Page 8 of Rescuing Nathaniel

“Explain.”

“One of the victims got herself off the boat. Found her in a raft,” he explained. His entire body felt tense as he awaited his orders. The last thing he wanted was to wind up court-martialed, but he also wasn't leaving this woman behind.

It would be a death sentence, and the thought of Ava dead left him feeling empty. No one who had fought this hard to live deserved to die.

“Is it done?”

“Not yet, sir,” he replied, wondering if he should have left the life raft to investigate after he tagged the ship. That way his commander would have no reason to insist that he leave Ava behind.

“That’s imperative,” his commander reminded him as though he might have forgotten. Nathaniel was aware that this needed to be done, he just wasn't okay with doing it at Ava’s expense.

“I’ll tag the ship, sir,” he assured his commander.

“Then you need to get out of there. They likely know she’s missing by now which means they’ll be searching the area. If they find you with her, this is all over.”

Nathaniel had to bite his tongue to snap back that if they found Ava it would be all over for her. She’d be dragged back to hell, and this time her captors would ensure there was no way for her to escape.

Before his commander could issue an outright order that he was going to have to disobey and worry about the consequences to his career when he got back home, a huge gust of wind blew up, informing him a storm was coming.

Luck was on his side because, against all the odds, the storm must have disrupted his comms link to his commander.

Could he really be that lucky?

His commander hadn't actually said that he had to leave Ava behind, and he could definitely play up the fact that she was a valuable tool because she had insider intel they couldn’t get anywhere else. The fact that she worked for Prey was an added bonus, there was no way his commander would want to face the might and power of the infamous Eagle Oswald if he gave an order to leave one of Prey’s people behind.

Perfect.

Nathaniel smiled as he carefully eased Ava down until she was lying on her back in the bottom of the boat. He was going to have to move fast, though. His commander was correct. It was likely that they were aware Ava was missing already, which meant they’d be searching the boat for her. Once they realized a life raft was missing, they would search the ocean instead.

With the storm brewing he was going to have to swim as quickly as possible to the ship so he could tag it, then get back to Ava, all before anyone on that boat learned she was no longer on it.

“I’ll be right back, okay, Ava? I swear, I am not leaving you behind. I’ll be right back, and then I'm going to get us the hell out of here.”

Considering the major panic attack she’d had when she thought he wasn't going to save her, diving out of the raft and back into the water was harder than it should have been. Usually, Nathaniel wouldn't allow himself to form an emotional attachment with anyone outside of his team, his brothers, even if they weren't related by blood. Their brotherhood had beenformedin blood, and that bond ran deeper than anything else ever could.

But Ava was different.

Ava was a warrior, too, and you never left a fellow warrior behind.

Smooth strokes quickly ate up the distance between him and the ship, and once he reached it he planted the tracker just like he was supposed to. His commander could not possibly discipline him for following the mission briefing to a T, not even if he left in the life raft instead of swimming.

All he had to do was get the raft back to the exfil location and then bring Ava back up onto the helo with him. As soon as his commander learned of the inside intel he’d gotten them it would be stupid to discipline him in any way. Besides, if his commander had outright ordered him to leave Ava behind, he hadn't heard it.

Anxious to get back to the raft to check on her, Nathaniel pushed himself as hard as he could. Just because he wasn't going to leave her behind didn't mean she was out of the woods. She was still a sick woman, and she was out there on the ocean, in nothing but a life raft, with a storm brewing.

As soon as he reached the lifeboat, which had taken him longer than he would have liked because the storm was whipping up the waves, Nathaniel hauled himself into it and immediately dropped to his knees at Ava’s side. She was lying right where he’d left her, so she hadn't regained consciousness. A blessing since she would have thought he’d left her when he wasn't there, but a curse because it meant she was sicker than he could deal with right now.

“Hey, Ava, I'm back,” he told her as he touched her neck like he had when he first discovered her. Just like last time, he was rewarded with the flutter of her pulse bumping against his fingertips. “Told you I wasn't going to leave you.”

Now all he had to do was figure out how to get this raft to the extraction point. Last resort would be taking Ava in the water with him. It would make them less visible, but with her so sick the cold water would bring her body temperature dangerously low extremely quickly, plus she was bleeding which meant she was a beacon for sharks.

Before he could decide on the best and quickest method of getting her to help, the helicopter sitting on the ship’s deck suddenly whirred to life.

Not only did it lift up into the sky, but a searchlight flipped on.

They knew.

Knew that Ava was gone. Knew the lifeboat was missing. Knew she had to have been the one to take it and were beginning their search for her.

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