Delirious and disoriented, Maddie fell out of the helicopter and landed on her knees on the dusty ground. She coughed to clear her throat and knew she wouldn’t be getting back up on her feet. Her calf, ankle and now foot were too swollen to stand. The sun scorched her back as she crawled six inches then collapsed. She laid there trying to work up some saliva to wet her dry mouth, but there was no moisture left in her body.

You can’t give up. One more flight and you and Sarah will be leaving here. Fight for it, Maddie.

A violent chill rattled her bones and teeth, and she groaned. The sweats and violent chills she’d been having since she got back inside the shack right at dawn had been horrific. Add no sleep to fighting a raging fever and she had nothing left to give.

If they wanted her back in that shack, they would have to carry her there, she thought, scorching her forearm when she laid her forehead there. And if the two men who claimed to be there to rescue her wanted her to go with them, they would have to carry her too. But first, they would have to find and rescue Sarah, because she wasn’t leaving without her.

Maddie knew Maria wouldn’t be bringing her to the shack, because she could not make the next flight. El Jefe would say if she was too sick to fly, she was too sick to see the baby. And Maddie was too sick for either. Getting into that helo again would be a death sentence for her and the silent, flat-eyed young guy who served as her new guard and guide.

“Ándale, senorita,” her guard said, sounding frantic. She opened one eye and saw the scuffed toe of his boot.

“I can’t walk,” she replied, not knowing if he could speak English or not, because he’d spoken to her in Spanish. She tried to translate the reply in her mind, but it was too cloudy.

Suddenly she was jerked up by men on either side of her. Holding her arms, they dragged her between them across the compound. Maddie screamed as pain so intense she thought she might die consumed her. She screamed until she was hoarse, then screamed more when they dragged her across the board floor and dropped her like a sack of potatoes on her pallet.

“Watch her. I will get the doctor,” one man growled to the other then quickly left.

Maddie moaned and fought the see-sawing gruel in her belly, which she’d had for breakfast. The last thing she wanted to do was throw up where she had to sleep. And that’s where it would happen, because she could not move. Her body jerked when a board cracked loudly and a shot fired. The gangster fell to the floor beside her with a thud and she turned to see the ginger haired man who said he was her brother rip off another board. The other, taller, lankier man who claimed to be her friend ripped off a third and fourth board to open a gaping hole in the back of the cabin.

They quickly lifted her and pulled her through the hole, but she kicked and fought them. Another man appeared beside her brother to help hold her down.

“I’m not leaving without my baby!” she screeched, and the lankier man covered her mouth with his hand then leaned near her ear.

“We are not leaving without our baby, Maddie, but I’m getting you out of here,” he said in a harsh whisper. “Now, be quiet.”

“Levi, go tell Dante and Caleb we’re going with Plan B,” her brother said with a long, hard stare for the man who now held her. “Wait for the fireworks. I’ll meet you in thirty at the rendezvous. Keep her safe.”

“Roger—that. You keep yourself and my baby safe,” he shot back and turned to walk run with her through the opening in the back gate.

Maddie had no choice but to trust these men, because she had no more fight in her.

The heated body in his arms went limp and Hawk’s insides clenched. Her skin was on fire and regardless of the plan, he had to stop at the river to try to bring her fever down, or this would be useless. Maddie Carter would die in his arms and he knew it. They had to get her medical care as soon as possible, because something was gravely wrong with her.

Never in his life had he been more afraid than when he knelt on the bank beside the meandering brown water and eased her down to the marshy ground. He pulled off his body armor and removed his t-shirt, then submerged it in the water. When he pulled it up, he swung the dripping wet shirt to let water rain down on her forehead. Hawk almost thought he heard it sizzle when it touched her skin. That’s how hot she was.

He wrung out the drab cloth over her face and she moaned. She murmured when he laid the shirt over her throat and wiped her ravaged, beet-red face with the sleeves. His heart squeezed hard as he wiped each scar, then smoothed the sleeve over her dry lips, before swiping it over her closed eyelids.

Oh, baby, why was I not enough for you? Why didn’t you listen to me? The following questions that presented loosened his heart and it went on an angry rampage against his sternum, as he took the shirt to soak it again. Why didn’t you tell me you were fucking pregnant? Why in the hell would you go on that mission anyway, knowing you were?

Those last two questions had plagued him since he and Max dropped her off, locked her in that shack and hiked the twelve miles back to the helicopter to come back and plan this rescue. She would’ve been three months by the time she left with her team for El Salvador, because according to the incident report, they’d only been in country here for two weeks when she crashed. His conclusion?

Maddie Carter wasn’t dumb—she had to have known, but she went anyway.

Hawk knew he wouldn’t be getting answers to those questions from her until her memory returned, though. He would give her the benefit of the doubt until then. If he found out she not only put herself at grave risk to go on that mission, but their baby as well, she would answer to him for it and that confrontation wouldn’t be pretty.

But first, before he could kill her for doing that to him and their child, he had to keep her alive and get them out of this godforsaken country.

Hawk wrung out the shirt three times to soak her body and clothes, before he heard the rotors and rev of the helo engine as Dante, Caleb and Levi arrived at the compound to provide air support to Max. The whistle of a rocket pierced his brain and the explosion vibrated through him. Gunfire erupted to echo through the trees behind him, as another grenade exploded and he knew he had to get them to the cave they’d found for cover.

Thank goodness Dave had insisted they bring enough ammo and weapons to stage a jungle war, if needed. Because that is exactly what the guys were doing right now to keep the cartel thugs occupied, while Max rescued the baby.

God, Hawk wanted to be in that fight, to kill every last one of those bastards, to take out the frustration he felt as he put on his vest again and lifted her inert body into his arms. But he suspected killing the bandits wouldn’t solve his problem, though, because he had a very strong feeling this was all Maddie Carter’s fault.

Hawk took a step to wade into the water, but stopped when he heard a loud truck engine right before a truck with a grenade launcher mounted on the back plowed through weeds on the other bank. He sighed, wondering when it would all end.

Considering the number of banditos loaded in the truck as it headed west along the bank toward the dirt road five miles downriver, he’d say not anytime soon. And since that’s where the cave was located, he might be in this fight after all.

He had to first figure out how to warn them about the new arrivals, if it wasn’t too late. Then he had to find a safe LZ and alert Dante where to pick them up if the helo and the guys survived World War III, which seemed to be going on behind him.

Hawk laid Maddie back down and pulled out his phone. He had no idea if there was service or not, if Dante, Max or the guys would get his text, but he had to try with the last bit of juice he had left in his phone.

Dante needed to pull back and Max needed to get the hell out of there before the new contingent arrived, or none of them would be leaving.