Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Kara woke with a start. Terror swimming through her veins when she heard an extremely loud noise overhead and a searchlight flashing through the trees.
“Easy, Kara, it’s okay. It’s my team. They found us.”
“They did?” In her defense, she’d been startled out of one of the best sleeps she’d had in weeks.
She hadn’t slept well, if much at all, while kept prisoner in Nolan’s cabin.
He had a tendency to burst in on her at all hours of the day and night, and she’d never wanted to be vulnerable around him by sleeping when he came in.
“Come on, crawl out of there. I want to tear down our lean-to before we get out of here…leave no trace and all that.”
Kara was still a little foggy-headed, but she did as he asked and scooted out of their shelter. She helped him break it down and by the time they were done, the helicopter she heard minutes ago was hovering directly over them.
Her hair blew in the downdraft from the rotor blades and she couldn’t continue to look up because of the dirt flying in the air.
“We’re going to go up together,” Arrow said, shouting to be heard.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Kara.
I know it’s easy for me to say ‘trust me,’ but I swear that I’ve done this so many times I could do it in my sleep.
All you have to do is keep your eyes closed and before you know it, you’ll be inside the chopper and we’ll have a whole canteen of water to ourselves. ”
She actually licked her lips. The idea of having clean water to drink was enough to almost make her salivate.
Arrow grinned. “Right? I’m hungry, but thinking about water makes me almost feral. Come on, step into this harness.”
Kara noticed for the first time that Arrow was holding a contraption that could’ve only come from the helicopter over their heads. She hadn’t seen or heard it being dropped from above, but it obviously hadn’t appeared magically out of nowhere.
Arrow patiently stood in front of her, holding the harness for her to step into. He didn’t seem fazed by the deafening noise of the helicopter or the windstorm it was creating all around them. But then again, he spent his life working in and around the machines, so he probably wasn’t fazed.
Kara had never been in a helicopter before, however, and she couldn’t help feeling nervous. But Arrow’s calmness went a long way toward steadying her nerves.
“Sorry, but I need to fasten the clips,” he said, a moment before his hands began touching her a little too close to her private parts. Kara stiffened, then forced herself to relax. Arrow wasn’t copping a feel. He was making sure the harness around her hips and chest was tight.
Then it occurred to her. “What about you?”
“What about me, what?” he asked.
“I don’t see another harness.”
“I’m good.”
Kara opened her mouth to protest. He couldn’t seriously be considering getting hauled up into the helicopter with no safety gear?
Thankfully, he wasn’t. A rope descended from above that had another harness attached. Much faster than she’d gotten into hers, Arrow slipped it up and over his hips, tightened the straps, then held out his hand to her.
“I’ve got you, Kara. Promise.”
“What about your shoulder? And ribs?” she asked, as she stepped closer to Arrow.
“They’ll be okay. And I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She didn’t get a chance to tell him that she wasn’t worried about herself at the moment, that she was more concerned about him.
He pulled her closer, then frowned. He lifted his gaze from the harnesses they were wearing. “I need to hook us together. It would be safest if I positioned us face-to-face, but I understand if that’s too painful for you. I can hook us with your back to my front if you’d prefer.”
She immediately understood what he was saying. And truth be told, being that close to a man made too many memories flood her mind. Of Nolan holding her down, hovering over her as he assaulted her.
But Arrow wasn’t Nolan. What happened to her was traumatic, but this man had proven time and time again that he wasn’t anything like the monster who’d abused her.
“It’s okay. All I can think about is that water you promised me.”
She tried to smile but had a feeling it was a little wonky.
“You’re amazing,” Arrow said softly into her ear.
Then he reached for a ring on her harness and slowly pulled her body flush with his.
“Close your eyes. Think about how good that water is going to feel going down your throat. How it’ll fill your belly and make you feel full after just a few swallows.
How amazing it’ll taste. And I know some people think water has no taste, but they’ve never gone without it for so long that they crave it. ”
“And you have?” Kara asked, voice shaky, doing her best to tamp down the panic she felt when her and Arrow’s pelvises lined up perfectly. Since they were almost the same height, she could feel the bulge in his pants as he hooked them together.
“Wrap your legs around me, and your arms around my neck. And stay as loose as you can. I’ll do all the work.
I know this is hard, but you’re doing amazing.
Good, just like that. Easy, Kara, breathe.
You’re safe with me. I’ll get us unhooked and give you some space the second we’re inside the chopper.
“And to answer your question, yes. Edge and I were once pinned down by enemy fire for several days when an extraction went sideways. Our chopper was hit, and we had to wait for backup to arrive. We were with a team of Navy SEALs, thank goodness, and were able to hold off the bad guys. But we had very little supplies. I swear by the time the rest of my team got there and took us back to base, that first glass of water tasted like the finest wine.”
Kara kept her eyes squeezed shut while he spoke. She suddenly felt them leave the ground, their bodies spinning in a circle as they were reeled toward the helicopter. She appreciated his attempt to distract her from her current position and what was happening. Shockingly, it was working.
“Okay, hang on just a few more seconds. You’re doing great. You’re going to feel us swinging outward, and then hands on you, but you’re safe. No one is going to hurt you, they just need to get us inside. Don’t try to help, just let them do their thing.”
Kara braced herself.
Just like Arrow promised, the hands on her were strong and sure and didn’t linger as they hauled her and Arrow into the helicopter.
“Twenty more seconds and I’ll have you loose,” he told her, still speaking directly into her ear so she could hear him over the roar of the engine.
True to his word, she felt the harness she was wearing go loose as she lowered her legs and stood. Opening her eyes, she found herself staring into Arrow’s concerned gaze. He was wearing a headset, which one of his teammates must’ve put on his head as soon as he’d gotten inside the helicopter.
“You okay?” he asked.
She couldn’t hear the words, but read them on his lips instead. Kara nodded.
He turned his head and said something to someone, but she didn’t take her gaze off him.
He was her anchor in a world that suddenly seemed a lot more scary.
Out in the woods, she could almost pretend that Nolan didn’t exist. But now that she was going back to civilization, she had to face up to the possibility that he hadn’t died in the flood.
That he was still out there, biding his time to get her back into his clutches.
Because when he’d told her that he’d never let her go, she believed him.
He was smart and a total chameleon. He could blend in anywhere.
Never letting those around him see that he was completely devoid of any kind of morals.
That he was a psychopath who only cared about what he wanted.
Didn’t care if what he was doing hurt someone else.
She was brought back to the here and now by Arrow’s hand on her upper arm. He gestured to the harness she wore with his head and demonstrated what he wanted her to do when he unclipped his own.
She followed his lead, and after the harness fell to the floor of the chopper, he bent down and picked it up, hanging both hers and his on a hook.
Kara looked around for the first time and saw two men behind the controls of the chopper, and another two looking at both her and Arrow with worried expressions.
Another touch on her arm had her turning back to Arrow, who was holding out a pair of headphones. She took them and put them over her ears, and the relief from the noise surrounding her was instant.
“Can you hear me?”
The sound of Arrow’s voice immediately calmed her. “Yes.”
“Good. Come on, sit over here. Casper’s been waiting for us to get settled before heading back to base.”
After she’d sat on the floor, Arrow knelt in front of her, blocking her view of the other men. “Buck, can you get me a water?” he asked his friend.
In response, one of the other men turned and opened a metal box behind one of the pilot’s chairs. He handed two plastic bottles to Arrow.
Breaking the seal on one of them, Arrow handed it to her. “We’ll get your hands taken care of soon. Don’t drink too fast.”
He smiled at her as he opened his own bottle.
Kara held eye contact with him as she took the first few swallows of the fresh, clean water.
“Delicious, right? The finest wine,” Arrow said with a wink.
He wasn’t wrong. The water was literally the best thing Kara had ever tasted in her life. The temptation to do just what he warned her not to do was strong. It felt as if she couldn’t get the liquid into her body fast enough, but she forced herself to drink slowly.
“You okay?” Arrow asked, after they’d quenched their thirst.
Surprisingly, she was. He’d made their extraction as painless as possible, and she was impressed with how professional and capable both he and his friends had been. She nodded.
“Anything hurt?”
“No. How’s your shoulder? And ribs?”
“What’s wrong with your shoulder and ribs?” a low voice asked.
Kara jerked, forgetting that everyone could hear her and Arrow’s conversation.