky.
Zita was well aware that Silas could’ve killed her and left her body somewhere to rot.
But he hadn’t. He’d been cocky enough to think he wouldn’t get caught, which was incredibly stupid, because of course he would’ve been the first person on Sage’s radar after his stupid threat in Fallport.
How in the world he ever thought he could get away with kidnapping her, she had no idea.
Thank goodness Sage was as smart as he was.
She heard banging on the door, as if someone was trying to break it down.
Then swearing and more voices. It seemed Sage wasn’t alone, which wasn’t exactly a surprise.
It wasn’t as if he’d wander around this huge hulk of a ship by himself.
Maybe his team was out there. Maybe the dog she’d heard was Rain, Mandy and Buck’s dog, the one that had found them in the rainforest in South America.
It didn’t worry her when quite a bit of time seemed to pass. Yes, she wanted out of the damn room, but again, she knew Sage wasn’t going anywhere until he had her in his arms.
One second she was sitting on the bottom bunk, staring into space with a half-smile on her face as she dreamed about what she was going to eat and drink when she got out, and the next, she was almost blinded seconds after an extremely loud clanking noise came from the door.
It flew open, and someone used a flashlight to sweep the room. Even though the beam wasn’t pointing right at her, the light was extremely painful after sitting so long in the dark.
Zita whimpered in pain and threw a hand over her eyes.
Then a pair of arms wrapped around her so tightly, it was hard to breathe.
She knew immediately who those arms belonged to. Sage.
She went boneless in his embrace, keeping her eyes shut tightly against the lights she could see dancing behind her closed lids.
Several people were talking at once, but all her concentration was on the man on his knees in front of her. She felt Sage sobbing against her shoulder as he held her. She probably would’ve been crying as well, but again, she didn’t have the energy…or the liquid in her body to do so.
“You’re alive,” Sage rasped in an agonized voice, as he continued to hold her.
Zita nodded as her arms tightened around him. She hated that he sounded so broken. Didn’t know what to do to make him feel better.
“Obi-Wan,” a voice said gently, “back up a bit. We need to get a look at her.”
For a moment, Sage’s arms tightened instead…then he slowly eased away from her.
Zita kept her eyes shut, knowing it would hurt if she opened them.
“Fuck, Zita. Your neck… And your poor face!”
She could imagine what it looked like. As a redhead, she bruised easily, and those punches weren’t exactly love taps. She also still vividly remembered the feel of Silas’s hands holding her down…tightening around her throat.
“I’m okay,” she whispered. Then she cleared her throat and said it again, a little stronger. “I’m okay.”
“Damn straight you are,” Sage said reverently.
Slowly, Zita opened her eyes a tad, just to slits.
It was enough to send pain shooting into her head.
But she didn’t close them again. It felt amazing to see.
And the first thing she saw was Sage’s face.
He was frowning, had dirt on his forehead, but he was still the best thing she’d ever seen in her life.
“Hi.”
The stupid word escaped without thought.
His gaze whipped up from where it had been focused on her neck, locking on her eyes. Then he smiled. It was small, and a little strained, but it was still a smile. “Hi,” he whispered.
“I love you,” was the next thing out of her mouth.
Locked in the dark, she’d wished over and over that she’d told him before she was taken.
That she’d had the guts to admit it when he’d said those three words to her.
It was going to be her biggest regret if she hadn’t made it out of the ship before it was sunk.
That this man wouldn’t know how much he meant to her.
The smile on his face grew. Some of the stress lines smoothed out. “I love you too.”
Just then, a cold nose nudged Zita’s hand where it was resting on Sage’s side. Looking down, she saw a black shape standing there. Definitely not Rain.
“That’s Fred. My search dog. He found you.”
Zita had to close her eyes once more. She was overwhelmed with gratitude.
For Fred. Sage. This woman. Sage’s teammates.
A few officers in the room. The small space was full.
She had no idea how many people there were, but it was a lot.
And they were all there because they’d been looking for her.
She wasn’t sure she deserved all the attention, but she sure was grateful for it.
“How about we get the fuck out of here?” Sage said gently.
Zita nodded eagerly, and reopened her eyes into slits once more. It was getting easier now. The light didn’t hurt nearly as much as it had before.
“I hope someone knows where the exit is, because I sure as hell don’t,” Edge said, sounding grumpy.
Zita couldn’t help but giggle.
Giggle.
What a difference a few minutes could make.
“Fred’ll show us the way,” the woman holding his leash said confidently.
Zita stood, and the room swayed around her. Sage didn’t miss a beat; he bent and picked her up. One arm under her knees and the other around her back. Zita immediately snuggled into his embrace, laying her head on his shoulder.
They left the room with Fred in the lead, his handler right behind, Edge on her heels, Zita and Sage a few people back, and followed by a whole host of others. People who’d given up their time to look for her. Zita was overwhelmed with gratitude.
She had no doubt she’d be going to the hospital when they finally emerged from the carrier, but that was all right with her. As long as Sage stayed by her side, she’d be able to get through anything.