“Absolutely not,” Tasha said. “Ted doesn’t even like it when his security detail carries firearms.”
“Report from the admiral said he was armed with a handgun,” Rio countered.
“It explains the small caliber wound in his leg,” Thomas said.
“Uh oh,” Dave said. “You think he shot himself? I mean, accidentally, but... Damn.”
“Help me get him into a fireman’s carry,” Thomas ordered.
“I did not have that on my bingo card,” Rio said as he moved to assist. “I had Ted gets shot by the bad guys, and Ted shoots us, but not Ted shoots himself.”
Dave pocketed the weapon. “Let’s not give this back to him soon, then.”
As they started to lift Ted, he roused, moaning in pain, and struggling to get away from them.
“It’s okay, you’re okay, we’re friends, I’m Lieutenant Thomas King, U.S. Navy SEALs,” Thomas told him, but it wasn’t until Ted spotted Tasha that he calmed down.
“Tash! Natasha!” He reached for her.
“I’m here, Teddy.” She knelt next to him, taking his hands.
“Are you okay?”
“I am,” she reassured him.
“Damnit,” Thomas said. “I was hoping he’d stay unconscious longer.”
Ted was groggy, dazed, and it was clear that moving, even just a little, was terribly painful. “Thank God,” he breathed.
“Did you hit your head?” she asked him.
“No, but I shot myself. Christ, it hurts. I was trying to get my gun and I fumbled and it went off. I’m an idiot.”
“How we doing this, LT?” Rio asked. “We need to get out of here.”
“What are you doing out here?” Tasha asked Ted. “Didn’t the security team get you to safety?”
“Moving him’s gonna hurt him like hell,” Thomas said.
Ted glanced up at that. “Not moving hurts him like hell, too.” He looked back at Tash. “They flew us out via chopper. But no one went back for you. They just left you. I was furious. Did you find the shelter?”
“We did,” she reassured him. “We ate your corn flakes and your disgusting almond milk.”
Ted laughed a little at that. “I knew you were too much of a smartass to die,” he said. “Shit, this really hurts.”
“Try to stay still, Your Highness. We’ve got some serious painkillers in the SUV,” Thomas said. “Dave, run and get the med—”
“Dave, don’t,” Ted countermanded the order, even though it was clear he didn’t know who was Dave and who was Rio. “We need to get out of here. Now.” He pushed himself up so that he was sitting and the pain made him sweat. Still he said, “I can walk. I can do it.”
“Yeah, I don’t think you’re gonna walk on that leg, Ted,” Rio told him. “But you get mad points for suggesting it.”
“I can carry you, Your Highness,” Thomas said. “But it’s going to hurt.”
“Do it,” Ted said. “Please.”
Thomas nodded. “Dave, run ahead, cut the fence, get that ketamine ready.”
“On it, sir.” Dave vanished.
“Tash, help me get these off.” Thomas pushed the “pants” down past his knees—without the belt, they wouldn’t stay up. She helped him—the legs were wide enough for her to pull them off right over his boots.
“I’m so ready for this truly awesome, long, red-plaid story,” Rio said.
“Help me with that fireman’s hold,” Thomas ordered him.
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Wait, this is crazy,” Tasha said as Rio helped Thomas pull Ted up and onto his shoulders as Ted tried not to scream. Ted wasn’t as jacked as Thomas, but he was close to as tall and nearly as heavy. “Why not let Rio and Dave help you carry him?”
“It’s easier this way,” Thomas told her, already starting up the hill at a pace Tasha had to hustle to keep up with.
“It’s a balance thing,” Rio explained. “Also, Dave going ahead to cut the fence is a good plan. It’ll be much easier to take Ted through the fence than over it.” He held out a hand that she grabbed to keep from tripping over a tree root.
It still seemed surreal that he and Dave had swooped in to save the day at the exact moment Thomas needed them the most. With a car parked conveniently nearby, to boot.
“How exactly did you...?” she’d asked Rio in out-of-breath gasps as he caught her hand again to keep her from sliding down the hillside on her butt. “Where did you...?”
Somehow he knew what she was asking. “We were following the prince,” Rio told her. Like Thomas, he was also able to talk in full sentences while he fast-marched. It was clearly a Navy SEAL-related skill. “He broke out of lockdown to try to rescue you, which might sound heroic, but is fuh-ricking stupid. One man, in a Honda with a handgun that he doesn’t know how to use...? Since we were already heading out here to search for you, we got sidelined to reel Ted back in. Heads up, because we’re not the only ones who were pissed about him going rogue like that. The Admiral is very unhappy. I wouldn’t want to be your fiancé right about now. Not for all the crown prince’s horses and all the crown prince’s men.” He laughed.
“Ted’s not my fiancé,” Tasha said, but Rio clearly didn’t care, he was too busy being pleased with his Humpty Dumpty reference. Like Tasha hadn’t heard that joke forty-seven million times since she’d gone to work for Ted.
But then, as they slipped through the hole that Dave had already cut in the fence, Tasha saw not just the SEAL’s mud-and-bug-splattered SUV, but the car—a tiny Honda—that Ted had been driving, and it suddenly all made sense.
The SEALs had followed Ted here.
And Ted wasn’t here by accident.
He’d intentionally parked as close as he could to the end of the escape hatch tunnel. He’d no doubt intended to go in through the bomb shelter’s front entrance, where he could access the lock. But his obvious plan had been to get her to his car—and subsequent safety—as easily and efficiently as possible by exiting with her through the escape hatch, and then crashing through the woods the relatively short distance down the hillside to his waiting car.
It was a damn good plan. She suspected even Thomas would agree.
And since Thomas and Tasha had been using that very same escape tunnel to leave the pod, they’d been there, on the same side of the mountain, when Ted finally arrived.
And because Rio and Dave were hot on Ted’s trail, they’d been in the exact right place at the exact right time, too. Thank God, but thank Ted, too.
Dave was ready now with the med kit, letting Thomas look at the syringe with the painkiller before giving Ted the dose.
It was amazing how quickly it took effect.
Ted went from tense and nearly screaming with every step Thomas took, to calm and nearly comically boneless as Tash helped get him into the backseat of the SUV, moving him toward the middle of the bench. She climbed in beside him, letting him lean heavily on her, his head practically in her lap while Thomas helped guide his injured leg up and onto the console between the two front seats.