tried to focus her thoughts. She closed her eyes again to conjure the image that had brought her comfort in the long months she had lived here.
Rachel couldn’t remember his name. She didn’t even know if he was real, but as long as she could see him, she could believe there was still hope.
Her guardian angel. He hovered on the fringes of her shattered mind. Big, strong, a warrior. Her protector.
Where was he?
How many days had she sat here wondering if he would come? She had lost count long ago, the scratches on the wall to mark the passing time a long-forgotten diversion.
Oh God, she was going to die. They weren’t bringing her medicine. She needed it. She couldn’t take the pain. Fear lodged in her throat, and she tried in vain to breathe around it. Her chest burned with the effort.
She rocked faster.
A huge explosion echoed like a million thunderclaps. The ground shook beneath her and she threw her arms over her head. The sound of gunfire rang sharply in her ears, and fear clutched her with dead fingers.
The lock on the door of her hut rattled impatiently, and then another gunshot, much closer, pierced her hearing. She glanced up just as the door flew open. Sunlight blinded her, and she ducked away. When she looked back, silhouetted against the odd orange glow behind him, stood a man.
He was big and menacing, his features drawn and made ghoulish by the fire and smoke and more sunlight than she’d seen in days. His rifle swept the room before he focused all his attention on her.
Oh God, he was going to kill her. The day had finally come. The one they had taunted her with.
She whimpered deep in her throat and wrapped her arms protectively around herself.
“Jesus,” the man swore. “Rachel, honey, we’ve come to help you. Everything’s going to be okay.”
She flinched. They had never used her name. In her darker moments, she wondered if she had made the name up.
The man turned his head sideways and spoke into some kind of a receiver he was wearing. “I’ve got her. Hut three. North. We’ll need cover.”
He looked back at her and started forward.
She threw her arms over her head and shrank as small as she could. She closed her eyes so she couldn’t see what was to come.
Above her the man swore softly, but he stopped. She could no longer hear him move. She chanced a peek from under her arms and saw him standing sideways to the door. He was looking out, his profile illuminated by fire.
A few seconds later, another man burst through the door, a gun cradled in his arms. His gaze settled immediately on her.
The second man ripped off his helmet, and her mouth dropped open in shock. She knew this man. She’d seen him so many times in her mind. But he wasn’t real, was he?
He knelt cautiously in front of her and extended his hand. “Rachel, it’s me, Ethan. I’ve come to take you home.”
He knew her name. Her guardian angel knew her name. She began to shake harder, her teeth chattering loudly in her head. Pain gnawed incessantly at her. She needed her medicine.
“Medicine,” she croaked out. It hurt to speak. She hadn’t spoken aloud in a long time. “I need my medicine.”
Ethan frowned and looked back at the other man. Then he reached out and gently took her arm. The first man moved from the doorway so that the light shone more fully in, and she flinched away from the glare. Ethan turned her wrist over until the inside of her arm was exposed.
He let out a hiss of anger.
She yanked her arm away and shrank from the power emanating from him.
“Shit, Sam,” Ethan murmured.
The man he called Sam echoed the curse and then jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “We have to move. Now. It’s three miles back to the chopper and we’re still taking fire from all sides.”
She stared between the two men, mystified by what was transpiring. Where were they taking her?
Ethan touched her cheek and then scrambled up, pulling her with him. Pain wracked her body and she was bathed in heavy sweat. Yet she’d never felt so cold in her entire life.
“Trust me, baby,” Ethan said softly. “I’m going to get you out of here, but I need you to do as I say.”
She barely had time to nod before he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He fumbled with