The nurse helped Laura into bed and Yael couldn’t help worrying about her pallor. Some of it was the lack of her usual makeup. Some of it was pain.

The nurse left and Shane took a phone call. He went to the door and suddenly some of his team members were striding toward them pushing two wheelchairs. They were in civilian clothes and yet they looked every inch the operators they were.

“You remember Ryan Sullivan?” asked Shane.

Yael nodded.

“This is Aaron Nash, Will Griffin, and Hunt Kincaid,” Shane introduced the others.

“We’ve come to rescue you.” Griffin smiled.

“Goody,” came a raspy croak from the next bed. “Rescue me too, would you?”

Ryan asked soberly, “How are you feeling, Miss Laura?”

“Like I was kidnapped and tortured by a psychopath but the psychopath’s dead and I’m not, so that’s okay?”

“You were lucky to survive,” Will Griffin said solemnly. “You don’t have to bounce back straight away. Take some time to recover.”

The fact Laura was joking about the incident with people she didn’t know was a great sign.

“What do you mean, rescue me?” Yael asked.

“Alex Parker sent his jet for you two,” Nash said. “We squeezed two hospital beds onboard and he even hired a nurse for the trip.”

“A very attractive nurse,” Ryan Sullivan added.

“Who you are not going to distract,” Shane admonished.

“I already distracted her on the way down here.” Ryan looked unabashed as Kincaid and Griffin stared at the ceiling.

“But what I don’t understand is why are you guys here?” Yael asked, looking at the three HRT operators. “You don’t work for Alex.”

“We’re your official FBI escort.” Will Griffin sent her a smile that suggested this should be obvious.

“What about our bodyguards?” Yael asked in confusion.

“We’re better looking,” Ryan told her with a straight face.

“They’re coming too,” Kincaid told her with a twinkle in his eye. “They’re the muscle. We’re the brains.”

Yael clasped the bedsheets in her fists. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re family,” Ryan said simply. “We’re bringing you home. Or at least to a hospital closer to home.”

She fought the tears she knew she shouldn’t shed because if she started to cry she wouldn’t stop. The knot in her throat was getting bigger and bigger and she couldn’t speak.

Shane squeezed her fingers. “Hey, I forgot to tell you. I heard a funny thing on the radio earlier.”

Yael sniffed and blinked, crisis over. He always did that. Pulled her back from the brink of tears. Although he had held her when she’d woken up after surgery yesterday and let her weep all over him.

“What did you hear?” She finally choked out the words.