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“Would have gotten me killed,” I finished for her. “If these two hadn’t shown up. I wasn’t going to be able to do what they just did.”
It was as if Raine realized we weren’t alone in that moment. She widened her eyes, her gaze darting between the two men. I didn’t blame her when she stepped back behind me, blocking herself and the baby from their view. She was a new mother, wearing a makeshift nightgown he must have given her, and she’d been brutally abused by someone who was physically just like them.
“I think you’re plenty brave, Raine. I don’t know if I would’ve survived the way you did. This is Crew and…I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.” I motioned to the red-headed man with him.
He visibly swallowed. “I’m Gator.”
“This is Gator. And I was staying with Crew when I was brought here. They won’t hurt you.” I was sure Crew wouldn’t, but I shot Gator a look that said he’d better not. He visibly swallowed again. If anything, he seemed more nervous than Raine. “Raine has been through hell. She needs rest and to get out of here.”
Crew grabbed my wrist, staring at the bottom of my left hand before turning his attention to the right. “You’re very injured.”
I was. The burning was awful, now that he mentioned it, and I might be in some kind of shock because I should be feeling it more. Right then, it was more like my heart raced and I couldn’t really think past what we had to do next.
“We need to do something about this.” Crew looked at Gator. “Suggestions?”
Raine cleared her throat. “He kept burn cream on his ship. Sometimes the lightning would burn him. He had a cream there.”
Gator raised his eyebrows. “Where is this ship?”
She pointed left. “We walked about three hours.”
“I’ll find it.” Gator met my gaze and then Raine’s. “I can find anything.”
I would love relief from the pain, but Raine’s needs came first. “She needs to get to town. Bring her to the others who have kids. I’m not a midwife or a doctor. I can only do what I can do.”
“We’ll all go to the ship,” Crew announced, still looking at my hands. “And then we’ll fly it back to town. Be back a lot faster that way, and Raine can get what she needs.” He met her gaze. “We’re talking about you like you’re not here. We can take you back that way.”
But that made no sense. “Ships can’t take off because of the lightning. The electrical storm.” Wow. My hand had really started to throb. Badly. I needed to get it under some water soon. Like right that second.
“We won’t try to go up that high. Low flying should be fine,” Gator supplied, walking over to Raine. “I realize I might be scary, but if I could carry you and your baby to the ship, it would be my honor to do so.”
Despite the immense pain threatening to steal my breath, I had to smile. Gator spoke a little differently than everyone else. It must have been perfect because Raine, after a long moment, stepped toward him. Her baby made a small sound, and she rocked back and forth to offer the child comfort.
“Raven seems to trust you. She was wonderful to me. She saved me. I’ll trust you because she does. I guess if it won’t be too much to handle, you can carry me. Otherwise, we’re going to have to wait, because as much as I’d love to be super powerful, I’m not, and I don’t think I can walk to the ship right now.” She looked down. “As I’ve proven for over a year by doing nothing to defend myself, I’m not strong.”
I shook my head. “You survived. That was all you needed to do.”
Gator nodded. “Nothing will happen to you anymore, I promise you that. My men and I, we live here now. For so many years, we were on the wrong side of things with no chance to do better. Now, it’s all we want to do.”
Crew side-eyed him. “That’s a lot more rolling around in morality issues than my guys do. We’re just trying to get through the day.”
“These are conversations we have.” Gator ran a hand through his hair. “With your permission?”
She nodded, and he scooped her and the baby up, heading in the direction that she’d pointed. Crew didn’t move toward doing the same for me. “Other than your hands, which is bad enough, did he hurt you?”
I shook my head. “He hauled me around but that was it. I got here just in time to deliver her baby. If we’d been any longer, I hate to think of what might have happened.”
He cupped the side of my face. “Forgive me.”
“Forgive you?” Maybe the burns had addled my brain, but I didn’t have a clue what he could apologize to me for, considering he rescued me. “Why?”
He sighed. “For letting you get taken. You’re mine. Ours. We were sidelined. He set fire to so many things, we couldn’t get through without putting them out, so they didn’t risk the human population. By the time we got through, you were gone, and I couldn’t hear him.” He looked away. “So I grabbed Gator. As he’d be glad to tell anyone who would listen, he’s a great tracker, so we came.”
That reminds me… I rushed over to the dead body and tried to grab the device before it burned, but my hands wouldn’t allow it. Crew rushed past me to scoop it out of the flames. “That’s how he did it. How he hid his heartbeat.”
He shook his head, flipping the device over in his hand. “I didn’t know any of these still existed.”
“You’ve seen them before?”
