“Aus…tin?” Her voice is weak and slurred, but I’ve never been so grateful to hear anyone say my name.
“Thank God. I’m here, Mik. Tell me what hurts.” Her lips aren’t as blue as they were, but with the flashlight balanced on a rock just above her shoulder, I can’t see any visible injuries other than a cut on her forehead close to her brow.
“Can’t...” Mikayla forces her eyes open, but they aren’t focusing properly, and I lean closer so my face is bathed in light. “Numb.”
If she broke her back, we’re fucked. Or worse, her neck. But as I race through a thousand possibilities for why she can’t feel anything, she moves her legs, just enough. Then her right arm. Her left is pinned under her.
Field assessment was never my strong suit. I can shoot, fight, run tactical, but I was always shit at medical.
“Don’t let them find me,” she mumbles, her eyes closing.
“Who? Who did this do you? How long have you been out here?” I start down at her feet, patting her down, gently squeezing her ankles, calves, knees, halfway up her thighs.
“Don’t know.” Her body trembles, and my heart leaps into my throat. No. Not trembling. She’s shivering. She’s numb because she’s been out here in the rain and wind soaked to the bone.
“Mik, this is important.” I slap her cheeks lightly to get her to open her eyes. “I need you to focus on me and answer my questions. As soon as I know your neck and back are okay, I can get you out of here.”
She blinks hard a couple of times, and then nods. Shit. If her neck was broken, that was thewrongthing for her to do.
“What day is it?”
“Sunday.”
“Where did we meet?”
The corners of her mouth curve into a weak smile, and shit, even out here, injured, half-drowned, she’s beautiful and perfect and all I want is to be able to hold her. “Bar.”
“Just a couple more, sweetheart.” I take my finger and trace it along her jaw. “Can you feel this?”
“Uh huh.”
Continuing down her body, I reach her right wrist. “What about now?”
“Uh huh.”
Slipping my hand under her torn rain jacket, flannel shirt, and tank top, I find her waist. “Now?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “Please…just get me out of here.”
The desperation in her voice shatters my control, and I slide one arm under her knees and another behind her back with my fingers cradling her nape. She whimpers when I pull her to my chest and buries her face against my neck. I can’t climb with her like this, but I couldn’t let her lie there another second.
“It’s a twenty-foot climb, Mik. Getting back up there is going to be hard. I need to know you trust me.” Checking the back of her head for lumps under the guise of smoothing her hair, I’m relieved when I find only a small swelling. How she managed to fall down here without serious injury is a fucking miracle.
“You c-came for m-me,” she says, her teeth starting to chatter. “I t-trust y-you.”
Mik clings to me when I set her down, braced against the steep rock face, and I try to calm her. “Shhh, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere. But in order to get us out of here, I need to find a way to tie you to me so you don’t fall.”
Her shivering is getting worse, and if I can’t get her warm soon, she’s going to be in real trouble. Pulling off my belt, I maneuver her until the canvas strap is under her ass, then buckle it as loosely as I can. I have a couple of bungee cords in my pack, and clip them almost like a harness, one around each of her thighs, and all four ends secured to the belt. “This’ll hold you like a seat. But you’ll need to hang on to me. Can you do that?”
“Th-think so.”
Dropping into a crouch, I tie a figure eight knot to the belt, then turn so my back is to her, pulling the rope up and winding it around my torso and through the straps of my ruck. There’s just enough slack for me to take the blight and use my last carabiner to hold it fast.
“Put your arms around my neck. You have to hold tight. This is a shitty harness, but it’s all I have.”
“I can do it.” The tremors in her voice don’t give me a lot of confidence. She’s fucking terrified. She’s not the only one. I should have swapped my ruck around so I could feel her pressed against me, but I don’t want to take the extra time. We have to get somewhere warm and dry so I can find out who hurt her. And then make them pay.
Mikayla
