24. Bianca
Chapter 24
Bianca
“ Y our vitals look great.” Caleb offers me a smile as he uses hand sanitizer before helping me stand.
“Really?” I feel fine, but I’d honestly thought he’d find something wrong. Even if it was just a mild lingering fever. All the fatigue is gone, and I feel completely revitalized. As though I could do anything. Which, of course, medically speaking, makes no sense.
“Seriously, based on what you guys told me earlier, I would have thought you’d be seriously ill, but your fever is gone, your color is good, pulse is strong…it’s like you were never sick.”
“It’s amazing,” Abana whispers as she studies me. “You were truly ill.”
“I feel fine now.” I recall how I felt even when I woke up this morning, like my entire body was on fire. I’d barely managed to keep what little I ate at breakfast down.
“You’re good now,” Caleb replies. “And thank God for that.”
“Thank God,” I reply with a smile.
And then it hits me like a bright light straight into my heart. If I hadn’t had the fever, we wouldn’t have left the camp. We never would have been out here for the team to save us, and we wouldn’t have the chance to save everyone else.
Thank you, God. I breathe a sigh of relief, the miracle settling around me. I turn to leave, and spot Silas standing just inside the medical tent. He’s changed his clothes, wearing dark jeans and a white T-shirt that stretches over his expansive chest. His hair is dry now, his gaze piercing.
“We’ll give you two just a minute.” Caleb leaves the tent, Abana walking out with him. She pauses in the entryway and squeezes Silas’s arm gently, then disappears outside.
He clears his throat. “How do you feel?”
“Good. Better. Caleb says it’s like I wasn’t even sick.”
Silas nods. “Good.”
There’s an uncomfortable silence around us, something I can’t quite put my finger on clinging to the very air we breathe. I scrape the still-damp hair off my neck and use the ponytail holder on my wrist to put it in a low bun. “How is Eloise? Caleb said Elijah was setting you up with a video conference so you could see her.”
He smiles. “She’s good. Looks like she’s grown in the last three weeks.”
“I bet she has.”
“She told me she missed me and that she’s ready for me to come home, but that it’s okay if I can’t yet because she’s having so much fun with Eliza and Lance.”
“That girl is mature beyond her years.”
“You’re telling me.” He runs a hand over the back of his neck. “You’re really okay?”
“I really am.” I hesitate just a moment, unsure if I should speak my mind or not. Silas has never made it a secret that he’s struggled with his belief, though after he nearly died I know he came around to the idea. To God. He’s even prayed with me each night since. But is he truly open enough to hear my thoughts? Only one way to find out. After all, no one brought about change by remaining silent. So, I take a deep breath. “Look, I know you don’t fully believe in it, but I can’t help but feel like the fever was a tool to get us out. The fact that I was so sick earlier but now I’m totally fine? It shouldn’t make sense.”
His gaze levels on mine. “I prayed for you when we were in that water.”
Silas’s words stop me in my tracks. “You did?”
He nods. “I begged God not to take you too.”
His tone is tortured, his expression strained. I reach for him, needing to bring him some sort of comfort. “Oh, Silas, I?—”
At his expression, I drop my hand.
“I thought that I was being punished for the way I’ve been. See, I had the perfect family, Bianca. Loving parents, a supportive sister.” He moves further into the room. “But I still felt like I needed more. My father wanted me to follow in his footsteps and run the ranch, but that just felt so torturous to me. I went into the military because I wanted more, and during my time in, I lost everything. My friends, my parents, the ranch, my sister—” He chokes on the last word, his grief still so fresh. “I couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t my punishment for not being content with what I had.”
“Silas, I?—”
He shakes his head, so I stop speaking. “And then this whole time we’ve been here. You’ve managed to remain so positive, behaving like a light to these people, speaking about God and the salvation He offered through the death of Jesus Christ, and all I could think was that I wish for one second I had the same type of blind faith you do.” He moves in even closer, until he’s standing only a few inches from me. “I got closer after this.” He presses a hand over where the injury was. “But I still struggled, then when I was in that water with you, I truly prayed for what the first time since my sister died, and here you stand. Free of the chains that bound you back in that camp, and free of the sickness that plagued you only hours ago.” Reaching up, he runs his hand over the side of my face.
I shiver at the touch, enjoying the contact far more than I should. Far more than is safe.
“It’s enough to make a cynic like me understand that I don’t know everything.”
His words are everything to me.
His hope stoking the fire burning inside of me.
I tilt my face up to look at him, desperate for him to take the next step even as I know it would change everything for the both of us.
His gaze drops to my lips, and he leans in.
I close my eyes.
My pulse thunders in response.
“Hey, there you guys are.”
Silas pulls away from me like lightning struck him, and we both turn to Elijah, who’s grinning like the idiot he so clearly is.
“Bad timing?” he jokes.
“What is it?” Silas demands.
“We thought you might want to come share your plan with us. As crazy as it might be.” Michael grins. Troublemaker.
“We’ll be right there,” Silas replies, then turns back to me. “We’re not done here.”
“Good,” I reply with a smile. ‘Not done here’ means there’s more to come.
More that could possibly lead to everything I’ve wanted since I first laid eyes upon the SEAL.
“So you’re telling me that you want to walk right back into the place you were just freed from?” Bradyn questions, his arms crossed. He still looks exactly the same as he did the day he pulled Silas and me out of that jungle what feels like lifetimes ago.
While I don’t know much about him, I do know that he’s the oldest of five brothers and the son of Silas’s uncle. He also started the Hunt Brothers Search and Rescue Team after getting out of the Army, and since then he and his brothers have managed to track down people that were considered impossible to find.
I’m proof enough of that, given that twice now they’ve pulled me out of a nightmare.
“I think it’s the only way we safely get everyone out,” Silas replies.
Bradyn looks unconvinced. “How do you figure that?”
“River isn’t going to kill us,” Silas insists. “He needs us alive for whatever his goal is.”
“We know his goal,” Elijah replies. “He’s working for Herman Bridges.”
That’s a name I never thought I’d hear again. “Yarrow’s father?”
“One and the same,” Elijah replies. “I had to do some digging, but it seems that River is in some deep water with the man.”
“How so?” Silas questions.
“He owes him a quarter million dollars after a drug run River was hired to do got busted and the product confiscated,” the second-youngest Hunt cousin, Dylan, responds.
“That’s rough.” Michael whistles.
“Tell me about it.” Dylan walks over to the laptop on a table in the center of the tent, and a few seconds later a projector kicks on, painting the side of the tent in landscape photographs and maps. “According to our sources, River assured Herman he could get him the money back—with interest—he just needed some extra time.”
“Herman gave him two months,” Elijah adds. “And time is almost up.”
“They’re here to get the diamonds, but they ran into an issue. The ground wasn’t nearly as fertile as River was hoping for, and he’s not even halfway to his goal yet.”
“Until this morning,” Dylan adds. “Our surveillance shows that a huge vein of diamonds was found just two hours ago.”
“Which means they’ll be gone soon,” Caleb says.
“But not before killing every single person in that camp,” Bradyn replies.
Both Silas and I whirl on him. “What do you mean?”
“Our comms also picked up communication from River, ordering the execution of every man, woman, and child in that camp as soon as the quota is met. They’re leaving no witnesses.”
My stomach churns, bile burning my throat as Bradyn speaks the words. I shouldn’t be surprised. River is, after all, a murderer just like my father. But here I am, once again shocked at the level of evil twisting the hearts of some men. “We have to get back in there and stop him,” I insist. “We have to get those people out.”
“I agree,” Silas replies.
“You do realize that if we can’t get you out in time, those executions will extend to you too, right?” Michael asks.
“We’ll get them out in time,” Silas says.
But Bradyn, Elijah, Dylan, Caleb, Michael, Elliot, and Riley all look unconvinced. I imagine if Silas’s other cousin Tucker was here, he’d likely have the same doubt stamped on his face.
“It’s your mission,” Bradyn says. “You tell us what you want us to do. We called for backup, but you should know it’s not getting here anytime soon. Maybe forty-eight hours.”
“We don’t have that long,” Silas insists.
“No,” Bradyn agrees. “We don’t.”
Silas falls silent as he processes. We wait, they all die. We go in, there’s a chance no one makes it out. Rock, meet hard place. Lord, please guide us.
“I’ll sneak back in,” Silas insists.
“How are you planning to explain the escape? How the three of you got away from the guards and Laring and Idra?”
“We’re not going to get caught.”
“No?”
“The guards are there to keep people from leaving, not keep us from getting back in. So I’ll go in under the cover of night, sneaking through the camp and alerting the people there to the coming danger. You give me a weapon, and I’ll take out some of the guards, making a path for them to escape to freedom.”
I don’t miss the fact that there are a lot of I’s in Silas’s plan. “I’m going with you.”
He turns to me. “No.”
“Yes. It’s foolish for you to think you can do this alone. You need more boots on the ground.”
“No one else can be risked,” he insists.
“You forget I was a soldier, too,” I snap, frustrated that he’s planning a suicide mission like this when having me go in with him increases the odds of success.
“Bianca—”
“No. I go in too. We leave Abana, Laring, and Idra here where they’re safe and go in together.”
“I’m up for an adventure, I’ll come in, too,” Michael adds.
“Same,” Bradyn replies.
“You can’t all risk your lives like this. I have a better chance at getting in undetected if I go alone.”
“And also a better chance at getting caught if no one is watching your six,” Michael says. “You can’t tell me you don’t see the problem with this plan.”
Silas’s reaction is pure fear.
His earlier words come rushing back to me.
“I lost everything . My friends, my parents, the ranch, my sister ? —”
“Silas,” I say, stepping forward and pressing my palm to his chest. “You’re not going to lose us, but you will force us to lose you if you go in there alone. Please, we have to go as a team. A unit.”
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “We have to be quiet.”
“And we will be,” Bradyn replies. “We’ve all trained for this, cousin. You’re not the only one.”
Silas takes a deep breath and finally nods. “First, Bianca and I go in—but we’re walking right through the gates.”
Michael studies him. “And I’m forced to ask again, how do you plan on explaining your escape?”
“We’ll distract River and the others while you get in and warn people,” Silas replies. “With the attention on us, you stand a better chance at getting everyone out.”
“Laring, Idra, and Abana?” I ask him.
“They stay here with Caleb. We may need medical help by the time this is over.”
“You really think walking through the front gates is going to work?” Brady asks.
“I do,” Silas replies. “Because with eyes on us, they won’t be looking for you.”
Brady claps his hands together. “Well, then, let’s narrow down on some logistics and get this party started.”