Page 29 of Inevitable
My heart squeezed, but I was silent as Brock and Nate approached us so stealthily that they didn’t make a sound.
They made short work of our cuffs with some kind of tool that they must have brought with them.
Everything happened so fast.
One moment we were still shackled in our prison.
The next moment we were all outside and free.
I could see Brock making some hand signals after he’d handed Colin his night vision glasses, but nobody made a sound.
My hands were shaking as Colin affixed both of them to the waistband of his jeans so I could follow right behind him and not run into anything I couldn’t see.
Brock and Nate took the lead, and we followed behind.
The moon wasn’t full, but I had enough light to be able to see Colin’s large form in front of me, and that was all I really needed to see.
Colin’s gait was uneven because of his previous injury, but he was strong and steady as we made our way through the woods.
I willed myself to think only about my next step and getting to our destination.
We traveled that way for what seemed like a long time before Colin abruptly stopped.
Before I knew what was happening, I was pulled into Brock’s arms and he hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe.
“Fuck, Emma!” he said quietly next to my ear. “You had us all pretty worried. Gage and Seth are on their way back home, but they’re pretty frantic right now, too. You okay?”
“I’m okay,” I assured him as my eyes filled with tears.
I was so damn happy to hear Brock’s voice.
“My turn,” Nate rumbled as he pulled me from Brock to give me a giant bear hug. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“A little scared, but physically I’m good,” I told Nate. “Thank you both for coming for me and for helping Colin. The water he had with him probably saved my life.”
“Who in the hell is Colin?” Brock questioned in a puzzled voice.
“It’s me,” Colin grumbled. “Can you two stop squeezing the life out of Emma? She needs to breathe, and her face is a little bruised. She took a few beatings at the hands of her kidnappers.”
Nate reluctantly released me as he hissed, “That makes me wish we could have killed those bastards.”
I patted him on the arm. “It doesn’t hurt anymore. I really am alright, Nate.”
“She knows you as Colin?” Brock asked. “Your name is Marshall.”
“Colin Marshall,” I informed my friends. “I’ve always known him as Colin.”
“That’s why she never asked about you when Wyatt talked about you,” Brock muttered. “She didn’t know your last name.”
“I prefer to go by Marshall most of the time,” Colin said sternly. “Emma was a rare exception.”
I was glad he’d made that exception. I couldn’t imagine calling a man I was sleeping with by his last name.
Maybe he didn’t like it, but I happened to love his first name.
“How much farther is it to the clearing?” I asked.
“We still have a small trek ahead of us,” Colin informed me. “Do you need to rest for a while?”
