Chapter 21 #2
“Of course it is. You guys were quiet. I'm the one who fired shots that they obviously heard.
“Doesn’t make it your fault,” Grover assured her, and he hoped the words of the man she’d almost shot would have more of an impact than his had.
Emma just huffed, which he took to mean she didn't believe the Delta Force operator any more than she had him, but wasn't going to waste time arguing about it.
It hadn't taken him long after he’d left Emma hidden under the tree to realize it was friend and not foe who was close by.
He’d spotted Lefty and Doc, and although they’d all pulled weapons on one another, as soon as they saw who it was, they’d all been relieved.
They’d been joined by Trigger, Oz, Brain, and Lucky, but before they could clue in Grover and Rocket the two had found Emma.
Just because she hadn't known who they were, hadn't even been able to see them properly, the guys who were wearing their night vision goggles had seen her and realized who she was immediately. Grover had no doubt been ready to assure Emma that she was safe now when she’d fired at him, then run.
Although she hadn't obeyed his orders to stay where she was no matter what, he could hardly fault her for it, given she thought she was fighting for her life.
He was proud as hell of his girl and her ability to keep bouncing back.
Sooner or later, she was going to crash, but he intended to be there for her when that inevitable moment happened.
For now, she was clinging to her control, and he needed her to do it a little longer.
“I’ll work on convincing you of that later,” he said as he scooped his girl up and headed right back to where he’d hidden her earlier.
“But now I need you to stay here. I mean it this time, Emma. Don’t leave this spot.
We can take them, okay? All you need to do is stay here and wait until one of us comes for you. ”
“They're dressed like you, and I can't see their faces,” she reminded him. The men surrounding them all wore tactical gear, and with the NVGs, she wouldn't be able to see them well enough to identify them.
“Fine, code word is blondie,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear. “Any more excuses?”
“I don’t have anything to protect myself with. Grover took my gun.”
“Didn't want to risk you getting off another shot, third time is the charm, remember,” the man teased as he held out Nathan’s backup weapon that he’d left with Emma.
She took it and offered Grover a smile. “Thanks. I feel better with it, even if I'm not a great shot.”
“Aim for the chest,” Grover told her helpfully. “Biggest area to hit and will do the most damage. But you're not going to need to shoot anyone again.”
“Now stay here,” he said as he lifted the branches for her to get in beneath them.
“I'm not a dog, Nathan, don’t order me around.” There was a bit of bite to her words, and he was sure she didn't appreciate being ordered around like she was nothing, given what she’d been through these last several days.
“I'm sorry, just worried about you. Please stay here,” he amended, far too aware of the approaching vehicles and the danger they were bringing with them.
“Okay,” she agreed as though the fight had drained out of her. “Don’t get hurt. Okay? Please. None of you get hurt on my account,” she added, looking over his shoulder to where he knew the guys were.
“No one on our side is getting shot,” Trigger said confidently, and he hoped the words reassured Emma. The truth was, no way were Stephen Joseph’s men as highly trained as he and the Delta Force guys were.
“I won't move,” Emma told him, and he leaned in to give her a quick kiss before he lowered the branches to keep her covered. If the guards were wearing night vision goggles, then they’d spot her, but he had to hope they weren't. Chances were they would have already been spotted if Joseph’s men had that technology.
With Emma tucked safely away, he and the others melded into the darkness. They’d take out as many as they could before the men arrived, and taking out vehicles was quicker than eliminating each of the men individually.
It looked like there were four vehicles. Assuming they were jeeps like the one he and his team had driven in on, there could be up to ten men inside each one. Forty to their nine wasn't amazing odds, but it certainly wasn't insurmountable.
They spread out and began to fire on the approaching vehicles.
Given that they were designed to withstand any potential attack from an animal, they weren't as easy to take out as a regular car.
But they weren't bulletproof, the windows were still made of regular glass, so he aimed for the driver’s window of one of the vehicles.
One of the jeeps spun out of control, and he assumed they’d hit someone. Screams echoed from the approaching convoy, so he knew they’d hit multiple someones. Good. The more they took out before the men got there, the safer Emma was.
Although they never stopped firing, three of the vehicles pulled to a stop just a few hundred yards away, and men began to spill out of them. The rap of gunfire was loud in the air as he and the Delta Force team fired at the men trying to take Emma from him.
Bodies dropped, littering the beautiful Kenyan landscape as blood seeped into the ground. But so far, no one on his side had dropped, and that was all Nathan cared about. It didn't appear that Joseph’s men were wearing vests, which meant taking them out was that much easier.
Slowly, the gunfire died down. Only when things went quiet did they begin to approach the vehicles. They picked off a few more men who had been hiding behind the jeeps, and a man bleeding out on the ground tried to lift his weapon to fire at them, but Nathan took him out.
Movement in his peripheral vision had him spinning around, weapon raised, not firing until he confirmed the target because he wasn't completely certain Emma would stay where they’d left her.
But it wasn't Emma. It was a boy, dressed in nothing but his underwear. There were bruises on the boy’s head, and thin lines of blood along his front and sides that looked like someone might have taken a whip to him. Just like that, Nathan knew who he was.
“She’s wearing your clothes,” he said with a smirk at the boy who couldn’t be older than fifteen.
Still a kid, but a kid who had participated in Emma’s ordeal.
“What did she do? Knock you out and run? They decide to make you stay in your underwear until you got back the prisoner you were responsible for?”
“You're too late,” the boy whispered, his voice hoarse like he’d spent hours screaming. Probably had as Stephen Joseph doled out punishments for the kid’s failure.
“Oh yeah?” Nathan asked. “Looks like you're all alone out here, and I'm going to personally see to it that your boss pays for what he did to my girl.”
The kid’s eyes widened. “Your girl?” he asked, then gulped as the ramifications of that sank in. “You shouldn’t have left her alone.”
As though the kid’s words were a damn prophecy, the sounds of a fifth engine cut through the night, and when he glanced over his shoulder, Nathan saw headlights heading right to where they’d left Emma.
Too far away for him to get to her in time.
Too far away for him to stop it from happening.
Leaving Emma hidden had seemed like the safest option.
It kept her out of the line of fire, so a stray bullet didn't hit her. But he’d made a critical mistake in assuming that these were the only vehicles out there tonight.
There had been a fifth, hiding in the wings, obviously using the guards as distractions so Stephen Joseph could reclaim his prize.
Emma.
And Nathan had given him the perfect opportunity to snatch her right out from underneath his nose, and there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening.