Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter (13)

Maddie

Maddie was real.

Maddie was alive.

Maddie was here.

And she was going to get them both killed.

“Oh my gosh! You guys walk so fast,” she said, and for a moment she sounded almost like … Maddie. Or how Maddie used to sound when they were looking for ways to sneak into the Oval or trying to guess the middle names of all of the agents on his dad’s detail. She sounded like Old Maddie. Not Older Maddie. Logan never realized how much he’d missed her.

He also never realized just how annoying she could be.

“I mean, it’s no wonder you walk fast. Your legs are a lot longer than mine. How tall are you anyway?”

She turned around to look at Stefan, who had his gun out and pointed at her, but it didn’t seem to faze Maddie. She just kept talking.

“You look tall. I’m only five four. I mean I pretend I’m five five, and I might be in boots. Do you think it counts if you’re in boots?”

She stopped then and studied him. Stefan moved toward her and Logan jolted. He wanted to put himself between that gun and Maddie. And he wanted to put something between Maddie and the man.

“Who did you call?” Stefan snapped. “Who did you tell?”

Maddie actually scooted back, but she didn’t look afraid.

“What are you talking about?”

“Who did you call for help?” Stefan shouted—and this time Maddie looked at him like maybe he was crazy.

“No one. There is no one here!” She threw out her arms and spun around. “There’s never anyone here.”

Stefan didn’t know Maddie like Logan did. Or like Logan used to know her. He didn’t hear the stress in her voice, didn’t see the hurt in her eyes.

“No.” Stefan shook his head. “You would not be so stupid as to get yourself captured.”

“I don’t know.” Maddie shook her head. “I’m a teenage girl. People think we’re pretty stupid.”

Logan knew she was right. Logan also knew she didn’t believe a word of it. Only a moron would, and Maddie was no moron. He’d seen enough in the barely twenty-four hours that he’d been here to know that Maddie had survived here—thrived here—for six years, almost entirely on her own. That Maddie was alive was proof enough that Stefan had absolutely no idea who he was dealing with.

That Maddie was smiling proved that she had every intention of keeping it that way.

“I thought I’d follow you, okay?” she went on. “I thought I might be useful.”

Stefan looked at her for a long time, then let out a cold, clear laugh. “Useful how?”

Maddie shrugged. “I know things.”

“I know things, too,” Stefan said, all the laughter gone from his voice. “I know you’re going to be very useful.”

“I’m not going to let you kill him,” Maddie said as if she had a choice in the matter—as if Stefan wasn’t eight inches taller and sixty pounds heavier. As if he didn’t have a gun and at least one knife and probably eight years of experience on her.

But the kind of experience Maddie had was different, and a part of Logan warmed at the thought.

“Where are my manners?” Logan tried to force as much sarcasm as possible into his voice. “Stefan, kidnapper extraordinaire, meet Maddie Manchester. Maddie, this is the man who tried to kill you.”

“I will kill her if you get any ideas, Logan.”

Logan gave a mocking smile. “You know my name. I’m touched.”

“I can’t touch you,” Stefan stated. He sounded honestly disappointed, but then he turned to Maddie, pulled back his hand, and hit her hard across the face. Her head snapped and Logan actually heard the blow. He lunged for her, but halted, uncertain, as Maddie stumbled but managed to stay on her feet.

She didn’t make a sound as Stefan finished, “But I can touch her.”

“Leave her alone!” Logan yelled, but Stefan pulled Maddie close to him, a human shield.

His hand was around her throat, fingers not quite squeezing, but close. They could cut off her airway, crush her throat. They’d leave a bruise, Logan was certain, and it was just one more reason why he wanted his big, sharp rock back.

“I cannot hurt you, President’s Son. But she has no value to me. Do we understand each other?” he asked, but Logan didn’t answer. Words didn’t come. “Do we?” Stefan shouted, the force of the words making his body shake and the hand at Maddie’s throat tighten.

Maddie didn’t make a single sound.

“Yes,” Logan choked out.

“Good.” Stefan took his arm away and pushed Maddie ahead of him. “Walk.”

Maddie’s throat didn’t hurt. Not even a little bit. Her pride didn’t either. Alaska never took it easy on her because she was a girl. Neither did her father. But ticked-off Russians probably didn’t know that. By the look in Logan’s eyes, neither did presidents’ sons.

They both kept looking at her like she was just a … girl. Which was the best thing to happen to Maddie all day.

So she batted her eyelashes. She examined her nails. She didn’t really talk again as they moved over the rough, wet ground.

Her hood was still up and pulled tight around her face. Maddie hated to lose her peripheral vision, but she wasn’t going to be any help to anyone if she got sick. That was one lesson people in Alaska learned in a hurry.

“Are you okay?”

Maddie had to turn her head a little to look at Logan. She’d never seen him look like that—all stoic and broody and … hot.

She definitely wasn’t going to think about how hot Logan looked because:

(A) It was Logan!

and

(B) She’d heard stories about girls who met cute boys and then lost their heads, and being that they were currently being held by a knife-wielding, ticked-off Russian, Maddie really didn’t want to find out how literal that saying might be.

But Logan still looked worried—that much Maddie couldn’t deny.

“It’s going to be okay,” she told him.

She kept her head down. She didn’t turn again.

The rain was coming down more steadily, and it was possible that the man couldn’t even hear her, so she risked a little more.

“They’ll find us soon. Don’t worry, Logan. Your team must have realized you were gone hours ago. You did a good job leaving a trail, and I left markers—really obvious markers. They’ll find us soon.”

Maddie was sure of it. She knew it in her gut. She’d lived her whole life with a man devoted to protecting others, and there were some things that all Secret Service agents had in common. They were all smart. And tough. And when they took a vow, they meant it. There was a reason that the Secret Service was the only arm of the US intelligence community that had never had a traitor.

Logan’s detail was coming. And when they got there, Maddie only had to make sure she got Logan out of the way.

She turned her head. She smiled. She just wasn’t expecting the look on Logan’s face.

“They’re not coming.”

Logan’s voice was low and he kept his head down, his gaze on the slick ground before them.

“Of course they’re coming, Logan. They’re good. I know those guys. Dad trained them.”

“They’re dead, Mad.”

Maddie’s steps actually faltered. There had been a little piece of her—a small sliver of light shining beneath the door of her mind, something telling her that hope was out there. Help was coming.

There had been a tiny voice whispering that she didn’t have to do this alone.

She wasn’t Logan’s only chance.

She wasn’t on her own—not really. She just had to keep Logan alive until the grown-ups came to take care of things.

But Maddie was the grown-up now, she knew, and she waited for the realization to hit her, for the panic to set in. But the panic didn’t come, and Maddie didn’t know whether to feel relief that she was prepared for this or sadness that being on her own was nothing new.

If Stefan had killed two Secret Service agents, then he wasn’t just evil—he was also good at this. And Maddie didn’t know which thought scared her more.

“Can your dad land in this?” Logan asked with a glance toward the sky that was growing darker, the rain that didn’t feel like rain anymore. Maddie tipped her head up and felt the tiny stinging stabs that told her that sometime in the past five minutes the rain had turned to sleet.

Soon the ground would freeze, and the leaves and logs would be covered with ice and, eventually, snow.

“Mad, can your dad—” Logan started to repeat.

“I don’t know,” Maddie said. It was an honest answer. It also honestly scared her. “He won’t take a chance. I made him promise that he wouldn’t take any chances.”

“Great.” Logan kicked a rock, sent it tumbling down the hill.

Maddie knew exactly what it felt like.

“Help’s gonna come, Logan,” Maddie said. Maddie lied.

The weather was going to get worse and the night was going to be long, but the promise of help could be warmer than any fire, Maddie was certain.

“Okay,” Logan said. “But even if he does land in this, what’s he gonna do? Drag himself through the woods to … what? Find us?”

“Yes,” Maddie said.

“He can’t find us.” Logan shook his head, but Maddie reached out and grabbed his arm.

They both had bound hands, but that just meant that both of her hands gripped both of his, like they were sharing some kind of solemn vow.

“I found you,” she reminded him.

For a moment, Logan smiled. But then the smile faded. He shook his head and pulled away, started walking before Stefan could have an excuse or an opportunity to strike again.

“You should have run, Mad Dog.”

“I did run. Right to you.” She shrugged. “Someone has to keep you alive until help comes.”

“Help’s not coming.”

Maddie knew better than to argue. So she tried a different angle. “Who is he?”

She didn’t look back as she asked it. She just kept her head down, her face shielded against the sting of the falling ice.

“He’s Russian,” Logan said, as if that was all that mattered.

“You mean like …”

Maddie didn’t say six years ago. She didn’t have to. That incident was never far from her mind, and it couldn’t have been far from Logan’s either. It had changed both of their lives in so many ways. Logan might have been the one who’d been grazed by a bullet, but she knew they both had scars.

“Yeah,” Logan said. “Just like that.”

“What else?” Maddie asked. She needed details, data. Before the president went anywhere, an advance team spent weeks going over an area with a fine-tooth comb. Facts mattered. Information mattered. And Maddie needed every speck of it that she could get.

“He’s got a sat phone,” Logan told her. “He’s been speaking to someone. He doesn’t know I can speak Russian.”

“You can speak Russian!”

“Keep your voice down.”

This time, Maddie whispered. “You can speak Russian?”

“Yes. I learned a lot in six years.”

Maddie wanted to scoff and roll her eyes and yell at him and at the world, but she just kept walking. “Yeah. So did I.”

When they passed a low bush covered with berries, Maddie said a silent prayer of thanks that the weather had been so wacky.

She pulled a bunch of berries off as quickly as she could and pushed them in Logan’s direction.

“Here. Eat these.” She helped herself to some as Logan eyed her.

“They could be poisonous.”

Well, the berries weren’t going to kill him, but Maddie’s look could have, so he did as he was told.

“I don’t know who he’s working for,” Logan admitted. The berries must have hit his bloodstream, a fresh shot of sugar and adrenaline and hope that lasted until Logan admitted, “And I don’t know where he’s taking me.”

This time, Maddie smiled. “That’s okay.” She plopped a berry in her mouth. “I do.”