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“Three of us are alive,” Knox pointed out as he took the bottle from Amy and unscrewed the cap. It took surprisingly little effort, which concerned him about her general condition. “My mission was torescue Amy.” He glanced around, not thrilled with how easily Donnie had slipped away, and allowed Amy to draw the threat away from him. “Last I checked, we aren’t exactly out of the woods yet.” He frowned at his own bad play on words.
“I can’t leave the area without him,” Lorna protested as Amy drained the contents of the bottle in a matter of seconds.
Knox reached inside his rucksack and then produced a protein bar. “Tastes like mud but it’ll get the job done.”
“Whatever keeps my stomach from gurgling and causing me to almost double over from pain will taste like steak to me.” Amy waited for him to rip open the small package before she took the second offering, devouring it almost as fast as the water had disappeared. She exhaled and caught his gaze. One look shouldn’t send his pulse racing or cause tension to cord his muscles. This seemed like a good time to remind himself he was looking at his best friend’s little sister. Although, his brain protested, there was nothing little about Amy Hunt.
A little girl didn’t have just the right amount of curves—curves that made his fingertips itch to draw lazy circles up long legs toward that sweet bottom of hers.
“Knox?” Amy said in her very grown-up singsong voice—a voice that threatened to breakthrough carefully constructed walls around his heart.
Jesus, what would Garrett think of Knox practically ogling his baby sister? It was bad enough Knox couldn’t save his best friend’s life. Letting his guard down or becoming distracted when he needed one hundred percent of his focus to save Amy would only add to an already heavy sense of shame and guilt if this mission went south.
Pull it together, dude.
“Hey,” Amy said, snapping her fingers like he was in some sort of trance that needed breaking.
Shit.
He pushed through the physical pain and mental monologue. “Did you say something?”
“What about Donnie?” Amy asked.
“After what he did to you?” Knox’s hand fisted at his side.
“I’m sure he had a good reason,” Lorna interjected, but there was little energy in those words. She had to know her boyfriend made the decision to save himself and leave Amy to fend for herself.
“Yeah, to save his own ass at the expense of others,” Knox hissed.
His comment didn’t go over well with Lorna, but Amy’s expression said she thought the same thing. She cast her eyes down to the muddy earth.
It might be a dog-eat-dog world out there butthere was no excuse for Donnie’s actions in Knox’s book. In fact, Knox didn’t want to look at the man after the stunt he pulled. People acted true to their nature in deadly situations and most fended for themselves, women and children be damned. He’d read the accounts of men climbing over women and children, pushing them down, trying to get to the few lifeboats on the Titanic. And yet, if you asked men in advance how they would react in a horrific situation, most would say they would protect the very people they climbed on to find salvation.
People always assumed they would do better when faced with something as primal as survival. They were dead wrong.
“Tell me about the men,” he said to Amy.
“They just appeared out of nowhere and we bolted,” she explained. “After A.J. abandoned us in the Flooded Forest, we had to walk on moss and treetops until we eventually found solid ground.” She picked up mud in her palm and let it drip off. “If you can call it that.”
“What did they look like?” he pressed. “What were they wearing?”
“They were short, not much taller than me,” Amy explained. “Dressed to blend in with the jungle. They wore hats too.” She paused. “I saw their guns but didn’t stick around long enough to ask what they wanted. We left everything behind and ran.”
“Did you get them on camera?” Knox asked.
Amy shook her head. “I’m still kicking myself.”
“You had no choice but to get out of there,” he pointed out.
“Still,” she said, clearly disappointed with herself.
He would tell her not to beat herself up over her mistake if it wouldn’t make him a hypocrite. Knox knew what it was like to make a mistake that could never be undone. He would live the rest of his life wishing he hadn’t asked Garrett to trade seats on that chopper ride. But he had.
Would Amy hate him if she knew that he was the reason her brother was dead? Would their mother? He would deserve it. And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. He would, though, at some point. They deserved to know that Garrett would be alive today if not for Knox once this was over.
Amy had looked up to her older brother. Garrett had been nothing but good, whereas Knox couldn’t say the same about himself. Guilt and shame were near-constant companions. Was it his father’s DNA that had tainted him? Curse him to be a selfish SOB? If the situation on the chopper had been reversed, Garrett would have found a way to save Knox’s life.
“Knox, are you okay?” Amy asked, studying him.
