Page 29 of Her Honorable Hero

“What do you think?” Josiah asked.

As soon as the question was out of his mouth, a chunk of sandy cliff broke away from underneath the weight of the passenger car, causing it to shift a little more toward the ocean. Griff winced when he heard the faint sound of screams from inside. But he knew damn good and well there wasn’t a chance in hell it was Miranda or Scarlett who were screaming. Those two women were keeping their shit together.

He eyed Josiah. He nodded in silent agreement as he read Griff’s mind. Yep, they knew their women.

“If we go underneath and try to climb through a window, the train could shift again and we’d be flatter than a pancake.” Griff stated the obvious as they arrived at their destination.

Josiah nodded and grabbed a handhold on the back of the railcar and started climbing. Griff followed. Soon they were on top of the damaged car, which was actually the side. From that vantage point, they could see an opening near the back. It was small, but they should be able to work their way in.

Should.

“We need to stay near the edge, away from the cliff side,” Griff said. They were in mission mode, so ensuring that nothing was assumed was part standard operating procedure. Josiah nodded at his words.

They made their way swiftly to the far edge. Griff felt sweat trickling down his back. When they got to the opening, Griff wondered how in the hell they were going to fit. Not only was it a tight fit, the steel was knife-sharp.

Josiah pulled out his phone and deployed the flashlight feature, then peered inside. “Looks like a three to four meter drop, but the seats have unbolted so it’ll be a lousy landing.” Griff looked over his captain’s shoulder, scouting the terrain.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Josiah asked.

Griff nodded grimly. There were three people lying in the wreckage. It was clear that two of them were dead. One might still be alive. This was the upper deck of the train, business class, where they had all been seated. But according to Griff’s calculations, they had left the women on the other end.

Griff peeled off his jacket and placed it over the edge of the steel so that maybe they wouldn’t cut themselves on at least one of the sides of the hole. “I’ll go first,” Griff said. “You can lower me down. I’ll move what I can, so it’s a better landing when I help you down.”

“Affirmative,” Josiah answered.

“Hey.”

Griff and Josiah’s heads swivelled. One of the surfer’s heads popped up where they had climbed over. He easily swung himself up and looked around, walking on the far side of the car, and swiftly made his way over to them. “I thought you could use this.” He thrust out his hand.

Griff recognized it immediately. It was a surfboard leash that the surfers used to connect their feet to their boards so that when they crashed, so they didn’t have to searching for their surfboards.

“Perfect, thanks.”

“I called my brother, he and some of his teammates are coming from Coronado to help.”

Griff looked closely at the young man as he wrapped the cord around his wrist, but he didn’t recognize him. “Who’s your brother?”

“Mason Gault.”

“Small world,” Josiah whistled as he looked up from where he was crouched. “Your brother’s a good man. What’s your name?”

“I’m Billy Anderson,” the teenager replied.

Josiah stood up. “I’m Captain Hale, this is Griff Porter, he’s on the Black Dawn team.”

“Doesn’t Mase work for you?” Billy asked.

“Yep,” Josiah nodded.

Griff handed the end of the leash to Josiah, then sat down on the edge of the hole. It was going to be tight.

“Griff?” Billy said.

Griff looked up at the kid and raised his eyebrow in question.

“Maybe I should go down. I’d fit easier.”

“No.” Griff and Josiah said in unison.