Page 61 of Rescue Me (Tempting SEALs 6.10)

Elena didn’t fight him as the man Jake had called Benny jerked her arms roughly behind her back, pushed her down to a sitting position, then tied her ankles. He made quick work of tying Seth the same way. Then the two men tore into their food supply and gorged themselves.

Seth lay as still as stone beside her, his face ashen where it pressed into the rock and grit of the campsite floor. The blood that soaked the back of his head oozed black in the night. She was close enough that she could feel his breath penetrate her shorts and warm her hip so she knew he was still alive. What she didn’t know was how badly he was hurt. Bad, she suspected, for him to be out this long.

“He needs medical attention.”

Neither man acknowledged her.

Seth stirred slightly.

“Lay still,” she whispered, darting a glance across the shadows, hoping Jake and Benny couldn’t hear her. “Just lay still. You could have a concussion.”

“Jesus.” Seth’s voice slogged out, weak and strained. “What … happened?”

“He hit you with the butt of his gun. You’re bleeding pretty badly.”

“Head wounds,” Seth slurred. “Always … bleed like a … bitch.”

Elena glanced at the men again. Decided to chance lying down. She rolled to her hip, eased down so she could see Seth’s face in the dark.

“How bad?”

He blinked. Tried to focus. “Picked a … good place to … nail me. Come from … a long line … of hard heads. I’m … fine.”

“Yeah,” she said, her chest tight with fear. “I can see that, tough guy.”

Leave it to him, Elena thought. He could hardly talk, had to be hurting like blazes, and he insisted he was fine.

“What are … they doing?”

She glanced toward the sound of gluttony. “Eating. Drinking. Bitching about no-service messages on their cells phones, sore feet and blisters and complaining about the old man and his bright idea to track us out here.”

“Must have been looking … for a chance … to get at us.”

Elena nodded. “Probably read about the event in the papers. But why track us here? Why not just wait for their chance and kill us in Flagstaff?”

Seth shifted slightly, groaned. “Think about it.”

She thought. Got the connection. “Right. The headlines would read something like ‘Assistant DA and Flagstaff police detective die in unfortunate Grand Canyon hiking accident.’”

“Bingo. They can rough us up real … good out here. It’ll look like damage from, say … a bad fall. No fingers … pointing Devine’s way.”

His voice was so faint, she could hardly hear him over the wild, racing beat of her heart. “So what do we do?”

“Darlin’, for the moment … we do nothing. Time’s on our side until … the old man arrives. They can’t contact him. No cell tower in the … world has enough power to catch a signal from this deep in the Canyon. Gotta figure Daddy won’t show up …” He stopped, caught his breath. “… until morning. He can’t hike in, in the dark. Can’t chopper in tonight either. So … we wait for these yahoos to fall … asleep. They’re in no shape for the … hike they made today. They have to be … hurtin’ bad.”

“And you’ve probably got a concussion and we’re both trussed up like Thanksgiving turkeys,” she pointed out, working hard not to give in to panic.

“Be a pretty … dull life without … a little challenge now … and then.”

“You’ll forgive me if your warped sense of humor just doesn’t cut it for me at the moment.”

“Just … keepin’ it real, babe. We’ll get out of this. For now … just … just watch them … okay? And … keep me awake. Don’t … let me fall … asleep. Talk to me. Who’s … who’s the other guy, do you know?”

“Jake called him Benny.”

“Benny Cravets,” Seth surmised. “Gotta be. He’s Jake’s watchdog.”

The guilt that had been working on Elena since Devine had shown up reached a boiling point. “This is my fault.”

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