Page 77 of Protecting Maggie
“At what cost?” she demanded. “You getting beat up some more? No, thank you. Josie has told me stories about how Blink was tortured when they were in those cells. I wasn’t about to sit back and let the same thing happen to you, Shawn. Not if I could do anything about it. Besides, I know what it’s like to be held against your will. Both from being in that damn crate and from when I was behind bars. It’s not a good feeling. I wanted to do whatever I could to help you escape.”
He stared at her for a long time, and Maggie couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. “What?” she finally asked.
“I love you,” Shawn said. “With every word out of your mouth, I think I love you more. You were meant to be mine, just as I’m meant to be yours. When we getback home, I’m going to do a better job of being your partner.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Maggie whispered, even though his words sent warm and gooey feelings throughout her body.
“It means I’m not going to let you out of my sight until Robertson is neutralized.”
Maggie gasped. “You can’t kill him!”
To her surprise, Shawn chuckled. “Neutralized doesn’t necessarily mean killing him. You’ve been watching too many science fiction shows.”
Maggie wrinkled her nose. He probably had a good point. In the shows she loved to watch, neutralize always meant ending someone’s life.
“I’m going to use all my contacts to dig into Robertson’s life. Expose every dark nook and cranny. I’m going to have every decision he’s made in the Navy scrutinized. Interview those who have worked for him. Men on SEAL teams he’s had deployed. Find previous girlfriends. Every part of his life will be looked at under a microscope. He’s going to suffer for what he’s done to you, Maggie, but he should be more worried about everythingelsewe’re going to dig up. I have a feeling there’ll be plenty that’s more damning…not that what he’s done to you isn’t bad enough, just?—”
“I know,” she interrupted. “He feels as if he’s untouchable. There’s no telling how many more lives he’s ruined simply because he could.”
“Exactly,” Shawn said with a nod.
They listened to the soothing sound of the rain on the tin roof. After what had to be an hour or more, long after Artem and Borysko had lain down next to MacGyver and fallen fast asleep, Maggie worked up the nerve to ask a question that had been rolling around in her brain. “Do we know when they’ll come to get us?”
By “us” she really meant Shawn and MacGyver. She wasn’t even supposed to be here.
“Soon,” MacGyver said.
“What do we do when they come? What shouldIdo?” she asked nervously.
“You stay by me,” Shawn said. “I’ll get you home safely.”
She had a lot more questions, but for once, Maggie swallowed them down. She trusted Shawn. If he said run, she’d run. If he said hide, she’d hide. This was his area of expertise, not hers. She’d learned that the hard way. Hide and seek would never be a game she enjoyed again. Not after it had been a life-or-death thing for her today.
“Okay,” she said belatedly.
“Sleep, Maggie,” he said.
“What about you?” she asked, suddenly finding it almost impossible to keep her eyes open.
“I’ll be fine.”
Maggie wanted to protest, tell Shawn he needed to sleep too, but the sound of his heart beating steadily under her cheek was too hypnotizing. One moment she was awake, and the next, she was deeply asleep in the arms of the man she loved.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
There was no way Preacher was sleeping. He was tired, of course he was, but now that he had Maggie back in his arms, he wouldn’t do anything that would put her in any more danger than he’d put her in already. And falling asleep would leave her vulnerable, which wasn’t acceptable.
The rain had finally stopped and the silence it had left in its wake was almost deafening. But it also allowed him and MacGyver to hear every little sound in the countryside around them. The city they’d been wandering around in was surrounded by farmland. Land that was now filled with rotting vegetables and overgrown fields.
A positive about their current situation was that they’d be able to see any soldiers approaching from quite a distance, but since they had only the one rifle they’d taken off the soldier in the church, they were at a distinct disadvantage.
They also had no way to forage for food, and if it didn’t rain again soon, they’d be out of water. Yes, their current situation wasn’t great, but Preacher had faith that when Tex checked out their location, thanks to MacGyver’s tracker, he’d realize they were in a perfect position to be picked up.
It wouldn’t have been ideal to send a team of SEALs into the city, considering they weren’t supposed to be here at all. Now, hopefully they could be extracted with little to no fuss…but Preacher had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen.
As soon as he had the thought, the faint sound of a chopper coming in hard and fast hit his ears. It was dark now, but that didn’t matter to Night Stalker pilots. They could fly in any terrain, weather, or time of day or night.
“Maggie,” Preacher said, shaking the woman lying against him.
