Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 47

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“Auuuggghhh!”

“Stop!” I shouted. “Stop! This isn’t working!”

The sudden death of Astrid’s screams was indication enough to let me know that Chloe had stopped whatever she was doing to try to release the Norwegian woman from the wreckage of the helicopter. Or perhaps not. There was every chance that Astrid had simply passed out from the pain; her eyes had rolled into the back of her head, and she’d gone limp in my arms. Fresh tears stained her pale, porcelain cheeks, and despite being unconscious, lines of stress were still present at the corners of her eyes. Her mouth remained tight, almost as if she were having some kind of nightmare while in a deep sleep.

She was already fair, so it was startling to see the little color she had drained from her. Astrid looked so frail, and it awoke some deep, primitive desire inside me to protect her. I had to actively remind myself that she wasn’t as fragile as she appeared… that underneath that gentle exterior beat the heart of an incredibly tough and cruel woman—at least, according to the marks on Bobbi’s body.

Chloe rounded the wreckage and stopped next to me, wiping the moisture from her forehead. It was no longer drizzling, but the humidity was so high that it might as well have been. A light fog was rolling softly through the forest, making it impossible to see further than twenty-five feet in any direction, which made both of us uneasy.

My bodyguard leaned against the remains, watched the surrounding forest with her intense brown eyes, and then huffed. “We’re not going to be able to move her.”

I felt my heart drop in my chest. Although Astrid and I had our differences, she was still an ally, and something told me she might still be useful when dealing with Tanaka.

“Is it because she might bleed out?”

Chloe shook her head. “Her leg has a piece of metal wrapped around it. Pretty sure it’s crushing part of the bone.”

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“I’m surprised her foot’s still getting blood. Her bleeding’s stopped, so as long as the status quo doesn’t change, she’s not in any immediate danger. We should be more worried about the gash on her head. I’m not sure if she just got her cage rattled or has a serious concussion. Keeping her still is better than moving her around, so…” She hiked a thumb over her shoulder at Astrid, and I got the gist. We didn’t have a choice—Astrid couldn’t be moved, and even if she could, keeping her still was probably best.

“What about infection?” I asked.

Chloe shoved off the wreckage and strode toward our shelter. I gently laid Astrid’s head back on the seat where it had been resting and withdrew from the opening of the helicopter to follow her.

“There’s antibiotics among the equipment we found in the parachutes. That’ll help,” Chloe said as she approached our shelter. She pushed the flap aside and dropped to her knees as she moved inside, with me following. She rummaged through the small collection of supplies we had stacked on one side. “But even if we stretch it out, we don’t have enough to last more than a few days.” She picked up a power bar, waved it in the air, tossed it back on top of the heap, and added, “Just like everything else.”

“Exactly how many days can we last on everything?”

She looked over her shoulder at me; her compressed lips were enough to tip me off that she was concerned.

“Four days.”

Relief flooded me. I thought she was about to give me a much smaller number.

“Four days? That should be fine, right? They should find us by then.”

Chloe inhaled deeply before letting it out as a sigh. She spun around and dropped from her crouch into a sitting position, resting her arms on her knees as she gazed up at me.

“This is a big forest. We don’t have phones, and the helicopter’s transponder is shot. If there was some other way to track it or detect some kind of malfunction, I’m positive someone would have been out here by now.”

“Like I said yesterday,” she continued, “there’s the tracker I put in you, but Psalter’s the only one with access to it besides me, and I’m concerned Erin will call Hannon before him. None of them might even think to call Henry.”

I grabbed my bag and opened it, digging through it again in vain hope of finding something helpful.

“What about Bobbi’s collar?” Chloe asked thoughtfully.

“What about it?” I asked without looking up from my bag. Unfortunately, the only things in it were a few articles of clothing, a toothbrush, an electric trimmer, the vibrator remote, toothpaste, hair products… nothing that could aid in communicating with the outside world.

“Don’t you have some kind of way of sending signals to it?” Chloe asked.

“Nah,” I said, wondering if Chloe had any experience building radios and could somehow combine the vibrator remote with the electric trimmer to make some kind of makeshift communicator. “It’s just an app on my phone that only reads her vitals. It’s trashed anyway.”

Chloe grunted but didn’t say anything. She sat there in silence as I started repacking my bag. Once done, and placed back against the wall, I dropped beside her, and we both sat in silence for the next few minutes.

“I need to track down the cabin,” she finally said.

“The cabin?” I asked.

“The location for the talk with Tanaka.”

I snorted. “You can’t be serious.”

“Afraid I am,” she replied.

“Chloe, no.”

“Hear me out,” she said, touching my arm. It wasn’t a strong-arm tactic so much as a gesture of reassurance. While our interactions had mainly been the same since we left the shelter this morning, there had been a subtle shift. Chloe still had that no-nonsense, terse quality, but there was a tinge of warmth to it that I hadn’t noticed before. I dunno… maybe I was imagining it, but for the first time, it felt like she was more than just a bodyguard. Lover might be too strong a word, but at the very least, she felt like a friend.

And I didn’t want to lose my friend.

Or my bodyguard.

“No,” I said before she could continue. “We talked about this. You can’t just go off on your own with God knows how many of Tanaka’s men out there.”

“Would you just listen?” she said with a slight edge to her voice. When I didn’t respond, she continued, “We have about four days of supplies, including today. There’s a good chance someone could show up before then, but there’s also a good chance they won’t. I’m happy to wait it out while we have supplies and hope the cavalry shows up, but what happens in four days if they don’t and we’re out of food?”

“I…” I said, considering our options, but quickly realized there was only one. “Damn,” I muttered, already having an idea where she was going with this.

“Right,” she said, sensing I was putting it together. “If we run out of supplies, we have to get in that cabin and let them know where we are. That cabin has a phone and supplies. We stay hidden till we can’t hide anymore. Then we do what we have to.”

“So stay hidden,” I protested.

“I will, but we should at least get an idea of where the place is and what we’re dealing with. That means tracking it down and assessing the situation. Better to do it while we have a few days to prepare.”

As usual, Chloe was right. Of course she was right—this was her area of expertise. It didn’t mean I had to like it, though.

“I’m going with you,” I said.

Chloe shook her head. “I work better on my own. You’re better off staying here. Someone needs to keep an eye on the little we have and make sure Astrid is okay.” She leaned back and stretched out so she could slip one hand under our stash. It gave me a lovely view of her body—the sleeveless shirt was a little damp and clung to her in all the right ways, displaying every curve of her beautifully sculpted form. It rode up just enough to reveal about three inches of taut stomach and reminded me of our moments of intimacy last night and this morning. I could still feel her smooth skin on my tongue, and I had the sudden urge to reach out and wrap my arm around her narrow waist as if we hadn’t just made love a few hours ago.