Awakened Read Online Free PDF Page B

no longer surrounded by stunted trees. It seemed to be night. The air coming in through a reinforced window was cool. She forced raw breaths in and out of her swollen throat.
    A face swam into view. A man was leaning over her. He smelled nice. Like the outdoors. The sun. Trees.
    She took in a few details. The shadowy light in the room didn’t help much. Dark brown hair, messed up. There was a leaf in it. He had rugged features that were somehow familiar and a strong jaw. Dark eyes, serious. He was strongly built with broad shoulders, wearing faded jeans and a camo shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Brawny arms lightly dusted with dark hair reached out to her. He drew back when he saw her flinch.
    She blinked, forcing herself to focus. Who was he?
    “You got a hell of a knock on the head.” He reached out a hand and brushed his fingertips over an aching lump on her temple. The gentleness of his touch made her even more confused.
    “Huh?”
    He shook his head. “You fell. Do you remember?”
    The effort of thinking made her head throb painfully again. Automatically, she tried pulling herself to a sitting position.
    “Stay still,” he commanded. Something hidden in his other hand gave off a steely glint and Barrett cringed. “I’m not going to hurt you. Let’s get these off.” He clipped through plastic zip ties, by the sound of it, and released her hands.
    She didn’t have the strength to hit him.
    “Did you—why—?” Barrett was just barely able to think that maybe it was better not to ask.
    She had no idea who’d attacked her, but as the man got closer to the light and memory returned, she knew with absolute conviction that it hadn’t been him.
    She didn’t know how and she didn’t know from what, but Nick Maltese had saved her. More fleeting memories came back to her. He’d drawn back the mechanism of a crossbow and aimed. The arrow flew. She’d heard it sing. After that, nothing.
    “Sorry,” he said. “Had to tie you to get you across my shoulders and run back here. It was two miles, uphill.”
    Barrett blinked, summoning up a memory of stunted trees and scattered rocks. Seemed to her she’d been closer to the top than that. Nick was just as strong as she remembered. Maybe stronger.
    “I didn’t know when you’d come to or how you’d react.” He sat on the bed—she realized that she was on one—and examined her wrists. Then he let her go.
    “You carried me here?”
    “Like a little lost lamb.”
    He’d said that about her once before. During one of their arguments about whether she was suited to military life and working with refugees. He’d never said it again, probably because she’d ripped him a new one and then hadn’t spoken to him for over a week.
    Despite everything, Barrett managed a weary half smile. “I wasn’t lost. And I’m not that little. But thanks.” She touched her neck.
    “You could have called or texted.” He held up her smartphone.
    “Yeah, well, you never were reachable unless you wanted to be.”
    She hadn’t meant the words to sound accusatory but they did. Nick stared at her for a second before grinning and handing her the phone. “So shoot me.” He reached into a pocket and came up with her gun. She noticed that the holster was lying on the bed next to her sheathed knife.
    “Would that get your attention?” she asked, falling into the easy, teasing banter that had come so naturally to them. “I did think about calling you when I was driving up, decided not to at the gate.”
    A minor lie. She hadn’t wanted to give him the chance to tell her to go away, that was all. She’d just wanted to knock on his door and see his face when he opened it.
    Hello, Nick. Imagine finding you here all alone .
    Stupid fantasy. He didn’t seem inclined to pursue the subject.
    Barrett’s sigh hitched roughly in her throat. “So who or what tried to strangle me?”
    “I’m not sure,” he said after a fractional pause. “Whoever he was, he was big.” His gaze