Undercover Captor(32)
“I need help!” Drew yelled. He was rubbing her back. “Baby, breathe for me. Nice and slow, okay?”
Didn’t it appear as if she was trying?
“Look at me.”
Her gaze flew to his once more.
“Breathe with me,” he said. “In and out.”
It wasn’t that easy. It wasn’t some mind-over-matter thing right then. She was wheezing, and soon—soon she wouldn’t even be able to do that. She could barely pull in any air at all.
Tina knew the power of a severe attack when it struck her.
The pilot is dead. I was nearly on that plane. People are dying—because of me.
Blood. Death. Everywhere.
“Tina. Tina, focus on me.”
She wanted to, but dark spots were dancing in front of her eyes. Her body trembled.
He caught her before she could fall. He scooped her into his arms and started running toward the sounds of those sirens. “I need a medic, now!”
The smoke was too heavy in the air. Even when she did manage to pull in a breath, it was coated in smoke.
“Her lips are blue, damn it. Help me!”
She saw the swirl of flashing lights. Finally something other than the darkness of the smoke. The EMTs reached for her and pulled her away from Drew.
She didn’t want to leave him. Her hand flew out, caught his.
“Don’t worry, Doc.” His voice was steady and strong. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The EMTs loaded her in an ambulance; a breathing mask was slid over her face.
Drew was right beside her.
The ambulance roared away as the team got to work on her.
* * *
SHE FELT AS if she’d been hit by a truck. Tina sat on the edge of the narrow hospital bed, clad in a thin, paper gown, and she let her breath whisper slowly past her lips.
At least I’m still alive.
They’d given her medication to stabilize her breathing. The medication had stopped what might have just been the worst attack of her life.
She’d been helpless. A prisoner, beaten by her own body.
And he’d seen her. Drew had been there every moment.
Now he knew just how weak she truly was.
The door opened. She didn’t glance up. She’d been told by Dylan that guards had been posted outside her room. It seemed that she couldn’t go anywhere without a guard now.
Because she was targeted for death.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She’d known that it was him, of course. Whenever Drew was in the room, her body responded with an awareness that was almost frightening.
Tina wasn’t sure that she liked being that tuned to another person.
His fingers brushed over her arm. “Doc?”
She forced her shoulders to straighten. “There wasn’t anything you could do while we were on the run. It wasn’t like you were going to have asthma medication in your back pocket—or even in your handy motorcycle saddlebag.”
She’d been managing to keep the asthma in check. She’d handled the motorcycle ride just fine. Tina had thought she could keep controlling the asthma. Until the plane had exploded. Until the smoke had choked her. Until— “Has Pierce been recovered?”
Drew shook his head. “There’s...not going to be much left to recover.”
Right. Her eyes closed for an instant. That last little bit of hope left her.
“Tina?”
Her eyes opened. “How did Devast know I was getting on that plane?” The EOD had made arrangements for her flight out of Texas. She should have been safe.
“I slipped into his network,” Drew said quietly, his gaze watchful on her face. “And it looks like he managed to slip someone into ours.”
Her heart seemed to ache with each beat. From past experience, she knew the soreness would last for a while. “You’re saying we have some kind of double agent in the EOD?”
He nodded. “It looks that way.”
“Who?”
“That’s what we have to find out. And we will find out.”
“Before,” she demanded because it was too much, “or after I’m dead?”
His hands rose and curled around her shoulders. “I’m not letting you die.”
Didn’t he get it? “You saw me.” She pressed her lips together so they wouldn’t tremble. Shame burned in her, but she pushed past it. “When an attack hits me, there is nothing I can do. I’m too vulnerable. If there’s a double agent in the EOD, he can find out my secret.” If he doesn’t already know. “I’m easy to kill.” The paper gown scraped across her knees as she shifted uncomfortably. “Too easy.”
“I’m not letting you die,” he said again, voice rougher.
“You can’t save everyone, you know.” That was a lesson she’d been taught long ago. Sometimes you couldn’t even save the ones who mattered to you the most.