Chapter Three #3
The media hadn’t bothered to uncover the fact that she had worked her way through nursing school.
Her parents hadn’t paid a single penny toward her education.
They would have if she had asked, but she didn’t want anything from them.
She had been determined to separate her life from theirs, and she’d done so—or so she thought.
“Are you all right, Harlow?” Raine’s voice startled her out of her thoughts.
“Yes, this shot is complicated,” she improvised. It was, but it wasn’t why she was wearing a frown.
Harlow wasn’t blind when she looked in the mirror.
She knew she was considered extremely good-looking.
Usually, looks like hers drew attention, but she’d learned to appear to be very closed off from others, and that prevented a lot of unwanted advances.
She also dressed in very casual, loose-fitting clothes or hoodies and sweatshirts.
Since she climbed boulders and ran often, she had workout clothes that she certainly didn’t consider chic.
Strangely, her friend group always thought she was wearing designer gear.
She didn’t waste money on products that weren’t going to hold up long-term, so she always bought very good brands. But they weren’t designer. Just good.
She didn’t have what it took to be in a family.
She was far too suspicious of everything and everybody.
She didn’t want to be seen, and her background and looks were a detriment to her rather than an asset.
It would have suited her far better to be able to fade into the background.
That got her thinking about Wilder. He was a good-looking man, even striking, his body very masculine, and yet he could be difficult to spot if that’s what he wanted. Maybe he could teach her.
“Don’t step there,” Raine cautioned suddenly. “Spiderwebs, mole or vole holes, less than a foot in front of you. Or whatever else, who knows?”
Harlow looked down at the ground directly in front of her.
The sun was rising, light spreading across the sky and shining in streaks, illuminating the ground around the side of the old barn.
There were several holes in the ground right in front of her.
Had she continued forward, she would have stepped right in one of them.
That was the trouble with getting caught up in her photography.
To her, there was beauty in the symmetry of the holes and the small mounds of dirt pushed up by creatures living or traveling beneath the surface.
Beautiful spiderwebs, works of art, were spread along the ground over small rocky crevices and raised soil.
The webs glistened like icicles lying in scattered patterns among the grass and rocks.
She snapped a few shots and turned back to the barn before she lost the perfect light.
She took a moment to look around for Misha and Daisy. The two dogs were running around in the field of flowers, having the time of their lives. Both knew to stay away from snakes. They’d gone through the training several times.
The sun was climbing high when they headed over to the Twin Devil boulders. “This is the one I’ve been working on,” Harlow explained, indicating the boulder on the left. “I’m about halfway up, so taking it very slow and making certain I can downclimb every foot I advance.”
Raine surveyed the massive boulder. “It looks like an awesome climb.” She arranged her crash pad beside Harlow’s. “I can spot you while you’re climbing, and you can do the same for me when I go up.”
“Were you given the clearance to climb?” Harlow asked. She couldn’t help it. She was a nurse, and Raine had been struggling with her leg for well over a year. “You don’t want to chance ruining all the hard work you’ve put in.”
“I’ve had CAT scans, X-rays, MRIs, you name it, numerous times.
With contrast, without contrast, and they tell me the plate and pins are holding.
I have to get the leg stronger. That’s what they keep saying: get my leg stronger.
I’ve been stretching, walking, hiking, going up hills, but I haven’t tried climbing yet.
I won’t do much, but I want to see how the leg does. ”
Harlow shoved down the uneasy feeling she had.
She knew she was overprotective when it came to Raine.
She detested the way Raine’s family treated her, acting as if she were responsible for her father’s death when she wasn’t.
The man had been in the Irish mob. What did anyone expect?
He’d lived a dangerous life, put his family in danger, and then, when he was killed, the family wanted to blame someone, so Raine was convenient.
At least, that was how Harlow saw it. And she’d been shot, nearly losing her leg.
Throughout the long ordeal of several surgeries and infections, she had persisted in working.
In helping out the other women, no matter what was going on in her life.
Harlow thought Raine was extraordinary, and she didn’t want anything to happen to her.
“You know I’ve got to use my leg, Harlow, in order to build it up. It’s scary for me to do this. I’m not about to climb high. I’ll climb a few feet and then downclimb. I have no intention of overdoing it. I’ll stay very low.”
Harlow could see the logic in Raine’s decision.
She’d been told her leg needed to be stronger.
She’d completed over a year of physical therapy.
She was walking, swimming, hiking and stretching daily.
Climbing seemed the next step. It was just that…
Harlow found herself uneasy, but then she had been for a while.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that in the next few weeks a disastrous storm was coming for them.
Seeing her hesitation, Raine pressed one hand to the thigh of her bad leg. “Harlow, I have to get back to me. In all this”—she indicated the leg—“I’ve lost me. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s the truth. I’ve lost my focus and drive. I don’t even know myself anymore.”
Harlow understood. How could she not? She felt lost more often than she felt whole. “We’ll do it then.”
“You go ahead. The other side of this rock looks as if it has super-easy climbs. V1 for sure. I can practice on that. I’m not going to try more than a few times,” Raine said. “But I’ll spot you first just to get back in the swing of things. When I’m feeling more confident, I’ll try the easy route.”
It sounded like a decent enough plan. Harlow looked up at the rock surface and at once her heart lightened.
Bouldering was a giant puzzle, and her mind loved puzzles.
It was the reason she preferred bouldering to trad climbing.
She could look at the face of the rock and begin to work out how to climb, the puzzle occupying her completely, so the rest of the world dropped away.
She didn’t have to think about losing patients or people she knew and cared about.
There was no room to think about her perverted father and the fact that she knew he was capable of great violence against women.
Or her mother, who protected and covered for her father. There was only the boulder and her.
She found peace on the rock, no matter how difficult the climb was.
Often, the more difficult, the more she liked it.
She lost herself in time, climbing up, having to traverse sideways for several moves before going upward again.
When she came to new holds, she downclimbed to ensure she could get back to the ground without mishap.
Raine called out encouragement, sounding excited and happy.
The dogs rushed around, playing in the field and close to the rock.
At times, they’d come to drink water from the travel bowls Raine had set out for them.
They seemed as happy as Harlow felt. She found herself enjoying the climb far more than when she’d been on her own.
One of the things that had brought the women together in the first place was climbing.
After Raine spent time watching her, stretching and warming up, she took her crash pad around to the easier side of the second boulder.
It was tall but had several levels as well as multiple easier routes.
Harlow was grateful Raine was doing exactly as she said she would.
She should have known. Raine might be feeling lost or rebellious, but she was always practical.
The sun climbed higher, and the rock got hotter. When Harlow’s hands were too torn up to continue, she came off the rock and wandered around to the side of the boulder where Raine had been climbing a much easier route.
Harlow was very happy she’d agreed to Raine climbing, because for the first time, Raine looked completely relaxed and happy. There had been such a strain in her face for so long that Harlow had forgotten how young she looked as a rule.
Raine could easily pass for a teenager, something she found truly annoying at first, but then she viewed it as an advantage.
No one noticed the silent teen in the corner with her laptop.
No one ever saw her as a threat. They didn’t take her seriously unless they knew her.
Few had the knowledge that she was highly respected and had one of the highest levels of clearance in the military and the CIA.