“Branding cattle?” He blinked. “What the fuck?”
She shrugged and tilted her head. “It stopped the bleeding.”
“Jesus.” Carter swallowed and glanced at his bandage again. No blood seeped through.
“It worked well, actually,” she said.
“How long was I out for?”
She shifted on her knees. “Two days.”
“What?”
“Two days,” she repeated.
Carter’s mind spun like a tornado. “I was unconscious for two days?”
“In and out. Yes.”
“Holy shit. What’d you do?”
“Looked after your sorry ass.” She smiled.
A laugh tumbled from his throat. “I really am lost in the jungle with Lara Croft.” He tried to sit up and both pain and his foggy brain made it an effort.
Lily reached around his back and helped him. His head swooned, and his eyes had trouble catching up. He blinked a few times, trying to get his brain to focus. It wasn’t quite night yet, but it wasn’t far off. The fire came into view; yellow and orange flames leapt into the air. He cocked his head at what hovered over the flames. Two forked branches were propped up on either side of the fire and a log crossed between them like a bridge. Threaded onto that stick was what looked like a skinned lizard.
“What the hell’s that?”
“Dinner. I hope you’re hungry, ʼcause it took me all day to catch that one.”
As his jaw dropped, his stomach growled, and he shared his gaze between the roasting lizard and Lily. “Holy shit, woman. You’re incredible.”
She nodded, accepting the compliment. “Your timing is perfect. It’s nearly ready.” Lily rose to her feet and strode to the fire. For someone who’d been living alone in the middle of the jungle, she sure looked fresh. In fact, she looked better than many women he’d met who’d spent the night in a fancy hotel. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail that curved over her shoulder. Her face radiated health and cleanliness.
In horrid contrast, he was certain the dreadful smell he whiffed frequently was his own body odor.
She strolled toward the fire as he recalled her injured ankle. The reality of how much time had lapsed while he was unconscious hit home. “Your foot’s better.”
“Yeah. It’s still a bit bruised, but at least I can get my boot on now.”
He glanced around the campsite, taking in the changes Lily had made. A few items of clothing and one of the bandages hung heavily off branches of a nearby tree, presumably after being washed.
Twigs and branches were gathered in a pile to the left of the fire, ready to toss on when required. He spied a long stick with her pocketknife strapped to the end of it, fashioning a spear. “Is that how you caught dinner?”
“No. I caught it in a pit trap.”
Carter shook his head. He had some catching up to do.
Lily removed the lizard from the fire and began carving the meat off it. Carter pushed up from the ground, and fought both dizziness and nausea as he stumbled to the far side of the nearest tree to relieve himself.
Upon returning, he sat by the fire and Lily handed him a large green leaf. Upon it was another leaf that’d been rolled up like a spring roll. “I hope you like it; it’s my latest specialty.”
“What is it?”
“Iguana and papaya, wrapped in a banana leaf.”
Carter gave up being surprised. It seemed Lily was capable of anything.
She sat at his side and as he ate his first mouthful, he felt her gaze upon him, maybe anticipating his response.
“Oh yum. This’s bloody delicious.” Carter couldn’t decide if it was because he was starving, or if it really was delicious. Either way, he ate it within seconds, and the two more she made him. They finished off with two small ripe bananas from a bunch Lily had apparently found yesterday.
Soon, he couldn’t eat another thing. “I can’t believe what you’ve done.”
“Necessity is an amazing motivator.”
He turned to her, and for the first time since he woke, he noticed weariness in her eyes. “Most people would’ve died out here.”
Her shoulders sagged a little. “I thought you were going to.”
He wanted to wrap his arms around her, pull her to his chest, and hold her there until all the angst evaporated. Her breasts rose and fell with heavy breaths, and for a fleeting second, he considered that she might want the same thing too. “I’m glad I didn’t.”
Her eyelids closed and opened slowly. “Me too, because you still have a promise to keep.”
He blinked and frowned. “I do?”
“Yep. You promised to tell me your marital status, although it seems you’ll do anything to get out of answering my question.”
He laughed. “Really?”
She turned to him, folded her long legs to sit cross-legged, and folded her arms over her chest. “So come on. I’ve been waiting for days.”
“Now?”
“Why not?”
“Don’t we have stuff to do?”
“Nope.”
Carter could think of a million things they should be doing, the first one on the list being find civilization. But at the very least, he owed Lily his life. And the answer to her question. “I don’t suppose you have any coffee?”
She slapped his shoulder. “Stop stalling.”
“Okay.” He ran his hand over his beard and tugged it at his chin. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about his marriage. He hadn’t spoken his wife’s name in years.
“Carter!”
“Okay. Okay.” He sighed and offered his palms in a peace gesture. “I met Penny when I was seventeen, at a party. We were challenging each other to drink shots.” He shook his head at how stupid it sounded. “Anyway, sometime in the small hours of the morning, we went outside, smoked a joint, and the next day, we woke in each other’s arms on the beach. Neither of us had any recall of what happened after we reached the sand.”
Carter plucked a stick from the fire and gazed at the red coals blazing the tip.
“Anyway, nine months later, we had our daughter. Stephanie.”
Out the corner of his eye, he saw Lily shift her position, but she didn’t say anything.
“Penny and I married two weeks before Stephanie was born. Both of us had only just turned eighteen. At the time, it was the right thing to do.”
“Oh, Carter.” The sorrow in her voice cut a chunk from his heart.
He sighed. Going all the way back to those years was like sifting through fog. Initially he’d planned on skimming over the details, but for some reason, once he started he couldn’t stop. Maybe it was because Lily was a good listener. Maybe it was because it was good to talk about it. Maybe he just wanted her to know everything about him. It didn’t matter why—it just seemed right.
“Penny and I carried on partying. Every night was a crazy concoction of booze and drugs. We moved on from marijuana to heavier drugs, and the days went by in a blur. I was a fully functioning drug addict. I worked as a bricklayer during the day, was captain of my rugby league team, and went home every night to Penny and Stephanie. And the drugs.”
He glanced at Lily, expecting to see disgust in her eyes, but it wasn’t there. He was confused by what he saw—was it disbelief, or encouragement? He turned back to the fire, certain the disgust would come.
“Penny and I fought endlessly. Jealousy and apathy were the main motivations. Her days were consumed with a crying baby and utter boredom. She was literally going stir-crazy. In the space of a year, Penny changed from a vibrant, sexy seventeen-year-old bursting with life, to an overburdened, lonely, frustrated mother.”
“Poor thing,” Lily said. “You were both so young.”
He tossed the stick into the fire. “I was nineteen when I was arrested for drug possession. My lawyer had as
sured me that as it was my first offense, I’d get off with a warning, but the judge had other ideas. I guess he wanted to make an example of me. Father, rugby captain—I had so many reasons why I shouldn’t have been doing what I was doing.” Carter swallowed as he remembered the judge’s gavel smashing down on the wooden bench. “I went to jail for six months.”
“Oh my God. That’s terrible. What about Penny?”
“She came to see me a couple of times, but it wasn’t the place to bring a baby. So I told her not to. We wrote to each other and she sent me photos of Stephanie at all the phases I missed. Crawling, her first steps. First words.”
He rolled his shoulders, working the stiffness from his neck as he tried to formulate his words. Never before had he told anyone the real story. But right now, in the middle of the suffocating jungle, with the most beautiful woman in the world, the moment seemed right. No matter what the consequences, he wanted her to know. He squeezed his eyes shut, steeling himself for her reaction. When he opened his eyes, a sense of calm washed over him and he sighed. “When I was released from jail, I returned home and . . . it didn’t take me long to . . .” He paused and the dancing flames seemed to burn right into his brain.
“To what?” Lily touched his leg and he met her gaze. A headache pounded his brain over what he was about to say.
“Almost the second I got home I returned to the drugs. Heavily. Penny and I fought. Lots.” Carter sipped water. “I was home just seven days when I woke up to a note on her pillow. All it said was I’m sorry.”
“She left you?”
He nodded and stared into the fire. But it wasn’t the flames he saw; it was Penny’s tear-filled eyes. “She vanished and it was my fault. None of her family or friends ever saw her again—or at least that’s what they told me. I looked for her for years before I gave up. I was just shy of twenty when I became a drug-addicted single dad. So”—he turned to Lily—“to answer your question. I am still married, but I haven’t seen my wife in years.”
“How could she abandon her daughter like that?”
He shrugged. “Because of me. I don’t blame her. We were never meant to be together, never meant to have a child, never should’ve been a family. Our relationship was poison. But I would never have let Stephanie go, and Penny knew that. Somewhere out there, Penny’s living a new life. She doesn’t need me rocking up and ruining that.”
She let her breath out in a big gush. “And Stephanie?”
He smiled as he thought of his beautiful, confident daughter. “She was my motivation to sober up. I gave up the drugs and parties and tried to be the best dad I could. I love her to pieces. She’s strong. Incredibly independent. I raised her on my own, and it was the best thing I did in my whole life.”
Lily’s moan tumbled off her lips. “Where is she now?”
“She’s engaged, happy. Living in Sydney. She’s an interior decorator and loves it.”
Lily frowned at him, and he anticipated what she wanted to ask. “Steph needed her freedom, but with me hanging around she was never going to get it.” He shrugged. “I didn’t want her making the same mistakes Penny and I did, so I guess I was what you’d call an overprotective parent. So she tapped into the one thing that she knew would set her free . . . my passion for photography. She bought me a ticket to Rome and told me to go explore the world. I did, and I haven’t been back since.”
“She sounds incredible.”
He nodded. “She is.”
The fire crackled as they fell into comfortable silence.
“Thanks for telling me about your wife and daughter.”
Once again, he had a burning urge to embrace Lily. “Is it my turn to ask a tricky question?”
“Nope.” She jumped to her feet. “It’s time to get ready for the night. The sun’s setting.”
“Hey, that’s not fair.”
“Is too,” she shouted as she vanished into the bushes.
“Oh, come on!” Carter raised his arms in protest, and got a whiff of his armpit. The offending stench was enough to make his eyes water. The tumbling river was right there, begging him to slip in.
Lily returned with a handful of twigs and tossed them on top of the pile already beside the fire.
He remembered her toiletries bag had been in her pack. “I don’t suppose you have any soap?”
“Sure do.”
His body almost melted at her response.
Lily handed him her toiletries bag and a towel. “Help yourself.”
“Thanks.”
After hobbling to the edge of the river, he stripped out of the clothes he’d been wearing for days and unravelled the bandage. The scab over the bullet wound was thick, black, and crusty. The surrounding skin was red and inflamed and the long, swollen bruise that joined the two wounds together was a ghastly purple hue. After examining it all, though, he realized he was lucky. It was just a flesh wound. And by the way he could move his leg, he assumed he had no real damage. It hurt like hell, but he was pretty sure once the bruising and swelling was gone, he’d be fine. Thanks to Lily. For the life of him, he couldn’t imagine doing what she’d done. He was lucky she had, though, or he might not be here now.
A small eddy at the water’s edge was perfect to step into, and he used the soap to scrub away days of dirt, sweat and grime. He tipped his head into the river and relished in the feel of the cold water on his scalp. Rubbing the soap into his matted curls, he tried to finger-comb out the knots, but it was impossible and for the first time in years, he wanted to cut his hair.
Carter gave his clothes a thorough wash and, realizing they were the only clothes he had, wrapped the towel around his hips and shuffled back to the fire. He squeezed the excess water from his clothing and hung them on a nearby tree.
“Feel better?”
“Like a new man.” He returned her toiletries bag to the backpack.
“You smell like a new man too.” She grinned.
“Yeah, sorry about that.” He tucked the towel back into itself on his hips.
“Here.” She handed him a large three-pronged branch that’d been resting against a nearby tree. “Place your shorts on this and hold it over the heat. They’ll be dry in no time.”
“Cheers.”
Carter stood by the fire to dry his clothes, and as darkness gradually consumed them, he tried not to stare at Lily while she fussed about the campsite.
“Did you hear any choppers or anything over the last couple of days?”
Lily tossed a decent-sized log onto the fire. “No. Nothing at all.”
“Hmmm, what are we . . . four days overdue?”
“Five, I think. Maybe six. I’ve lost count.”
“Would your family be worried by now?”
“They’d be beyond worried. I wouldn’t be surprised if my brothers have called the marines, the army, and the president to beg them to look for me.”
For a fleeting second, Carter wondered who’d look for him. The answer was easy . . . no one. He’d made a habit of going off the grid. It’d never bothered him. Until now. But even as he had that thought, he realized it wasn’t him he was worried about—it was Lily. She needed to get back to her family. “So, I guess we start following the river downstream again tomorrow.”
She let out a quick breath. “Well, actually . . . there’s something I need to do first.”
“Huh? What? Before being rescued, you mean?”
She stood on the opposite side of the fire and the golden glow gave her flawless skin a gilded hue. “The other day, when I was dragged down the river, I saw something.”
“Something? What?”
“A cave.”
He crumbled to the ground, groaning at the pain in his hip, and sat sideways on the good side of his butt. “There’ll be plenty more caves, I’m sure.”
She crinkled her nose. “Not like this one.”
Carter wished she’d just say whatever was on her mind. Since he’d met her, every time she’d avoided his questions it’d involved that journal. “Does this have anything to do with that leather journal in your pack?”
Anger simmered across her irises. “Did you look through it?”
He glared up at her. “No.”
She blinked, as if assessing how much truth there was to his answer. “Oh . . . well.”
“Lily, tell me why it’s so important. You wouldn’t give up your pack even when the bullets were flying. Was that because of the journal?”
She sucked her bottom lip, then, presumably with a decision made, she went to her pack, which was nestled at the base of a giant tree. Lily returned to the fire with the journal and her notebook and sat at his side with her long legs stretched out before her. After a deep sigh, she placed her hands on the leather-bound book as though she was drawing energy from it.
“After my father died, Mom and I were sorting through his things and we found a beat-up suitcase at the back of Dad’s tool shed. He loved that shed and would tinker around out there for hours. We thought we’d find nothing but rusty old tools and half-finished projects.” She sighed. “We’d never seen the suitcase before.” Blinking at him, he had the impression she was fighting tears. “Or the things inside it.”
Carter picked up a stick and poked at the fire, trying to remain as casual as possible to encourage Lily to continue.
“Mom and Dad had a whirlwind courtship.” She half huffed, half giggled. “They’d been dating just four weeks before he proposed. Can you imagine that?”
Carter shook his head. “Pfft. No.”
“Me neither. They were married thirty-five years when he passed away.”
“Wow. Must’ve been made for each other.”
“Maybe. Dad was the consummate family man. Everything he did, he did for his family.” She lowered her gaze to the journal. “Which is why the contents of that suitcase were all the more shocking.”
“What was in it?”
“Besides this, it also had a collection of old photos. The pictures told a story none of my family had ever heard before. If my grandparents knew, they’re denying it.”
Out of Reach Page 19