“MacGyver is a SEAL. You know damn well he’ll stay alive, and he’ll make sure Daniel stays in one piece too, because he’s Ian’s brother and a damn good friend.” Travis closed on Luke again, stopping in front of him. “You made it out of that pigsty they called a prison. That’s no small feat. Coop and I are stayin’ to guarantee you make it out of this little shindig too.”
Luke glanced away from Travis’s determined face to see the same look on Coop’s. Damn it. He was wasting time and he was dangerously close to losing it.
He dropped his gaze to the ground a few feet in front of him. “I made it out of that prison because of Sally. I—” Luke couldn’t continue, grinding his teeth together in agony.
“She’s not dead.” Coop’s voice was so low, Luke wasn’t sure he’d really spoken.
Anger and pain surged through him. “Damn you. Don’t lie to me.” Luke took long strides toward Coop, who leaned one hip against the front of the Jeep. As Luke reached him, Travis pushed between them and shoved Luke back a step.
“You want to hurt somebody—hurt them.” Travis’s words were superquiet but laced with steel.
The man had earned Luke’s respect a hundred times over in training, in firefights and on impossible missions. He’d also been a friend when Luke needed one most. Coop too. Shit. Luke was acting like an ass, but he was so messed up, he ranged between simply not caring and needing to physically pummel someone. Too bad his friends were the only ones around. He inhaled a long, deep breath and lifted his eyes to study Coop. “Why’d you say that?”
A slow smile materialized on Coop’s rough features. “It’s true, man. While you were down for the count, I watched them haul her to the barn.”
Luke’s breath stopped for a heartbeat. “They didn’t…”
“Hell no. She’s all in one piece. Through the binocs, I could see they cut her on the inside of her arm. They carried her with her arms and legs above her heart. She was bleeding pretty good—not bad enough that they got the artery—but it was running down her arm and soaking her shirt.”
Luke had a hard time grasping Coop’s meaning. He’d gotten stuck atcut her on the inside of her arm.Ahmed’s men had cut her arm. The posturing they’d done with the blade must have been for Luke’s benefit—making him believe they’d killed her in the most gruesome way—because Ahmed knew it would demoralize him. It had almost worked…but there was more in Coop’s smug smile, now being shared by Travis.
Sally is bleeding. The dead didn’t bleed—not uphill anyway. As soon as the heart stopped pumping, the blood stopped flowing unless the wound was at the lowest point in the body. She was alive, for the time being. His relief was so great, he grasped Coop’s shoulder to keep from collapsing again.
He should’ve seen that. Instead of falling apart like a cheap pair of boots, he should’ve been paying attention to details. The theatrics with the long knife had obviously been orchestrated by Ahmed, and Luke had fallen for it like a wet-behind-the-ears sailor.
He glanced sheepishly between his friends, finding only understanding and determination in their eyes. “Guess I’m a little too close to the situation on this one.”
Travis barked a laugh. “Ya think?” He slapped Luke on the shoulder while working his bruised jaw back and forth. “You’ve still got the best right hook in the unit…and you’re still the man I’d want by my side ifmywoman was in a bad place.”
“Damn straight,” Coop said.
It was humbling, and a little awe-inspiring, to feel the strength of the bond between the three of them, but Luke didn’t have time to fully appreciate it now. “What do you say we have a look around and make a plan? It’ll be dark in a few hours. We need to be ready to move.”
Sally was alive—he refused to believe MacGyver and Daniel weren’t too. Any plan they devised needed to get him into that barn without being seen, take out Ahmed’s men, who were no doubt digging in and lying in wait, and reach the target before the surprise wore off.
Easy.
Chapter Twenty-one
Sally moaned and attempted to sit up, but even that small movement sent shards of pain rocketing to her nerve endings. She went still and held her breath, hoping the worst would subside. It didn’t, and eventually she had to breathe anyway.
Her arm throbbed. Turning her head to see what was wrong, she wished she hadn’t. There was blood everywhere. She couldn’t tell how big or deep the wound was…and it didn’t matter anyway because her hands were still bound behind her back and she couldn’t do anything about…anything.
Tossed in a corner of the barn beside two straw bales, Sally pushed herself up to lean against them. The action left her winded, and her harsh breathing was loud in the empty barn. Okay, so she’d apparently lost a fair amount of blood. Her new blue tank top was toast. At least the blond-haired freak wasn’t there. Where was everybody anyway? How much time had passed while she was out of it? The last she remembered, the position of the sun made it about midafternoon. Now it was that period between dusk and nightfall, with a good bit of moonlight coming through the open doorway. Why had they left her alone?
Her gaze darted to the post where Matt and Daniel had been tied. It was empty. Her heart soared at the possibility they’d gotten away. If only she knew for sure that Luke and the others had escaped as well. It was a good bet she wouldn’t still be alive if the terrorists had taken Luke. However, a nagging voice in her mind suggested he would never leave her…not in the hands of the enemy who’d killed Ian and tormented Luke. No, he was out there somewhere, in the fading light beyond the open barn door. Hadn’t he said he’d stick with her?
A scuffing noise brought her attention back to the barn door. A man’s figure slipped inside, hugging the wall as he peered out. Then, apparently satisfied with what he’d seen, he straightened and hurried toward her. His huge frame had given him away at first sight, but she’d never been so glad to see anyone’s smiling face in her life.
Matt dropped to one knee beside her. “How ya doin’, angel lady?” he whispered, already examining the cut on her arm.
“Not that great actually.” She winced in pain as she leaned back against one of the bales. “Where’s Daniel?”
“He took off toward the river after we cut ourselves loose. Said he kept a hunting rifle and a few knives in his boat.” Matt shrugged. “Everything else he owned is gone.”
Yeah. Sally had firsthand knowledge of how that felt, and her heart ached for Daniel and Ellen’s loss.
Matt pulled a familiar-looking knife from his back pocket. “Lean forward.”