Page 81 of Final Approach

She told him? My brow crinkled in confusion.

“She cares for you, mate. That’s obvious. I care, too. Don’t let your hetero married experiences influence something potentially incredible. We’re still alive, we’re still human, and we’ll figure this out.”

Figure what out? Us?

Trauma made people do out-of-character things. I’d always considered those things to be Lord of the Flies stuff, like savage acts of violence or cannibalism. Sexual rediscovery wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind. Falling for the captain I’d wanted to ruin definitely wasn’t on the list.

Nikki didn’t let me ask the question, just turned on his heel and ended the conversation as if what we'd been discussing was as mundane as the weather.

“Well, fuck you, too, then,” I grumbled in annoyance, staring at his retreating back.

“Come on,” he called over his shoulder. “She’s worried about you. And the next time you need a hand”—he emphasized the word like a jackass—“I’ll be happy to lend one.”

His laughter carried through the trees like birdsong, and the taunt equally pissed me off and made me shiver in anticipation.

A feminine scream cut off my reply. Icy panic shot through my veins with enough force to propel me forward into a run, Nikki just a step ahead of me.

Was she hurt? Had something attacked them? We were never splitting up again, damn it. As I ran through the trees, jumping over tree roots the thickness of my thighs and dodging those chunga death traps, I said a prayer to any god that would hear me it wasn’t another jaguar. Surviving one was a miracle. It was million to one odds we’d survive two.

My shoulders sagged with relief when Marley came into view, a distorted mixture of awe and horror flickering over her features as she stared off at something in the distance.

Nikki and I both rumbled to a stop, bracketing Marley on both sides to face the danger as a unit. Tessa and Brooks remained at the base of the tree where they’d huddled for hours, eyes wide and fearful. They stared, as we did now at the surprising figure of Madman—and a man so covered in dirt and blood he was almost unrecognizable, except for the shredded pilot’s uniform hanging off his body.

I blinked in realization. Five days in the jungle hadn’t been kind to Captain Adams—he’d lost at least fifteen pounds and held the haunted eyes of a hunted man.

Marley’s eyes filled with tears as she raced to greet her friend, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hold despite his obvious discomfort. I knew nothing about the man other than a thirty-second greeting and smile when I’d walked on board, but judging by Captain Adams’ body language now, this was not the man she thought he was.

She pulled back from him and stared up at Madman, who’d tucked his arms into his leather jacket in a flimsy attempt at nonchalance.

“You left me. Us,” she corrected with a disapproving glare. “You could have said goodbye.”

Our resident criminal nodded his stubbled head with exaggerated slowness.

“I could have,” he admitted, offering no apology or penance. He always had his emotions locked down so tightly, and this moment was no different. “But I came back.” He jutted his chin outward as if that was enough of an explanation. “I came back because you are owed an explanation from this coward.”

Green eyes shot sharp daggers in Madman’s direction, but he didn’t flinch. Instead, he pressed two large palms onto each one of the captain’s shoulders and shoved him to the dirt so roughly, his knee smashed against a knotted tree root with a sharp snap.

“Maddox!” Marley exclaimed in indignation. “What the fuck?”

“Tell her.” Madman kicked him in the tailbone, nearly toppling him over into a bed of spiky ferns. “Tell her what you told me.”

The broken man looked up at her with watery, bloodshot eyes, the gaze in them almost pleading.

Nikki was as still as a statue beside me. I hadn’t even heard him breathe. Jamie was his colleague, too. Did he fall in line with Marley’s thinking, or was he smart enough to see the guilt written into every cut of Jamie’s body?

“I’m so sorry.” His apology was wheezed out on a raspy release of air, like he’d spent the whole night screaming and his vocal cords had nothing left to give. “I’m sorry, Marley. Rescue isn’t—” He broke off, tears streaming down his face in muddy tracks to his chin. “Rescue isn’t coming, Marley. The only way out is through.”

What. The. Fuck.

“The only way out is through.”

The cosmic buzz of my orgasm just an hour before, when all was right in this fucked-up world, crashed back to earth as I stared unblinkingly at the two men in front of me in disbelief.

Madman had returned. With Jamie.

Was that his plan all along, to find the man we’d been searching for? Or had this been an inconceivable coincidence? Right now, the how’s and why’s didn’t matter. I was too stuck on Jamie’s last words.

When Madman moved to kick him again, I snapped to attention.