"It's a crude fix, so deal with it. We'll get you to a hospital later."

"Got it," Andrew replied, his eyes never leaving her face. "What about you? Are you still hurting?"

Emily stood up abruptly. "Drop it. We need to move. They'll sweep this area in no time."

Andrew rose in silence, his large hand wrapping securely around hers.

"What are you doing?"

Emily jerked her hand away on pure reflex, leaving his arm suspended awkwardly in the air.

The moment she did it, a sharp pang of guilt hit her. Given the hellish situation, treating him like an enemy felt incredibly petty, especially after he had just hauled her up a mountain on his back. Her reaction seemed unnecessarily heartless. Andrew slowly lowered his arm, an amused smirk playing on his lips. "You were fine riding on my back two minutes ago, but now holding hands is where you draw the line?"

Emily pressed her lips together. "Just lead the way. I can see you. I don't need you to drag me."

Andrew let out a quiet, unreadable chuckle.

"Alright. Let's move."

The woods were silent now, but neither of them dared to lower their guard. They pushed forward at a blistering pace.

The relentless sprinting triggered a fresh wave of vicious cramps in Emily's stomach, accompanied by sharp stings from the cuts on her own arms. Swallowing her pride, she gritted her teeth and suffered in silence, desperately trying to match his stride.

Andrew looked completely unfazed. He dominated the path ahead, his footwork as effortless as ever.

Emily was biting the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper just to keep him in her sights. She found herself grabbing onto tree trunks to stay upright, her ragged gasps starkly contrasting his controlled breathing.

Andrew halted suddenly, stepping right into her space. "Look at you. Why are you torturing yourself?"

Emily kept her head down, jaw locked tight. "Keep moving. I'm fine."

Andrew stared down at her, his tone dropping into a dangerous register. "Listen to yourself. You're barely breathing Another mile and your going to collapse in the dirt.

His words stung with a harsh edge of reprimand, as if he were scolding a useless liability holding him back.

And honestly, right now, she felt exactly like a liability.

A wave of suffocating humiliation and anger crashed over her. Shoving past him, she spat, "I said I'm fine. Walk."

She barely made it one step before Andrew clamped his hand over her arm. His voice turned even darker, like dealing with a stubbornly defiant child.

"Why are you acting so damn tough when you're clearly falling apart?"

"Back off."

Emily tried to yank her arm free, but his grip was made of iron. She wasn't going anywhere.

He hauled her back, stepping squarely into her path so she had nowhere to go. "Emily. Relying on me right now doesn't mean you're wavinga white flag, and it doesn't change a single thing between user You can lean on me. I'm not going to hold it over your head once we get out of here."

Emily's jaw flexed.

Andrew's voice softened, losing all its demanding edge. "Please, Emily. Just let me carry you. Okay?"

Emily dropped her gaze to the forest floor.

He let out a heavy sigh. "If we stand here debating this, they're going to catch us, and then neither of us is walking out of these woods."

Defeated, Emily finally surrendered, letting him lift her onto his back once more.

"I don't even know if we'll ever find a way out of here," she murmured into his shoulder.

The endless wall of trees stretched out forever in the dark.

He adjusted his hold, steadying her. "Don't sweat it. I've got a GPS tracker on me.

My backup is already inbound."

Emily paused, the realization

washing over her. Of course, a guy

like Andrew wouldn't have walked

straight into death trap without a

calculated exit strategy