“I understand that, but it will take you longer to get back to him if you fall off those cliffs and break your neck because you refused to wait until you fully healed.”
Charlie glanced from him to the ocean and back again. “The tide will come in, and it could cover the beach and enter the cave.”
“Then we’ll retreat further into the cave and wait it out.”
More waiting. But he had a point; she wasn’t exactly in the best condition for climbing, and there was no other way out of here.
“It could be daylight before I’m healed enough to climb,” she said.
“Then we’ll wait for night. Scaling that cliff during the day might not be the best idea.”
“I know, but if we wait until night, the Savages will be more active.”
Jack stared at the ocean as he contemplated this. “We’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t. We could also climb over those rocks and see if we can’t find any easier place to scale the cliff.”
Charlie poked her head out to study the jetties. “I don’t know what lies beyond those rocks,” she said, pointing to the left. “But those,” she pointed to the right, “the side tunnels are back that way. However, about fifty feet past them there is no beach; it’s just a cliff and ocean. We could try swimming around them”—she didnotwant to do that, but she would if it became necessary to return to her son—“to the beach and one of the side tunnels, but the current is powerful, and there’s no guarantee those tunnels weren’t blocked off by the cave-in.”
Jack rubbed his chin as he contemplated their options, which weren’t exactly the best. “You won’t be fully healed for a while; we’ll discuss it then. But it sounds like we’ll be discovering what’s to the left. Until then, I suggest resting so you can heal faster.”
* * *
When Charlie’schin hit her chest, she started awake and blinked in confusion at her surroundings. Then her gaze settled on Jack. He sat across from her with his arm draped over his drawn-up knee and his eyes focused on the entrance of the cave. She stretched to the side and then the other way, but no pain flared through her; her back had healed while she slept.
Settling against the rocks, she found herself riveted by Jack’s handsome profile and the pensive expression on his face. Her fingers itched to touch the stubble lining his jaw before brushing across his lips. Gulping, Charlie tried to look away, but her attention remained riveted on him.
His head turned toward her, and his eyebrows drew together as he studied her over the bridge of his nose. They sat so close their knees almost touched.
“How did you know that Savage was in the tunnel earlier?” he asked.
Charlie shifted uncomfortably; the only ones she’d ever told about her strange ability were her parents. It had been a bad decision, and she paid for it. Since then, she’d never revealed her strange gift to another. “I don’t know. I must have heard a noise or something.”
Jack didn’t believe her for a second. There was no way she could have heard that vamp in the tunnels. Super vampire hearing or not, they’d been too far away for anyone to have heard or smelled the Savage. She’d also stiffened when he asked the question, and she had yet to relax; if she heard the vamp, she wouldn’t be so guarded.
“I don’t believe you,” he stated.
“I don’t care what you believe.”
Jack grinned at her. “Yeah, you do.”
He knew he was poking the bear, but he was tired of her evasive answers and hesitance to reveal anything about herself.
Charlie glared at him before lifting her chin and turning to gaze at the ocean. Though the sound of it was soothing, she’d never been a fan of the sea. The large waves were daunting, and she hated the idea of being unable to see the things that could eat her.
She flexed her toes in her boots as she watched the sun sinking toward the horizon. They’d been in this cave for far longer than she would have liked. “My back feels better. We should see about climbing over those jetties.”
“It’s better if we wait until night,” he replied. “We can stay against the cliff if we scale it, but we’ll be out in the open if we go over the jetties.”
“A vampire could see us either way, and I doubt they could climb down those cliffs in time to kill us before we can hide or get away from them.”
“They won’t make it down in time, but their bullets will,” Jack said, hefting the gun as a reminder.
Charlie resisted folding her arms over her chest and stomping her feet like a two-year-old refused a cookie. He was right; sheknewhe was right, which only made it worse. Her fingernails bit into her palms as she fisted her hands.
“Getting yourself killed won’t get you back to Dylan,” Jack said.
“I know that!” she snapped before taking a deep breath. “Sorry.”
“Did you just apologize?”
