Seal of Honor(67)

So strong. He flicked away one of the tears he didn’t think she was even aware were running down her cheeks. “I wish I could have gotten to it first.”

“But you didn’t. I did, and then did what I had to do to keep us both alive.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

She hesitated, gazed down at Liam, then firmed up her trembling lips and nodded once. “You were right. Sometimes, with people like him, violence is the only option. Now, let’s go before someone comes looking for one of them.”

God, he adored her. He gripped that stubborn chin and lifted it, giving her a quick, hard kiss. “All right. We’re outta here.”

Grasping her hand, he pulled her toward the door, but his legs went out from under him after the first step. One minute he was on his feet and the next, his hands and knees. His mouth felt like cotton and tasted like blood, and his visual acuity was way off.

Oh man, he was crashing. Pushed himself too far for too long.

He shoved away Audrey’s helping hands. “Go.”

“Are you insane?”

He let go a huff of laughter. “Only around you, honey.”

“This isn’t a time to joke.” She yanked hard on his shirt and managed only to tear it. “C’mon, Gabriel. Move.”

He tried, but his head suddenly weighed a hundred pounds, each of his limbs at least a couple thousand a piece. He collapsed and, hard as he fought it, consciousness became nothing but a good memory.

That is, until her palm connected smartly with his cheek. He jolted awake to find her in his face, eyes sparking with fear-fueled anger.

“Don’t you dare do this to me, sailor,” she said through her teeth as tears choked every heated word. “I killed a man for you, and you are not going to make me leave you behind. You are going to pick your sorry ass off this floor and get us to safety.”

Yeah, forget adoration. He loved this woman.

“Yes, ma’am.” Weakness plaguing his every movement, he struggled to sit and managed to get upright. Sitting there on his butt, panting and shivering, with sweat dripping off his temples, the realization struck that he couldn’t do this under his own steam.

He looked up at Audrey. So tough, so stubborn, and almost as demanding as he was.

He held out a hand. She released a huge breath of relief and clasped his palm. “On the count of three, big guy. One, two, up ya go.”

With her help, Gabe hauled himself to his feet. He staggered a little, and took a moment to draw a deep breath and regain his bearings. He touched his fingers to the seeping wound in his side.

Messy. A lot of torn flesh and a whole lot of blood, but he didn’t think anything vital had been hit and, with adrenaline coursing through his system, he couldn’t feel the pain. Yet. But that would change real damn fast, and they had to be well away from Mena’s estate when his brain caught on to the fact he was probably bleeding to death.

“We need to bandage you,” Audrey said when his fingers came away smeared red.

“Later.” Nausea threatened to choke him, but he swallowed it down and shuffled to the door. “Search the desk, their pockets. We need money, car keys, an AK-47. Anything that will help us get the fuck out of here.”

“Okay,” Audrey said.

As she scrambled through the desk drawers behind him, he cracked the door open enough to peek into the hallway. Two guards stood there with their backs to him. They must have been told to expect gunshots, which played to his advantage, bought him some time to strategize. Too much longer, though, and those guards might start getting antsy.

Gabe quietly shut the door, leaned his forehead against it, and thought back a year to all of SEAL Team Ten’s plans for raiding Mena’s estate. They’d had intel on the servants’ and the guards’ shifts, on the placement of all the cameras and motion sensors. He knew the house, the grounds, and the security system’s strengths and weaknesses like he knew his own name. Escape would have been difficult if he was in prime condition and had his SEAL teammates for back up. Escape while seriously wounded with an untrained woman in tow…

Fuck.

Audrey returned to his side with a roll of Colombian bills. “No keys.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said and shoved the roll into his pants pocket. “We can’t get to the garages from here. Hallway’s guarded.”

“What are we going to do?”

Gabe pushed away from the door and, ignoring his lightheadedness, weaved across the library, out onto the terrace, all the while scanning, searching for an out. Hallway was a no-go unless he took out the guards, but where there were two, there would be more. Could he take them all in his weakened condition? Maybe if he got lucky. Was he willing to risk Audrey’s life like that? No fucking way.