My head feels like it’s about to roll off my shoulders, and the only thing keeping me conscious right now is holding on to Austin. The hard muscles under my palms, the grunts of exertion and pain as he climbs hand over hand up a thin rope to the top of the cliff. Where I fell. No. Where I was dropped.
I try to swallow my sob, but from his quick flinch, I don’t think I was completely successful. He knows someone hurt me. I’m going to have to tell him what happened. How the kid I sponsored, the one who said I gave him a future he didn’t deserve, was part of this.
I was so stupid, thinking I could come out here on my own. Thinking it would be safe. But in three weeks, we’d never seen another soul. And Corey…I never thought…
We slip a few feet, and Austin curses as I tighten my arms around his neck. How is he doing this? Carrying me up a mountain? Heck, how did he find me in the first place?
With a guttural shout, he pulls us up, again and again, his feet making scraping sounds against the rocks, and my teeth chattering incessantly.
After what feels like forever, we’re level with the trail, and Austin slides forward on his belly along the narrow path, twisting himself until he’s stretched out safely, then pushes up on one elbow. It’s dark, and I can only see a hint of his profile before my vision goes soft and hazy, and my stomach pitches. I’m so cold.
Before he found me, I’d feared I’d crack a tooth. Until everything slowed, then stopped and I couldn’t feel anything. Couldn’t muster the energy to care. Now, I care very much, and all I want is to be warm. With him. In his arms.
And then I am. In his arms at least, huddled against the rocks. “Look at me, sweetheart.” His firm tone helps me focus, and I force my eyes open. “We need to get out of these wet clothes, and you need a doctor. I parked the Land Rover at your lab, and it’s a solid hour hike at least—“
“No.” Shaking my head is a mistake, because everything goes fuzzy for a few seconds. “Poachers,” I manage. “Stealing the orchids. That’s who…” I shudder. “They know where the lab is. And the hotel.”
It’s hard to make out his expression in the dim light, but he cups my cheek and I lean into his touch. “Mik, we don’t have a choice. I can’t carry you all the way back to town, and you need a doctor.”
“What if…? Austin, they had guns.” I can’t face Corey again, and if the other two…crap, I can’t even pull their names out of my muddled thoughts…if they come after us, they could kill Austin. “If anything happened to you…”
“Sweetheart, if they come after us—hell, if I find them anytime, anywhere for the rest of their lives, they’re going to wish they’d never been born. I’ve spent the past twenty some odd years of my life training, fighting, and killing men trained to kill me.” Austin traces my lips with his thumb, and I just want to be somewhere safe with him. “I won’t let anything happen to you. But we have to get to the Land Rover.”
He leans in, and his lips are warm. Demanding. Kissing him makes me believe everything’s going to be okay. That maybe we’ll get to have that tomorrow I so desperately want.
I whimper when he pulls away, but he smiles at me, though up close, I can see the concern in his hazel eyes. “You’re safe with me, Mikayla. Always.”
Chapter Eleven
Austin
Poachers. Fucking poachers. Those bastards zip tied her wrists and what? Pushed her over the edge of a cliff? Or did she just fall? Mikayla isn’t in any shape to walk or answer questions, so I carry her, and she clings to me like her life depends on it, still shivering violently. I’d pull out one of the mylar heat blankets for her, but with the wind practically blowing sideways, it wouldn’t do much good.
We don’t make it more than a quarter mile down the mountain when the roar of the river drowns out the rain, the thunder, and the chattering of Mikayla’s teeth in my ear.
“Austin? Wh-what’s that sound?” She lifts her head from my shoulder, and when I shine the light over where the bridge should be, she swallows a sob. Alone, I might be able to find a way to cross and not drown, but with Mikayla, there’s no chance. Only half of the bridge remains, and there’s no way it’ll hold us.
Swinging the light in a slow arc, I find a stand of three trees huddled together that should offer us a little protection from the wind. “We’ll find another way back to the car,” I say as I press a kiss to the top of her head and then sink down with my back against the thickest trunk.
“How?” she asks.
“Scale of one to ten. How do you feel?” The GPS doesn’t offer me much hope we’ll be able to get anywhere safe tonight. Not if I have to carry her the whole way.
“Th-three.” I check her pulse as she peers up at me, and fuck. Her pupils are dilated, her lips parted slightly, and her heartbeat isn’t steady. She needs food, water, and to be somewhere warm and dry, and if I can’t provide that soon, I’m afraid she won’t survive the night.
I’d give my left nut for a better map—or cell signal—but since that’s not going to happen, I have to improvise.
“I need you to focus for me, sweetheart.” Shifting her closer in a desperate attempt to keep her even a single degree warmer, I show her the GPS screen. “You know this area a hell of a lot better than me. Have you seen any structures between the lab and Site One? Anything we can get to without crossing the river?”
“Nuh-uh.” Mikayla’s eyes close, and she curls against me, shaking so violently, I’m worried she’s having a seizure. A low moan escapes her lips, and then she stills, all the tension leaving her body as she passes out.
“Mik!”Fuck.No!I need her to stay conscious. But not even light slaps to her cheek or rubbing her hands does any good. Though she’s still breathing, her lips have taken on a bluish tinge again, and her skin—even under her tank top—is like ice.
Staring at the GPS, I zoom in and out, checking every square mile for something—anything—that might function as a shelter. We don’t need much. Just somewhere I can protect us against the driving rain and wind.
There. About a mile away. A short, steep descent, but the black square on the grid looks like a structure. Anything with at least three walls will work. Hell, even two. I have enough plastic sheeting and mylar blankets in my ruck to seal us off from the wind, and if there’s a roof, we’ll be protected from the rain.
Hoisting Mik in a modified fireman’s carry so I can move faster, I follow the river for half a mile, then turn east. More than once, I slip on the steep, slick rocks, but I make it down two hundred feet in under half an hour.
