Free Betrayed (Hostage Rescue Team Series Book 9) by Kaylea Cross

wait for me there.”
    He knew some kind of response was expected so he muttered, “Affirm.”
    “You’re clear,” Briar reported to him a moment later. “I’ll cover you from here.”
    He didn’t know her well enough to know how good she was with a rifle but she must be pretty decent if Rycroft had allowed her this kind of operational latitude, and even though he didn’t know exactly what her background was, he understood it meant she’d had decent training.
    Anyway, Bautista didn’t give a shit about any of that or even his own safety right now. All he cared about was getting to Georgia and taking her to the cabin so they could give her medical care and, when she was coherent, get some answers.
    “Go,” Briar said.
    Slinging his rifle across his back, he broke from cover and ran in a crouch the few dozen yards separating them. When he reached her he dropped to his knees, realized his heart was pounding.
    She was facedown, her head turned toward him, her pale face streaked with mud and her hair wet and matted. He gently removed the NVGs she was wearing.
    The sight of her up close for the first time in so many weeks hit him like a roundhouse to the chest. Even ill and covered in mud, she was beautiful, and he found himself wishing she’d just open those big blue eyes and look at him, let him know she was okay.
    Who are you, really? he wondered.
    Reaching out a hand, he touched two fingers to the vulnerable spot beneath her ear. A sensitive place he’d licked and raked his teeth over during the one and only night they’d spent together.
    A night he’d never forget as long as he lived.
    Her skin was hot to the touch but relief slid through him when he felt her pulse. Slow but steady, and she was breathing okay, albeit shallowly.
    He swept the wet tangle of hair off her forehead, leaning over her to shelter her from the rain. After checking her for further injuries and finding nothing, he bent and scooped her up into his arms.
    She’d lost weight. That was his first thought as he stood and immediately began carrying her in the direction of the cabin she’d vacated less than an hour ago.
    They’d been damn lucky to find her in time, catching sight of her as she’d darted through the forest and away from the cabin they’d been headed for. She was way thinner than she’d been back in June, having lost at least ten pounds. Life on the run had obviously taken its toll on her.
    It made the deeply buried nurturing part of him want to take care of her even more.
    Even though he tried to steel himself, the feel of her tucked against his chest, so still and fragile, filled him with raw protectiveness. She didn’t stir as he made his way down the hill, keeping her cradled against his chest.
    He could feel the unnatural heat rising from her body through her wet clothing. The tranq he’d darted her with had been strong enough to bring her down, but now he worried that the dosage might have been too high given how ill she was.
    “Still clear. Coming up on your six o’clock,” Briar murmured.
    Without answering or looking over his shoulder for her, he headed straight for the cabin, staying alert for any hint of movement or that telltale tingle at the base of his spine that would alert him to danger.
    Thankfully there was nothing. He stepped up onto the front porch, waited while Briar did a sweep of the structure and then moved to the front door.
    She examined it for a moment, then began disabling the countermeasures Georgia must have left on it to keep trespassers away. Seeing them was yet another stark reminder that the woman he held was a different person than the one he’d fallen for.
    It was important he remembered that. The warm and kind-hearted “accountant” who had volunteered at his abuela’s care facility twice a week for those three months he’d gotten to know her was a hardened assassin. It was still hard to believe. He’d thought he’d been so careful, thought he’d done a thorough background