by Diana Duncan
As they turned, he froze. “Hear that?” he murmured.
“What?” She listened, every instinct on alert. Faint rustling, now easily audible over the night insects’ abrupt silence. Goosebumps marched up her arms. “The grizzly?” she whispered.
“Four feet, but human. On a trajectory toward us.”
She’d almost rather face the bear. At least four-legged animals acted logically to their natures, and for discernable reasons. Panic once more reared its ugly head. “We can’t run. I’m barefoot and you can barely walk.” She studied him. “Can you shoot them?”
“By moonlight, with my left hand and only two rounds?” He paused. “Maybe. But the odds suck.”
“Never tell me the odds.” She tossed the Han Solo quote at him. He flashed her a grin, and she reined in panic. Aidan trusted her. Counted on her. They could handle two armed men. Yeah, right. “We’re stuck between the cliff and the bad guys. What do we do?”
“Use the environment as a weapon. Gonna have to build a fast booby trap.”
“Okay, tell me how to ... Hold on! G-Rat told me the big boss is hot to see me. The goons have a reward for me ‘undamaged.’ They won’t hurt me. I can be bait.”
He snarled. “No.”
“Why not?”
“No.”
“Aidan—”
His scowl deepened. “Hell no.”
She planted her hands on her hips. “There’s no time for anything complicated, and you’re not up to another slug-fest.” And she could live another eighty years without seeing him face the business end of a pistol again. “It’s the only option we have.”
He scrubbed his hand over his jaw. Studied her for a long, tense moment. “Dammit, I don’t like putting you at risk.”
She gave him a scowl of her own, hiding her underlying anxiety. “I’m not so keen on the fact they’re allowed to shoot you. Who would protect me then?” Which wasn’t what worried her, but was the type of logic he responded to.
He glanced around, listened intently. Their pursuers were closing in. “Shit! All right,” he gritted. “Pay attention, because we barely have time to lay this out. We’ll have one chance. One. If we screw up, we’re fucked.”
* * *
Zoe hunkered in the bushes near the big pine tree where they’d stashed G-Rat. Her heart hammered so loudly she could barely hear the approaching hunters. Now she knew how Bambi must’ve felt. The men wouldn’t shoot her. But if they caught her, the plan was FUBAR. She’d heard the SWAT team use the term before. Fucked up beyond all repair.
And Aidan would pay the ultimate price.
She couldn’t see or hear him. A wide expanse of dark, empty space separated them, yet her instincts felt him. Could sense him also watching and listening. Could almost count his breaths. As if they were two halves of the same person. A sensation both spooky and comforting. She shivered. Did he feel it, too?
The men shuffled closer and the night breeze carried a strong whiff of cheap aftershave.
Lights. Camera.
Action!
She stood. Blinked guilelessly at the approaching men. “Oh, no. Bad guys.” She turned and ran.
Predictably, they pursued.
Heedless of bruising rocks and sharp splinters, she sprinted full out. Toward Aidan. Toward the cliff.
Brush and branches crashed behind her. She sped up. Miscalculate, and she was mincemeat.
Right before she hit the cliff’s edge, she hooked left and dropped to the ground.
The guy on her heels kept coming. Too late, he saw the drop-off and skidded. Tried to stop. Hidden behind another huge old-growth tree, Aidan thrust the limb in front of his shins. The man tripped, fought for balance, then plunged over the edge. A terrified scream trailed off, eventually followed by a faint splash.
The second man either was warned by the first’s scream, or had been here before. He jerked to a shaky halt several feet from the cliff’s edge. Aidan leapt from behind the tree and swung the branch at his back. Even hurt and one-handed, he landed a massive blow. The second man followed his friend over the bluff. Another scream. Another distant splash.
Dead silence.
Zoe clambered to her feet. Limped to Aidan’s side. His expression worried, he stroked her face with his good hand. “You okay?”
She nestled her cheek into his palm, loving the warm, secure feeling that washed over her at his touch. “Sure. You?”
“Yeah.” His hand rested on her shoulder, and they both stared the long distance down into the restless Pacific. In the moonlight, white-capped waves lashed like silver-tipped blades. The men had both fallen over with enough momentum to clear the lethal rock formations directly below the bluff, and were thrashing toward shore.
She smiled at Aidan. “Well, that dispatches Thelma and Louise.”
He laughed.
RUMBLE, RUMBLE! A startled look creased his face as the earth rocked and rolled beneath their feet.
Zoe frowned. What the—?
The world tilted. She staggered, arms flailing as she fought to keep her balance.
“Get back!” Aidan shoved her, hard.
Propelled backward, she sprawled in the dirt.
The ground crumbled away in front of her ... and Aidan hurtled over the cliff.
Chapter 11
2:00 a.m.
There was no outcry. No splash. No sound except horrifying thuds from below.
“Aidan!” she screamed.
Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God. He’d fallen over the side without any outward momentum. He’d be shattered on the rocks.
Sobs tore from her throat as she crawled forward. She desperately scanned the water. Saw nothing but whitecaps. Her fingernails clawed furrows in the dirt. “Aidan!” Her broken whisper echoed into empty space.
“Zoe, stay back!” Aidan’s shout ripped into her grief.
He was alive!
Her breath staggered, and she inched the upper half of her torso over the edge. Dirt crumbled beneath her, trickled down the bluff. “Aidan?”
Gripping a protruding tree root with his good hand, he hung less than four feet below the steep drop. So near, yet it might as well be miles.
“The ground isn’t stable near the edge!” he yelled. “Dammit, stay back!”
She inched farther out, reached down. Stretched. She couldn’t quite touch him. “Let me help you.”
He looked up at her. “No.” The determined resignation in his eyes made her chest ache. “You’re not strong enough to pull me up. I can’t get a toehold in this loose dirt. Even if I had something to grab onto ... with only one good arm, I can’t let go of this root.”
She glanced down at the jagged rocks far below. He couldn’t hold on forever. When he tired, when his grip loosened, he’d plunge to his death.
No! She wouldn’t let that happen. “I’ll think of something.”
“Listen to me.” The strain of trying to hold on gave his quiet voice a ragged edge of desperation. Chopped his breaths. “Head downstream to the shoreline. Stay in the creek. Hide near the dock. Wait for a rescue helo or the Coast Guard. Or sneak onto the ferry when it returns in the morning.”
“What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll work my way down the bluff. Meet you at the dock. If I’m not there by the next ferry ... leave without me.”
Tears stung her eyes. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“You have to. It’s the only way.” His voice turned gruff. “Now get your ass moving. So I can start climbing down.”
She frowned. “Don’t you dare die on me. Do you hear me, SWAT? I won’t stand for it.”
“Do my best, honey. Go on. See you soon.”
“That’s a promise. God, Aidan,” she choked out. “Don’t fall.”
Then her sweet face disappeared from Aidan’s sight.
Aidan breathed a sigh of sorrowful relief. He didn’t want to die. But if his number was up, fucking hell, he would not take Zoe with him.
There were worse ways to go. His de
ath would be quick, if not so clean. He stared at the stars, bright pinpoints of fire in the sooty sky. The hard, white moon spotlighted the ocean far below with an incandescent glow. As a boy, he’d loved family campouts on clear summer nights like this. Him cooking over the campfire alongside Pop, and everyone singing. Meteor showers. Mom with warm, gooey s’mores. Pop telling ghost stories.
Was Pop watching over him from beyond those stars? “Air out the spare room, Pop,” he muttered. “I think you’re about to have company.”
His hand slipped on the root, and he tightened his grip. He would damn well fight to stay alive. But this time there was no enemy to engage. He’d tried every way possible to hoist himself up. Nothing had worked. Dangling in space by one hand without any leverage, he was screwed. His fingers were already growing numb. Struggling only made it harder to hang on.
He’d cling until the last second. But before too much longer, he’d be forced to let go.
Plenty of time for last prayers. Final goodbyes.
Painful regrets.
In the absolute clarity only experienced during the moment before death, realization hit.
Sonofabitch. He’d denied himself all the best things in life. After Pop’s memorial service, he’d slammed the door to his heart and boarded it up against life’s storms. Over the years, cobwebs of fear and anger had grown in the darkness until they’d choked off his emotions.
Just coasting along, never too sad, never too happy, he’d been satisfied. Mundane was neat and tidy.
Boring was safe.
Then TNT Zoe blasted apart his false serenity. Her sunny spirit had blown open the doors and danced right through his splintered barricades. Her zest for living flooded his self-imposed dungeon with light. Her sparkling laughter swept away the cobwebs. For the first time in years, he felt truly alive.
Sorrow wrenched his heart. And wasn’t that an ironic twist? Dangling from a cliff with nowhere to go but down, his emotions were finally at full throttle.
He was about to die, without ever having really lived.
What a fucking waste.
Zoe would make it off this godforsaken island. He had to believe that. She’d survive. Marry. Have mischievous, inquisitive kids who’d drive everyone crazy, but make the world a better place.
She’d go on without him.
A red-hot poker stabbed his chest. That’s what he wanted. So why did it hurt so goddamned much?
His fingers slipped again. Not much longer now.
Goodbye, sweetheart. Be happy.
“Aidan!” Zoe’s voice overhead made him jerk his head up.
Disbelief.
Relief.
Anger.
Horror.
A hundred different emotions swamped him. “Why aren’t you gone?”
“I didn’t come down in yesterday’s rain shower. I leave, you die.” Headfirst, she slithered over the cliff’s face on her stomach.
Christ! Ice clogged his veins. “Don’t!” She kept coming, and cold sweat drenched his entire body. “No!”
“Don’t shout.” Her body slid several feet downward in the loose dirt, and his heart leapt into his throat until she regained control. “You’re distracting me, Master.”
“Jesus God Almighty.” He fought for a reasonable tone. Damn hard with terror strangling his lungs. “Go back, before you fall!”
“I won’t fall. My ankle is tied to a tree.” She stretched down, wrapped and knotted a rope around his waist. “Now, so are you.”
Incredulity rendered him speechless. He tried again. “Where’d you get rope?”
“Made it out of strips of your tux jacket twisted with strips of G-Rat’s jeans. Denim is strong stuff, and luckily, you’re not down that far, so it didn’t have to be too long.”
“You’re risking your life for a stop-gap measure.” He strove to keep desperation from his voice. “You still don’t have any way to pull me up. A clothing rope will support your weight, but won’t hold me for long. Not when you start wrenching on it.”
“Ye of little faith. I have a plan.”
Oh, shit. He echoed her earlier words. “Did I mention how much I hate this plan?”
* * *
Zoe concentrated on cinching knots with trembling fingers. He didn’t hate this plan half as much as she did. She wasn’t deluded enough to think she possessed the strength to pull Aidan to safety. She couldn’t even put his shoulder back in. Even if she were Xena, Warrior Princess, the rope wasn’t strong enough. However, it’d hold him long enough. She would not stand by and watch him fall to his death.
No matter what terrible things she had to do.
She finished securing him, then crawled hand-over-hand back to the top of the cliff. She sprawled in the dirt for a few seconds to regain her wind before shoving to her feet.
G-Rat’s watchful stare fixed on her as she approached with a hand behind her back. Zoe had cut off the guy’s pants with Aidan’s knife, leaving him in a bloody head bandage and black-and-white-checkered NASCAR boxer shorts. She didn’t blame him for looking wary. She took a deep, shaky breath. Things were about to get worse.
Much worse.
Aidan’s life was at stake. Bluffing would not get the job done. She had to be willing to follow through on her threat.
G-Rat had to see his death in her eyes.
She planted her feet and stared at him. Didn’t speak. Didn’t blink. Unlike the bear, she held his gaze in what Aidan had called a challenge for dominance. She glared at him until he blinked first. Bending, she tugged out his gag. “Did you hear us shove your pals off the cliff?”
Those pale eyes widened. He nodded.
She forced her voice to sound hard and cold. “Then you know I’m not averse to killing.” The other men weren’t dead, but he didn’t know that. He hadn’t seen them thrashing in the Pacific.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. He gave another careful nod.
Sweat soaked her palms and trickled in a thin line down her spine. Slowly, she pulled her hand from behind her and pressed the gun to his temple. The fact that her hand was shaking harder than an electric cocktail mixer could only heighten his terror. “How much do you want to live?”
He startled. Gulped. “Don’t waste me. I was just havin’ a little fun with you, babe.”
His acrid fear seared her nostrils and she swallowed a surge of nausea. Threatening to kill another human being was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
No. Meaning the threat was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
She swallowed again. Don’t barf. He’d never buy her act if she yakked all over him. “Don’t want to die tonight?”
“No!” His eyes rolled white in the moonlight. “Don’t shoot!”
“That’s up to you.” She narrowed her eyes and tried to control her trembling. “The dude is trapped over the bluff. I need his skills in order to survive on this island. I don’t need you for anything.” She paused to let that sink in. Let him think she was as cold-hearted as she sounded. “You get me?”
“Totally.” He bobbed his head.
“He’s less than four feet down, but can’t climb with a dislocated shoulder. You’re tall enough to reach and strong enough to pull him up.”
“You’re in charge. You say it, I do it.”
She untied his ankles, then moved behind him to free his hands. “Don’t try anything. Even with a kneecap shot out, you can still pull him up. I won’t hesitate.”
“I believe you, babe.”
If she weren’t telling the truth about her intentions, why would a hardened criminal believe she’d kill him? Where had all this sudden ruthlessness come from? The nausea grew overwhelming, and she retched behind his back. What kind of person was she?
Staying behind him, she kept the pistol aimed at his spine as they walked toward the bluff. A person who was trying to save the man she loved.
She staggered and nearly dropped the gun.
Love? When the hell had that happened?
She inhaled. Actually ... the mo
ment they’d met. She’d looked up into those determined brown eyes shadowed with unspoken pain, and claimed him as her cop.
When had it become inescapable reality?
Her galloping heart lodged in her throat. The moment he’d disappeared over the cliff, and she feared she’d lost him forever.
G-Rat had reached the cliff. Her pulse jolted into triple time as he dropped to his stomach and slid toward the edge.
Zoe moved to one side, widened her stance and trained the gun on his head. “If he dies, you die.”
“Don’t get trigger-happy, babe. Nobody has to die.”
Hope not. She was taking a huge gamble. But she’d learned long ago that sometimes you have to risk it all in order to gain everything. “Aidan?” she called. “Hanging in there?”
“Literally.”
“The bad guy is coming to rescue you. Take his hand and let him pull you up.”
“What?” He sounded as shocked as if she’d informed him his mother and Letty had just robbed Oregon Pacific Bank.
“Don’t look a gift SUV in the mouth, SWAT.”
“What the fuck?”
“Go with the flow, Aidan.” And take your own advice, Zagretti. She was exhausted, filthy, scared, and holding G-Rat at gunpoint made her sick to death inside.
The Rat scooted farther over and leaned into space. Stretched out his hand.
Zoe’s stomach heaved again.
G-Rat’s body strained and Aidan grunted.
Zoe’s fingers tightened on the gun. Please, please, please let this work.
A thousand agonizing heartbeats thundered past.
G-Rat crab-crawled backward, backward ... and Aidan’s dark, tousled hair appeared over the rise. His face came into view, dust-streaked and sharp with pain. His shoulders appeared, scratched and bruised. Then he was stretched full-length on solid ground.
Alive.
Safe.
The breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding exploded from her lungs, and she reeled. She fought a rush of tears. No time to get emotional. She had to stay focused until Aidan was truly safe.