| |
Nash
Where the hell was she? The others were already gathered. I looked at Rachel. “Bathroom?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. You want me to check?”
“Five more minutes.” I really didn’t think she would hold the group up if she didn’t have to, but the minutes slowly ticked by. I finally nodded to Rachel. Unease worked its way through me. Surely she wouldn’t be stupid enough to disobey my order.
Rachel returned a few minutes later, her face pale. “She wasn’t where we usually...uh...go. I called her name, but nothing.”
My gut twisted. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered and turned toward the mountain.
“Surely she wouldn’t try a climb like that,” Don said. “Especially after you ordered her not to.”
I glanced over my shoulder. “That’s precisely why I think she would. Stubborn damned woman.” I strode toward the mountain, skidding to a stop when I spotted her. My heart jumped to my throat. She was high enough that I wouldn’t be able to pull her down. I began striding forward again, jerking out of my backpack, and letting it fall to the ground.
“Come down, Makenna,” I called out to her.
She paused, but didn’t look down at me. “Not happening. I can do this.”
I got a hand hold, then a foothold, and began to climb. I only made it a few feet before I lost my grip and began to slide back down. Hiking boots weren’t made for rock climbing. I sat on the ground and began removing them.
“She looks as if she knows what she’s doing,” Don said.
“It doesn’t matter,” I told him. “She doesn’t have a safety rope. If she manages to get very high, then slips, the fall will probably kill her.” I came to my feet, got another hold, and began climbing again. I made it a little farther this time before I missed another hold and came sliding back down. The rock burned my arms like a son of a bitch.
“It’s no good,” Don said, grabbing my arm. “You know as well as I do that none of us can do it. We’ve scaled mountains before, but nothing like this. We’re still amateurs. Makenna said she would surprise us. I think she has.”
“You mean if she doesn’t fall and kill herself?”
“Look at her,” Don said with frustration. “This isn’t the first time she’s climbed. She’s not rushing up the side. She’s taking her time, weighing her options.”
When I didn’t say anything, Don continued.
“I don’t think you’re giving her enough credit. She’s damned good.” He studied me for a moment. “Or maybe you care a little too much?”
“She’s my responsibility,” I ground out. Of course I didn’t care any more than that. Yeah, I wanted to get her in bed, but that was different.
“She’s part of the group,” Don reminded me. “We all do what we have to do when it comes to survival. Besides, you’ll never catch up to her. You’ll only get hurt, or worse, get yourself killed, then where would the group be? We need you here.”
“He’s right,” Rachel said. I heard the fear in her voice and knew she remembered the day her husband fell.
“Fine,” I finally said, knowing when to give up. I watched Makenna climb. Don was right, this clearly wasn’t her first time. But even experienced climbers could make one misstep and come plunging down. I had a feeling she wouldn’t stop until she made it to the top. Or died trying. It was the latter that had my gut in knots.
She lost her footing, hanging on by her fingertips.
I stepped forward. My heart began skipping beats.
She swung her body until her feet reached just enough of a ledge that she could get a foot hold, then brought her hands over to another handhold and continued, sometimes going sideways as the holds presented themselves, but always inching upward.
A foot higher, then another.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch her if she fell. She was too high now, and getting higher all the time.
I hadn’t prayed in a long time, but I did now.
And I continued to watch her slowly make her ascent as everyone else went back to camp. I had a feeling the stress was too much.
Stubborn damn woman. I knew I shouldn’t have brought her. My dick outthought my brain.
Don shoved a protein bar at me. “Eat.”
“Not hungry,” I said, never taking my gaze off Makenna.
“You haven’t eaten all day,” he said.
I frowned and glanced at my watch. Where had the day gone? Then it hit me. My insides began to churn.
I shook my head as the sick feeling inside me increased. “She’s not going to make it up the side before it gets dark, is she?”
“No,” he quietly confirmed.
I suddenly felt as if I was going to throw up. If she was trapped on the side of the mountain after dark, she would die, or be so exhausted by morning that she wouldn’t be able to finish. Either way, she was fucked.
“Maybe she’ll realize she can’t make it, and start back down,” Don said.
My gut said that would never happen. “Not Makenna. She’s the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met. She would never think about stopping. The mountain challenged her.” And I knew I’d challenged her when I ordered her not to even try. If something happened to her, this was my fault.
Rachel silently joined us. She might not have said anything, but I could feel her anxiety. One by one, they all joined me to watch.
“She’s really high,” Scotty said, sounding as sick as I felt.
“She said she was experienced,” Jared reminded us. “She’s done well so far.”
“It’ll be dark soon,” Rachel’s voice trembled.
I had a feeling she wasn’t thinking about Makenna as much as she was remembering that her husband had fallen, then later died from his injuries.
Dusk settled over us.
A small beam of light appeared on the side of the mountain. I frowned as I stared up at it. It took a moment to realize she’d taken a small flashlight with her. “Dammit, she knew she wouldn’t be able to scale the mountain before it grew dark, and still she went.”
“She said she was experienced, and she went prepared.” Don was grinning.
I was pretty sure he felt as relieved as the rest of us that she had thought to take a flashlight. “She’s still only three quarters of the way up. It’ll be harder in the dark.”
I don’t think anyone thought about leaving, no matter the outcome. They were there to support her. We all watched as the light inched its way up. Slowly, methodically.
“She’ll make it,” Jared tried to reassure me as the night moved to the early hours of morning, but still casting us in darkness.
“Yeah, of course she will,” I agreed. I refused to believe she wouldn’t.
“She has to be getting near the top,” Rachel said.
We were all watching the side of the mountain when the little light that had been moving steadily upward, suddenly began to move downward. I knew it was falling fast, but to me, it fell in slow motion. I jumped to my feet.
“Oh my God,” Rachel gasped and sank to the ground sobbing.
“No!” I yelled. The sound echoed in the silence.
My heart stopped when I saw the flashlight falling down the side of the mountain. All I could think about was how this was my fault. I looked around at the group, hoping that what I’d seen wasn’t true. Rachel was crying. Chris began to throw up. Don and Jared muttered curses.
So it had happened. I needed to find her...body. I couldn’t move. My feet didn’t want to take me to her, because I knew she was dead. There was no way in hell anyone could survive that kind of fall. Still, I forced my legs to move forward.
I drew closer to the area where she would’ve landed. “Makenna?” I don’t know why I said her name. She wasn’t going to answer. I wanted to yell out at the injustice of it all. The idiot who’d used the dynamite to block our exit, and God for letting Makenna fall to her death.
“Maybe she’s not dead, only hurt,” Rachel said as if she were in the daze.
I knew she wasn’t thinking straight. She started past me. I grabbed her arm to stop her.
“No one could survive that fall.”
I dreaded when it would be light enough to see. I wasn’t sure I could even look at her broken body. I willed the sun not to come up, but it did. By that time, the others had joined me, ready to search the underbrush.