Chapter 10
Ten
“Jackson? Are you okay?”
Jackson stopped pressing his open palms against the sides of his head and squinted at Mia. Immediately, he wanted to put them back. The pressure seemed to help control the throbbing inside his skull. It felt like they’d been walking for hours. In reality, it had only been thirty minutes.
“I’ll be fine. But right now I’m kind of wishing I could remove my head from my body.”
She gave him a sympathetic look. “Headache?”
He snorted. “Understatement. I probably have a low-grade concussion, but since my vision isn’t blurry and I can stand without wobbling, I’m not too worried. Let’s get back under cover. I need to rest before we go further.”
He pointed ahead. A mixture of rocks and a deep crevice in the cliff had created an opening they could hide in without fear of anyone sneaking up on them. “Let’s rest there.”
Mia followed him, her movements reluctant.
She bit her lip. Suddenly, the memory of kissing those lips didn’t seem so long ago.
He dropped his gaze. Colliding with the rocks had scrambled his brain.
That had to be it. Because even though Mia was still one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met, she came with baggage and serious issues.
There was no way he’d get messed up with that again.
“I have some pain meds. Generic, but they might help. Do you want some?”
Instantly, thoughts of kissing fled. He stretched out his hand and wiggled his fingers. “Oh yeah. Gimme.”
She dumped a single white tablet into his hand. He wiggled his fingers again. She shrugged and poured two more into his palm.
“I’ve got water—” She stopped speaking when he popped them into his mouth and swallowed them dry. “Okay. That’s just gross.”
“What? They’re coated.” He pressed his palms against his head once more and counted to five, then he sighed. He couldn’t dwell on his own discomfort all day. “Except for some aches and pains, I’m fine. What about you?”
“I have a few scrapes from the cliff, but nothing serious. No bleeding or broken bones.”
He looked at her, brows raised.
“What?”
He shook his head. “You forget. I know you. I remember many times when you’d insist you were fine when you weren’t.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“Oh yeah? What about that time you messed up your knee doing backflips in cheer practice? You insisted you weren’t hurt and didn’t need to see the trainer. But if I hadn’t convinced you to go, you would have had permanent damage.”
She snorted. “Convinced? You picked me up and carried me to her, ignoring my protests.”
They stopped. Was she recalling what it felt like to be in his arms? Because he was.
Heat crawled up his neck, and he dropped his eyes and glanced around. “We need to move. We can’t stay here just waiting for someone to come and pick us off.”
Mia gasped.
“What?”
“Gus! I asked the neighbor to stay with her, but only for a few hours. I don’t see how we’ll get home before dark.”
“Is there anyone you can call?”
She shook her head. Her eyes had a suspicious glimmer. Thankfully, she didn’t start crying. She held up her phone. “I don’t have a signal.”
“Maybe Gus will call your mom?” He dimly recalled her saying that Gus was her great-aunt on her mother’s side. So that would make Mia’s mom Gus’s niece. Shouldn’t she be willing to help out?
Mia got that look on her face. The one that said she’d die on this hill and there was no way she’d change her mind.
“She won’t ask my mom. She doesn’t have her number. And she doesn’t like to ask for help.”
“So it runs in the family.” He didn’t want to know what was going on there. Jackson had no love for Mia’s parents. He considered asking one of his buddies to help, but when he looked at his phone, there was no signal.
“If I had a signal, I could call for backup.”
She huffed a sigh. “True. And I could call Kay.” She shook her head. “Complaining won’t solve anything. We have to deal with this situation. Hopefully Kay will stay. I can’t do much about it right now though.”
There wasn’t a helpful reply to that, so he hummed a noncommittal response.
They’d never make it back to their cars before it rained or darkness fell.
Especially with him being injured. They’d have to wait for morning.
They really needed to find cover. He motioned for her to follow him.
She rolled her eyes, but when he started walking, she kept pace without argument.
The way she side-eye watched him told him she continued to worry over his condition.
A large water drop smacked his nose. Great.
“It’s raining!” she gasped.
“Yeah. We can’t rely on those rocks to hide us and shelter us. Let’s find somewhere else.” Jackson waved for her to continue walking.
“How long will it take to get to the path that leads to our cars?” Mia kept pace with him. “Can’t we make it before dark?”
He sighed.
“What?”
There it was. That feisty, somewhat aggressive tone.
“Mia, be reasonable.” Wrong thing to say. He knew it the moment the words left his mouth. Couldn’t hit delete.
Sure enough, she huffed. But at least she didn’t stop marching along.
If anything, her pace became brisker, her long legs eating up the distance between the base of the cliffs and the cover of the trees a hundred yards away.
“Why, when men want to disagree with you, do they always tell women to be reasonable? What about wanting to get home tonight is not reasonable?”
“I didn’t mean to say you weren’t. But there are people out to kill us. If we head for our vehicles, how do we know they aren’t waiting there? And if we get caught in the storm, it will be even harder to navigate the terrain.”
Grumbling, she stomped beside him.
The rain increased to a steady fall. Still not too hard, but soon, they’d be soaked. And the dark clouds looming in the distance were heading their way. They were in for a doozy.
Just when he thought things couldn’t get worse, he heard a familiar sound.
Someone was flying a bird.
“There’s a helicopter coming.”
Her expression lightened. “Do you think it’s someone looking for us?”
“Huh? I don’t think so. It’s probably on the way to a hospital.” Still, his instinct told him to get out of the open until he saw it. “Let’s get into the trees.”
She gave him a look. “Why?”
“I have a feeling.”
Her cheeks paled, but she didn’t say anything.
In silent agreement, they hefted their packs higher and jogged the rest of the way to the tree line.
Once there, they ducked behind a couple of ancient oaks.
Squatting down, he peered through the branches until he caught sight of the helicopter.
It was black slashed with gray. The propellers beat at the air.
Through the open door, he saw a couple of men scanning the ground.
“It’s not one of ours. Ours would be white and blue. I’ve never seen that design before.”
The bird hovered over the clearing.
“They’re going to know we’re here,” Mia whispered.
Jackson waited for the hatch to open and for someone to climb down to track them. “God, we could really use some help here.”
Mia jerked. He felt her gaze boring into him, but he kept his eyes on the drama playing out above.
Lightning flashed right next to the helicopter.
Within two seconds, thunder boomed. Jackson grinned.
The storm he’d dreaded had arrived. And it might have saved them.
If the helicopter pilot had any sense of self-preservation, he’d flee the area as quick as he could.
Thunderstorms and helicopters weren’t a good match.
Sure enough, the helicopter tilted and flew in the opposite direction of the storm, its whirring blades stirring the branches and lifting the hair off their necks.
Neither Mia nor Jackson stood until the sounds faded and all they could hear was the fierce storm rising around them.
“We have to find shelter.” Jackson raised his voice.
“I don’t know this area. You go first.”
Saying he knew the area was a stretch. He knew the place where the boys had camped. He’d camped there himself. However, he’d never been in this area before. Still, they had no choice but to keep going.
Thankfully, the trees kept most of the rain off them.
Most, but not all. Within thirty minutes, Mia’s teeth were chattering.
As soon as they found shelter, hopefully she’d be able to dry off.
Had she even packed another set of clothes?
He always did, but he was outdoorsy. When they’d been together, her idea of roughing it had included a cabin with a full kitchen, working plumbing, and a fireplace.
Plus, she clearly hadn’t planned to be gone more than a couple of hours.
Briefly, guilt ate at him for dragging her into his family drama. He kicked it aside. She’d offered to help, and she was an adult. If she hadn’t wanted to help, she could have said no.
His side burned. The meds had taken care of the headache, but he felt like he’d been run over by a truck. He’d have to wrap his ribs.
“Look!” Mia pointed to the left.
Finally. A cave.
“Let’s get closer, then I’ll look to make sure it isn’t already occupied.”
She swallowed, hard. “I really don’t want to hunker down with a bear. Or a rattlesnake.”
“Not my idea of fun either.”
She snickered.
“What?” He narrowed his eyes at her.
“Like that time we went for a walk and that snake fell out of a tree and landed on your head? It terrified you.”
He put a hand over his chest and did his best snobbish posture. “My dear girl, I was slightly startled.”
Her hand flew to her mouth, smothering her laugh. She laughed so hard, tears fell from her eyes. “Startled?” Snicker. Snort. “You screamed and waved your arms like you were trying to fly.”
He grinned. “I might have made some noise, but I think the poison ivy was worse than the snake.”
“I did try to warn you it was there.”
“You did. In my defense, I’d already started falling before you pointed it out. And it was everywhere, so it didn’t matter where I landed. I itched for days.”