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“A lovely nook of forest scenery, or a grand rock, like a beautiful woman, depends for much of its attractiveness upon the attendance sense of freedom from whatever is low; upon a sense of purity and of romance.” – PT Barnum
Sam
“Help me get him back to camp,” I told Jade.
By the time we settled Marlon on his sleeping bag, the water was boiling on the camp stove. I dribbled in a pinch of dried pot leaves, thought about it a second, then threw in another pinch. If a little is good...
“Is that...?” Marlon grumbled.
“Herbal tea.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Trust me; this will be good for you.” I looked at Jade, who’d taken off her shoes and socks and was drying her feet with the last of our rags. Her jeans were soaked to the knee. “Any trouble?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“I’m going to put the door back up. It’ll hide our light and maybe keep out skunks and bears. Sasquatch. Things like that.”
“Knock yourself out.” She chafed her feet without looking up.
Jade seemed out of sorts after her trip to the creek, but I imagined she was about worn out. I mean, who wouldn’t be? Even I, Man of Steel, could’ve used a solid eight hours of sack time and a good dozen meals.
I limped to the mine entrance and levered the plank door off the ground, employing dumb muscle and awkward swearing. Best I could do was lean it against the original timber doorframe, which blocked about three-quarters of the opening, leaving most of the gap at the top.
Good enough.
I tottered back, one hand on the wall for support. “Done,” I reported.
“Mm-hmm.” Jade held Marlon’s head in her lap, feeding him the marijuana brew in tiny sips.
“How’s that taste, Marlon?”
The trooper lifted his hand in a weak thumbs-up gesture. His eyes drooped, and he looked on the verge of passing out again.
I flopped next to the camp stove in a graceless lump and retrieved our other cook pot from Naranjo’s pack. “Water?”
Jade pointed with her chin to the bottles propped against her shoes. Her mouth was pressed in a thin line.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
Oh, hell.
One lesson I’d learned early in life: when a woman uses that tone and says, “Nothing,” it means, “Something, but I’m not in the mood to tell you all the ways you screwed up and ruined my life right now, so leave me alone, or I’ll start at the beginning of time and detail your major and minor faults, one by one.” Loosely translated.
I rolled my eyes—where she couldn’t see me; I wasn’t completely stupid—and busied myself with a delicious packet of freeze-dried turkey tetrazzini. Ripping open the foil released an aroma that set my stomach growling and my mouth watering.
“Oh, man,” Marlon croaked, “that smells good.”
“Getting the munchies?”
Feeding the three of us took both meals from Naranjo’s pack. We still had two of the trail packs from Bragg’s supplies, so we wouldn’t starve anytime soon, though I suspected we would be pretty hungry before the trip was through.
Marlon faded into a drugged stupor after a few bites, then Jade and I ate the rest. During the meal, she communicated the basics but nothing more. Our water bottles were empty by the time we finished eating, drinking, and washing up.
“I should probably go get some more,” she said but made no move to get up.
“Take a break, rest up. You earned it.”
I turned off the one-burner stove, and its blue glow died, leaving us in thick, musty darkness. Sounds were muted, nature’s volume turned to the lowest setting. I stretched out on the open sleeping bag, keeping my right leg straight. The knee had swollen tight enough to stretch my jeans, and it throbbed with a dull ache, punctuated with stabbing pains.
I wonder how much pot tea is left.
“Shit,” Jade said, “I can’t see a thing.” She clicked on the light long enough to crawl next to me and lie on the other side of the bag, leaving a few miles of space between us. An invisible, chilly barrier, as strong as a brick wall. When she turned off the flashlight, the after-image glowed on my retinas.
I let my mind drift loose...
“What now?” Jade murmured.
“Hm?”
“Do we wait for rescue or try to hike out of here?”
Her question echoed the one that had buzzed around the back of my mind since we’d made it to the cave. Mineshaft. Deep, dark hole in the ground. I shivered.
“Sam?” Her voice had taken on a softer tone, less rigid than before. Jade shifted, and her weight settled closer to me. I sensed her with paranormal clarity. Her heat, her scent, her... body. “Sam?”
“I heard you.” I cleared my throat. “It’s obvious we—and I stress we—aren’t walking out of here. I can’t carry my half the load with a bum knee.”
“Stay here then?”
“No,” I sighed. “I don’t think Marlon can wait that long. He might lose the leg as it is. It looks... bad.”
“So that leaves...”
“You, yes. You’re going to have to hike out of here on your own.”
Jade moved again, and her fingers, feather-light, touched my arm. Her voice, when it came from the dark, whispered so softly, I had to strain to hear her. “Do you trust me to do that?”
“I think we’re beyond that, Jade Stone. You’re either a good guy or...”
“Or what?”
“Let’s say it this way.” I paused for a second to find the words I wanted. “I don’t think you’re going to run, but if you do, I expect you’ll send help in the right direction. And if you’re innocent, you don’t need to run. Bartlett and his crew are finished.”
“And if I run anyway?”
“Hm?”
Somehow she’d gotten closer without me noticing. Her warm breath tickled my ear when she spoke. “What if I decide it’s too much? What if I run anyway? Will you come find me then?”
Her fingers trailed lazy circles on my bicep, leaving tingling goose bumps behind. An image of Rita popped into my mind for some reason. I’d briefly thought she might have some interest in me, but when she went back to New York, that pretty much killed that thought. Besides, she was so not my type. It would never work with her.
“Count on it, Jade,” I vowed. My words came out hoarse and rough, so I coughed and said, “Count on it.”
The back of her hand brushed my face, and I nearly rolled over and took her in my arms. Whatever had been bugging her before must have dissipated; I had a feeling she would welcome the advance. However, there was still the whole prisoner-custodian thing holding me back. Until the matter of her legal status was resolved, getting involved felt... wrong.
Plus, Marlon needed our help, not our making out.
“Listen,” I said. “There’s a map in the backpack. I took a look while you were filling the water bottles, and I think I know where we are. This mountain ridge we’re on runs from the northwest to the southeast. If you could work your way back northwest, you’d cut across a stream called Mogollon Creek. Maybe a ten-mile hike. Turn left, follow the creek, and Highway 180 is fifteen to twenty miles further on from there.”
“A thirty-mile hike?”
“Wait, it gets worse.” I sat up and fumbled in the dark until I found the pack and the map inside it. “Turn on your light for a second... Jeez, that’s bright.”
I blinked to clear my over-exposed eyes. “See, here’s about where I think you’d hit 180.” I showed her the spot with a grimy finger. “Unless you can flag down a car, you’ll have another ten-mile walk to Glenwood. Make it there, and you’re home free.”
“Free,” she mused. “Sounds good.”
“So look,” I pointed out, “the bad part is Bartlett’s guys are around here somewhere, maybe camped on the north-south arroyo we came down this afternoon. To get to Mogollon, you’d have to take the arroyo back the way we came, hike uphill over the shoulder of the ridge we camped on last night, and down to the bigger creek.”
“I could walk right into them.”
“Exactly.” In the yellow light from the flash, her eyes looked hollowed out, and her face drawn. “So what I think you should do is go southeast a ways, hang a right, and climb over this ridge. From there, you can follow these canyons back to the Mogollon and avoid Bartlett and his guys. Do an end-around on ’em. Just have to be careful of the sniper, who’ll be somewhere high and to your right when you’re climbing the ridge.”
“You make it sound so easy. All I’d need is a tube, and I could float down the river.”
“Well,” I said then ran out of sentence.
“Well.”
“Take one of the packs. Some food and a water bottle. Better fill me up the other one before you head out. You keep at it, don’t stop, you can make that distance in a day, maybe two if you have to backtrack around any obstacles.”
“Two days?” Jade glanced at Marlon. Her look said it all.
“I know,” I told her then shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky and the cavalry will come save us. Could be, I’ll be sitting up in a fancy hotel room, drinking a beer, and you’ll still be humping through the mountains. Stick to the route we outlined, and I’ll send the troops to come get you.”
She nodded. Scratched her nose. Scrubbed her hair. Glanced around like she’d forgotten something.
“What?” I prodded.
“Bartlett’s helicopter,” she said. Her eyes held mine, reminding me how tough this woman really was. “What if I could find that? I could force—”
“Don’t even think about it.” I held up a finger. “One, you don’t know where it is.” Another finger. “Two, it could come down to kill or be killed, and neither outcome is good for you. You’re already on the hook for one self-defense killing; two would be a stretch. Especially if you could have avoided it. You go looking for trouble...” I shrugged. “Could go bad, is all I’m sayin’.”
She didn’t look completely convinced, but she said, “Okay, Sam. We’ll try it your way.” She took a deep breath, inflating her chest, and I kept my eyes above her collar with an act of supreme effort. “I’m so tired, but I should get moving.”
“Let’s get you packed.” I busied myself organizing supplies. “Then you can power nap for an hour. Moon should be up by then anyway; give you more light to see where you’re going.”
We didn’t have much to begin with, so packing took less than three minutes. I told her to keep the pistol she carried. If she ran into any of Bartlett’s crew, I didn’t want her unarmed.
“But if you see a bear,” I warned her, “don’t shoot it with that puny nine-mil. Mr. Bear will be picking Jade out of his teeth for a week.”
“Roger that,” she said with a grin.
“Cut the light and catch some z’s. I’ll keep watch.”
She clicked the switch, and blackness slammed down around us. I lay back to give my sore body a rest, worried I would relax too much and fall asleep.
I jumped a little when Jade snuggled next to me. She rested her head on my shoulder, threw an arm over my chest, and pressed the length of her body against mine. Her hair tickled my chin.
Holy cow. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about falling asleep.
“Sam,” she murmured, “you’re so stiff.”
“Jesus, Jade.”
Her low chuckle rumbled against my chest. “I meant your body, big boy. Relax. I won’t bite. Anything you need to keep, that is.” She chuckled again.
I wrapped an arm around her and rested a hand against the silky muscles of her back. She was warm and soft, and she fit just right against my side. And I was about to send her off on a thirty-mile hike through rough terrain populated by bears and Bartlett’s bad guys.
I stared into the darkness without moving, listening to her breathe, for a long time.