Page 164

I checked anyway, running my hands quickly over her arms and sides, then down her legs. Her jeans were dirty, one knee torn, but I saw no blood beyond what belonged to Rafael and Marcela.

“Does anything hurt?”

She swallowed. “My knee. A little.”

“Your head?”

“No.”

“Ankle?”

“No.”

“Back?”

“No.”

I let out a relieved breath. “Good. That’s good.”

I pressed my forehead to hers.

“You don’t get to die on me, Mouse.”

“I wasn’t trying to.” Her voice cracked. “I didn’t see it. I thought the ground kept going.”

“Shh. It’s okay,” I said, pulling her against me and wrapping my arms around her.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” she said, barely above a whisper.

I wanted to shake her for frightening me. But mostly I wanted to keep her against me until she stopped trembling and the terrified look in her eyes disappeared.

So I gave us another few seconds.

Her breathing gradually slowed against my chest, and some of the tension left her body. Not much, but enough that my words were reaching her again instead of getting lost beneath everything screaming in her head.

As much as I wanted to keep her right where she was, we were still too close to the compound and far too exposed to stay beside the cliff.

I eased her back and searched her face. “We need to keep moving.”

She nodded.

I stood first, then took her hand and pulled her upright. Her knees wobbled, but she stayed on her feet.

“Do you know where we are?”

She drew a slow breath and turned toward the trees, then the cliff, piecing together the terrain around us.

“Not exactly.”

“Not the answer I was hoping for.”

“I know the area immediately around the finca,” she said. “The drainage channel and fence line we just came through, and some of the nearby properties. But I’ve never traveled this far from the finca on foot or gone this deep into the forest.”

I stared at her.

“You planned an escape without knowing where the mountain went?”

“I knew where it went on maps.”