Free Run to Me by Christy Reece

this?
    Unable to come up with a viable answer, she unzipped her pants and relieved the pressure on her bladder. She had just zipped them back up when the first rustle of sound reached her ears. Something or someone headed their way. She twisted her head to look at Ethan. He stood silent and still, his eyes filled with a question. Would she give them away? He appeared to be waiting.
    Male voices came closer and closer. Though the language was Spanish, she easily understood the words. “We have to find her. Can’t return until we bring her back … and kill the man who took her.”
    Frozen with indecision, her mouth trembled with the need to say something. Any sound or movement would catch their attention. The men were now only a few feet away from her. She could see them through the dark green vegetation.
    One word and she would be rescued.
    One word and Ethan would be killed.
    She didn’t move.
    Several breath-holding minutes later, the men moved on, never knowing that the object of their hunt had been inches from them.
    Confusion and fear swamped her as the world swirled around her. Turning to the man who claimed to have rescued her, she whispered, “Ethan, I’m scared.”
    Everything went black.
    Shea’s eyelids flickered, alerting Ethan that she was finally waking. He kissed the hand he’d been holding and let it go. An interminable fear that’d been pressing in on him eased up, but only slightly. For almost twenty-four hours, she’d been in some sort of deep unconscious state, literally scaring the hell out of him.
    Seconds after Rosemount’s men had passed by, she’d fainted. Thinking it would be like the other time and she would immediately awaken, he’d carried her inside. When he couldn’t wake her, he’d come as close to panic as he ever had. Calling her name repeatedly, he’d thought she had gone into some sort of a coma and he would never get her back.
    “What happened?” Her voice sounded fragile and worn, but to Ethan, it was the most beautiful sound in the world.
    His throat raw from pleading with her to wake up, he sounded like a sick frog. “You passed out. Been unconscious for nearly a day.” Turning away, he grabbed the canteen sitting beside his backpack. “You’re probably thirsty.”
    “A little.”
    Cradling her head in his hand, he lifted her, allowing her to sip the water. After several small gulps, she touched his hand, telling him she was finished. Ethan lowered her head and watched as she tried to assimilate and focus. He had no idea if, after being out of it for so long, she’d remember what had happened before she passed out.
    “Those men were looking for us.”
    So she did remember. A good sign … finally. “Yes. You didn’t give me away. Why?”
    Her smooth forehead furrowed. “I don’t know.”
    “I do. You may not think you remember me, Shea, but something inside you does.”
    For several long seconds her gaze roamed over his face. Ethan held still, willing her to remember. Finally, unable to wait for her verdict, he urged, “Tell me you remember me, Shea.”
    “Your face is familiar … I often saw it in my nightmares.”
    Ethan turned away before she could see the crushing impact of her words. The knowledge that she saw him only in her nightmares didn’t surprise him, since he’d hurt this woman over and over again. Regret, born of a thousand mistakes, ate at him daily. If he could go back and make right everything he had done in his life, he’d have to start at a much younger age. At the tender age of nineteen, when with stupidity and arrogance, he’d taken a young girl’s life.
    “We’ll go as slow as you need to. The village we’re headed to is only a couple of miles away.”
    Forcing her stiff lips into a small smile, she allowed him to help her over a fallen tree. This Ethan person believed she trusted him. That she accepted the ridiculous lies he’d spouted. Fooling him gave her an odd sense of satisfaction. He’d apparently been told to