She couldn't lie to him. "No."
The truth burned her throat. She couldn't even allow herself to dream what it would be like to carry his child instead.
She heard the catch in his throat. A quiet primal groan from his soul sounded as he accepted what had happened to her in this place.
His arms slid under her.
"Blake? Wait."
"Shut up," he growled low.
"But—"
"You're out of here. Now."
"What about Kayla and Phillip? I can't leave them behind." Hope mingled with fear, panic.
He hesitated. "All right. We'll take them, too."
"Are the rest of your guys outside?"
No answer, just the slow lift as he hefted her from the cot.
Of course they weren't. Why would they have sent a whole group to give an advance warning when one person could slide in more easily?
A sneaking suspicion niggled. Did they even know he was here at all? Had he gone commando to check on her?
Her vision adjusted until she could see determination glint in Blake's hazel eyes peering from his painted face. The strength of his will almost persuaded her to let him try. His training could haul her as well as her friends out. He had military survival skills beyond her imagination. He'd told her before that whatever a SEAL wanted for weapons or training, a SEAL got.
The darkness of his job that unsettled her more than once would save her. God, she longed to get out. Now. Her teeth chattered as an innate need for survival rocked her, trying to hold back the words that would send immediate rescue away.
No one would fault her for leaving instead of waiting.
But she would fault herself. It would be more dangerous for him to try solo. She couldn't do that to Blake when he'd done nothing more than selflessly risk his life for her and two people he'd never met.
Her teeth chattered again. The urge to run swelled. Deep inside her, scared, flighty Sydney who let her big sister fight her battles and keep track of her forgotten lunch box still lived.
She just needed to be stifled for a few minutes longer.
"Blake. Stop. This isn't right."
Still no answer. But no movement, either.
"You have to go. Without me."
His breaths grew heavier, louder even though she knew holding her would in no way test Blake's stamina.
"They don't...hurt me anymore." He didn't have to know about the slaps or punches, nothing compared to the humiliation of the first days at Ammar al-Khayr's mercy. Specifics were better left unspoken. She sensed too much information would snap what control Blake had left over his rage. "Do you understand? But I want them—" him "—to pay. I don't want them to be free to do this to someone else. They need to be stopped, and that won't happen if you take me now. You have to leave me behind."
Pain pulsed from him in an agony that rivaled her own. She hated that she'd brought him to this. For months before their breakup she'd seen the darkness swallowing his soul and blamed it on his profession.
This time, she could only blame herself.
He tucked her tighter until the corded muscles in his arms bit into her flesh. Then his grip loosened, gentled into the man who'd won her heart on a crowded Virginia Beach by giving away two hundred dollars' worth of raffle tickets to a tired mother.
Blake lowered her back to her bed as gently as any piece of spun glass. Because she was pregnant or because she was simply herself, she didn't know. Either way, his tenderness after so much violence touched her with reminders of all the things that had drawn her to Blake before the rest pulled them apart.
His lips pressed to her forehead. "I'll be back for you. Never doubt it." His vow caressed her skin. "And I won't ever let anyone hurt you again."