“No. I’ve got it.” She scowled. “It’s my shift and I can do it.” She shifted her weight slightly, unable to hide a cringe when the muscles of her lower back shrieked. “Just let me rest here for a second, okay?”
“Okay.” He watched her for second longer, looking like he wanted to argue but then thought better of it. Smart man. He took a deep breath and backed away a step or two. “While you rest, I’m going to go on ahead a little way and do a bit of recon. Make sure our path is clear. All right? Stay here until I get back.”
Serena gave a c
urt nod and leaned against the stupid rubber tree he’d pointed out earlier, waiting until he’d disappeared around a large copse of bushes before she allowed herself to slump back and drop the heavy knapsack at her battered feet. Maybe she was being stubborn by not letting him help, but dammit. She was used to being a strong, independent woman and after having her right to make any choices taken away from her for so long in captivity, she wasn’t eager to let her newfound agency go so easily.
While she waited for Noah to return, she eased the sling from around her body and checked on Gracie. Still snoozing away. Lucky gal. She kissed her daughter’s head, the sweet fragrance of baby shampoo reviving her flagging spirits a bit. This. This was why she’d endure any hardship. Why she’d hike clear across the damned Andes if necessary. For Gracie. Always.
After changing the baby’s diaper and feeding her again—it had been over three hours since the last time, after all—Serena had just tucked Gracie back into the sling when Noah returned. Instead of the intrepid explorer grin he’d worn earlier as they’d traipsed through the jungle, faint lines of tension now stood out around the corners of his lips and eyes. An answering twinge of unease vibrated through Serena.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, holding the baby and sling in her arms.
“There’s a road up ahead. I flagged down a passing truck and the driver told me there are checkpoints set up now every few miles.”
“That’s not unusual though, is it?” Serena put Gracie over her shoulder to burp her. “I mean, I’m not usually in this part of the country, but even I know it’s a hotspot—lots of cartels, right?”
“According to the driver, today they’re searching for a woman,” he said, his tone dead flat. “And that’s definitely not the norm. We need to get moving again. Now.”
Unexpected tears of frustration and fatigue prickled the backs of her eyes before she blinked them away hard. Dammit. Now was not the time to fall apart. Too much depended on her keeping her shit together and getting herself and her baby out of here to safety. If she just wasn’t so darned sore and tired and…
Some of her inner turmoil must have shown on her face because Noah waggled his fingers at her. “Give me the knapsack. No arguments this time.”
She did as he asked, then gritted her teeth while she slowly eased the sling over her neck and down around her strained shoulder again, muttering under her breath, “If you really wanted to help, you’d take Gracie too.”
“What?” he asked, holding the heavy knapsack with a couple fingers like it was nothing. She contemplated kicking him hard in the shin, just because, then stopped herself. Hurting him wouldn’t help her. And knowing her luck, it would just make her blistered toes feel worse. He kept staring at her expectantly. “I didn’t hear what you said.”
“I said…” she started then shook her head. “Forget it.”
“No.” He slung the knapsack over one brawny shoulder and crossed his arms, clearly not moving until she relented. “Tell me what you said.”
“I said if you really wanted to help, you’d carry Gracie too.” She tried to make it sound like a flippant joke. Ha-ha. Except his serious expression said it landed otherwise.
A beat stretched out between them as he seemed to come to some kind of decision. Then Noah gave a curt nod and held out his arms like he was about to catch a football. “Give her to me.”
“What? No.” She shook her head and snorted. “She’s a small human, not sports equipment.”
His dark brows knit and his blue gaze turned intense. “I’ve never carried a baby before. But I have carried live grenades across a minefield, so I think I’m qualified.”
As analogies went, it wasn’t completely wrong. Besides, her shoulder felt permanently dented from her daughter’s weight and she feared walking like Quasimodo for the rest of her days if she didn’t do something so…
Carefully, she eased the sling off her body and walked over to Noah. “Bend down.”
He did as she asked and Serena carefully looped the sling around his neck and over one shoulder, nestling baby Gracie over the center of his chest before adjusting the knots in the sheets to make sure it was all secure. “Okay. Now, you’ll still need to support her head, like this.” Serena showed him by cupping the back of her daughter’s tiny skull with her hand. “And if you need to adjust her position, make sure you have one arm behind her back too, for support.”
Noah repeated all of the movements Serena showed him, all with the same nervous hesitation she would imagine people normally reserved for handling armed nuclear warheads. Finally, Gracie was asleep against his chest and Serena felt ready to set out again.
They only made it about half a mile, though, before he stopped and held up his hands in exasperation. “This is making things worse instead of better. Now I’m slowing us down.”
Serena scrunched her nose at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’re moving along just fine.”
“No. We’re not. Every time this baby moves or makes a noise, I freeze up because I’m scared to death I’ve hurt her somehow. That I’ve done something wrong. It’s exhausting and counterproductive.”
“Welcome to my world.” Serena shook her head and chuckled. “She’s fine. Look at her. What’s not to like? She’s warm and cosy and your heartbeat calms her. Gracie’s having the best time of all of us. When she gets hungry or needs a diaper change again, she’ll let us know. Otherwise, she’s good.”
His dubious expression showed his skepticism, but he kept going. “Fine. But if she comes out of this with some kind of trauma, it’s on you.”
“It always is,” Serena mumbled, then followed alongside him through the rainforest. As the sun had risen higher in the sky, the damp air had begun to fog around them, lending the whole place a sort of happy fairy tale appearance. Well, except for the crazed thugs trying to kill her. That part came straight from the brothers Grimm. They walked on for what felt like miles, past flora and fauna and all kinds of things that at a different time, in a different place, Serena would have been eager to study and photograph. As it was now, she just longed to see some signs of peaceful civilization again.