Saving Her Again

The American is straddling Eloise’s lifeless body, giving her CPR. One look at the guns drawn, and he jumps back, raising his hands.

Hermes is the first to move. He races forward, hitting The American with the butt of his gun. Shrieks become louder as two females burst out of the bathroom and attack Bryan and Edson.

Nicholas leaps forward, climbing on top of Eloise. Two fingers check her pulse while his other hand checks her pupils. “Please, baby,” he whispers.

Shutting out the war around him, he concentrates on bringing life back to her body. Nothing.

He shoots up, lacing his fingers on one another, pumping her chest, desperately wishing he could reach inside her and hold her heart.

One, two, three…he counts, his lips meet with hers and fill her lungs with his breath. Focusing all his energy on her, he’s hoping for a miracle. She looks so tiny and fragile; her beautiful eyes, once so lit with fire, are cold and dim.

“Don’t you dare leave me, Eloise? I swear to God and will give you the world if you return to me.”

Edson suddenly appears at his side, his hands moving all around as he tries to assess the scene. “Edson.” Nicholas’s voice breaks as he looks at his brother in pain.

“Come on, Eloise.” Edson starts rubbing her limp arm. “We need you.”

“Please, no!” Nicholas begs. His everything is slipping away; the only woman he’s ever loved, the mother of his unborn baby, leaving him, but not by choice.

Damn it, it’s not fair!

He pounds on her tiny chest, feeling the world has committed the worst crime…there is no good on this earth …only evil.

Suddenly, Eloise gasps and starts coughing, twisting to her side under him.

“Eloise!” Nicholas shouts, grabbing her head and pulling her to him. She starts sobbing, and a horrible shaking takes her, her breath ragged.

He carefully strokes her back and watches her blue-tinged face slowly turn to a waxy white. As soon as she takes him in, she whispers his name. He wraps her in his arms gently, allowing himself a moment to breathe.

“Nicholas.” Edson’s voice gets through to him.

Snapping out of it and back into Army mode, Nicholas realizes they don’t have much time before the company arrives. He pushes the fear of the last several minutes away to deal with later, knowing he must get them all out of there.

Bryan informs them that one of the girls tripped the alarm. Jace and John are now guarding the door, waiting for them to arrive. The redhead in question is looking at them with a nasty expression on her face.

Damn, it won’t be long. They have to get out.

Nicholas looks at the girls and tells them that if they want their freedom, they better get out now. The blonde girl eyes Eloise’s trembling body and then bolts down the hallway, but the rest stand in fear, or, God knows, they might be suffering from a type of Stockholm syndrome or something. Either way, he figures he isn’t going to worry about them; they aren’t his problem.

“Let’s move!” he directs his men. Hermes and Edson force a handcuffed Pat and The American to their feet and head down the hallway.

“Fox Two to Raven One,” John’s voice flows over the radio, “we’ve got company in five minutes.” Gunshots ring over their earpieces. “You guys need to move now!”

“Ten-four,” Edson answers. “Get the SUV ready, and we’re transferring two hostages.”

“Copy that, Raven Two.”

John and Jace spray bullets at the men as they try to close in on them. They take out more than half of The American army. The rest seem to pull back when they get sight of Blackstone’s hostages.

Hermes has the two men blindfolded and piles them in the truck, handcuffing them to a metal bar. Pat pleads with Hermes to let him go, that it was all a misunderstanding, while The American remains silent.

Nicholas feels Eloise’s grip tighten as he gets closer to the vehicle. He wishes he had planned this better as he jumps inside, keeping her on his lap, tight against his chest. Edson, Hermes, and Bryan squeeze in beside them while Jace takes the front with John.

“Call it in,” Nicholas orders Jace once they are on the road. Headlights are coming up quickly behind them.

Eloise doesn’t speak. She barely even moves. He has to keep shifting to make sure she is all right. Her eyes are glued to Hermes’s watch, and she hardly blinks.

It takes everything Nicholas has not to turn around and kill the man who tried to handle everything from him. Wanting answers on what the fuck happened back at the house is eating away at his mind.

Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes go by. Nicholas keeps checking the side mirror, watching the same headlights follow them along the dark road. No shots have been fired yet.

“I can smell you, my love,” The American whispers into the silence, making Eloise tense as she hears his voice, snapping her out of her trance.

Hermes shakes his head at Nicholas, making sure he doesn’t react. “I can still feel your soft lips, your smooth skin, and the taste of your tongue.”

Eloise turns her face into Nicholas’s chest, silently sobbing.

“He’s trying to get to you, baby. Just tune him out,” Nicholas whispers in her ear. He kisses her softly, wanting to calm her.

The American chuckles and leans his head back against the window. “When my hands felt that last tiny gasp of air passes through your lungs, I knew I should’ve stopped, but your eyes were hypnotic. You held me in the moment.”

Nicholas reaches forward and grabs Jace’s stun gun from his hip. He shifts Eloise so she is sitting upright, turns, forces the gun's tip through the bars, and stuns The American in the neck before anyone has time to react. The American screams, his body jolting upward.

“One more word and I’ll kill you.” Nicholas doesn’t even recognize his voice. He’s so fucking livid.

Yanking the wires from the gun, he presses Eloise back down to his chest and hands the gun to his father while the asshole tries to control his breathing.

“House to Blackstone,” Dyke’s voice breaks through.

Nicholas presses the button on his neck to activate his earpiece. “Go ahead.”

“Chopper is standing by, backup arriving in five. Eagle Eye will meet you on the other side of the border. We see you on satellite and are monitoring behind you; we will communicate if they show signs of making a move. So far, they’re only watching.”

“Copy that.”

Eloise squeezes her eyes shut, concentrating on Nicholas’s smell, sweat mixed with soap. It’s just what she needs to ground her.

So much has happened it’s hard to stay focused. She was tired and sore, her neck and throat felt like they were on fire, and her head was pounding.

It’s terrifying to know The American, Landon, or whatever his name is, is sitting a foot away from her. He tried to kill her and almost succeeded.

Her mind goes to Pat. He was using her. Thank God that backfired. But is she safe?

This will never really be over until The American is dead. She didn’t even realize what she was doing until she felt Nicholas’s hand slip on top of hers, stopping her from taking his gun from his leg holster.

Instead of saying anything, he laces his fingers through hers, calmly bringing them to rest on her leg. His lips kiss her hair for a long minute, breathing deeply and helping her drift off to an unpleasant sleep.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose, and she was hoisted out of the car. She was in Edson’s arms now, not Nicholas’s, and there was a lot of shouting, gunshots, and a chopper whose rotor was madly cutting into the early morning air. Her brain fights to catch up with this chaos.

“Move, move, move!” someone shouts at Edson. Jace is shooting off to their left. She can see the concentration on his face and the puffs of dust as bullets ping around him.

It all comes at her as if in slow motion. She saw John inside the chopper with his hand extended, reaching out for her. His mouth is moving as though he is yelling something. She can feel the jolt of each step Edson takes as he runs toward John.

Eloise feels no pain now; it’s all so surreal. When they are close enough, she is tossed into John’s arms, and he lifts her into the chopper. He places her on a seat across from The American, who is still bound and blindfolded. She scans the massive chopper and can’t find Nicholas.