But it missed, slicing off only a thick chunk of her hair.
That, however, was far too close for me. I reached Delaney and put my body between her and the goon. He swiped with the machete again, this time slicing through the fabric of my shirt and cutting just across my skin. The wound cried out, a hot, stinging pain coursing through my body.
No time to worry about that now, however. I moved closer to the goon, leading us onto the bridge and away from Delaney. I used small attacks to force him to keep backing up further on the bridge. Suddenly, the thug lunged forward with a stabbing motion, but I was too quick. The blade whizzed past me, and I took the opportunity to drop an elbow into his back. He let out a grunt before recoiling and preparing for another strike.
“Justin!” shouted Delaney.
“Stay back!” I replied.
“You should’ve done what I said!” the man shouted. “Now I’m thinking I might have a little fun with her when I’m done with you. Least I could do, what with you putting me through all the bullshit.”
That was all I needed to hear. The man made another jab, this one stopping in midair. Delaney let out another scream at this, but I ignored it. Striking down with a fist, I slammed into his hand, causing him to drop the machete. It bounced on the slats for a moment before slipping through and falling into the river.
Now it was time to end it.
I drove my palm into the goon’s surprised face, hitting him hard and sending him stumbling toward the railing. Dazed, he grabbed onto the rail for a moment before his grip slipped. A look of surprise on his ugly face was the last thing I saw before he fell backward and down into the river, a scream echoing through the canyon.
The fight was over. But now a horrible, shooting pain took hold of me. Glancing down, I saw with horror that the man’s last stab didn’t stop randomly in mid-air—it stopped because he’d gotten me right in the leg. Pain ripped through me, blood pouring from the wound.
“Justin!” Delaney cried out.
I felt light on my feet, my vision blurring. I could barely make out her figure at the end of the bridge. Waving my hands, I gestured for her to stay back, to not chance coming toward me. My leg buckled underneath me, and I grabbed onto the rope for support. But between the pain and the blood loss, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay standing for long.
I took the bridge one slat at a time, getting closer and closer to Delaney. I wanted to hold her, to let her know she was safe, to tell her it was time to get back and finish our journey. But my thoughts became muddled. Then, my hands slipped off the rope.
Delaney screaming my name was the last thing I remembered as I hurtled through the air, landing hard in the raging waters below.
Chapter 17
Delaney
I stood there in a daze, unable to accept what I’d just seen. My eyes stayed on the bridge for a time, and I half-expected Justin to pull himself up over the side of it, dust himself off, and stroll on over as if nothing had happened, that same cocky smile on his face.
But he didn’t. He was gone.
I glanced behind me and saw that the goon was out cold, then I dropped to my knees, shaking with fear and horror.
He was gone. And not only that, he’d died saving my life—he’d sacrificed himself to protect me.
I shook my head, trying not to give into my defeatist thoughts. He could’ve made it, after all. The wound was just on his leg, and the waters below might be swimmable for a man in his top physical shape. But the wound looked so serious, so deep. I didn’t know what to think.
My body felt weak, and I sat in the dust in a heap, trying to figure out what to do next. I tried to think what Justin would say, what he would tell me to do in this situation.
“Get your ass up, and let’s get moving,” he’d say, a little miffed that I’d already spent so much time sitting around wasting daylight.
With a deep breath, I stood up and walked over to the bridge. I placed my hands on the rope and took one last look over the edge, down at the churning waters.
“I’ll find you, Justin. I swear it,” I said out loud before turning back to the endless stretch of desert before me.
The thought of walking the inhospitable landscape without Justin brought tears to my eyes, but I tried to focus on the practical. Maybe the goons had driven a car here that I could borrow?
I searched the area and beamed when I spotted a dusty SUV not too far off. Great! Elation turned to disappointment, however, when I realized the keys were nowhere to be found. I couldn’t risk going back to the unconscious goon to see if the keys were in his pocket. What if he woke up when I approached him?
I started off walking, wanting to put as much distance between me and the river as possible. After several minutes, the roar of the river faded, the canyon disappeared behind me, and I was once again in the middle of the desert, the heat sweltering and the sun beating down.
That’s when I realized, to my horror, that I had no idea where I was going. I’d relied on Justin to lead, knowing that he’d understood the landscape better than I had. I stopped in my tracks, realizing that there was a good chance that I’d make myself more lost if I didn’t stop to think about where I was going.
I tried to remember what he’d told me. Before too long, it hit me like a bolt of lightning—the road! He’d said that we were going north and that the road would be to the west, which would be to the left. And that I needed to use the sun to track my direction. I glanced up, shading my eyes with my palm, and looked up just long enough to get a sense of where the sun was in the sky. Once I’d figured it out, I nodded, now knowing where I needed to go.
A silent thank-you formed on my lips as I turned in the right direction. Not only had Justin saved my life by fighting the thugs, but he’d also saved it again by teaching me how to navigate through the desert—and that’s not even getting into how he’d kept me alive up until now.
I trudged on, hoping that I’d soon reach the road. I didn’t know how much time was passing, but the slow descent of the sun in the sky made it clear that I’d spent some time walking. Fear tinged inside of me as I remembered how cold it’d gotten last night. Justin had taught me how to start a fire, sure, but I had no idea if I’d be able to find proper shelter to make it through the night. If I didn’t get to the road soon, I’d likely be done for.
And right then, when I’d been on the verge of losing hope, was when I saw it. Cutting through the desert, its form black and straight, was the road leading to Longbridge. My heart soared as I laid eyes on it, and despite the weakness that was overtaking me, I rushed toward it.
I dropped to my knees as soon as I reached the road, placing my hands on the warm pavement as if to make sure it was real. But as soon as my joy faded, I realized that I still needed to make it the rest of the way.
Keeping close to the road, I started off toward Longbridge. The sun dropped lower, and the air became colder and colder by the second. Not a single car had passed in the time I’d been walking, and I began to wonder if I wouldn’t make it—if they’d find me in the morning, frozen on the side of the road.
As time passed, minutes turning into hours, I thought about Justin, about what we’d talked about before we came to the bridge. He’d told me he wanted to settle down, how he wanted to put his life of traveling behind him and put down some roots. My mind was muddled with fatigue and dehydration, but I knew right then and there that this is what I wanted, too.
If I was ever going to have that, I needed to get back. My body shivered with cold, my eyelids felt heavy, and my body craved to curl up in the dirt. All I could think about was sleep. But I forced myself to keep walking.
That’s when I heard the low rumble of a car off in the distance. I turned, a great big smile forming on my face when I saw that a truck was coming down the road toward me. Waving my hands in the air, I called out for help as the truck approached. Once it had drawn near, the brakes whined as the massive vehicle came to a halt.
I ran to the side of the truck as the
passenger-side door opened, revealing a scrawny man with a patchy beard dressed in a sleeveless flannel shirt and a pair of worn jeans.
For a moment, I worried that he might be with the kidnappers, that he might simply load me in the car to take me back to the men who’d tried to spirit me away.
“Uh, miss?” he asked, his Australian-accented voice high and thin. “There a reason why you’re walkin’ through the desert like this?”
“I need…I need to go to Longbridge.”
The last bits of energy drained out of me at just that moment, and I collapsed to my knees. The truck driver yanked the emergency brake and climbed down from the cab, rushing to my side and helping me to my feet.
“Damn, miss,” he said, putting his arm around me and helping me to my feet. “You’re parched. Let’s get you in the truck.”
“Justin…” I moaned, my lips cracked from dehydration.
“Justin?” he repeated. “Who’s that?”
“He…he’s in the river.”
“Bloke in the river? Nothin’ we can do about him now. Just come on. I’ll get you safe and sound.”
He gently led me into the cab, and I collapsed onto the warm leather of the seat. The driver trotted around the front of the truck and climbed in.
“There,” he said. “There’s some water down by your feet. Drink up, but not too quickly, ya hear?”
I nodded and fumbled around for the bottle, wrapping my hand around the cool metal shape of the thing. The driver’s instructions reminded me of Justin and his survival tips. At that moment, part of me wanted to guzzle the water, rest for a moment, and head back out into the desert to look for him, as silly as the idea was.
“There’s some jerky down there too,” he said. “Hope you don’t mind roo meat.”
I shook my head. I wanted to tell him that I’d developed a bit of a taste for it, as a matter of fact. Once my mouth was wet enough from the water, I reached down for the bag of jerky, pulled out a piece, and popped it into my mouth. My strength began to return as soon as I swallowed it.
The driver gunned the engine, and we were off.
“How many hours until we’re back in Longbridge?” I asked, finally having the energy to speak. “Do you think we’ll be back by morning?”
“By morning?” he asked, letting out a dry chuckle. “We’re no more than a half-hour from the place. We’ll be there before you know it!”
I couldn’t believe it. After all this struggle, I was only a short drive away from the place that I’d nearly lost my life trying to reach.
“You don’t have a phone, do you?” I asked. “Mine’s dead.”
“Sure do,” he said, reaching over and popping open the glove compartment, revealing a phone.
I grabbed it and looked up the number for the Longbridge police. Over several minutes of stream-of-consciousness rambling, I told them what had happened to Justin and me. They told me they’d meet me at one of the local diners when I got into town.
The drive went by in a flash. I’d gotten so used to the interminably slow travel by foot that being in a truck seemed like zooming through the desert in a rocket ship. After twenty minutes or so, the sign announcing that we’d arrived in Longbridge appeared. I couldn’t believe how happy I was to see the scattered buildings of the town.
The truck driver took me to the diner where I’d planned to meet with the police. After profusely thanking him, I climbed out of the truck and hurried into the tiny, retro-style place. I slid into one of the cheap booths and soon the waitress approached, menu in hand.
I pored over the menu, unable to believe that all I needed to do was tell the waitress what I wanted and she’d bring it to me. No fire, no hunting, no nothing.
“I’ll take a tuna sandwich,” I said. I was trying to be sensible, but then my hunger got the better of me. “And waffle fries. With extra ketchup. And some French onion soup. And a cheeseburger. No, wait—make that a bacon cheeseburger. And onion rings. And a vanilla milkshake in the biggest size you have.”
The waitress looked at me with a wide-eyed expression before confirming my order and heading off. The food arrived bit by bit, and I shocked myself with how fast I was able to put it all away. I savored each bite, giving silent thanks with each gulp to be back in civilization.
When I was done, I sat back, my belly full. At that moment, the police arrived. I flagged them down, and they took their seats next to me. One officer was a paunchy man with a red nose, and the other was a lean, young guy with an eager look in his eyes.
“We understand you’ve had a bit of an ordeal, miss?” said the red-nosed man, older and clearly the one in charge.
“We were in the desert,” I said. “And there were men there, and they wanted to kill us.”
The red-nosed man held up his hand.
“Now, you say there were two of you?”
“Yes,” I said, beyond eager to get the words out. “His name was, um, is Justin Gable. He’s an American, like me.”
He gave his partner a knowing look as if to say, “These Americans, huh?”
“And how was it you ended up in the outback?”
I told him all of the details, about how we’d encountered a car in the road, how they’d stopped us and tried to kidnap me, thinking that I was someone else. And how Justin managed to fight them off.
“What sort of criminals are we talking about?” the younger cop asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Kidnappers, I guess. They were looking for some rich girl that Justin had been hired to protect. I told them that I wasn’t her, but they didn’t care.”
The red-nosed officer took down some notes, and I couldn’t tell if he believed me or not.
“I see,” he said. “And you’re...what, a bodyguard, too?” the younger cop asked.
“No, no,” I said. “I work for an oil company. I was meeting with some prospectors in town to negotiate a deal.”
“You’re a long way from home, miss,” the younger cop said.
“Don’t I know it.”
I went on, giving them more details from my ordeal. Once they were done, I wasted no time in getting right to the matter that I really wanted to discuss.
“What about Justin?” I asked. “Can you send out a search party or something?”
“You said he went down into the river?” the red-nosed cop asked.
“That’s right. We were near the rope bridge.”
“We can check out the bridge,” he said, “but if he went into the river, he could be anywhere. Especially if he had a wound like the one you described.”
My heart sank. I wanted them to enlist the entire town to go look for him; I wanted to stop at nothing. But I knew that the cop was right.
“River leads not too far from town,” he said. “Maybe if you’re lucky, he’ll turn up. But I wouldn’t bet on it.” He paused, realizing what he was saying. “I’m, ah, sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, miss,” he said. “But that outback’s a monster.”
Tears formed in my eyes, and I nodded sadly.
“And don’t you get any crazy ideas about trekking off there tonight,” said the younger cop. “You wander back out there and you’re likely not to come back.”
The red-nosed cop opened his mouth to speak as if to scold the younger cop for being so blunt. But then he shrugged, signaling that he was right.
“Best thing you can do is just get yourself a hotel room and get some rest. Maybe even stop by the hospital on your way there to make sure you’re in good shape. Don’t go playing hero, now.”
The other cop spoke up. “We’ll check this out. Anything you need?”
“We left our suitcases behind in the rental car—all our clothes and things. If you find the car, I’d appreciate getting them back.”
He lifted the corners of his mouth, not wanting to promise anything. “We’ll see what we can do.”
I gave another nod. The officers took a little more information from me, but soon they were off, leaving me alone in my booth, t
he table covered in half-eaten food.
I paid my check and began my lonely walk through town. The cool air felt nice on my skin, and now that my belly was full, I felt more normal. But all I could think about was Justin. The officers were right; I knew it. There was a very good chance that he’d given his life to save mine, that this man who I’d only known for a short time had paid the ultimate price to keep me safe.
How much he’d meant to me was clear as day. Over the last couple of days, I’d felt closer to him than men I’d known for months, and all I wanted was for him to be back by my side, flashing me that cocky grin and busting my chops.
Soon, I was back at the same hotel in the little French-style hotel room where I’d spent my first night in town. I flicked on the fan and fell back onto the bed. As I stared up at the ceiling, I tried to figure out my next step.
But what I needed to do struck me with instant clarity: I was going to stay. There wasn’t a chance in hell that I’d leave Australia until I found out about Justin, one way or another. I’d call Roger tomorrow morning and tell him what had happened, and let him know that if he needed to fire me, that was fine. But I wasn’t going to leave Justin behind—not for anything in the world.
I took a long, hot shower, washing away the last traces of the outback from my worn-out body. Once I was done, I wrapped the hotel robe around me, feeling fresh and clean for the first time since I’d come to town.
Back in the main room of the hotel, I plopped down into the chair there. As I sat there, I realized that I was filled with restless energy. Despite everything, sleep was the last thing on my mind. I replayed the past two days in my head.
That’s when I heard the soft thumping of footsteps just outside my room.
My heart raced. Could it be the kidnappers? Had they come back to finish the job?
My eyes wide, I slowly stood up from my chair and walked as quietly as I could to the kitchenette, where I opened one of the drawers carefully enough not to make a sound.
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