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“How’s she doing?”

“Better. The fever’s come down a bit.”

“Good.”

He ran to get into the driver’s seat. Brax closed the compartment, then spread out the tarp and pulled Jenny back into a prone position. She was out cold again, and she was shivering.

Dammit!

He took her temperature. It had gone back up to one-hundred and three.

“Start moving, Ryker. Slowly,” Kostya commanded over the comm.

Brax shifted Jenny so she was sitting up, then cupped her cheek. “Jenny. I need you to wake up.”

Her eyelashes fluttered. Her long eyelashes.

He bent closer. “Jenny, honey. You need to wake up and drink some water.”

“Don’t wanna,” she slurred.

Good enough. He put the water bottle to her mouth and poured a trickle in. She shook her head and opened her eyes.

“I said no.” She was still slurring her words, but she said them with more force.

“You don’t have a choice. You want to get better, don’t you? You want to beat those bastards and show them how tough you are. Drink the water and get well.”

Her green eyes were glassy, but they still assessed him.

“Fine.”

He slowly tipped the bottle, and she took sip after sip until she gagged and turned her head away. “Enough.”

Her gagging precipitated a bout of coughing. It was a long one. She hadn’t coughed for at least fifteen minutes. He saw her tears as her weak arm slid slowly up to cradle her ribs. Brax carefully rolled her over so that she could rid herself of the sputum. When she was done, she tried to turn back, and he helped her.

“I hate this so much. It hurts, and I hate that you’re seeing me like this.”

“Do you know how many recruits I’ve had to clean up after they’ve puked during BUD/S? Do you know how many times we’ve been in a jungle like this one and one or two of us are almost incapacitated with the shits? Jenny, you having to spit up some gunk from your lungs is a walk in the park.”

“BUD/S?”

Good, she was tracking with him. That meant she was better, right?

“BUD/S stands for Basic Underwater Demolition SEALs. It’s the training every recruit has to go through to become a SEAL. In my class, only a quarter of us made it through.”

She looked at him with that glassy-eyed stare, and he thought he lost her.

“Why did so many quit?” she finally asked.

The SUV suddenly jerked and she let out a quick scream.

“It’s okay,” Ryker said from the front seat. “We just started pulling some trees out of the way. Everything’s good. I want to hear more about BUD/S. And shame on you for not using the term diarrhea. You’re going to go to hell for talking crass around a lady.”

Jenny giggled.

“Ryker, mind your own business and concentrate on driving,” Brax groused. He turned his attention to the woman in his arms. “Do you still⁠—"

He was interrupted by another bout of her coughing. This seemed even worse than the last one. He felt so helpless. At least with some kind of injury, he could do something.