Chapter Two #2
“No.” Her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Her fingers were so cold, so small, and the surge of protectiveness he’d felt since rescuing her in the water intensified. “The moment you sat down, I instantly felt warmer. I’m okay, but I appreciate you looking out for me.”
He snorted. “What you are is brave. You’re impressing the hell out of me, Calamity Jane. Just know if you need anything, you only have to ask, and I’ll do my best to get it for you.”
She met his eyes, and for the first time, he was able to read her expression in the floodlights the traffickers used to locate her in the water.
They appeared to be a shade of brown, and for some reason, he couldn’t wait until daylight so he could pinpoint the color.
What he could see was the sincerity on her face.
The woman he’d gotten out of the water would go out of her way to help a bunch of trained SEALs complete their mission.
When he realized he’d been staring, he glanced away.
Just because he was injured didn’t mean he wasn’t still part of the mission.
He needed to be alert and have his temporary teammates’ backs.
It had been a long time since he’d served with anyone but his teammate Red.
They’d just returned from a personal mission to help a SEAL veteran locate his woman’s closest friend, Thalia, who had been taken over the border into Mexico right before he got the call to aid a Virginia SEAL team.
He was taking the place of a man whose call sign was Joker, also Addy’s twin.
Not only had Joker been pulled from the mission because he was belligerent that his civilian sister had been contracted by the Navy due to her knowledge of the indigenous people in the region but his wife Sam was going to give birth to their child any day now.
The light pressure on his arm directed his gaze back to Jane.
She was slouched over at an awkward angle with her head resting against his bicep.
He sat frozen for a moment, trying to pinpoint why it felt so good to have her lean into him for comfort.
Maybe it was the exhaustion of her harrowing experience, but he sat a little taller with the knowledge that if this woman hadn’t felt safe with him on some level, she wouldn’t have passed out cold against him.
He carefully repositioned her, drawing Jane into his side, and wrapping one arm around her shoulders.
If a threat appeared, he could move quickly enough.
He winced at the throbbing pain in his leg.
The wasn’t a good environment to get a wound, and he knew Jane had been right.
Infection was most likely imminent, but the mission had gone relatively smoothly, and they’d be back on U.S.
soil soon. Even if his injury did go south, he wouldn’t regret joining the Virginia SEAL team or helping rescue these women and children from a horrific fate.
And Jane. There was something about the woman that just drew him in.
He looked up to see Ransom approaching. The man crouched down beside him and lifted his chin toward Jane, who was still out cold.
“When we got on the boat, one of the traffickers was already dead. Knife cut to the femoral artery,” Ransom said.
He couldn’t help his arm from flexing more firmly around Jane’s shoulders.
“Another was close to bleeding out from a puncture wound to the neck.”
Sully hissed out a breath. “How?” His chest tightened, thinking of all the reasons Jane might’ve been temporarily untied.
“Ambassador’s granddaughter was complaining about the blood spatter that got on her when Jane attacked them. They…were violating her and she grabbed one of their knives.”
The growl rumbled low in his throat. People could become the worst versions of themselves in stressful situations, but the ambassador’s granddaughter griping about blood spatter in the face after what Jane had been through was unforgivable.
There was a rustle off to the side, where one of the young girls, no more than ten years old, was tugging on Addy, sobbing.
“The men started to untie me,” the little girl said in relatively good English.
“They were talking about doing bad things. She gave herself to them instead. It was so awful. I feel so—”
Addy pulled the girl into a hug, letting her cry against her shirt.
“Fuck,” he breathed in a low tone. His chest ached for the children, but also for Jane.
And just as certain situations could bring out the worst in people, others rose above the terror and did what they could to survive.
To help others survive. Jane had let herself be violated so that a child didn’t have to endure the horror.
That was fucking bravery. That was valor.
The badass by his side had stabbed her attacker with his own knife, then turned it on another one of the traffickers.
The bullet he’d taken in the leg was painful but impersonal.
What she’d gone through? Even if he didn’t know exactly what her attackers had done, they’d been close enough for her to bury a knife into them.
She’d suffered something personal. Something degrading.
Painful. Again, there was a burn in his chest as recognition of what this woman had done for another human humbled him.
He didn’t see that type of goodness often, not to this level.
Before thinking, he dipped his chin and placed a kiss on the top of her head. “Crazy brave,” he whispered even though she was asleep. “I’m going to get you home. No matter what.”