He had a look on his face that was stoic, and she knew he must be at least uncomfortable, if not in actual pain.
She'd been in his arms, close enough to smell the crisp astringent scent of anti-inflammatory gel from the heal-aids. She knew it had an anesthetic effect. She only hoped their current pace wasn't doing him harm.
To help, she played the unfit invalid, rather than putting it on Ben. She made them stop more often than she needed to, and when they passed the entrance to a deep gorge, she got out of the midday sun and sat down on a cool rock that must live in perpetual shade with a sigh of relief.
She could hear water falling deep inside the narrow slash in the cliff. Trees grew thickly, like they did everywhere in this forest, but here they clung to the sides of the gorge, growing straight out of the rock in some places.
“Is that water close enough to go refill the bottles?” she asked Irwin.
He had moved closer to the entrance to the gorge, standing between the rock walls that soared nearly a full thou above them.
“I don't know. I've never been in before.” He looked over at her, and seemed to be the most relaxed and friendly he'd been since they'd set off. “I've only seen this from the Trail, which is that way.” He pointed east.
“We need to get water.” She shifted on her rock, trying to hide the agitation that was rising in her at the thought of not filling up the bottles, and then finding nothing further along.
“The river cuts through about two thou from here.” Irwin turned away to look back into the gorge. “It's probably not worth the time to go looking in there.”
Anything could happen in two thou. They could walk straight into the Caruso.
Tally forced herself to take a deep breath. Her little helpers stirred, and she closed her eyes and counted down from ten.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw Ben was watching her. She winced internally, hoping that wasn't pity on his face.
“I'll just be a few minutes,” she said decisively. “Give me your bottles.”
Ben grinned as he stood. “I'll come along. I want to see what's down there, too.”
Irwin scowled. “So do I, but this isn't a jaunt.”
“No, but we need the water, and I'm enjoying being cool.” Ben shrugged into his pack.
Tally touched his hand as she brushed past him, a light flutter of her fingers against his.
“It sounds really close,” she said, and then started in.
Ben was right behind her, and while Irwin muttered and moaned, and pulled on his pack, they had a few moments of time to themselves for the first time that day.
“We need to ditch him.” Tally said it as Ben crowded so close his chest pressed against the back of her pack as she stopped to squeeze through a narrow opening in the rocks.
“Agreed, but not yet. The longer he's with us, the more chance he'll slip up and reveal something. I want to know what he knows, and what the hell he's doing.”
Tally shook her head. “Not worth the risk. He'll give away our position as soon as he can.”
“He doesn't have a comms unit to talk to them, though. I've made two dives into his pack on the various stops, and I couldn't find anything.”
Tally squeezed through and then looked back at him, eyes wide. “I didn't see you do that.”
Ben winked. “I put my pack next to his. They're identical. It looked like I was going through my own stuff.” He had more difficulty getting through than she did, and had to take his pack off and hand it to her before he could make it.
“As long as he's in sight, he can't tell them where we are. I agree that we ditch him tonight, though.”
He stopped talking suddenly, looking over her shoulder, and Tally turned, and knew her mouth had dropped open.
They were in what seemed like a room with no ceiling, the walls soaring high overhead, completely covered in thick foliage and colorful flowers that hung down on long, delicate stalks.
Water fell straight down from the wall at the far end of the space, and then tumbled and frothed in white sprays into the stream that rushed toward them, and then disappeared straight into the ground.
“Wow.” Irwin's voice jerked her out of her reverie. “Okay, this was worth a look.”
Tally hopped down the steep rocks until she was standing where the stream disappeared into an almost perfectly circular hole in the rocky floor.
“Someone on the science team will be happy to hear about this.” Irwin pointed his small screen up at the sky and took an image.
“I'm almost sorry to tell anyone else about it,” Tally said. But she was a military science officer herself and she knew something like this was a treasure beyond price.
No VSC science officer or scientist would do anything to damage it. Especially as Veltos was supposed to be left alone, and had only become cleared for visitation because the rebels in the Faldine War had defied the Do Not Disturb order and done whatever damage the DND was supposed to prevent.
Not that more damage couldn't be done, but the VSC had decided it would be easier to prevent malicious interference if they were keeping a close eye.
Obviously not close enough, with the Caruso running around.
She glanced at Ben. Realized she was being unfair.
Ben had been here for a month, trying to find the Caruso.
He came to stand beside her, shoulder to shoulder, and they stood in the cool shadows, with the scent of exotic blooms and the color of a hundred different flowers around them. If they had been alone, they would have been in each other's arms. She knew that for a fact.
Instead, she tipped her head to briefly rest against his shoulder, and then crouched down, filling her two bottles, then lifting her hand to take his to fill.
When she rose up, he put an arm around her and pulled her close, kissed her forehead.
She looked up, saw Irwin was watching them, a tight look on his face, and then he jumped down to join them, jostling for position in the small space.
Giving him a look of disgust, she retreated up the rocks and sat, drinking in the view while Irwin filled his bottles.
She had felt in control, almost her old self, but suddenly, as she sat and looked over the scene, her heart rate picked up, and the hair on her arms and at the back of her neck stood on end. She couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through her.
She noticed for the first time that her arm was bleeding.
She tried to think of when it could have happened, guessed it might have been when she was climbing down the rocks.
“We have to go.” She rose up, caught Ben's eye. “Now.”
Ben looked up at her. “What is it?”
“I don't know.” The sense of something very wrong constricted her throat, and her answer came out rough. “But . . . now, Ben. Now.”
He pulled himself up beside her. “Okay.”
His eyes asked questions, but he wouldn't ask them in front of Irwin. She was so relieved she had to fight back tears.
She loved this man, she realized. He accepted her more than she even accepted herself.
She started to clamber up the rocks, her nails tearing in her haste, and the only thing that soothed her nerves was the fact that Ben was right behind her.
She hated this. Hated that she couldn't work out what her own senses were telling her.
What was the threat? Where?
The little helpers didn't, or couldn't, answer.
“What the--?” Irwin's plaintive call rose up behind them, and he scrambled after them.
He didn't want to lose them, and maybe he thought they were trying to ditch him.
She almost laughed at the irony that his own bad faith reasons for keeping them in sight was going to save his ass.
Because the little helpers wouldn't react like this unless they were sure it was something bad.
Tally reached the narrow gap out of the gorge, a band of sweat prickling between her shoulder blades despite the cool of the gorge, and she stopped to take Ben's pack so he could go firs
t.
He shook his head, and not willing to argue and waste time, although the panic had subsided a lot now they were away from the stream, she slipped through and then took the pack he extended out to her.
Irwin struggled through a minute later, red-faced, eyes bulging. “What the fuck, Tally?”
She had no answer.
And wouldn't answer to him even if she did.
She could feel a wash of embarrassment and anger rising up, so she shrugged, turned away, and started walking in the direction they'd been headed all day.
“Listen, man.” Irwin didn't even try to lower his voice as he spoke to Ben. “I won't tell you your business, but you sure you want to be involved in that level of crazy?”
“She sensed a threat, she acted, what's crazy about that?” Ben asked him. “It's not like we were planning to hang around there much longer anyway.”
“There was no threat.” Irwin practically spat the words.
“I don't know,” Ben's voice was calm, in huge contrast to Irwin's. “I'm willing to bet there's a chance something in that gorge meant us harm.”
Tally's ears pricked up even more to see what Irwin's response would be to that, but suddenly, he had nothing to say.
Chapter 24
Ben lowered himself beside Tally and knew he was in trouble.
They were going to have to ditch Irwin tonight, and he was done.
His side ached, a hot, raw pain that throbbed in time with his heartbeat, and he knew he should have applied more gel during the day, but he hadn't wanted Irwin to see how injured he was.
They'd finally found a camp for the night, just moments before the sun set, and they'd risked a fire. He checked with his wrist unit that there weren't any Caruso nearby, and as soon as he was comfortable, Tally handed him a meal.
Irwin watched them from the other side of the fire, and there was a moment of awkwardness as he waited for her to give him one as well.
Ben remembered her disgust when she'd realized Irwin had taken some of her food supplies, and just managed to hide his smile behind a bite of something rich and spicy, and absolutely delicious.
There was no way Tally was giving Irwin any of their rations after that sin.
After a long beat, when he realized she wasn't going to hand him anything, Irwin pulled his pack closer and pulled out a meal of his own.
It wasn't the bars or high-energy fare that was standard in VSC military packs, it was one of Tally's requisitioned meals.
Ben wondered if Tally would call him on it, but she ignored him, focusing on her own food.
She hadn't said much since her panic in the gorge.
She had been sweating with fear, and it had made him afraid, as well. There had been something in that gorge. Or her little helpers thought there was. So far as he could see, they hadn't steered her wrong yet.
He glanced at her arm, and then did a double-take, because the long cut that had been there after the gorge was almost completely healed.
She'd used some of the gel from the medkit, but even so, that was an incredible level of healing.
He remembered her saying the little helpers had kept her alive on the ghost ship, and he wondered whether they were responsible for her disappearing wound, as well.
She folded the container her meal had come in, and fed it to the fire, her arms around her legs, her chin resting on her knees.
She looked deep in thought.
“Let's go to bed.” She turned to look at him as she rose. “I'll put the tent up.”
Ben knew she was initiating it so he wouldn't have to put the tent up himself. And he honestly didn't think he could.
Which made things very, very bad.
He couldn't be this weak.
He kept eating, taking his time to give him even more of an excuse not to stand up yet.
“Well,” Irwin sneered at him. “She's decisive.”
“True.” Ben smiled. “I've always liked a partner who knows what they want and isn't afraid to get it.” He stretched out his legs. “Although, in this case, I think she's just tired.”
“Whatever, man.” Irwin threw his own container into the fire. “I better set up as well.”
“Irwin.” Ben kept his voice low.
“What?”
“What's with the attitude?”
Irwin struggled for a moment. Ben saw the dislike for him, and the even deeper dislike for Tally cross the guide's face before it went wooden. “I didn't like the way she ditched me last night, is all. She led me a merry chase.”
“She's just keeping herself safe. And you gave up any right to being annoyed at people disappearing when you ditched us.”
Irwin gripped the hair at the back of his head, blew out a breath. “I won't apologize for that again. And at least I did apologize. She does nothing but blow me off.”
Ben stared at him, and with a huff, Irwin turned and grabbed his pack, dragging it to a flat space on the opposite side of the fire to where Tally was setting up their tent.
He wanted to be far from them, and Ben didn't think it was to give himself some space.
Irwin was going to try to sneak off. Because if he couldn't contact the Caruso using comms, he had to be going out to find them.
Ben wondered how he knew where to go.
He guessed they'd find out soon enough.
* * *
“He didn't go anywhere.” Tally scrubbed at her hair with the scentless cleansing gel from her pack, and Ben tried to keep his attention on what she was saying, rather than the slick gleam of her naked body.
“Ben!” She snapped her fingers in seeming irritation, but her eyes were laughing.
He took that as an invitation, set his boots aside and pulled off his shirt gingerly, then jumped into the stream.
Pulling off the shirt had been a mistake, he realized, because Tally didn't look amused anymore. She looked worried.
“You dressed it last night in the tent,” he reminded her. “And it's a lot better now.”
He wasn't lying. It was a lot better. The careful application of more gel, the expert dressing she'd done last night, and a good night's rest, had made a huge difference. The score of laz fire on his side was no longer red and puffy, and the throbbing had stopped.
It still hurt to move too quickly, but after how he'd felt yesterday, it was an amazing recovery.
Tally bit her lip and crouched down in front of him, and he wanted to whimper a little.
“Sorry,” she said, and he realized he might actually have whimpered. “I didn't think I'd touched you.”
“That might be the problem.”
She tilted her head up, eyes narrowed. Then they widened as she figured out what he meant. Her gaze went lower to the bulge in the front of his pants. “You're right,” she said, rising up and stepping back. “You're a lot better.”
He looked at her, absolutely naked, the late morning sun gleaming off the golden brown of her skin, and breathed in. “I think I'm a little lightheaded, suddenly.”
She stared at him for a moment, then stepped in close, lips twitching. She put her arms around him, and kissed his neck. “Oh, poor baby. Are you not coping well with Irwin cramping our style?”
“No, I'm not.” He nuzzled her forehead and let his hands trail down the wet, smooth skin of her back and cup the delectable cheeks of her butt. He groaned again and pulled her harder against him. Damn it, he really wasn't.
They had gone into the tent last night, and Tally had dressed his wound, and then they'd taken turns to be on watch, waiting for Irwin to sneak off and find the Caruso.
They hadn't even gotten naked.
Irwin was getting higher and higher on Ben's shit list.
“Well,” she stepped back, “he's still cramping it, because no way are we doing anything with him lurking around. You know he only left us alone when we found the stream and I insisted on cleaning up because he couldn't exactly strip down with us. He'll be close by, though.” She kept her voice so soft, even he could barely hear her o
ver the sound of running water.
She was right.
He watched her for another minute, as she rinsed off the last of the lather in her hair, and then quickly washed himself, pulling off his pants and scrubbing down in quick, efficient movements.
Not even the cold water had much of an effect on his erection, though.
When he looked up, he saw Tally was dressed, sitting down to put on her socks and boots, but her gaze was on him.
He hardened a little more and her tongue came out and touched the corner of her mouth.
“You done?” Irwin's call was followed by the sound of him moving through the bushes.
Ben closed his eyes, hands shaking, and only just opened them in time to catch the clean shirt Tally tossed him. He was holding it in front of himself, more to hide the wound on his side than anything else, when Irwin stepped onto the river bank.
The guide's hair was wet, and he had his pack on his back.
“Give me a minute and I'll be right with you.” Ben didn't know what was in his eyes, but Irwin stopped dead.
Tally stood, boots now on, and turned away, walking back to the small clearing where they'd left their packs.
Irwin hesitated, obviously torn as to whether he should follow her or not.
“This isn't a skin bar,” Ben said, and his voice was lower and rougher than usual.
Irwin shot him a venomous look before following Tally.
Ben knew she'd headed back so Irwin would follow her, to give him a chance to dress in privacy. But he didn't like her having to be the bait.
He was off his game. He was a captain in Arkhoran Special Forces, and he kept getting distracted.
He was okay with that, because Tally was the best distraction he'd ever come across, but not when it put her in danger, or in a bad situation.
And leaving her alone with Irwin automatically made it a bad situation.
He moved his ass, pulling on his clothes and boots as fast as he could, scooping up the massive Caruson laz he'd hidden under a bush, and half-jogging to the clearing.
Tally was crouched by her pack, and he saw her hand was hovering near the pocket on the side of her pants were she kept the laz he'd given her.
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