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“They’re not really doing much,” she said before she thought. The way more lines of tension marred his already worried face she immediately regretted that she had added to his concerns. He was doing everything he could to keep them both alive and get them to safety, all she had to do was walk and not complain, and she hadn’t even achieved that.
“I’ll carry you for a while,” he announced as he took a drink and then stood.
Lila clumsily got to her feet, using a nearby tree for support. “I can walk.”
“I’ll carry you,” he repeated firmly, shrugging into his pack, his voice tight, body tense and she hated part of that was her fault.
His shoulder connected with her stomach, and then he straightened and started walking again.
She wasn’t going to let him down.
She’d let him have this moment to make himself feel better, but then she was going to pull her own weight.
It was only two more days and some hours.
Fifty-five hours maybe.
Three thousand three hundred minutes.
Almost two hundred thousand seconds.
It felt like a lifetime.
How was she going to do this?
Chapter Twelve
November 18th
5:39 P.M.
As much as he wanted to keep walking, the need to get Lila to safety near consuming, Surf was aware that she was way past flagging. She’d given it everything she had but was about ready to tap out.
Not that his girl would tap out.
Nope, not Lila.
She would keep walking until her body physically collapsed from exhaustion. If he let her push herself that far, she wouldn’t be able to walk again tomorrow or the next day. As it was, he was expecting them to hit the mansion around twenty-two hundred day after tomorrow. That was more than forty-eight hours away from now, and if he wanted to make it, then his girl needed food and sleep.
“Okay, Lila, let’s call it a night,” he said when he spied what looked like a cave just up ahead.
“I can keep going,” she protested immediately, making him smile.
There was only one pair of NVGs, and as the one with the skills and training to keep them alive, and the one who wasn’t injured, he needed to keep them. With a possibly broken ankle, the last thing Lila needed to do was stumble along out here in the dark. While he could carry her and keep going for a few more hours, he believed their best bet was to get a good night’s sleep and start again fresh tomorrow.
“I don’t doubt you, honey, but what you need now is real rest. We need to give your body a chance to do some healing and the only way for that to happen is for you to sleep.”
As she opened her mouth to no doubt protest again, a giant yawn stole her words, completely proving his point.
Scooping her into his arms, Surf cradled her against his chest and carried her the last couple of dozen yards to the cave. There were no predators they had to worry about in the Swiss forests, and he’d seen no signs that Zara and Ross Duffy and their men had been in the vicinity, so he stepped inside the dark, dank space and set Lila on the ground.
Immediately, she groaned in relief and rested her head back against the rough rock wall. She had been such a trooper, and he was so proud of her. Considering the terror of being blown up and kidnapped, especially by someone she had a history with and who had done such despicable things to her, add to that the physical and mental exhaustion and being injured, and it was a wonder she hadn’t already hit a brick wall.
Tough as any SEAL he’d ever known his girl was.
“Hey, I just realized something,” Lila said as he grabbed them both MREs from his pack.
“What’s that?”
