She blew out her breath in relief and started forward at a fast clip. She wouldn’t rest easy until she was well away from Hancock and Tristan Caldwell.
Rio took her hand and squeezed reassuringly. Grateful for the contact, she squeezed back.
“Thank you for coming for me,” she whispered.
“Anytime, sweetheart. Are you sure you’re okay? That bastard didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“N-no. I’m good. Really. I’ll be even better when we get home.”
“We’ll get you there,” Rio said in a resolute tone.
* * *
STEELE paced in agitation, checking his watch. Rio had been gone only a few minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. He’d heard no rifle fire. All was quiet. The rest of Rio’s team stood facing the direction Rio had gone, tense and prepared to go in. Dolphin, Renshaw and Baker stood with Steele, tense and ill at ease. It chafed them every bit as much as it did Steele to be sidelined. Especially on a goddamn mission that was his.
Maren was his.
He didn’t know when the hell he’d started thinking that way, but in the last weeks of exhausting every possible avenue to find her, he’d began to think of her as his. They’d had sex. Really good sex, and sex didn’t equal possession, but they’d forged something between them that far surpassed just a physical relationship. No way in hell he was letting her out of his sight again.
A sound alerted them all. They straightened and went rigid, their guns brought up and trained in the direction of the sound. A few moments later, Rio burst into the clearing, Maren’s hand held tightly in his.
All the breath left Steele in a rush that momentarily weakened him. She was there. Safe and alive.
Her gaze rapidly scanned the area and when her gaze lighted on him, her entire face radiated relief. To his surprise, she launched herself at him, running straight into his arms. He caught her against him, holding her tightly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life.
“Thank God, you’re safe,” he breathed next to her ear.
“Thank you,” she choked out. “Thank you for coming for me. Oh my God, I’m so happy to see all of you.”
“There was never any question of us coming for you, Maren. I would have never stopped searching.”
She felt alive and soft and so infinitely precious in his arms. She buried her face in his neck, and he felt the warm slide of her tears against his skin. His grip tightened and her body molded itself to his much harder frame.
For the longest moment he simply held her, his relief at having her safe in his arms overwhelming. He felt unhinged. Shaky and emotional, two things that he never experienced on a mission. God, he couldn’t even form the words to ask her all he wanted to ask.
He tipped her face up, his fingers gentle underneath her chin. “Are you all right? What did he do to you, Maren?”
She stared fearfully up at him, her eyes stricken. “Please, not here,” she whispered. “Not now. It can wait. Please, not in front of the others.”
He collected himself and eased her away from him but kept her close, tucked against his side as he turned his attention to Rio.
“What’s the deal?” he asked, his thoughts still firmly occupied with the woman he held to his side.
He wanted to know everything. He feared the look in Maren’s eyes, how stricken she looked and how afraid she was. But she was right. It didn’t need to be aired in front of the others, but the fact that she was so desperate not to reveal anything made his gut tighten with god-awful fear for what she’d endured.
His hand shook at her side, and his entire arm quivered as he anchored it around her. He hadn’t realized just how scared he was until now. Relief that she was here and seemingly okay, even if she’d endured the unimaginable at that bastard’s hands, was rendering him incapable of even the simplest thought process. He had to get his shit together and be strong for Maren and for whatever discoveries lay ahead.
“No deal,” Rio said shortly. “Let’s move out. Hancock handed her over. Wants us to lay off Caldwell until he brings him down. I have no idea why he’s waiting, but he must be tracking something big Caldwell is working on. I told him we didn’t give a shit about Caldwell. We just wanted Maren back.”
Steele nodded, though he couldn’t make any guarantees about dropping the pursuit of Caldwell until he knew exactly what the asshole had made Maren suffer. Later, when he and Maren were alone, he’d find out exactly what he needed to know.
P.J., Cole and Diego appeared a moment later and immediately sought Maren out.
“Glad to have you back with us, Dr. Scofield,” Cole said when his gaze found her.
Maren smiled faintly. “It’s good to be back. But if y’all don’t mind, I’d rather get the hell out of here.”
“That gets a hooyah from me,” Dolphin said.
The others muttered their agreement.
P.J. walked up to Maren and put her hand on Maren’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Maren pulled away from Steele long enough to enfold P.J. in a huge hug. P.J. looked surprised, but her hug was just as fierce as Maren’s. P.J. caught Steele’s eye over Maren’s shoulder as she hugged the other woman, and she lifted an eyebrow in question. Steele gave a short negative motion with his head to tell P.J. he didn’t yet know what had gone on while Maren had been held prisoner.
“I’m fine now that I’m with you guys,” Maren said as she pulled away from P.J. “For once, it’s not me patching you guys up but rather the other way around.”
P.J.’s gaze immediately sharpened to one of concern. She touched Maren on the arm. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
Steele’s arm automatically circled her waist again, once more securing her firmly to his side. He too looked at Maren in question, but she gave a shaky laugh and said, “No, I’m fine. Really. It was just a figure of speech.”
P.J. cast a doubtful look in Steele’s direction, but she backed off.
Steele turned Maren in the direction of the path to the waiting helicopter. “Let’s roll. We have a plane to catch.”
Steele walked slowly so he didn’t rush Maren through the uneven terrain. It took twice the time to get back to the chopper that it had for them to get from the chopper to the rendezvous point. The teams surrounded Steele and Maren, providing a protective barrier as they trekked farther into the dense forest.
She shivered at one point, and Steele stopped to strip off his jacket. He wrapped it around her, providing another layer of clothing as a barrier to the chill. It wasn’t terribly cold, and the jacket she wore would ordinarily provide more than enough warmth in the current temps, but she was likely in shock. Relieved. Reeling from the sudden rescue.
When they reached the helo, Steele helped her inside and positioned her between himself and Dolphin so she’d be plenty warm during the ride. They lifted off a few minutes later and flew toward the airfield where the Kelly jet waited to take off.
Everyone was silent, but then no conversation was possible over the roar of the rotors. The chopper landed at the airfield outside of Prishtina and they hurried onto the jet. Within the hour, they had taken off and were headed back to the United States. Maren hadn’t asked where they were going, which was just as well, because Steele had already decided he was taking her to his home. She’d remain there until he was certain Caldwell no longer posed a threat to her.
CHAPTER 23
MAREN sat next to Steele on the couch in the sitting area of the jet where they’d relocated as soon as they had taken off and gotten into the air. Her anxiety was clear and the minute they’d gotten from their seats and moved to the back, she turned to Steele, agitation clear in her eyes.
“I know you have a lot of questions,” she said in a low tone. “I have a lot I need to tell you. Just you,” she emphasized. “I know Sam and the others will want—deserve—answers, but what I have to say is for you and you alone, and I don’t want to talk about it where we could be overheard.”
Her voice had risen with each word and she’d grown more upset the longer she spoke. He smoothed a hand over her cheek, moving her hair behind her ear.
“I just want you to rest,” he said in a soothing voice. “You don’t have to say or do anything you don’t want. Okay?”
The relief in her eyes was crushing. He pulled her into his arms, not caring if anyone else saw them. She rested her head against his shoulder, her soft breaths pushing her chest against his.
“Thank you,” she choked out. “God, I’m so glad you’re here. I’d begun to lose hope that I’d ever be free again.”
His hold tightened around her. “I would have never stopped searching for you, Maren. I would have found you even if it meant turning the entire goddamn world over.”
She lifted her head to stare up at him, her eyes soft and drooping with fatigue. “Kiss me,” she whispered.
“That you don’t ever have to ask me for,” he said as his mouth descended on hers.
He wasn’t forceful. That wasn’t what she needed. She needed comfort. Reassurance. And so he gave her the tenderest of kisses, gentleness he would have never said he possessed. But for her, he could and would do anything.
She sighed into his mouth and then sagged against him, closing her eyes.
“Lie down,” he said gently. “You need to rest, Maren. I can only imagine how exhausting this has been for you. Sleep now. We have hours yet until we land. I don’t want you to worry about anything. I’ll take care of everything and you.”
She hugged him tightly and then carefully lowered herself, arranging herself on the couch so that her legs extended to the end and her head was pillowed on his lap.
He caressed her forehead and cheeks, running his fingers through her hair in a soothing motion until finally she drifted off and her breathing deepened, signaling her sleep.
He stared at her for the longest time, absorbed in his thoughts, his fears of what she would tell him and what it might mean for them both. He must have drifted off, exhaustion finally overtaking him, because when he opened his eyes, his head was lolled back against the seat and he was staring straight up at the ceiling.
He checked his watch to see that several hours had passed. He lowered his head and reached up with his free hand to work the knots from his neck.
“She still out?” Rio asked. “I checked on y’all earlier, and you were both passed out.”
Steele glanced up to see the other team leader standing in the aisle leading into the seating area. He nodded but didn’t extend an invitation for Rio to join them. Unfortunately Rio either didn’t get the hint or outright ignored it.
Rio plopped down into one of the chairs situated at an angle from the couch where Maren and Steele were. He put one foot up and stared over at Steele.
“Hancock is of the mind we owe him, or rather I owe him now. And he’ll collect. No doubt about that.”
Steele scowled. “He needs to stay the fuck away from us. He’s already caused enough trouble.”
“That’s true enough, but he’s also done us a favor by handing over Maren. I still don’t know why he did it. It’s uncharacteristic of him to give a damn about anything other than his objective. But I swear, for the longest time I couldn’t figure out why he waited so long to take out Farnsworth. It didn’t make any sense to me why he would allow Grace to be taken when he had every opportunity before to take Farnsworth down. He had access and opportunity and yet he didn’t take Farnsworth out until after Grace had healed his daughter. He put Grace at enormous risk and yet he pulled Maren because he thought Caldwell was close to harming her?”
Rio paused and Steele glanced at him. “You figured it out now?”
“It sounds crazy, but the only explanation I can come up with is that he wanted Grace to save Elizabeth before he took Farnsworth out. The minute she healed Elizabeth, he shot Farnsworth.”
Steele sent him a skeptical look. “So you think this guy has a heart under that rigid exterior.”
Rio nodded. “I may have written the thing off with Farnsworth as Hancock just being Hancock. Never know what he’s thinking. He’s like a machine. No emotion. No feelings. But now he gave us Maren because he feared Caldwell was going to make a move on her? That’s two I can’t explain other than to think he actually has a soft spot beneath the icy exterior.”
His eyes gleamed with sudden amusement.
“Might say the same for you too, ice man.”
Steele’s eyes narrowed. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Just that behind that cold-as-ice exterior is an actual heart. Not like you to take a mission so personally, but you’ve been pounding the pavement and going without sleep to find Maren.”
“She means something to this organization,” Steele bit out. “She’s not an anonymous mission like so many of our others. We actually know her. She’s helped us out many times. Of course I’m going to take it personally. Just as I did with P.J. when she went AWOL and just like I’d take it personally if any member of my team were in trouble.”
