Page 17 of Holiday Hostage
MAVERICK
What the actual hell had just happened?
I stared down at Payton’s prone form.
My night vision had adjusted while we crept through the fort in search of her, and I’d seen every step that drove her into the wooden beam stretched across the ceiling.
The fact she’d knocked herself out bothered me less than the drying blood on her chin. Who had dared put their hands on her?
Tarron and Reed bolted toward me, their steps light and quick as ghosts.
“We’re supposed to be rescuing her, not knocking her unconscious.” The progression of events baffled me. “How did this happen?”
“Can we talk as we run? Kind of got an assload of mercenaries about to figure out we don’t belong here.” Tarron bent and put his fingers to Payton’s throat. “She’s alive. Pulse is rapid but steady. I’ll give her a full assessment when she’s awake.”
“Wake her up.” The sheer brunt of the need that drove me to make the command brought Tarron’s head up.
Even Reed took a step away from me, his eyes going wide. “Uh, you might like her better asleep. She damn near took out my lungs with that solar plexus bullshit.”
“What are you talking about?”
Tarron grinned up at me and stood. “He’s talking about this little hellcat taking me and Reed down while we were trying to rescue her.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I lifted Payton up and over my shoulder. “Didn’t you tell her we were here to rescue her?”
Reed shot a look at Tarron, who shrugged. “Slipped my mind. Guess I’m not used to these rescue missions. Figured she’d realize we were the good guys.”
“How was she supposed to know that?” We all looked the same.
That was the point.
I eyed Reed, who seemed none the worse for his run-in with Payton.
Tarron, on the other hand, was sporting a split lip that was trickling blood down his chin.
Just like Payton. “Who hurt her?” The question came out in a guttural growl.
Tarron loped ahead of me, talking as he checked around corners. “No idea. She was bleeding when we went in.”
“Probably the motherfucker who walked out when you mentioned shift change.” Reed fisted his hands so hard his knuckles cracked. “Want me to take care of it?”
“If the situation calls for it, but we’re not here to deal with them.”
Even though I wanted nothing more than to punish the man who’d hurt Payton.
Revenge would have to wait, even if we served it up as justice. Payton took priority.
I shifted her weight to rest better on my shoulder.
She let out a tiny breath, more of a whimper than anything, and my insides melted. “Time to go, boys.”
“On it.” Tarron slowed to a stop at the next corner, holding up a closed fist to stop us all in our tracks. “Got one coming, more in the distance.”
Footsteps rang out behind us, angry voices surging. “What happened? Did you see her run this way?”
“Shit,” Reed muttered the curse loud enough for me to give him a glare that he completely ignored. “We can’t take the time to climb up the rope, not with her unconscious.”
I’d already thought of that. I could haul her up, but it would be a slow, painstaking process that we didn’t have time for.
