12. The Climb
The Climb
Eli
We’ve covered every inch of this quarry over the years. If something had been left out here, we should have found it by now. But we didn’t lurk in the forest much. It’s not surprising we didn’t notice the initials.
The carving is old, and if it hadn’t been for the fungus, we might not have spotted it. Especially at night. The grass blocks the majority of it.
“Do you think...” Harper covers her mouth with her trembling hand.
I draw her back against me, wrapping my arm around her waist. Luke’s eyes meet mine, and I get the message. Hold her. Don’t let her go.
Not a problem. He isn’t the only one worried about her. We all are.
Even with all the other shit, her mom disappearing and this shit about her dad have to be getting to her. It’s too much, and at some point she’s going to break. But we’ll be there when that happens. We’ll pick up her pieces and put her back together, because we can’t do any of this without her.
Our lives are irreversibly tangled.
She leans back against me. She clings to my arm through Caden’s sweatshirt. My heart settles. While Luke searches around the base of the tree, she trembles. Thirteen years is a long time for anything to weather the elements out here.
Even if we find something, it may be more like trash at this point.
As much as I want to prepare Harper for that probability, she needs hope right now. Luke stands and brushes off his jeans, shaking his head.
“What if it’s not down, but up?” Harper steps forward, but I don’t release her. She sighs. And says under her breath, “Not you too.”
I ignore her words. Luke looks up in the tree and I follow his gaze. It’s not a very thick tree outside of the trunk. With our weight, the branches would likely break.
“I can climb a tree. If I fall, you’ll catch me.” She turns in my arms and draws my face down to look into hers in the darkness. “Eli, this may be our only shot. If the cars are being tracked, they’ll know we were here.”
Fuck, she’s right. They may not know what to look for, but it won’t matter. If it’s Luke’s dad tracking us, we’ll never get another opportunity. He’ll have this place locked down tight. I lift my gaze to Luke’s. He’s already shaking his head.
“We need to go,” he says and steps forward like he’s going to grab her and run. Not that I blame him, but...
“We can’t.” I crush her against me. “She can climb up into the branches and look around. We won’t get another chance.”
He gets that expression like he’s going to argue, but then resignation slides over his face.
“Fuck.” Luke kicks a stone. “Stay here.”
He storms off. Most likely to get Caden and Jack. He might try to find a ladder of some sort, but that’s not going to happen. Most of the old equipment is at the bottom of the quarry. A few rusted pieces are rotting into the ground up here, but he’s not going to find anything useable.
“I climbed trees all the time as a kid.” Harper rests her cheek against my chest. “There’s not much to it.”
I stare up into the branches. Maybe. I turn on the floodlight and try to see if there’s something obvious up there.
Maybe a reflection of the lens if there’s a small camera.
But the branches are thick toward the top and with the leaves, it’s hard to tell.
If her father hid it well, a small enough object might have gone unnoticed for years.
“No unnecessary risks, kitten.” I kiss the top of her head. “We don’t need to solve everything tonight.”
“I know.” She sighs into me. “But what if it’s proof that will help put Luke’s father away? Or prove that he had a hand in my father’s death?”
“Or there could be nothing up there.” I drag in her vanilla scent.
“It could be a mark from long before that night. We could be wrong about the location. The meeting place might have been too exposed for William to feel comfortable. There’s any number of possibilities, kitten, but there’s one fact. ”
She draws away to look up at me. “What’s that?”
I brush her hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. “There’s only one you. And we’re not big on risking you.”
She catches my hand and presses it to her cheek. “And you’ll do what you need to to keep me safe. I’ll only go as high as I feel comfortable.”
I rest my forehead against hers. “Check where the branches meet. We don’t know what he might have left up there. Or if there is anything up there. No unnecessary risks.”
Harper
Luke comes back with Caden and Jack behind him. I draw away from Eli but don’t step away. Even if they’re being a little too overprotective, I don’t need to push that button right now. Especially since I’m about to climb a tree.
I study the tree, looking for good footholds and seeing how I can make it into the canopy. If I focus on the side facing the quarry, I think I’ll have better luck.
Caden stops in front of me, blocking my view. He tips my chin so I’ll look at him. “I’ll get you up there. Don’t go very high though. I’ll catch you.”
I lunge into him for a hug, and he gathers me in his arms. Jack touches my back, and I open my eyes to meet his. He doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t need to. My plan is to be safe. To show them that I can do things without them worrying about me, but I appreciate having them spot me.
I may be smaller than them, but that doesn’t mean the tree will hold my weight any better. I just need to be careful. Pulling away from Caden, I move to the tree.
“Here, sweetheart.” Jack hands me a pocket knife.
I take it and open the blade before closing it.
“Whatever might be up there has been there over a decade.” Jack looks at the knife. “You might have to dig it out.”
I push the knife into my back pocket next to the flashlight they gave me earlier.
“Okay.” Caden steps up behind me. “Let’s get on with the show.”
He ducks down and lifts me to sit on his shoulders like he’s done in the pool. When he straightens, I’m already almost up into the tree.
“Go slow. We have time, princess.” Luke stands on the other side of the tree.
I take a bracing breath and push up so my foot is on one of Caden’s shoulders. Eli stands behind Caden to catch me if this goes wrong. This was a lot easier in the pool, knowing the water would break my fall.
Caden holds my hands as I crouch on his shoulders. I straighten and reach out for the trunk. Grabbing onto some branches, I test a thick one near my foot and put my weight on it without leaving Caden’s shoulders.
When it holds, I exhale and move my other foot to another hold. All my attention stays on the tree and climbing it. I check as I get higher for anything noticeable in the V of the branches.
Pulling out the flashlight, I study the area I’m in. The branches get smaller the farther up I go and I’m not sure if they’ll continue to hold me. Something up a little ways catches my eye and looks different.
“That’s high enough, princess.” Luke’s voice is full of command and a hint of fear.
Fortunately, he’s down there, and there’s not a damn thing he can do to stop me from going higher. Besides punish me later. But fuck it, I don’t think they’ve come up with a punishment I don’t enjoy on some level.
I inch higher, aiming for the camouflaged item. I hold the flashlight between my teeth and direct the light at the item. It’s a box. When I’m chest level with the box, I don’t even dare to look down.
If I fall from here, even if they catch me, it’s going to hurt.
So I focus on the box instead. It’s completely green and brown camouflaged with a thick cord like a bike lock that holds it against the tree. There’s a lens on it and, taking a breath, I follow the line of sight.
It’s aimed on the area they think their fathers would have met. The problem is we don’t know how old this thing is. I try to open the box, but it’s locked with a padlock that needs a key. I study the cord.
It’s too thick for me to cut through, but there’s a little combination lock on it. If my dad put this here for my mom to find...
I take the flashlight out of my mouth and settle against a large branch across from the box.
“I found something,” I whisper shout. Someone could have followed us or tracked us down. No need to announce it to the world.
“Do what you need to, kitten.” Eli’s words are reassuring. I’m glad I have all of them. Otherwise, Luke might have tried to scale the tree after me by this point.
I put the flashlight back in my mouth, lighting up the numbers on the lock. Dad left this for Mom. I try Mom’s birthday. Nothing. Dad’s birthday. Which I only know because no one took down his Facebook account. Years ago, I realized I was friends with him.
I always wondered if he would try to contact me through it. He never posted, but once a year I get the notification that it’s his birthday. Sighing, I put that date in. Their anniversary date? Nothing.
I spin it a few times and randomly check before putting in my birthday. The lock opens. I let out a whoop.
“Fuck!” Luke’s voice reaches me. “You okay?”
Tucking the flashlight into my pocket, I take out the pocket knife.
“I’m fine.” I pry the cord out of the bark trying to grow around it. The cord dangles from the box as I work on dislodging it from the tree. There must be some sort of mechanism that helps hold it.
I wedge the blade behind it and struggle to get it to release. The knife slips as the box comes free. I grab at the box and feel the knife slice my finger. I suck in a breath and bite my lip to keep from crying out.
Carefully, I close the knife and put it in my pocket along with the flashlight.
I stick my bleeding finger in my mouth and instantly regret it, trying to spit out the taste of dirt from climbing the tree.
I wrap the cord around my waist and tuck the box into the front of my jeans before locking the combination.
“I’m coming down.” I wince as my cut hits the rough bark. Nothing can be done about it. I’m sure Luke will spank me when I reach him, but he’ll take care of my cut first.
I work my way slowly, getting closer and closer to the ground, focusing on my foot placement and my handholds. A hand wraps around my ankle, and I startle.
“I’ve got you, little nympho.” Caden has one hand on my ankle and the other reaching up to catch me if I fall. If I didn’t already love him, I might have fallen for him right at this moment.
I keep picking my way down until he grabs me and lifts me from the tree. He slides me down his front until my feet touch the ground.
Luke closes in behind me, and the others gather around me. I pull the box out of the front of my pants.
“I think it’s a camera.” It’s about the same size as my iPhone is tall, but it’s square and thicker.
Luke tucks me into his side and begins to herd me out of the trees.
“Wait.” I stop and try to step back. “I need a picture of the carving.”
“Already done, kitten.” Eli steps up next to me. “It’s time to figure out what we found.”