Her mouth dropped. Was he kidding? “I can’t—”
“Go. Down. There!”
The gun he held didn’t frighten her nearly as much as the look in his eyes. She swallowed, tried to secure a better hold on her burden, and carefully began her descent. Balancing her own weight was hard enough, but with the generator and panels, the task proved nearly impossible. She slipped, wobbled, caught herself and moved on, keeping her eyes fixed on the next place to step, instead of the sheer drop-off ahead.
Below the deep split, a narrow, granite ledge rimmed a good portion of the gorge, broken up here and there with stony outcroppings that cantilevered over the edge.
“Go to your left another fifty feet, where that trail of boulders spills over the side of the ravine. You’ll find your way down through there.”
One of those boulders lodged in her throat. “Down?” No. There’d be no ‘down’.
“You can go under your own power, or I’ll help you take the shortcut.” He tipped his head and pierced her with another of his creepy appraisals. “I thought I saw something different in you, Ms. Drummond, but I must have been mistaken. I should have saved myself a lot of inconvenience and dealt with you in your shed.”
Brie’s need to appease him, and her terror of following some rocks over the edge of a cliff battled in her head and her stomach. Breathing trumped everything, she reminded herself.Stay alive.Whatever it takes. “Okay, but,” she nodded at the burdens she carried, “I can’t climb down that bluff face with these. I barely made it through those last boulders without falling.”
Calvin’s thin smile didn’t reach his eyes. “The helpless female routine doesn’t suit you. I’m afraid your little ploy to get me to put this gun away won’t work.” His smile turned to a sneer. “I’ve been down that cliff a hundred times with a load far heavier than yours.”
“You have?” She was dumfounded. “Why?”
“Because, I live there.”
“You what?” No wonder it had been so hard for the authorities to locate him.
“Get going before I change my mind about letting you accompany me.”
She moved toward the designated spot, desperate to find a way out that didn’t include the bottom of that chasm.Crazy, egotistical, bully.He was bent on getting her killed, one way or the other.
One reluctant step after the other, she closed the distance between her and certain death, and peered over the edge. The string of boulders went a little over half-way down the bluff. A wave a dizziness hit as she stared beyond the brink to the distant tips of pine trees and a narrow ribbon of water. Brie estimated them to be at least three hundred feet below. Maybe a bullet would be less painful.
“Could I please, just take one of these things at a time, so I have at least one hand to balance with?” She’d worry about getting the second one down, if she actually survived.
“You’re becoming far too much trouble, Ms. Drummond,” he warned. “But since this is your first time, I’ll grant you an exception. You may lay the panels aside and start down. You’ll see a natural route emerge as you go. And of course, I’ll be right behind you.”
As instructed, she laid the panels aside, clutched the generator box to her chest, and took a deep breath. If she wasn’t so petrified of tumbling to her death, she’d look for a way to help him to his.
Okay. She released her breath and spotted her initial path.Here I go.
It was slow and difficult, but not impossible if she kept her eyes off the bottom of the gorge. She tried to hold the generator against her chest as much as possible, to keep her center of gravity from tipping off scale. But, maneuvering with only one hand for balance took all of her concentration.
Calvin followed not far behind her, taking the path through the boulders as easily as a mountain goat.
She hated him.
Finally, almost to the end of the rock flow, a space opened up where she didn’t have to just move from boulder to boulder. She could actually walk on the ground, despite it being steep and gravely. Latching onto the opportunity to be free of the weight of the generator for a minute, she grasped the handle and gratefully let the weight fall away.
She went with it, scrambling for traction on the loose pebbles. Suddenly, she landed on her back, sliding down the slope as bits of rock ground through her shirt. A sharp pain flared in her left ankle when her leg banged against something. But whatever she hit, didn’t break her fall. She kept going.
Please, God, don’t let me plummet to the bottom.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Och!” Mac set the useless saw aside and spoke to Gus. “ ’Tis just as Brie predicted. ’Twill no’ work without the gas she spoke of.” He shook his head, leaned against the tree, and continued speaking to the dog. “A true wonder, thischain-saw, but I’m no’ opposed to using an axe, either, as I’ve always done.”
As I’ve always done.
The words echoed in his head. Aye! He’d used an ax, he was sure of it! He could almost feel the heft and swing in his shoulders. But where had he used it? And for what?
Nervous excitement kicked up his heartbeat as he walked over to the pile of rocks, where he’d fallen. Where he’d left his memory. His hopes, dreams, and identity. He stared at the blood stain on one of the stones, wishing all he had to do was reach down and pick up his lost treasures.
