Page 105 of Everything We Found

Thomas used the last of his strength to swing his gaze over to Fernando just in time to see three bullets hit the felon in the back. He fell forward at the base of the airplane’s steps. Cesar was already flat on his back staring up at the darkening sky. And there, twenty yards from them, Salvador spasmed where hestood as bullets riddled his body. He collapsed in a heap and everything went quiet.

For two heartbeats, an eerie silence descended under James’s erratic breathing. Then Thomas heard it.

Wop-wop-wop.

Rotor blades cutting through the air.

Boots stormed the airstrip. A man dressed in desert camouflage and face paint knelt beside Thomas. Fingers pressed to Thomas’s pulse. Hands inspected his arm and put intense pressure on his thigh. “Command, this is Bravo Two! Hostage down, hostage down! Multiple GSWs. Right thigh with arterial bleed. Need TEMS here now!”

Thomas lifted his head and a hand pushed his shoulder down.

“Stay still. I need you to look at me, right at me. This is going to hurt, but I have to stop this bleeding. Deep breaths.” A vise-like grip crushed into his thigh muscle, creating a deep, unrelenting pressure that was almost impossible to breathe through. “My name’s Tuck, I’m with the FBI. Medical team is two minutes out. Just keep looking at me. Tell me your name?—”

Name?

What name?

Nothing made sense. Everything was spinning.

Who had multiple gunshot wounds and was still alive? Everyone he saw hit was dead.

Then he realizedhewas the hostage down. And everything went dark.

35

NADIA

Sierra One, status! Do you have the shot?

Negative, Command. Hostage is blocking vital area. No clean shot.

Nadia pressed the fingers clasped between her hands to her lips.

Affirmative, Command. Clean shot on target. Standing by for green light.

Take the shot, Sierra One. I repeat, take the shot.

She closed her eyes, not bothering to fight the burn.

Hostage down, hostage down!

Need TEMS here now!

The verbal exchange between FBI command and the Hostage Rescue Team operators and snipers had been the most terrifying thing Nadia had ever listened to, the five-minute helicopter ride with the Tactical Emergency Medical Support team the longest five minutes of her life. She’d never felt so helpless.

Thomas had been unconscious when she’d raced over to him with the team and she’d remained at his side during the lift to the nearest trauma center to be stabilized before he was transferred to Banner University Medical Center in Tucson for surgery.

That was seventy-two hours ago.

Too many hours for her to fixate on the fact that losing Thomas would have devastated her. Had he slipped away, she would have returned to her independent and professionally successful life. A life that now felt hollow. For so long she’d defined herself in opposition to her parents’ failed marriage. She’d built walls around herself out of fear that loving someone would lead to abandonment and had called it freedom.

Just as she’d been lying to her friends, she’d been lying to herself.

Independence wasn’t about isolation. It wasn’t about refusing to need someone either. It was committing to someone while trusting that her past wouldn’t repeat itself. It was about choosing to share her life with someone who valued her strengths and accepted her flaws but loved her anyway. And Thomas loved her. Despite it all.

She was over not giving in to her true desires. She was done with the lies.

And she wasn’t about to leave his side.