some serious painkillers in the SUV,” Thomas said. “Dave, run and get the med—”
“Dave, don’t,” Ted countermanded the order, even though it was clear he didn’t know who was Dave and who was Rio. “We need to get out of here. Now.” He pushed himself up so that he was sitting and the pain made him sweat. Still he said, “I can walk. I can do it.”
“Yeah, I don’t think you’re gonna walk on that leg, Ted,” Rio told him. “But you get mad points for suggesting it.”
“I can carry you, Your Highness,” Thomas said. “But it’s going to hurt.”
“Do it,” Ted said. “Please.”
Thomas nodded. “Dave, run ahead, cut the fence, get that ketamine ready.”
“On it, sir.” Dave vanished.
“Tash, help me get these off.” Thomas pushed the “pants” down past his knees—without the belt, they wouldn’t stay up. She helped him—the legs were wide enough for her to pull them off right over his boots.
“I’m so ready for this truly awesome, long, red-plaid story,” Rio said.
“Help me with that fireman’s hold,” Thomas ordered him.
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Wait, this is crazy,” Tasha said as Rio helped Thomas pull Ted up and onto his shoulders as Ted tried not to scream. Ted wasn’t as jacked as Thomas, but he was close to as tall and nearly as heavy. “Why not let Rio and Dave help you carry him?”
“It’s easier this way,” Thomas told her, already starting up the hill at a pace Tasha had to hustle to keep up with.
“It’s a balance thing,” Rio explained. “Also, Dave going ahead to cut the fence is a good plan. It’ll be much easier to take Ted through the fence than over it.” He held out a hand that she grabbed to keep from tripping over a tree root.
It still seemed surreal that he and Dave had swooped in to save the day at the exact moment Thomas needed them the most. With a car parked conveniently nearby, to boot.
“How exactly did you...?” she’d asked Rio in out-of-breath gasps as he caught her hand again to keep her from sliding down the hillside on her butt. “Where did you...?”
Somehow he knew what she was asking. “We were following the prince,” Rio told her. Like Thomas, he was also able to talk in full sentences while he fast-marched. It was clearly a Navy SEAL-related skill. “He broke out of lockdown to try to rescue you, which might sound heroic, but is fuh-ricking stupid. One man, in a Honda with a handgun that he doesn’t know how to use...? Since we were already heading out here to search for you, we got sidelined to reel Ted back in. Heads up, because we’re not the only ones who were pissed about him going rogue like that. The Admiral is very unhappy. I wouldn’t want to be your fiancé right about now. Not for all the crown prince’s horses and all the crown prince’s men.” He laughed.
“Ted’s not my fiancé,” Tasha said, but Rio clearly didn’t care, he was too busy being pleased with his Humpty Dumpty reference. Like Tasha hadn’t heard that joke forty-seven million times since she’d gone to work for Ted.
But then, as they slipped through the hole that Dave had already cut in the fence, Tasha saw not just the SEAL’s mud-and-bug-splattered SUV, but the car—a tiny Honda—that Ted had been driving, and it suddenly all made sense.
The SEALs had followed Ted here.
And Ted wasn’t here by accident.
He’d intentionally parked as close as he could to the end of the escape hatch tunnel. He’d no doubt intended to go in through the bomb shelter’s front entrance, where he could access the lock. But his obvious plan had been to get her to his car—and subsequent safety—as easily and efficiently as possible by exiting with her through the escape hatch, and then crashing through the woods the relatively short distance down the hillside to his waiting car.
It was a damn good plan. She suspected even Thomas would agree.
And since Thomas and Tasha had been using that very same escape tunnel to leave the pod, they’d been there, on the same side of the mountain, when Ted finally arrived.
And because Rio and Dave were hot on Ted’s trail, they’d been in the exact right place at the exact right time, too. Thank God, but thank Ted, too.
Dave was ready now with the med kit, letting Thomas look at the syringe with the painkiller before giving Ted the dose.