Colters' Promise (Colters' Legacy, #4)(44)

She’d thought that a lot lately. Pondered her mortality as calmly as she might consider what shoes to wear. And yet she was here and alive. Broken but not defeated.

The men were facing away from where she and Rio were positioned. Watchful and wary. Guns up, their stances rigid as if they sensed danger in the very air.

“Grace,” Rio prompted. “Talk to me. I need to know how bad it is.”

She briefly closed her eyes and then reopened them, focusing once more on his face. She licked her lips. “I hurt.”

“I know you do,” he said quietly.

“The fall. I think I broke something.”

She centered her attention on her body, paying attention to where she hurt and how it differed from the residual pain of the endless torture she’d endured. Her breaths were strained. Shallow and painful.

“Ribs,” she managed to gasp out. “Think I have broken ribs. And my arm. It hurts but it’s growing numb. I can’t feel my fingers.”

“Yes, I can see,” Rio said as he carefully picked up her hand.

He turned his head and nodded at one of the men. She tensed when the big burly man closest to Rio hovered over her. He was a mountain. Arms bulging with muscles. He barely had a neck as thick as he was. Legs like tree trunks.

“She’s lost feeling in her fingers,” Rio said as if discussing something as mundane as the weather. “We’ll have to set the break.”

Her pulse exploded and she tried to sit up but Rio put a hand on her shoulder. “Be still, Grace.”

The command in his voice froze her in her tracks.

“Can you heal yourself?”

The idle curiosity in his voice baffled her. He was so calm. Unruffled. He spoke of her abilities like they were the most natural things in the world. She glanced nervously between the two men, wondering if this was some kind of trap, though she couldn’t imagine what it could be.

The people who’d kept her captive knew well her abilities. They wouldn’t have to ask questions. Was this yet another faction who wanted to use her?

Panic was rising swiftly when Rio simply put his hand on her cheek and softly caressed. “Take deep breaths, okay? We’re going to help you. This is Terrence. He’s my second in command. That’s Diego right behind him. Diego acts as our medic when Donovan Kelly isn’t around to patch us up, but Terrence is going to set the break for you.”

Her brow wrinkled in confusion. She had no idea who any of these people were but Rio continued a steady stream of conversation, ignoring her befuddlement.

“This is going to hurt like a son of a bitch. I won’t lie to you. But I need you to be strong. If you scream, you’ll draw attention and that’s the last thing we need. I’m going to knot one of my shirts, and I want you to bite down on it as hard as you like. But don’t let out a sound. Can you do that?”

If he only knew how much she’d silently endured, he’d never ask that question. But she simply nodded, knowing that whatever they did wouldn’t touch what she’d already gone through.

He took out a T-shirt from his pack and began folding and knotting it into a long rope. “You didn’t answer my question. Can you heal yourself as you do others?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I mean it’s different, but I do heal faster. But there’s been so much …“ She closed her eyes, holding back more tears. “I don’t know … “

Rio spoke in low, soothing tones. “It’s okay, Grace. I’m going to make sure you get out of this okay.”

Something in his voice settled her. Maybe it was the calm promise or the absolute conviction. Some of the fear faded and she relaxed, letting out her breath in a whispery rush.

“That’s my girl,” Rio murmured.

He carefully placed the shirt between her teeth, feathered his hand over her jaw and then eased her mouth shut over the material.

“Be strong.”

She closed her eyes and nodded, not wanting to see what was coming.

Strong hands gripped her arm in a surprisingly gentle manner. She could instantly tell the difference, knew that it was Terrence who held her hand.

And then he simply pulled and twisted, all at the same time. His strength took her completely by surprise. Her eyes flew open and her teeth bit savagely into the shirt. Her body bowed with the instant flash of pain. As she lay panting, her nostrils flaring with the ragged breaths she tried to suck in, a sense of relief settled over her.

Her arm ached from the manipulation, but the constant red hot pain had subsided. Diego stepped in and quickly bound her arm, using two sturdy saplings one of the other men had fetched. He wound strips of cloth tightly around the sticks so it was impossible for her to move her arm.

Rio pulled the knotted shirt from her mouth. “Better?”

She nodded, still not trusting herself to speak.

“Okay, this is what’s going to happen. We have to move and I can’t spare the manpower necessary to keep you immobile. We don’t have a stretcher, which means I’m going to carry you out while my men surround us and provide cover. With a broken arm and ribs plus God only knows what else you’ve got going on, there’s no easy way to do this. It’s going to suck.”

She tried to smile at the blunt way he put it but her lips trembled and she gave up with a sigh.

“I’ll need at least one hand free so I can hold a gun and protect us both. Terrence will secure you to my back. We once carried a teammate’s wife out of the jungle just like I’m going to carry you, so it’ll work. I don’t want you to worry. If you don’t trust in anything else, you trust in the fact that we’re going to get you out of these mountains.”