“Let them go,” Fin said, his voice still weak from surviving his own slaughter.
The air stirred between us as Esteban moved and talked. “Oh, I don’t think so, but I’ll give you a little present. Choose one to stay and one to go. I know which I would pick if I were in your position, but I’ll leave you to your choice.”
“I won’t choose,” Fin said.
Esteban ripped my tape blindfold off, the one over my mouth jerking free too, and shoved me toward Fin. Before I could make a run for it, one of his henchmen dragged me back into his embrace.
“Not your beloved little sister? Surely she’s the one you want.?
? Esteban asked.
He lifted the ends of Sol’s hair, which hung limp, obscuring her features. The dress she wore was torn and stained, her pale feet bare on the browned needles.
She wasn’t the real Sol. Esteban was using this woman as a decoy. I opened my mouth to scream at Fin, to warn him, but the henchman slapped his hand over my mouth and squeezed so tight I thought he would pop my jaw out of socket.
Instead, I tried to call out to him through the bond, but it lay dark and taxed between us.
Look at me, I yelled in my head
His eyes stayed glued to Sol.
“Choose now,” Esteban shouted. “Or I’ll kill them both.”
Finally, Fin answered, weakly. “Zoey. I’ll take Zoey.”
Esteban eyed both me and the faux-Sol. His jaw clenched and a muscle in his jaw ticked as though he was annoyed. Then he sighed. “I’m a man of my word. Release her.”
Once the henchman released me and stepped back, the entire party of them disappeared. Even the dead bodies the captain and I took out vanished.
Fin rushed back across the field to kneel next to the captain.
I staggered over and knelt down beside them both. “Is he still alive?”
He didn’t answer, only applied pressure to the wound under the captain’s chin. It didn’t look like he would survive. Almost his entire face had been blown off.
“I need to get him medical help. We need to make a run to the helicopter and get out of here in case Esteban comes back,” Fin said, his tone all business even in a whisper.
I nodded and looked around at the blood-soaked ground. Not that I could find anything that might help us.
“Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
“Nothing. You can’t do anything. I’ll carry him. Just follow behind and keep up.”
I took offense to how helpless he made me sound, but I did as he asked and stumbled after them toward the helicopter Fin had ridden in on.
Once we were all buckled in, Fin took off and sped toward the city. He spoke into the radio and advised his ground crew to prepare the doctor for trauma work for all of us. The man on the other end advised the doctor wasn’t available.
Fin squeezed the handset so tight it squeaked in his palm. “I don’t give a fuck if the doctor is busy. Get him there, or another doctor. Kidnap one, pay one, I don’t care, just be ready when we land.”
My heart ached watching him. The captain sacrificing himself to save Fin had to be eating out his insides with guilt. I reached out to soothe him, but he shrugged me off, refusing to even look my way.
“The captain will need help first. My wounds can wait when we land,” I said.
His only response was a grunt of acknowledgement. When had I been reduced to a grunt like that?
“Fin, are you okay?”
“Do I fucking look okay, Zoey? My friend is dying right now and I can’t make this machine go any faster, to get us there any quicker.”