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After what seemed like forever, I wondered if we should have gone a different way, but we were too far down to go back up.
My decision to do this was reckless. This climb was madness, but I couldn’t see any other option.
If that bastard didn’t have a working comms device, then we really were fucked.
A rock shifted beneath my foot, twisting my ankle. I lunged for a spindly tree for support, but the damn thing snapped in half. Clawing at the remaining stub, I only just managed to get my footing.
“Fucking hell.” I pointed at the loose rock. “Careful, that rock is wobbly.”
Indiana and her long legs made every step look easier than mine did. Each time I pointed out a problem step, she handled it like the elevation was flat. Just like everything she seemed to do.
I didn’t know how she was still standing. I was starving, and every muscle ached.
My legs were trembling so much that the climb was becoming even more dangerous. Maybe she was too stubborn to ask me to stop. That sounded like something she would do.
I stepped onto a boulder as big as a dumpster, helped her down to my side, and said, “Let’s take a break.”
“Okay, sure.” A trickle of sweat dribbled from her neck and vanished into the valley of her breasts.
Hot damn, this woman was driving me crazy.
We sat on the rock with our legs dangling over the side and stared into the field of green and brown covering the valley below. If there was a shoreline down there, I couldn’t see it. As we drank from our diminishing water supply, I tried not to think about what would happen once we emptied these bottles.
Thankfully, the dense canopy overhead protected us from the searing sunshine, but the never-ending bushes around us trapped the humidity, and every breath was like inhaling a wet rag.
Everything was against us, but when the warmth of Indiana’s leg pressed against mine, I had an unprecedented notion that we would be okay.
I brushed my fingers over the angry scar on her leg. “Does this scar have anything to do with your mother’s murder?”
She closed her eyes and nodded.
I draped my hand over her thigh, but the scar was so long it still showed. “Tell me what happened?”
She opened her eyes, and pain flickered across her expression. “I was eleven years old when Mom was murdered.”
I released my breath. “Shit! Your mom must have been so young.”
She wiped sweat from her brow, leaving a smudge of dirt in its place. “Thirty-four.”
I shook my head. No words could make up for that horror.
“Mom, Dad, and I lived on Rhino.”
“How did you go to school?” I asked.
“I didn’t. Mom home-schooled me. But despite Mom’s best efforts, the only things I wanted to learn involved marine salvage.”
“No wonder you’re so good at it.” I turned my hand over and she clutched her palm to mine.
“We spent most of our days salvaging boats that had sunk in storms or cyclones, but in our spare time, we searched for treasure. Dad met Mom when he went to the library to search for details on an ancient ship. Mom had been studying in the library, and she helped him.”
I grinned. “Love at first sight, huh?”
Her stunning eyes drilled into me. “Yeah. Seven months after they met, Dad proposed to Mom on Rhino.”
“Wow, that’s a whirlwind.”
She shrugged. “When you know, you know.”
