Chapter Sixteen

“I know you’re there, so there’s no use hiding!” Selma yelled, her voice echoing all around them.

Oh, shit. They were busted.

Inda tapped Lucas on the shoulder, put a finger to her lips, then pointed back to the car. The moment he turned toward it, Selma started firing in that direction. Time for Plan B. And he was pretty confident Inda had a Plan C in mind already just in case.

As anticipated, Inda spun fast, pushing Lucas forward, and they jogged through the underbrush as quietly as possible. But it was impossible to avoid the inevitable snapping of twigs and rustling of branches as they hurried forward in the opposite direction from their vehicle. They would have to circle around to get back to the SUV safely. He had no idea if Selma would follow them, but he wasn’t hanging around to find out.

Without warning, the treeline abruptly ended and they nearly ran off the edge of a cliff. Lucas’ feet slid across loose rocks and his arms windmilled before Inda grabbed his T-shirt and pulled him back. A quick glance told him there was nowhere to go.

Nowhere except down, and he wasn’t in the mood to jump to his death.

“Now what?” he hissed, looking back over his shoulder. He cocked his head, listening for Selma, and heard her tramping through the woods behind them, following the path they must’ve left.

“We go down,” Inda said, moving to the edge of the cliff, sure footed and confident.

Lucas’ face screwed up, not quite sure he heard her right. That was definitely not the plan he was hoping for. “Are you crazy? That’s a sheer drop off.”

She peered over the edge then turned and lowered herself onto her knees. “Nah. Easy climbing. Just do what I do, okay? Step where I step, find your grips. It’s just like bouldering in a gym.”

Holy fuck. She was actually serious. “I’ve never bouldered in a gym,” he told her, wondering if he should try to hide instead. But that ship sailed when another bullet fired, this one tearing through a tree branch near his head.

Lucas dropped down, stretching out on his belly beside Inda. He was on the verge of regurgitating his earlier meal when his feet met empty air. But then he looked over, and her steady gaze, calm and capable, helped settle his nerves. His gut knew she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him.

“Slide over the edge with me,” Inda said quietly, appearing completely unflappable. “Slow and careful. Let your feet find a crevice. Then I’ll go first and you’ll follow right behind me, using the same hand and footholds. I’ll guide us right down to the nearest ledge. I saw an overhang and we can hide under it.”

“You make it sound so easy.” His heart beat so hard it felt like it was going to rip out of his chest. Or, maybe stop beating altogether.

“Hey.” He met her fierce, caramel gaze. “You can do this. People go bouldering all the time without ropes or harnesses.”

“Yeah, over safety mats.”

“I won’t let you fall, Lucas. Do you trust me?”

“You? Sure. My feet? No.”

The sound of Selma approaching, almost upon them, propelled them into action. They slid over the side of the mountain—because to Lucas that’s exactly what it felt like, a goddamn mountain of epic proportions—and his fingers dug into the rock as his feet slid down. For a panicked moment, he couldn’t find a hold and the tips of his shoes tore gravel loose. Cursing, he made the mistake of looking down. The sheer, rocky side of the cliff looked treacherously steep and impossible to actually climb down.

Before panic could completely take hold, a hand grabbed his ankle and shoved his foot forward, stopping him from slipping further, and wedging his toes into a crevice.

“You’ve got your toehold,” Inda whispered. “Now watch me, do exactly what I do, and don’t look at the ground.”

Pulling in a deep breath, Lucas kept his eyes on Inda’s descent, forcing himself to focus on where she was putting her hands and feet versus the death-defying drop below. Pay attention, Sheridan. Otherwise, all it would take was one slip and he’d be done, his body landing beside Marcus Santiago on the rocks far below.

Very slowly, he followed in her footsteps, literally, as they climbed down the side of the cliff. Earlier when she’d mentioned a ledge, he’d had no idea what she was talking about, but now he saw it. They were heading straight for an outcropping of rock, and right beneath it, a ledge jutted out. He just hoped it was stable and there was enough room for them both to hide under it.

“You’re doing great, Sheridan,” she whispered, encouraging him on. Hell, she was moving down the rock wall like a damn mountain goat. He couldn’t help but admire her skill, strength and the way she patiently guided him. Because the truth was, she could’ve left him in the dust to fend for himself.

Remembering to breathe, he dug his toes into his foothold and waited for her to move down again. They were so close to the ledge, but it was still too far away for his liking.

Almost. You’re almost there. Keep moving.

The moment the thought went through his head, Selma looked over the edge and his gaze met hers. As far as he knew, she had no idea who he was or what Cipher looked like, so he wasn’t worried she’d recognize him. He was, however, concerned about the gun she pointed down at him and fired.

“Fuck!” Pieces of rock shattered where the bullet struck and pelted him.

“Hurry!” Inda hissed beneath him, tugging at his ankle. He hadn’t realized he’d frozen up and he started moving again, but much more quickly and haphazardly. Gunfire had a way of lighting a fire under your ass, and right now the one under Lucas’ was flaming hot.

Selma yelled down from the edge directly above them, but he wasn’t listening to her. More popping filled the air, echoing all around them, and he hoped to God her aim continued to suck. He might be able to survive a bullet wound, but if he accidentally let go or stepped wrong, there was no surviving the fall that awaited him.

Pulse thundering in his ears, he tried to focus, tried to ignore the bullets whizzing by his head, but it was impossible. At least he was blocking Inda with his body by being positioned above her. The chance of her getting hit was slim to none. He’d be the one to go down. If his taking a bullet saved her, then so be it.

Below him, he saw Inda swinging her body and then she gracefully leaped, landing on the ledge and disappearing beneath the overhang. Damn, she was magnificent.

Meanwhile, he miscalculated a step and, at the same time, Selma shot again. The bullet nicked the side of his hand and he automatically let go. With a curse, he began to slide down the face of the cliff, desperately scrambling for a hold, but finding nothing.

Rocks crumbled as his hands and feet sought a grip. Remembering the ledge, he tried to angle his slide, shot right past it, but managed to grab onto a boulder. Dangling more than one hundred feet in the air, holding himself with his uninjured hand, he prepared himself to fall to his death.

◆◆◆

Holy shit. Inda’s heart stopped beating then dropped out of her ass when the bullet hit Lucas’ hand and he let go of the rock he’d been clinging to for dear life. She threw herself forward, sliding across the rubble on her knees, and made a mad dash to grab him as he slid by her perch.

And she fucking missed.

Their fingers grazed, but she couldn’t get a good enough hold.

Nooo! her mind screamed. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t lose him, not like this.

At the very last second, he managed to grab the bottom corner of the ledge and Inda leaned over, wrapped her fingers around his wrist and held on tightly. His other hand, dripping blood, reached up, and she seized it. But the blood was making her grip slick.

“Lucas, you need to climb,” she hissed, terrified she was going to watch him slip right out of her grasp and plummet to his death. “Now! I can’t hold you much longer!”

Even though she was holding onto him with every ounce of strength she possessed, he was so damn heavy and the wetness from the blood made him start to slip. No, she refused to let him go. With a roar, she pulled up and, by some miracle, his foot must’ve found a hold because he pushed himself up as she heaved. Yanking with everything she had, he came flying forward and landed on top of her. Breathing hard, Inda dropped her head back and relished the feel of his heavy, warm body covering hers.

“Jesus Christ,” he whispered, breath fanning her ear. “Remind me never to go rock climbing with you again.”

Inda let out a shaky laugh. “Don’t ever almost die on me like that again.”

“I won’t,” he promised, easing up off her.

She immediately missed his strong, lean edges against her, but forced herself to sit up. She cocked her head, straining to hear what was happening above them. Luckily, the rocky overhang protected them from any more bullets.

“We need to wrap your hand,” she said. They didn’t exactly have a First Aid kit with bandages, so she nodded to his T-shirt. “Give me your shirt.”

He reached back, grabbed the collar and pulled it over his head. As he handed it over, their eyes met. “Thank you,” he murmured. “You saved my life.”

Inda ripped the material into strips, took his wounded hand and began to wrap it. The impact of his words hit her damn hard. If he hadn’t found that foothold, he’d be lying in a broken heap at the base of the cliff right now. A shiver tore through her.

“Just stay alive, okay?” She’d seen one person she loved die right in front of her eyes. It’s not something she ever wanted to repeat. “And keep pressure on this.”

“Sure thing. Thanks.”

With a nod, Inda stood up and attempted to peer around the edge of the overhang. Everything seemed quiet and still, but she figured it would be best to hang out there a little while longer. The last thing she wanted was to start climbing and have Selma reappear and start shooting again. A quick look down confirmed there were no more ledges large enough to hide under. They just had to hope Selma would either get tired of waiting for them to reappear or look for another way to get to them and fall off the cliff herself.

They waited and then waited some more just to be safe. The chirp of birds, the rustle of critters and a light breeze through the trees were the only sounds she heard.

“Do you think she’s gone?” Lucas finally asked.

“I don’t know,” Inda admitted. She glanced over at his injured hand and realized there was no way he could climb the rest of the way down the mountainside.

“I’ll be fine,” he said, as though reading her mind, “now that there isn’t a crazy person above me shooting. That added a little extra pressure on me, being a first-time climber and all.”

He sent her a smile and it hit her hard that he’d almost died. A physical pain jolted through her belly when she thought about how close that had been. All kinds of emotions ignited and she couldn’t keep denying her feelings. At some point, this man had become so much more than her boss or just another lover.

Lucas Sheridan mattered. And, yeah, maybe it was damn inconvenient, but it was the truth and there was no point hiding from it any longer.

He nudged her with his elbow. “Hey, it’s all good. Stop looking so worried.”

“Your hand is not good,” she stated.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” he joked. “I’ll live.”

Tilting his head, he studied her, and she tried to frown at him, but it didn’t come off quite that way. Her brow furrowed and she looked down at the bloody strip she’d tied tightly around his hand. Blood was soaking through it.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re concerned about me,” he teased.

“I’m concerned about your grip, yes. I don’t need you falling to your death.” God, just the thought made her stomach fill with dread. She needed to get them off this cliff without further incident.

“Is this your sweet side I’m seeing?”

“I don’t have a sweet side,” she insisted.

He lifted his opposite hand and cupped her face. “I think you do.”

Leaning in, he kissed her softly, slowly. A kiss of gratitude and something else. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. He was stirring up so many feelings inside of her and she wanted to bolt. Run for the hills and leave him stranded there on the cliff.

Because it was so much easier to not feel. To just focus on the current job and go through the motions on a day-to-day basis. But Lucas was forcing her to acknowledge all the crazy butterflies fluttering around in her stomach.

And she wasn’t sure if she was ready to do that.