Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

Wren woke with a start. She wasn't sure what had startled her, but when Bo whispered into her ear, "Easy, sweetheart. We're okay," she calmed immediately.

Looking around, Wren saw they were in the cave she vaguely remembered being led to by the newest group of kidnappers. She recalled Bo feeding her, but the memories were fuzzy. As if they were a dream instead of real life.

But right now, there were around a dozen very tense-looking rebels holding rifles, standing near the entrance of the cave.

"What's happening?" she whispered.

"The guys are here," Bo said calmly.

"What? What guys?" Wren asked, turning to look at the man holding her. Her muscles were stiff and it hurt to twist around, but she had to get ready to move. To run. To do something .

But Bo looked relaxed. Well, as relaxed as he could be, considering their current situation.

" Our guys. Kevlar, Preacher, and the others."

Spinning around to look at the mouth of the cave, Wren couldn't see anything beyond the line of rebels.

"Where?"

"They're out there. I heard Flash's bird call. Responded. And now they're waiting for me to make the first move."

"Then why are we still sitting here if you need to do something?" Wren asked.

"Because you were sleeping."

She stared at Bo as if he had two heads. "Wait, your team is here to rescue us, and you aren't doing anything because I was sleeping ?"

"Yup," Bo said. "You were exhausted. Couldn't keep your head up. Could barely eat. You needed the sleep."

"I'm not asleep now," she told him slowly, as if he'd somehow gone crazy while she'd been napping.

He grinned. "Nope."

"Bo?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"I'm confused."

"Right, sorry. Had a talk with their leader while you were getting some much-needed rest. He agreed to let us stay here while you recuperated. Told him my team would compensate him and his friends. Now the guys are here, and we'll be heading back out into the jungle and hopefully onto a helicopter before anyone else can decide to entertain us."

Just then, all the men in the cave raised their rifles and pointed them toward the jungle .

Bo said, still in a casual tone, "Can you get up, sweetheart?"

Scrambling, Wren scooted away from Bo so he could stand. She did the same, noting that Bo made sure to keep himself between her and the others.

"It's my men!" Bo said loudly and firmly. "They won't hurt you. We're fine, Kevlar!"

"You have ten seconds to put down your weapons before we start taking you out!" a deep, menacing voice shouted from the direction of the trees.

No one said a word, but one of the rebels turned around and pointed his rifle at Bo.

Maybe it was because she was still half asleep, or maybe it was pure insanity, but Wren found herself reaching into the pocket of her cargo pants and pulling out the miniscule knife she'd put there earlier…yesterday? This morning? She had no idea what time it was, all she knew was that she wasn't going to let anything happen to Bo. Not because of her.

She leaped around him and pointed the knife at the man. "Stay back!" she yelled almost hysterically.

It was ridiculous. She was holding a blade no longer than half her pinky finger, pointing it at a man with a rifle, while a dozen of his friends—all with their own weapons—stood behind him. What she thought she was going to do with that tiny little knife, she had no idea, but she was tired of feeling helpless. Of having people point guns at the heads of her friends.

"Easy, Wren," Bo said from behind her.

"No!" she exclaimed, not taking her gaze from the man in front of her. "All I want is to go home! I've met some awesome people here in South Sudan but I'm tired, scared, and hungry, and I just want a giant cheeseburger and a soft mattress that isn't soaking wet!"

"And you'll get them," Bo reassured her. Then she felt him press against her back. He didn't reach for her little knife. Didn't do anything except put his hands on her hips and lean into her. His warm breath tickled her ear. "It's all right, Wren. It's okay."

It wasn't okay. Her hand shook, but she couldn't stand down.

The man pointing the rifle lowered the weapon. His lips twitched as he stared at her.

That was the last straw for Wren. To be laughed at. She tried to take a step forward, to show the man smiling at her that she wouldn't hesitate to stab him. Granted, her tiny blade would probably hardly even be able to penetrate his skin, but she'd do what damage she could.

Except Bo tightened his grip, and one arm went around her chest, holding her tightly against him.

She wriggled, but Bo held firm. "It's over, Wren."

"Hey."

Surprised by the familiar voice, Wren looked up and saw Kevlar standing at the entrance of the cave. He wasn't exactly smiling, but he didn't look like was on the verge of slaughtering everyone in sight either. The other five men on Bo's team were fanned out behind him. They all looked cautious and on guard, but no one was shooting anyone else, so she took that as a win.

"Hey," Bo responded.

"You guys good?" Preacher asked .

"Yeah."

"Time for you to go," the leader of the latest group of hostage-takers said. To be fair, they hadn't been restrained. Had been given water, and now that everyone had lowered their weapons, they didn't seem ready to start shooting anytime soon.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Bo told him.

Wren wanted to snort, but she managed to hold it back.

The man eyed Bo for a heart-stoppingly long moment, then nodded.

"Can I speak to my friend for a moment…alone?" Bo asked.

Wren thought for sure he'd gone too far, so she was surprised when the leader nodded. Then he said, "She stays where she is."

The last thing Wren wanted was to be separated from Bo, but she locked her knees when he nodded and his arm dropped from around her.

"I'll be right back. Try not to shank anyone while I'm gone."

Wren glared at him. "This isn't funny."

"No, it's not," Bo told her with a solemn look on his face. "But give me three minutes and we'll be out of here."

"If you or anyone else gets shot, I'm never forgiving you," she warned.

Then, right there in front of his team, the dozen rebels, and the women, Bo kissed her. It wasn't passionate. It wasn't long. But he didn't hesitate to lean in and cover her lips with his own.

"Noted," he said when he lifted his head. His hand came up and he caressed her cheek with a whisper-soft touch, then he turned and walked toward Kevlar.

Wren could still feel his fingers on her face as she watched him talk to his team leader. Within seconds, Kevlar turned to say something to the other men, and all six of them unshouldered their packs and began unloading them.

MREs, bandages, ferro rods, fishing line, paracord, duct tape, and more were thrown into a pile near the entrance to the cave.

While they were doing that, Bo walked back to where Wren was standing. "Ready to go?" he asked.

"Why are they giving them their stuff?" she asked.

"Because I promised to compensate them if they helped us. Don't worry, we aren't going to need the MREs or the other stuff, because we're getting out of this jungle in less than an hour."

"We are? How do you know?"

"Because. I do."

That wasn't an answer, but Wren figured now wasn't the time to go into details. She wanted out. Of this cave, this jungle, this country. "Okay."

"Okay," he agreed with a nod. Then he went over to his backpack, left where they'd been sitting, and shrugged it on.

"Were you followed?" the leader asked Kevlar, as Wren and Bo walked toward the mouth of the cave.

In response, Kevlar snorted. "No. And I'm assuming you know where the other camp was located. If you hurry, you can probably go and gather up anything you might deem useful for your own cause."

The leader's brows rose. "Yeah? "

"Yeah," Kevlar told him. "They won't be needing their supplies anymore."

The words seemed to change the leader's attitude toward Kevlar and his team. "There were twenty men at that camp."

"Yes. There were," Kevlar agreed.

The leader nodded without another word.

"You ready?" Bo asked Wren.

She nodded eagerly.

With a hand on the small of her back, he urged her toward the exit. The jungle was just as hot and humid as she remembered, but suddenly she was glad to be back amongst the trees. She and Bo hadn't been threatened, not really. And yet she had a feeling the men they were leaving behind were just as deadly as the ones who'd kidnapped her yesterday.

"The others? Colby? Dallas, Archie, and Oliver?"

"Safe," Flash told her.

Wren nodded, then frowned. "Are they waiting for us somewhere in the jungle?"

She heard someone snort, but the question had been genuine.

"No, Wren. We got them on a chopper. They're in Uganda, waiting for us."

"Wait, you guys didn't go with them? Why not?" Wren asked.

"SEALs don't leave SEALs behind. Period," Blink told her.

She turned toward the man who never seemed to say much. He wasn't looking at her, was concentrating on getting through the jungle toward wherever their destination lie. She swallowed hard, the understanding of just what these men had done hitting her hard. They'd come into a country they'd told her time and time again wasn't safe, that she shouldn't enter, and not only rescued her coworkers, but they'd come after her and Bo, simply because they didn't want to leave one of their own behind.

She thought she understood loyalty. Bravery. But she'd had no clue.

"Were you really going to stab that guy with that tiny blade?" MacGyver asked with a small grin.

Wren felt herself blush. Thinking about what she'd done, she realized now how stupid it was. She could've easily escalated the already tense situation to a point where the rebels and the SEALs felt they had no choice but to start shooting. Thankfully no one had taken her threat seriously.

"He threatened Bo," she mumbled.

"She's meant for you," Smiley told his teammate.

"She is," Bo agreed. "You still have it? The knife?"

Wren nodded.

"Good. Keep it."

"You think I'll need to use it again?" Wren asked in alarm.

"No. But the thought of you having it, and being willing to use it to protect me, makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside."

Wren couldn't believe she was smiling. She smelled horrible, had blisters on her feet, was walking through a jungle in Africa with a team of Navy SEALs, had no passport, no change of clothing, and her belly was rumbling with either hunger or the threat of explosive diarrhea, and yet she felt amazingly calm.

"Whatever," she told him.

Bo reached for her hand, and Wren gladly gave it. Their palms were sweaty and dirty, but nothing had felt so comforting as holding onto Bo. He'd come for her, just like he said he would. Bad things had happened, some of her poor coworkers had been killed. Yet somehow, she was still alive.

Wren had always done her best to stay strong, to keep going just to spite others, like her mother, but she was beginning to realize that she really was tougher than she'd ever thought.

Of course, the longer they walked, the hotter it got, the more Wren's muscles hurt, the less tough she decided she was. All she could think of was getting into a hot bath and then sleeping for three days straight. She decided she was never leaving Riverton again. She'd gladly become a stay-at-home cat lady if it meant she never had to go through anything remotely like what she was doing at the moment.

Just when she didn't think she could take another step, Kevlar stopped walking. "We're here."

Wren looked around in confusion. "Here, where?" she asked.

"Where we catch our ride."

All Wren could see was trees. There was no landing pad, no road a car could get down.

Then she heard an unmistakable sound. A helicopter.

"Do you trust me?"

Turning toward Bo, she answered without thought. "Yes."

Smiley chuckled. "She said that without hesitation. But we'll see how she feels when she sees how we're getting into our ride."

She looked at Bo uneasily as he stepped into her personal space and palmed the side of her neck. Internally, she cringed, because she was slick with perspiration, and the last thing Bo should want to do was touch her nasty, sweaty neck. But he didn't even seem to notice. His gaze was locked on hers.

"We're going up. The guys in the chopper will drop a rope and we'll be hoisted. Five minutes and we'll be out of here."

None of that sounded fun. She felt obligated to point out, "The last time I tried to climb a rope ladder was in middle school, and trust me, it didn't go well. Like, at all." She heard laughter from more than one person around her, but she kept her eyes on Bo.

"I've got you."

She wanted to protest more. But the truth of the matter was, she did trust this man. With her life. How could she not? He'd come to freaking South Sudan to rescue her from kidnappers. If he told her they were going to jump off the side of a huge cliff and land safely at the bottom, she'd believe him.

"The Night Stalkers know what they're doing," Blink said from beside them.

Tearing her gaze from Bo, she glanced at the other man. "The what?"

"Night Stalkers. They're Army, but they're all right."

The SEALs all chuckled.

"My brother's one," Blink told her.

"A Stalker?" Wren asked.

"A Night Stalker, yes. They're the best of the best when it comes to helicopter pilots."

"You have a brother?" MacGyver asked, a brow raised.

"Yeah. My twin," Blink said.

"No shit?" Flash exclaimed.

"No shit. "

"Wow. Bet the Army-Navy football game is pretty stressful in your house," Smiley joked.

"Nah, we know the Navy's superior," Blink said with a shrug.

"What the hell? Was that a joke?" Smiley asked. "From Blink ?"

But Wren was too worried about what she was about to be asked to do, and failing, to joke about football scores. She put a hand on Blink's arm. "Is he up there?"

"My brother?" Blink shook his head. "No. Last I heard, he was on a ship in the Middle East, shuttling special forces in and out of places they aren't officially supposed to be. But I guarantee whoever is up there knows what they're doing. They'll get us all out of here in a jiffy."

"Holy shit, now the man just said jiffy . We're all dead and this is an alternate universe, isn't it?" Smiley joked.

Kevlar smacked his friend on the back of the head. "Shut it, Smiley. Seriously."

But their joking around made Wren relax a little more. If they were truly worried about this extraction, they wouldn't be making fun of each other.

"He's right," Bo said, bringing her attention back to him. "Those pilots are the best of the best. They'll come down as low as they can before they lower the rope. As soon as you're secure, they'll haul you up and into the cab."

Wren nodded. What else could she do? She literally had no choice but to go along with this crazy plan. It was either be hauled up into a helicopter hovering over the jungle, or hike back to the city, which wasn't something she wanted to do anytime soon .

The sound of the helicopter got louder and louder, and soon the trees above them began to blow in the downdraft. She squinted her eyes as she looked up into the sky. She wasn't able to see the chopper clearly, only get glimpses of it through the blowing trees.

Jumping in fright when a long rope appeared as if out of nowhere, she fell against Bo.

"Easy," he said, even as he was urging her forward toward the rope.

Wren didn't want to go first. Didn't want to get tied to the end of a rope and yanked into the abyss. But she also didn't want to be a baby.

To her surprise, Blink began to secure himself to the rope. Then Bo did the same, leaving about four feet of rope between him and Blink. He turned to her and held out his hand. "Come here, Wren."

She stepped forward as if in a trance. Kevlar approached and began to wind the end of the rope around both her and Bo. He made a loop and told her to step onto it.

"This'll give you leverage, a way to support your body weight as you're hoisted up. Just hold onto Safe. You'll be fine."

Wren didn't feel fine. Yes, the rope had been wound around Bo and his arms were holding her tightly against him, but still, all that was between her and certain death by splatting to the ground was a measly piece of rope!

"Look at me," Bo ordered as she felt movement in the rope.

Swallowing hard, she did just that. His golden-brown eyes were fixated on her. "I'm proud of you. "

Wren gasped as the rope tightened around her waist. Her knee buckled before she locked it, holding her own weight on the little loop around her foot. They rose above the ground, slowly at first, then with increasing speed. Bo had told her that he was proud of her before, but each time he said it, it felt better and better.

"I'm serious," he said in her ear as they were being lifted up toward the helicopter. "You have no idea what kind of hysterics we've had to deal with in regard to hostage rescues."

"You're just saying that," Wren retorted, trying desperately to take her mind off what was happening.

"No, I'm not," Bo insisted. "We once had to extricate a government official from the rooftop of a building, and he not only pissed his pants—which honestly, I don't hold against him, we were dodging sniper fire—but he grabbed me around the neck and almost strangled me by the time we got to the chopper. Kevlar had to punch him and knock him out cold in order to loosen his grip, just so I could breathe."

"Holy crap!" Wren gasped.

"Yeah. So believe me when I tell you that you're doing great, sweetheart."

She glanced down—and stiffened when she realized she couldn't see the ground anymore. Then she looked up, which was almost worse. All she could see was the underside and skids of the helicopter. She had no idea how the hell they were going to get inside the thing, not dangling as they were on this tiny rope.

"When we get home, I'm going to lock us in my room—no more sleeping in the guest room for you—and make love to you for hours. I meant what I told that rebel in the cave. You're mine…and I'm going to prove it over and over, until you pass out from orgasm fatigue."

That got her attention, as Wren supposed Bo meant it to. "That's not a thing," she protested, but deep down she couldn't help but hope it was.

"Sure it is. And I'm going to prove that too. I love you, Wren Defranco. You're the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. You've proven over and over that you're tough as nails. Being with a SEAL isn't easy, but I have no doubt whatsoever that you can hack it."

"Bo," she whispered.

"I need to introduce you to my family. Susie, her husband, kids. My parents. We need to set up a meeting with your father so you can meet him and your brothers. We have to discuss how you feel about having kids of our own. I want them, but I want time with you all to myself before we even think about that. And if kids aren't something you want, I'll deal."

Wren's mind was spinning. "I want kids," she blurted.

He smiled at her. "Good. Now, hold on and let them do all the work."

For a second, Wren was confused. Let their unborn kids do all the work? But she was brought back to reality when she felt someone tugging at the rope around her waist. She panicked for a millisecond, until she felt herself held in a firm grip around both upper arms and being pulled upward. It was only moments later when Bo was there as well, holding her as he urged her to scoot backward, away from the open helicopter door.

Blink gave her a thumbs up from where he was crouched near the door. The rope was being lowered again, and Wren knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of Bo's team was in the helicopter with them and they were on their way.

He'd successfully distracted her from what was happening…but almost immediately she began to worry that was all his words were. A distraction.

Until he leaned in and put his lips against her ear. It was loud inside the chopper, and any kind of true conversation was almost impossible. But she heard him when he spoke directly into her ear.

"Proud of you. Love you."

There was no better combination of words that Wren could imagine hearing from the man she loved. And while she hadn't said the words to Bo, she felt deep in her heart that this man was hers. How could she not love him?

The rest of Bo's team was quickly hoisted into the helicopter, then they were turning and flying away.

Closing her eyes, Wren allowed herself to fully relax for the first time probably since she'd landed in the country. She had no idea what her future held, what the future held for BT Energy and the pipeline project they'd all worked on so hard. But whatever it was, she had no doubt that she'd have Bo at her side.