With a grunt, the man dragged Elias to the ledge—no easy feat given how much bigger he was. Leo strained to watch as he wedged him against the rise, hopped easily up and then hauled from above, no doubt scraping him in the process. It wasn’t until Elias was up and facing the river, that she caught sight of his face.
Though he shook hard, his eyes were clear and cognizant and staring straight at her. Holy shit, he was faking it.
He closed his eyes once, and with that move gave her all the assurance she needed.I love you, the look said.Get us out of here.And, finally—the biggie:I trust you.
Straining, she shoved hard and forced her hands past her ass to her legs before the men disappeared from view. She couldn’t get her feet through with her ankles cuffed.
Where was the man taking Elias? He’d said something about a fire, which made sense, if he planned to question them. Couldn’t build a fire down here, so he’d gone up, away from the wind and water, she guessed.
She craned her neck, giving her eyes a split second to take it all in—the twenty-foot slab of rock she was stranded on, with an unconscious Deegan. It was stained dark with blood in some places and slanted down to the river that danced on as if nothing had changed when really the world hung in the balance.There.Her eyes narrowed in on something. A bump in the rock face that rose up from where they lay—not sharp as a knife, but certainly caveman worthy. A tool was a tool. Inchworming the few feet to it took much too long. By the time she’d made it, she smelled smoke.
Already? The Brit would come back any second. Shit, shit, shit. Frantic, she lay flat on the rock, lifted her legs toward the protrusion in the rock face, and used it to saw at her bonds. A dozen times was all it took and her feet were free. Quickly, she drew one foot through her looped arms, then the other. Now the rock served to saw her hands. Done. Hands loose, she remained in a squat, spun in a circle, hoping that the man had left a weapon—her knife at the very least? Nothing.
Something moved in her peripheral vision. Deegan? She stared for a few seconds, braced herself, and moved slowly in his direction, pausing for a stunned second.
He, too, had been cuffed. She blinked in confusion. By his own teammate.
What the hell? Was there infighting on the other side? Different groups banding together?
It didn’t matter. She had to get to Elias, get him loose, and get the hell out of here. Now.
But, first, she had to search Deegan.
Hesitating for no more than a second, she steeled herself and patted him down, starting high. On her second pass, she rolled him over, ran frozen fingers up under his thick parka, grossed out by the contact but still enjoying the body heat, and encountered something blocky and hard. A whimper escaped her—a sound of sublime relief or deepest despair. Not daring to hope, she grasped, fumbled, and pulled, blinking for a few shocked seconds before recognizing it for what it was: a satellite phone. The holy grail.
Call. Call now.
No, run first, hide, gather weapons, then come back for Elias. She glanced up at the sky.
Before reinforcements arrived.
Chapter 38
The giant was still shaking, though his skin had lost its blue tinge. Ash piled another sleeping bag on him and stood, casting a quick look round before stalking back toward the river’s edge. He needed to get these two away before the evac team descended upon them. Not easily done with an unconscious eighteen-stone man in tow.
He was tired suddenly. To his very bones, in his marrow. Tired. So tired.
This had to end. He needed answers. He needed to get back to Chronos. He pushed himself to pick up the pace as he neared the big slab of rock.
Empty.
The woman was gone. And so was Deegan.
Shit. He wasn’t even surprised. This whole thing was a mess. Every bit of the mission, every move out here. If they’d only let him come in alone. My God, all the lives that could have been saved.
Too late now.
Quickly, he pulled out the bloody Glock he’d found at the crash site, eyeing the rocks for a few quick seconds before following the two wet pairs of footprints south, toward the waterfall.
***
Leo picked her way along the river’s edge for fifty yards, the phone gripped tightly in one hand. Unsteadily, she climbed over soggy logs, trudged around rocks and branches and other debris, getting as far as she could from those two men. But also from Elias. Stumbling on the uneven shore, she slowed and took in her surroundings, already trying to figure out how she’d get to him. She’d work her way down along the water, then head back up into the woods and circle around to where that fire threw out smoke like a beacon. If she worked fast enough, she might even keep the element of surprise.
She struggled on for another twenty yards or so. Here, the riverbank steepened and she had no choice but to go up higher into the rocks, closer to the sound of rushing water. The falls were right here.
She’d left wet tracks on the stone surface behind her. If either of those men followed her, she’d be toast. Time to call. This was it—her one chance.
She shimmied around the last outcropping of boulders and leaned back, shocked by the water’s spray from below, hitting her right in the face. In front of her was nothing but a twelve-foot slab of rock and then air. The waterfall they’d fought so hard to avoid.
