She approached him cautiously. No one else appeared to be in the area, but she didn’t want to take any chances. She checked every shadowed space, then eased closer to the bound man.
He stiffened as she drew nearer. His sagging head snapped up. “Who’s there?” he demanded.
She wanted to say the voice was familiar to her. Gunner had been so sure it was Slade’s voice that they’d heard in the jungle. But Sydney just didn’t know. The only voice she knew by heart?
Gunner’s rough, rumbling drawl.
“I’m here to help you,” she whispered to him. She’d shoved that sharp chunk of wood in her belt, and now she pulled it out and began to saw against his binds with it. “Don’t move.”
But a shudder ran the length of the man’s body. “Talk to me again. I know...”
She frowned at him. She should just take off the sack, find out for certain who this man was. But she was afraid.
And she wasn’t usually afraid.
“What do you know?” Sydney asked him.
“I know...” A heaving breath. “You.”
Her makeshift weapon cut through the binds on his wrists. There was no rope on his ankles, and he surged to his feet. As he turned toward her, he yanked off the sack that covered his head. In that dim lantern light, Sydney got her first look at the hostage’s face.
The world seemed to slow its spinning.
His hair was longer, his beard heavy, but...those cheekbones. That hawkish nose.
“Sydney...”
He yanked her into his arms. His mouth pressed to hers, and she was so stunned that she couldn’t respond, couldn’t move at all.
Slade?
He’d been alive. They’d left him, and he’d been...alive.
His mouth was hard on hers. So hard.
She pulled back, staring up at him in shock. “Slade?”
She realized the gunfire had stopped. A good sign...or a very bad one. Sydney pushed away from Slade and glanced toward that sloping entrance.
A man stood there. Tall, with wide shoulders, armed. A man who’d been watching them.
He stepped forward, and the lantern light spilled onto Gunner. It was too dark for her to see the expression in his eyes, but his body looked tense.
“Slade?” Gunner’s voice was hoarse as he lowered his weapon.
Slowly, Slade turned to face his brother. Slade was thinner—much thinner—than he’d been before.
Two years.
Gunner began to walk toward Slade with slow, hesitant steps. “I—I thought you were dead.”
Slade shuffled toward him, limping slightly.
Gunner lifted his arms to embrace his brother.
Slade drove his fist into Gunner’s jaw.
“Slade!” Sydney shouted.
But Slade wasn’t stopping. He attacked Gunner, pummeling him with his fists, kicking him with his legs. Again and again.
Gunner didn’t fight back. Didn’t try to land a blow, didn’t try to block any of the attacks. Gunner fell, and Slade kicked his ribs. Driving in hard with his boot-covered feet.
“Stop!” Sydney grabbed Slade’s arm. But he swung around and shoved her back, so hard that she slammed into the rough wall behind her.
“Sydney?” Gunner’s growl. And he was rising then.
Even as Slade stood over her now, with his fist drawn back as if he’d strike her.
He’s been through hell. He doesn’t realize what he’s doing. Sydney cleared her throat. “You have to calm down, Slade.”
Gunfire burst again, sounding as if the blasts came from just yards away.
Sydney shook her head and rose fully to her feet. She kept her gun in her hand. She’d do whatever was necessary to stop the men from tearing each other apart. “We have to get out of here. Do you understand?”
Slade’s breaths sawed in and out of his lungs.
“Slade, do you understand?” There wasn’t time to waste. The rebels who’d fled before...what if they’d gone out to get reinforcements? Their EOD team was good, but it was just the four of them against a small army.
Slade nodded. “I...understand.”
Gunner was on his feet. Blood dripped from his busted lip.
“Then you stay between me and Gunner when we go out of here. You do exactly what we say.”
Slade glanced at Gunner. Even in the dark, she could feel Slade’s rage.
Rage? At the brother he’d loved so much?
More gunfire. Then...silence.
“Let’s go,” Sydney whispered. She had to focus on just getting Slade out of there. They’d deal with everything else once they were in a secure location. The temple looked as if it would fall on them all any second. Not secure at all.
She led the men out, and Gunner closed in behind Slade. She searched first, making sure it was clear to run, and then they were moving, rushing forward and staying within the cover of trees as much as possible.
And she saw Logan firing at a man who’d rushed up toward him. The man fell, and Logan kept running, motioning for Sydney and her group to join him.
She was more than happy to follow him out of that place.
They went to the left, to the right, following a trail that only existed in Logan’s mind. Then, beneath the hanging vines of a twisted tree, she saw a jeep, half-hidden by the foliage. Logan jumped in the front of the vehicle.
“Get in!” Logan yelled.
She grabbed Slade’s arm and helped hoist him inside and as soon as his feet touched down—
Gunner knocked Sydney to the ground. Two cracks of gunfire sounded, and a bullet slammed into the jeep, exactly where she had been about two seconds ago.
His gaze bored into hers. The sun was just starting to rise, still not giving her enough light to gauge the expression in his eyes, and she wished that she could see so much more.
Logan returned fire on the enemy.
Gunner hauled her up, shielded her with his body, and all but tossed her into the jeep.
Then Logan was taking off and rushing away from the battle. Yanking on the wheel, finding a road—well, not a road so much, just a space between trees that most would never have known existed.
The jeep slowed for an instant, and Cale jumped from the shadows and slid into the back.
Then they kept going.
Faster, faster.
Until the gunfire sounded like fireworks in the distance. Until Sydney could breathe without tasting smoke.
She looked around her slowly. Gunner was pressed tightly to her side, and he had a hard grip on her wrist, as if he were afraid that she was going to try to get away from him.
Slade was on his other side. Not speaking. Barely seeming to move at all.