Chapter 1 #2
His fingers wrapped around the protrusion. Stone bit into skin. The impact wrenched his shoulder, pain spiking like white fire, but his grip held. His momentum slammed him into the wall, and his boots kicked until his right foot found the ledge.
He pressed himself flat against the cliff, gasping.
Solid. Real. Alive.
The kid was four feet away, eyes wide, the sharp smell of fear-sweat cutting through dry air.
Teague set a cam and took a deep breath as he clipped in. Then he keyed his radio, voice steadier than it had any right to be. “On the wall. Stable. Moving to subject.”
Eden’s exhale was audible. “Copy.” Her voice shook. Then steadied. “Nice of you to survive, Hamilton.”
“Didn’t want to ruin your day.”
“Too late for that.”
He almost smiled.
“Xander, do you have a visual?” Eden’s voice was a little stronger.
“That jump was insane.” Xander’s tone came through, openly admiring. “Teague’s a beast. Got it all on video. Eden, I’m sending you the clip to your cell now.”
He had her private phone number? Just kept getting better and better.
“I meant visual on the climber,” Eden said flatly.
“Right. Subject’s holding. Barely.”
Teague worked quickly, pulling a hasty harness from his gear sling and threading webbing around the kid’s waist.
“What’s your name?” he asked, keeping his voice light.
“T-Tim.”
“Okay, Tim. You’re doing great. Holding this position for thirty minutes takes serious strength.” He clipped a locking carabiner through the harness and his rope, checking twice. “Talk to me. What brought you up here?”
Tim’s whisper was barely audible. “The treasure. Roosevelt’s gold. I saw something that matched the clue.”
Of course.
Teague bit back a few choice words.
“Yeah, well. We’ll get you down safe. Then we’ll have a conversation about how no treasure is worth dying for.”
The whole world had gone crazy since Nimue had found the first treasure in June, tucked in the crag of a rock overhang.
The second chest, found in a cave just over two weeks ago, had only added fuel to the frenzy, even though it had been lost in a collapse that had nearly taken his life.
He could still feel the ground dropping beneath him as he’d jumped for the chopper.
The wind tearing at his clothes. The half second of nothing before his hands caught the skid.
Geologists and miners had declared the second chest a lost cause—the cost of excavating the collapsed cave far exceeded the chest’s value.
Since reaching it would require heavy machinery and months of work, no one worried about treasure hunters.
Which meant one cache left. And lucky him, the last one was supposed to be on a cliff’s edge.
He met the kid’s eyes again as he secured the final rope. “And maybe before you climb again, take some classes on basic gear. Ropes. Harnesses. The fun stuff that keeps you alive.”
Tim nodded desperately.
Teague keyed his radio. “Liam, subject secured. Beginning descent.”
“Copy. I can’t take your weight at this angle—you’ll have to downclimb with him.”
“Roger that.”
Teague shifted to face Tim directly. “Here’s the deal. We’re going down together. I control speed. You walk backward, small steps, weight over your feet.” He held the kid’s gaze. “I’ve got you. You literally cannot fall. Ready?”
Another nod.
The descent was slow and ugly—Tim’s legs barely functional, movements jerky. Teague controlled their progress while maintaining steady encouragement, inch by inch down the rock face. Small pebbles rained past them with each movement.
When his boots finally hit solid ground, Liam was there immediately, wrapping Tim in an emergency blanket and pressing a water bottle into his shaking hands.
Teague unclipped and reached for his own water. His hands trembled—adrenaline dump, normal after a rescue. He shook them out and tried to slow his breathing.
Liam pressed his radio. “Subject secure. Rescue complete. No injuries.”
Eden’s relief was palpable even through the static. “Copy that.” A pause. Then her voice came back, lighter. “Good work, Teague.”
Something warm flickered in his chest. He shoved it down. “Thanks, Garrison.”
“Don’t let it go to your head, Hamilton.”
He crouched beside Tim. “You’re safe now. But listen to me—no treasure is worth your life or the hefty fine for climbing without clearance in a national park. And no more climbing period until you get properly trained. Deal?”
Tim looked up through tears cutting tracks in the dust on his face. “Deal. Thank you.”
Teague pushed to his feet and walked to where Liam was coiling rope.
“That was close,” Liam said quietly.
“Too close.” Teague grabbed a water bottle and drank deeply. “We can’t keep doing this. Someone’s going to die.”
“Or get us killed trying to save them.” Liam secured the rope. “Maybe Noah’s right. Maybe we need to close the whole park until this treasure madness dies down.”
“Don’t even say that.”
The radio crackled. Eden’s voice had gone professional again. “All units, recall to headquarters immediately. Superintendent Virgil Jones has called an emergency meeting. All North Rim personnel required.”
Teague and Liam exchanged glances.
Emergency meetings were never good.
“Copy,” Teague said. “We’ll head back, but it’s a few hours’ hike.”
“Chopper is back in range. Meg wants to check the climber, and Noah’s planning to gift him with a citation.” A pause. “Pickup coordinates incoming—hundred yards from your position. Fifteen minutes.”
“We’ll be there.”
“Good.” Her voice dropped, just for him. “And Hamilton? Xander’s video just came through.”
“How do I look? Am I ready for the big screen?”
The pause said it all. And when her voice came over the radio again, all warmth was gone. “Prepare to debrief when you get back.”
Liam raised an eyebrow with I told you so written on his face.
Teague ignored him.
Liam shouldered the gear bag. “You two should just get dinner already.”
“You don’t think I’ve asked her out?”
“She said no?”
“So fast it nearly gave me whiplash.”
They hiked to the pickup point, Tim trailing behind them on wobbly legs. Xander was already there, climbing onto the chopper. And lucky Teague—the man wasn’t bald. Not even close. With that grin, he clearly had all thirty-two bright white teeth, and he looked like a young Chris-freaking-Hemsworth.
Perfect.
Xander reached out, offering a hand to pull him into the chopper. Then held up his phone. “You’ve got to see the video.” All smiles.
Teague couldn’t hear the words over the rotors, but he could read the guy’s lips. He offered a quick nod and strapped in.
Why did Xander have to be so nice? It made it so much harder to hate him.
The canyon dropped away beneath the helicopter, and Teague let himself breathe—just once—before the knot in his chest tightened again.
He’d saved a life. But it had come with a cost.
The rules he’d bent. The risks he’d taken. The worry in Eden’s voice. All of it tangled together with the trouble waiting at headquarters.
He couldn’t shake the sense that he’d dodged one fall only to find himself teetering on the edge of the next.
He should be dead.
The thought, sharp and unwelcome, sliced through Eden’s mind as she stared across the ranger station at the man who’d just cheated gravity.
Teague stood near the window, grinning as if he hadn’t almost risked his life forty minutes ago.
As if he hadn’t made her listen to every terrifying second of that insane leap over the radio while she sat helpless at her dispatch desk, her voice the only thing she could offer and her heart lodged somewhere in her throat.
He should be dead. But he’s not. And I’m the one who can’t stop shaking.
Heat crawled up her neck. She pressed her hands flat against the conference table and let the smooth, cool surface ground her.
Around her, the North Rim ranger station hummed in the aftermath—voices overlapping, boots tracking red Arizona dust across worn carpet, the bitter smell of overbrewed Folgers mingling with sweat and climbing gear.
Three rangers clustered around Teague, watching the rescue replay that Xander had captured on his phone.
Someone clapped him on the back. His auburn curls were a mess on his head, and chalk dust smudged his collar where it gaped open at the throat.
He’d rolled his sleeves past his elbows, and he threw his head back and laughed at something Anya said.
Teague’s infuriating grin was aimed at the brunette, her blue eyes sparkling as she hung on every word.
The girl was a summer college student who worked the front desk of the lodge and paid way too much attention to Teague for Eden’s liking.
Not that she cared who paid attention to Teague—at least, that was what she kept telling herself—but the girl had a hero-worship thing going on. That video surely didn’t help.
Something fluttered in Eden’s stomach. She crushed it. Immediately.
No. She wasn’t doing this again. Wasn’t falling for another climber with more confidence than sense.
Landon had smiled like that too. Right before—
She cut the thought off. Sharp. Clean.
“Hey, Eden.” Xander materialized at her elbow, his smile warm, concerned. Dark-blond hair fell across his forehead in that effortless Chris Hemsworth way. “That was intense today. You did amazing as always.”
She forced herself to focus. Xander was handsome all right. He was also everything Teague wasn’t. Safe. Grounded. By the book. So naturally, her stupid heart had zero interest.
“Thanks,” she managed. “Just doing my job.”
“Still. You okay?” His gaze followed hers across the room. Understanding flickered in his eyes. Maybe resignation. “If you need to talk later…”
“I appreciate that.”
He slipped back into the crowd without another word.
Near the window, Anya leaned closer to Teague’s screen. “That was incredible. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast on a vertical face.”
Teague shrugged. “Wasn’t that impressive. Basic climbing technique.”
Basic. Right. And the Grand Canyon was just a ditch.