When he was done, he scowled down at her ankle. It was chafed and bleeding from the metal rubbing against her skin. It looked like she’d used a strip of her T-shirt to wrap around her ankle to prevent it from rubbing, but it had been lost at some point.
“It doesn’t look too bad,” Avery said.
Looking up at her, Rex frowned.
“Seriously. It could’ve been a lot worse. I’m glad the cushion that I used worked. At least a little bit.”
Shaking his head, Rex quickly went to work cleaning the cuts with an alcohol pad. She winced, but didn’t pull away from his grip, letting him clean the wound as best he could at the moment.
“We need to get going,” Gumby warned.
Nodding, Rex reached inside his pack once more. He pulled out a small tube and handed it to Avery. “Until we’re away from here, this is the best I can do. You weren’t lying about the water you’ve been drinking, right?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ve been forcing myself to drink as much as possible.”
He nodded. “Good. This is a high-calorie protein gel. It’s also got electrolytes and carbs to give you a short burst of energy.”
Avery took it from him and studied it for a moment.
Knowing they didn’t have much time, Rex reached for one of the socks he’d pulled out of his pack. He would’ve preferred to clean and wash her feet before putting the boots on her, but that would have to wait.
“I…thank you,” Avery said.
Rex nodded. “I’ve got plenty more of those in my pack, so whenever you think your body will tolerate it, let me know and I’ll give you another.”
She struggled to tear the top off the small plastic gel package, and Phantom reached over to help her. She thanked him when he handed it back, and then brought it up to her mouth.
Just when Rex had finished tying her second shoe, she began to gag. She’d consumed about half of the small packet and was trying to get the rest down.
“Easy, Avery. Don’t rush it.”
Her hands shook as he helped her stand. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I just…my throat closes up and it’s really hard to swallow.”
“I’m not surprised,” Rex said. “It’ll take a while for your body to get used to eating again. But the more you can get down, the better off you’ll be.”
Avery nodded. “I know. I’m trying.”
Rex was proud of her. “How do the boots feel?”
Taking a deep breath, Avery picked up one foot, then the other, testing the fit. “Good,” she said after a moment. “Much better than walking on the rocks and dirt.”
“We need to go,” Gumby said in a warning tone.
“I’ve got a long-sleeve shirt for you,” Rex told Avery, “but it’s going to have to wait until we’re in a safer location.” He shrugged on his pack and reached for Avery. Putting an arm around her waist to support her, he turned them until they were walking away from the cave. They were going to have to go down the drop-off on the other side of the road. They couldn’t exactly walk along the dirt road and avoid the insurgents.
“I’ll let you walk as long as it doesn’t endanger the mission,” Rex told her. “If it comes to it, I might have to suddenly pick you up and run. Don’t scream, okay?”
He watched as Avery nodded. He could tell she wasn’t thrilled with that prospect, but she didn’t protest.
“My ribs are a bit sore,” she warned him. “Not broken, but definitely tweaked.”
Rex hated that for her, but nodded. “I’ll be as careful as I can, but if we have to move fast, I’m probably going to hurt you unintentionally.”
“Better you than them,” Avery told him calmly.
Once again, his respect for her rose. She’d obviously been through hell, but was doing her best to make things as easy as possible for all of them.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here,” he told her.
Within seconds, they were out of sight of the road and the cave where she’d spent the last two weeks being held prisoner. If they had more time, they probably would’ve done their best to cover the hole they’d made, to make her captors think she was still inside. Now they were going to know at a glance that she was gone. But it couldn’t be helped.
Rex looked over at Avery and saw her biting her lip as he helped her down the steep side of the mountain. It was obvious Avery was hurting, but she was doing everything she could to be a help and not a hindrance.
They’d just reached the bottom of the hill when the first sound of the trucks reached their ears. Rocco and Gumby picked up the pace ahead of them, and Rex tightened his hold around Avery’s waist. There weren’t a lot of places to hide out here in the desert, but with every step without a complaint or whine from Avery, he vowed to do whatever it took to get her home to California safe and sound.
Chapter Four
Avery clenched her teeth and somehow kept her screams of pain from escaping. Every step was agony. Her ribs hurt. Her feet hurt. Her eyes hurt. Hell, even her bones hurt. The aftertaste of the energy gel she’d tried to choke down was overwhelming, since she hadn’t eaten anything in so long. It was sour and sweet all at the same time. Her taste buds were on overload, and the taste and consistency of the gel made her want to hurl. She’d thought she’d been in hell inside that cave in the pitch darkness, but somehow this seemed worse.
She had no doubt the men around her were capable of getting her back to the base safely, but at the moment, all she wanted to do was lay down and cry.
She was a naval officer. Technically, she outranked the SEALs who’d been sent in to rescue her. There was no way she was going to act weak in front of them. Especially not in front of Cole.
She was well aware he was practically carrying her as it was. The arm around her waist was taking so much of her weight she was barely on her feet. But that was probably a good thing, since she felt so shaky and weak she honestly wasn’t sure she could walk on her own, no matter how much she’d insisted otherwise.
And the bright sunlight was still playing havoc with her eyesight. The sunglasses helped, but everything was still way too bright for her to see comfortably.
Being a nurse was both a blessing and a curse. It meant she knew exactly how much abuse the human body could take and still keep on ticking, but it also meant she was well aware of every one of her aches and pains…and what they meant.
Her stomach had probably shrunk to a fraction of its normal size as a result of not having any food. Her ribs were likely fractured. The scrapes around her ankle from the restraint could easily cause an infection that might spread upward through her bloodstream. She definitely had a concussion from the wound she’d received in the initial attack on the convoy, when the clinic collapsed. And she didn’t even want to think of what kind of parasites she could’ve consumed by drinking the water in the cave.
But she was alive.
She was counting that as a win.
And now she had four—no, six—SEALs to help her escape.
That was way better than having to slink around the desert on her own to elude the insurgents.
“What are you thinking about so hard over there?” Cole asked.