Page 58 of Protecting Maggie
“Are we really in Ukraine?”
“Yes.”
“I’m still confused about what’s happening.”
“Me too. But we’ll talk and figure it out, as soon as MacGyver finds us a safe place to hole up.”
“Okay.”
“Here, drink some more water,” Shawn urged. He took the hand from behind her head and held out the canteen once more.
Maggie wanted to gulp it down again, but something occurred to her. Looking around, she realized there wasn’t going to be a handy faucet to deliver more clean water once the canteen was empty. And Shawn would need to drink too. Probably needed more than she would, since she was definitely out of her league right now. This was Shawn’s world, and she hadn’t ever been more grateful for someone at her side than she was right that moment. She had no idea how the hell he was there, but she wasn’t going to question her luck.
After taking a long sip, which didn’t come close to satisfying her thirst, she tried to hand it back to him.
“No, finish it,” he told her with a shake of his head, trying to bring the canteen back up to her lips.
“But you need to drink too,” she said.
“I will. After you’re taken care of.”
Maggie looked around exaggeratedly. “I’m not seeing any water fountains around here to refill the canteen,” she told him sarcastically.
To her surprise, he grinned. Then got serious quickly. “God, I could’ve lost this. LostYou.”
Maggie swallowed hard. She wanted nothing more than to burst into tears to let out some of the stress that hadbuilt up over the last couple of days, but she needed to stay strong. “Seriously, Shawn, I’m not going to drink all our water and not leave you any. Out of the two of us, I needyouto stay strong the most. I’m completely useless here.”
“No, you aren’t. And we aren’t going to be here long. Kevlar and the others will arrange to come get us. Also, we can find water. I have purification tablets in my vest. We’re okay. Drink.”
With a sigh, she did as he ordered. She was thirsty, desperately so. And if he thought they would be rescued quickly, she’d believe him.
Just as she was finishing up the water, MacGyver reappeared, scaring Maggie so badly, she would’ve fallen on her ass if Shawn’s arm hadn’t still been around her.
“Easy, it’s just MacGyver.”
“It’s clean. Come on,” he told them.
Maggie was still shaky on her feet, but with Shawn’s help she was able to step over debris and crawl behind MacGyver until they’d reached a small pocket of safety between the crumbled ruins of a building.
“It’s not the Ritz, but it’ll do,” MacGyver announced. “Scrounged some stuff while I was finding this place too.” He gestured to a pile of odds and ends in the corner.
Shawn chuckled and turned to Maggie. “That’s why he’s called MacGyver. Because he somehow manages to create the most amazing tools out of nothing. Here, sit. Then we’ll talk.”
Once upon a time, those three words would’ve struck fear in Maggie’s heart. But now? Shewantedto talk.Needed to. Had to find answers as to how the hell she’d ended up in freaking Ukraine in the middle of a conflict she’d only read about in the papers.
But deep down, she already knew. Roman Robertson. He’d done exactly what he’d threatened—fucked her and Shawn at the same time. She could only hope this time, things would be different. That she and the man she was definitely starting to think she was in love with wouldn’t fall prey to an evil man’s manipulations and immoral, evil plans.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Preacher couldn’t stop touching Maggie. He kept staring at her, unable to believe she was actually with him. When he’d seen her unmoving body fall out of that crate, he’d almost had a heart attack. He’d acted without thinking, something Tex and his team would chew his ass out for later. But there was no way he was letting that helicopter fly away with him on it while leaving Maggie lying in the dirt.
For a split second, he’d thought she was dead. That Robertson had gotten the ultimate revenge on his ex. But then she’d moved, and a whole new fear had nearly overwhelmed him. If Robertson had the power to dothis—to kidnap Maggie, ship her across the world, and get her new boyfriend to unwittingly dispose of her body—what else could he do?
But that was a question for another time. Right now,they needed to get out of this FUBAR’d situation. Then he and the others would tackle the Rear Admiral Robertson problem.
The duct tape that had been used to silence her was still hanging from either side of her head, stuck fast in her hair. The sight of it was offensive, making Preacher feel sick to his stomach. But he did his best to ignore that for now. She was alive, that was all that mattered.
How? He had no idea. She’d been strangled—he saw the clear finger-shaped bruises on her throat—restrained, thrown into a crate, gagged, had earplugs put in her ears so she couldn’t hear anything going on around her, and then pushed out of a fucking helicopter. She should’ve died. But she didn’t. She was way tougher than Robertson ever dreamed. Not only for surviving two years behind bars for a crime she didn’t commit, but for inexplicitly making it through his sick plan to dump her in the middle of a goddamn war zone.
