Jax (Titan #9)(93)
Jax's heart thundered in his ears as the two men volleyed intel back-and-forth regarding one of the women who had fled toward the jungle. A civilian might've assumed the jungle was safe. But that only took into account the threat of man with his weapons and military maneuvering. Fleeing into the jungle was unlike escaping into the woods at a park. A jungle tree canopy would block the light from the moon and the stars, and most wildlife inhabitants survived by the eat-or-be-eaten code.
Seven was fierce, but she had no idea what she had walked into.
"Jax," Parker said. "I'll ping her coordinates to you. Find her, and I'll get you an extraction locale."
Like there was any other option. He was coming for his woman.
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Everywhere looked the same as Seven stumbled to the ground. The thick vined plants tangling around her feet were just as black as the sky was above her. No matter which way Seven turned, she smacked into thorned bushes or trees that were wider than the expanse of her arms. Her eyes never adjusted to the dark; she couldn't see anything anymore. What was the point of running away when she didn't know if she was getting any closer to a neighboring village or town where someone could help?
Her lungs screamed with pain from pushing past any athletic ability she had and from panting against tiny bugs and spiderwebs.
Seven wrapped her elbow across her face as a mask even as she worked to suck in as much air as possible. She hadn't been able to catch her breath while in Columbia, and today was even worse. But she didn't care because she had to get help and her children back.
Tears welled in her eyes as she took in the magnitude of the situation.
"Seven!" Jax's voice sifted through the hot, humid air, and maybe she had been bitten by something poisonous.
Hallucinations had to be one of the signs that she was losing her mind or had been poisoned by some stupid jungle insect.
"Seven, stop moving. I'm coming for you."
She laughed as delirium strangled her common sense. This was what it was going to be like when her mind finally gave up—delusions about Jax riding in to the jungle to save her. She should've guessed.
The crunch of leaves and branches startled her, and the cold prickle of sweat cascaded down her back and arms. She had nothing to fight off whatever animal may have sniffed her out, sweating and crying.
"C'mere, princess, I'm here." The snaps of twigs and the crumble of plants underneath steps came so close, she was sure that if she held out her hand, she could touch its source. What she wouldn't do to have Jax with her now. "Target acquired."
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight to his chest and dropping his mouth to her sweaty forehead. "Found you. I promised you everything would be okay."
"Oh God. It's not." Seven sobbed. "Bianca and Nolan." Her arms shook then her body with the full force of terror. But if he was there, maybe there were more resources to save the kids? "Jax, please tell me you're real. Please."
"Real." He slowly released her.
"My babies," Seven whispered, trying to make sense of what was true and what wasn't a dream.
"Titan has them. They're fine. Anxious to see you."
"God, thank you." Relief found its footing and overtook her. Light on her feet, as if she could breathe fire and float on angel wings all at once, she leapt back against Jax and hugged him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I owe you forever."
He chuckled. "That's what husbands are for."
Seven kissed him on the cheek and would kiss him head to toe if she wasn't foul, and they weren't in the middle of the jungle, likely being hunted by the men who had kept her captive.
"We need to get moving again. I have a rendezvous point for a helicopter pickup. But it's not close, and we have to hustle." He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Are you good to start hustling?"
Seven took a deep breath in the dark night. Tears dried on her cheeks as the man she was crazy about held on to her. "I'm so good, I might be able to fly if I tried."
###
"You know, you're my hero." The darkness was all surrounding, and Seven could no longer make out his face.
"One person's hero is another person's nothing to lose. My job well done happens to mean extreme circumstances have occurred. But Seven, don't make me out to be something more than I'm not."
His words were everything with a far more evocative texture than she had ever heard before. "You don't have to be perfect to be a hero. You know that, right?"
At his urging, they began moving again, faster than the leisurely pace he'd let her take before. They had all the time in the world, at least until they found the abandoned field medic station and their rescue helicopter came in the next twelve hours. Jax could speedwalk her through the jungle all he wanted, but he couldn't outrun a conversation.
"Where did you grow up?" she asked.
He grumbled. "Is this the point in our walk where we start the twenty questions? Is this where you want to pick me apart and figure out what's wrong? What could be fixed?"
Seven planted both of her feet firmly in the squishy jungle ground, yanked her hand back from his, and, unable to see his face clearly, twisted in his general direction. "What the hell crawled up your ass? I'm the one that's dead tired and not used to jungle walks, thank you very much. If anybody wants to get in a snippy-pants mood, I call dibs. Not you."