Page 38 of Defending Van

“I’ll make sure you get out,” he said, a little frantically, but he was running out of time, and he needed her to know she wasn't on her own. Those words felt wrong, though. There were Prey teams that could go in and rescue her. There was a Delta Force team who had helped Nathan save Emma, and Mateo save Ally, they could go in and rescue her. Or Prey had contacts all throughout the special forces world. There were more than enough people who could save Makayla.

So why did it feel like it had to be him?

“You better put me down, let me get cleaned up,” she said, gently pushing at his shoulders.

She was right, he knew she was, yet he couldn’t seem to let her go.

“Before he comes back, Van, I don’t want you to get into trouble,” she urged, and it was only because he felt her fear for him that he reluctantly carried her over to the small shower area in the corner of the room.

Just as he set her on her feet, and reached around her to turn on the water, the door behind them opened.

“Got the sedatives and some clothes,” Marvin announced. “Since there were no specifics in what he wanted her dressed in, I just chose a white cotton sundress. It’s simple and most of our clients seem to like them. It’s short and low cut, but it won't show off anything inappropriate at the airfield. The last thing we need is to be grabbing any unwanted attention. Too bad she sold so quickly. I wish Griffin had decided to keep her a little longer, I wasn't finished enjoying playing with her.”

Too bad he couldn’t rip the man apart with his bare hands.

Van might have done it just to soothe the growing anger inside him, but a small hand reached out and brushed across the small of his back, and he knew Makayla had sensed what he was thinking and was reminding him that it was a terrible idea.

“Fine. Go organize a vehicle. I’ll have her up there in ten minutes.”

Expecting Marvin to argue, instead, the man nodded. “I'm driving, though,” he announced, which was fine by Van, it meant he’d sit in the back and hold Makayla, who would be unconscious by then.

When Marvin was gone, he turned his attention back to Makayla, watching as she methodically shampooed and then conditioned her hair, before scrubbing every inch of her body. By the time she shut off the water, he was second-guessing everything. It would only be him and Marvin in the car. He could easily kill the man and run with Makayla, disappear off the face of the earth. He had more than enough money to take care of them both.

“Whatever you're thinking, stop it,” Makayla said, reaching for the rough, crusty towel hanging by the crude shower and drying herself off. “This is happening. Don’t ruin everything you’ve worked for because of me. In the big picture, I'm not worth it.”

What was with this woman and making him growl? Because another growl rumbled through his chest, and he was on her before he even realized it. His hand around her neck, gently, stroking a finger over her pulse point, he backed her into the wall.

“Don’t ever want to hear you say that again, understood?”

Wide eyes stared up at him, but she nodded.

“You are worth everything.”

Those eyes softened, and she smiled. “Thank you, it’s nice to hear that. But, Van, you have to go through with this. You have to stop them from doing this.”

She was right, but she was wrong. Still, he released her, let her walk over to where Marvin had left the dress, and slipped it over her head. Then she picked up the syringe and vial of sedatives, carrying them back over to him.

There was nothing more to say, she was right, this had to be done. So he prepped the syringe, hesitated as he held it to her bicep before depressing the plunger and delivering the drugs to her system.

They took effect almost immediately. She swayed, and he scooped her up and into his arms. Touching a kiss to her forehead as her eyes fluttered closed.

“Not abandoning you, Makayla. You’ll never be alone again.”

Chapter

Fourteen

August 30th

11:07 A.M.

Ascending out of the fog felt almost impossible.

It pushed down upon her, a thick, heavy blanket, smothering her slowly. Not literally, not cutting off her air supply, but extinguishing her flame, threatening to put it out for good because it was just too hard to think. To function. To exist.

As the drugs in her system faded, Makayla half expected a man with an expressionless face to step in and deliver a new dose. That’s what had happened the few times she’d begun to surface from the sedative-induced darkness.

The first time she was on a plane, slumped over in a seat, buckled in with a blanket tossed haphazardly over her, when she started to wake. Like they’d been watching her, knowing the drugs would soon wear off, she’d hardly had time to process her surroundings before a man was there, shoving another needle into her arm, and the world once again faded away.