Saving Amber - Zoe Dawson Page 0,82
woman think that he was all those things. He forced a half smile. His voice was so gruff it didn’t even sound like his own when he answered. “Are you kidding me?” he said. “You held your own. You were a beast.”
She huffed a little laugh. “Great, that’s the way I want you to think about me,” she said, her tone very husky.
He thought of all the reasons he’d fallen in love with her, but that directness of hers, that honesty, which was a fundamental part of her, was one of the things he admired most.
And it made his chest tighten even more.
He ran the back of his fingers over her soft cheek and she pressed into him, then he worked his throat and locked his gaze on hers. “I think you’re beautiful. So damn beautiful.” He almost said he’d do anything for her, but he held back. This all was so different, so new and strange and he felt the need to take the time to think. He couldn’t offer her anything until he was sure he knew what he wanted.
Feeling suddenly very exposed and needing something to do, he rose and stood, then dressed. He grabbed up several MREs, power bars and some water. “Eat and drink all this.” Then he went to the mouth of the cave. There was a funny ringing in his ears, and his voice seemed to come from a long way off. “Get some sleep, sweetheart,” he said, his tone strained. “I’ll take the watch.”
Then he went out into the cold and it hit him like a wall of frost, his heart thundering like a freight train in his chest.
He hadn’t been prepared for her, for her to be so open and honest.
And the act had stripped away a defense system that had been in place ever since that long-ago consulate takeover where he had lost himself.
Chris accepted the mug of steaming coffee Colonel Jacobs shoved into his hands. They were in the conference room at headquarters and had been here all night trying to work out how to find Amber and Tristan Michaels. It was as if they’d disappeared off the face of the earth.
Corporal Morgan poked his head into the office and said, “There’s an Officer Mendez on the phone for you, sir. He says it’s urgent.”
“Patch him through.”
When the conference room phone rang, the colonel put it on speaker.
“Colonel Jacobs.”
“Sir, this is Officer Mendez over at PD.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Chief Werner’s wife just called. She said her brother-in-law went up early this morning to join a hunting party and it seems that the cabin has been broken into and everyone is missing. Her brother-in-law is concerned. He found blood in the snow. He also noticed a car with military plates. She gave me the numbers and I ran them, sir, and they are registered to Master Sergeant Tristan Michaels. I saw that he’s been missing since yesterday.”
“Where is this cabin?” the colonel said as Chris pushed off the wall and Beau and Vin both came awake. “Morgan!” he shouted as Mendez started to rattle off the address.
Vin was already entering it into his phone.
When Corporal Morgan came to the door, the colonel said, “Get me a bird on the double! No need for that, Fitzgerald. We won’t be driving.”
Amber squeezed Tristan’s hand as they slipped out of the cave. When he checked the rifle, it had only one bullet in it.
“Stay hidden here. I’m going to scout ahead. We can descend. It’s going to be a trek and hard going, but it’s the shortest way down. Garza knows that. It’s our only chance. I’ll be right back.”
Amber stayed out of sight as she watched Tristan head across the expanse of snow. Then she saw Garza. He was moving parallel to Tristan. Without caring that she would expose herself, she shouted, “Tristan!”
He hit the deck and the bullet from Garza’s gun missed him. Two men broke from cover and pelted toward her. She headed for Tristan, then noticed the broken trees and the debris at the bottom of this hill.
Suddenly, in the distance, she heard the sound of chopper blades at the same time she heard an audible crack. The snow beneath her feet started to slide. The two men who were after her stopped dead. Tristan rose and Garza fired again, forcing him to take cover behind a rock. Amber looked down; the snow was breaking away right beneath her feet.
Tristan yelled for her to move and there was only