Page 26 of Rescuing You

Michael had had no choice but to send them away alone.

“Over here!”

The voice was too loud, too close. Michael stilled beneath his thin tarp.

“The motorcycle was here.” This man sounded around Michael’s age and rang with authority. His Arabic was smooth and cultured. “Who left it? When? How did you miss it?”

“I don’t know how⁠—”

“The tires didn’t slash themselves. Where were you?”

“It wasn’t my watch⁠—”

“Incompetent. All of you.” There was quiet, then the same cultured man called to someone farther away, “You said the women were confined. Someone freed them. I want Nawra back. Tonight. I don’t care how you do it, but she will be ready tomorrow, as planned.”

Nawra—Leila. Ready for what?

Michael didn’t hear the man’s voice again, though other men remained close

“Were there two bikes?” one asked. “Two men?”

“Only one drove away, with two people.”

“Did he get to the river?”

“We would have seen.”

“So he is here. Where are you, little snake?”

Michael shifted his head slowly and, through the thin tarp, saw the glow of flashlights sweeping the ground.

He risked a peek behind. Yup. Just twenty yards back, there were two more lights.

And they were closing in. The tarp should be hidden in darkness, but if they swung the beams his way…

He inched the handgun up, preparing and praying he wouldn’t have to use it. He’d managed not to kill anyone so far tonight, and he’d prefer to keep it that way.

These men had kidnapped and imprisoned the woman he loved. He could admit that, mostly, he didn’t want to fire his weapon because doing so would bring the wrath of the whole compound down on him, and he’d have to kill a lot more people in order to survive.

He really wanted to survive.

His parents had just gotten their first son back. They didn’t need to lose their second.

And if he didn’t survive, Leila would blame herself. And maybe her sister.

He couldn’t think about that. Focus, Wright.

You got this.

God did, anyway.

A flashlight beam lit the ground beside him. Where was the other man? Had he gone in a different direction?

Or was he still back there? Michael didn’t dare move to check.

He watched the beam he could see, estimating where the guard was. If the light hit him, he’d need to act fast.

But the beam, and the man, moved ahead.