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Relief flooded over me as I easily found it.

Her pulse was a little weak but steady.

She looked malnourished, and she was probably dehydrated.

She looked bad for a woman who had only been in captivity for ten days.

I’d seen her photos. I knew what she normally looked like. The assholes probably hadn’t been feeding her or giving her much water.

They had also beaten her bloody.

I searched for the source of all the blood I was seeing and realized it was primarily coming from a head injury.

The gash was still bleeding, the blood dripping from the top left side of her head to her temple and down to the cement floor.

Jenna was nude and shivering, which prompted me to take a few minutes to tend to her needs.

I took an emergency blanket out of my pack. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to check out her injuries thoroughly.

The best thing I could do was to get her out of here so all her injuries could be treated.

“She’s injured,” I told my teammates. “She’s been beaten pretty badly. She’s not walking out of here.”

I heard several curses in my ear, but I ignored them, my focus on Jenna.

I lifted her enough to get the blanket behind her back so I could wrap it around her body.

It wasn’t cold here, but lying nude on a cement slab at night couldn’t be comfortable.

She’d probably been hot during the day in this hellhole and cold at night when the temperatures dropped.

“Jenna,” I called gruffly, shaking her gently to see if she was capable of waking on demand.

It would help if I could get her cooperation.

“Stop it!” she muttered as she tried to swat me away from her. “Let me go!”

Her eyes shot open, and her terrified gaze made my gut twist.

“I’m not here to hurt you, Jenna,” I explained calmly as I took her wrists so she’d stop trying to fight me. “My name is Brock Miller. My team and I were sent here to rescue you. We’re taking you home.”

Her expression went from agitated to perplexed. “Rescue?”

“You’ve been a hostage here in Mexico for ten days,” I said in a gentler voice. “Do you remember what happened?”

Fuck! I hoped that her head injury hadn’t made her completely disoriented.

She was silent for a minute, like she needed a moment before the confusion could clear from her head.

Obviously, that head injury had temporarily scrambled her brain.

“I remember,” she whispered. “Are you really here to help me?”

Her expression was so hopeful that it made my gut twist, but it was a relief that her memories didn’t seem foggy anymore.

“I am,” I verified. “We’re a team of four. We have a helicopter nearby. I’m going to get you out of here. Can you stay still for a minute while I get that cuff off your leg? It will be faster to cut it than to try to pick the lock.”

She nodded shakily. “Yes.”