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THE NEXT MORNING WHEN Jade came out of her trailer, she was relieved to see Micah sitting by the fire. There was another sensual flutter in her belly around him, but she pushed it down. She was on this mountain for money and nothing else. The same must be true for him too. Maybe they could help each other out.
Besides, she wouldn’t mix business and pleasure, ever again. Especially when “business” involved metric tons of dirt on her skin and under her nails, a constant coating of sweat, and sometimes blood too. Mining and prospecting were hard, dirty work.
It was dangerous to mine without a partner, most wouldn’t even consider it. She was taking a huge risk doing everything herself. At least if she had Micah around, he could get her help if she needed it instead of dying on a mountain alone. So really, he would be two kinds of security. If he agreed.
He looked up at her, a quick survey from her head to her toes, and then turned away.
So he wouldn’t be any more chatty than he was yesterday. Fine, she could do the talking. “Morning. I wanted to say thank you for checking things out last night.”
“Welcome. It’s what I do.”
“Well, you didn’t have to do it for me, had no obligation to, and I want you to know I appreciate it.”
“I told you, it’s dangerous here.”
“You did,” she said, nodding slowly, “But I don’t have much of a choice. I still have to mine.”
He stood up from where he sat on a rock by the morning fire, a slow unfolding of his massive frame that almost made her take a step back.
Instead, she took a step forward.
“I need to know what’s going on here. What kind of danger are we talking about?”
He sighed, and met her gaze head-on.
“People whose sole purpose is to kill, who will not think twice about hurting you. Who will take as many lives along with yours as they can. People who are just a shell on the outside, with nothing but chaos within.”
His stare was direct and intense, and Jade gulped. The first time he spoke more than a couple of sentences to her, and he was talking about murderers, monsters. People with no conscience. They would kill her if given the chance, and for what?
“Why? What do they want?”
“They want what you have,” he said, looking away and tossing water on the fire.
Her gems, her claim. She knew it. Son of a bitch. But she wasn’t giving up.
“I’m still not leaving.” If someone already felt like there was enough danger to their claim to warrant hiring security, then she would be foolish not to do the same. She could make a few phone calls, hire a firm with some random guy to secure her claim... Or she could hire this guy, who’d protected her last night for free.
She looked up at him, closing one eye against the glare of the sun. “Are your services for hire?”
A lot could happen to a woman alone on a mountain. Claim jumpers were just one of the dangers. Arguably the one she was least equipped to deal with herself.
“No.” He crossed bulging arms.
“That’s a shame,” she said, with a dramatic sigh. She pursed her lips. “I’ve looked at the mining claim maps. Most of the current claims are confined to one area like you said. You could guard both and make twice the money.”
“Don’t need the money.”
Jade scoffed in her head. He didn’t need money? Maybe. Perhaps that’s why he’d protected her last night when he’d had no obligation to. But there wasn’t a human on earth that would turn down easy money. That’s just the way it was. Hopefully this time, it would be to her advantage.
“OK, then. Excuse me, I have some mining to do.”
Jade turned toward the trail that led up the mountain, every intention of continuing on with her plan.
“Wait.”
Jade smiled but straightened her expression before she turned around. “Yes?”
His gaze narrowed on her, and he nodded.
She smiled again. She’d appealed to his wallet enough for him to accept. “So if my claim is close enough to theirs, you’ll be my security too?”
He hesitated a second and then nodded again.
She took off her pack and dug in the front pocket, pulling out the folded contract she’d drawn up this morning and holding it out to him.
“I have a contract for you to sign. To make it official.” It was hand-written, but what could you do? No printers in the wilds of the Independence Mountains.
He took it and the pen from her with a look and she held her breath at the amount of pay. It was likely far lower than his going rate.
But if Micah noticed, if he even looked, he gave no indication. He signed the contract on his hard thigh, foot propped up on the rock he’d been sitting on.
He really didn’t need money? Somehow, that made her feel even better about hiring him. If he didn’t care about his pay, then he wouldn’t care about whatever dirty rocks she pulled from her claim.
When he handed the paper back, she looked at the sharp, short signature.
“You forgot your last name.”
“It’s just Micah.”
“Just Micah?
He nodded.
Oooooookay. “Listen, it’s not a legal agreement without your last name. And it needs to be legal.”
Grudgingly, he took the contract back and added another scribble. When he passed it to her this time, there was another name next to the first.
Tellurian.
Maybe it was foreign, but she couldn’t miss the earth connection, either. Micah’s parent’s, whoever they were, must’ve been hippies.
She folded up the contract and took it to her trailer.
When she came out again, he hadn’t moved from his spot other than to pick up his small pack.
“Ready to go?”
He nodded and gestured for her to lead the way up the mountain. She didn’t bother waiting around for small talk. Micah obviously wasn’t the type anyway. She took off up the trail at a quick pace, letting him follow her to her claim. Which was fine with her, until the trail got steeper, and her butt was about level with his eyes. That was when the long-dead woman inside her rolled over and sat up. Was he looking?
She hoped so.
Which was silly, right? Because there was no way she had to worry about a man that looked like him staring at her ass.
When they got to the steep part of the trail, she had to lean over and put her hand out for stability. Micah kept holding out his hand to help her, but she ignored it.
Then, after one small misstep, the rock she’d stepped on started sliding down the mountain, her right foot surfing away from the rest of her body.
But before she could correct herself, before she could do anything at all, two big hands caged her upper arms and pulled her upright, back on two feet.
Jade took one tiny, minuscule second to appreciate the strength it took to handle her that way before she turned to glare at him.
She didn’t need to be handled.
“Thank you, but I’m fine. I’ve made this trek several times on my own, and will probably do it a hundred times more. I don’t need help.”
Micah seemed a little taken aback, but he needed to know the boundaries from day one. She could take care of herself. “If I need your help, I’ll ask for it. Otherwise, hands off.”
Micah’s eyes slid to the side, and for a moment Jade thought he was embarrassed. But a familiar sound drew her eyes. The rock her foot had been on, the one that slid away, had unsettled several more on its way down. There was a steady trickle of small rocks down the hillside. Which meant, if she had gone with it, she probably would have slid pretty far down before recovering her footing, possibly injuring herself.
But she’d been walking over shifting stone most of her life. She would have regained her footing on her own. “I’m fine,” she repeated and then turned back up the trail.
––––––––
MICAH FOLLOWED JADE up the mountain trail, forcing himself to focus on the rocks under his feet more than the female in front of him. But faded, worn jeans clung to tight curves, presumably sculpted by lots of time doing just this—climbing up a mountain with a heavy pack—and those curves kept drawing his eyes back over and over. He forced himself to look away, to focus on his mission. It was the only thing that was important.
Gravel turned to rocks and rocks turned to boulders while he used all his senses to search for signs of danger, whether natural, human, or Chaolt.
Finally Jade stopped and turned to him. She dropped her pack with a heavy thud, and put her hands on her hips, breathing hard. She smiled and threw her hands up. “Here we are!” Her eyes sparkled, greener than they’d looked since she’d first jumped out of her truck.
He took a moment to survey above and below for any signs of movement. Reaching out with his powers, he enveloped the mountain, searching for anything unnatural.
Other than the shift of rock on the steeper faces, all was quiet.
He nodded to her and faced toward the portal, rooting himself in the mountain for the first sign of disturbance, and crossed his arms. So his original mission had expanded. Guard the portal, keep the Erratic woman from wandering near it, drain her, and watch for Chaolt interested in the destruction within her blood. And supposedly, anyone interested in her mining claim.
But anyone else would have trouble getting close enough to be an issue.
Jade stopped unloading her pack, and he felt her gaze on him.
“What are you doing?”
He spared a glance at her. “Security.”
Her mouth widened in another smile. “Yeah, okay. You know you don’t have to stand like that the whole time, right? You’ll be able to hear any claim jumpers coming up those rocks for quite a ways before they show up.”
She had a point. But he wasn’t just listening with his ears, and he wasn’t just guarding against claim jumpers.
He stayed just like he was and turned back in the direction of the portal.
“Suit yourself.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her shrug. “Just watch out for the rocks,” she said, right as one went tumbling down the mountain in front of him.
Jade would pick one up, look at all the sides, and then toss it away. Gravity took care of the rest.
He backed up a good ten feet so she could do it safely, and then resumed his stance, every sense on high alert.
There was more danger to her than he’d anticipated.
When her foot slipped on the rocks earlier, he’d grabbed her out of instinct. He’d felt the rocks shifting below her feet and reached out to pull her back. He’d only had a second to drain a drop of her power before she shrugged out of his hands.
But watching the rocks slide away from them made his heart rate spike, made him cold. Chances were good that she would have recovered her footing by herself if he hadn’t been there. But what if she hadn’t? What if it happened again? What if it happened when she wasn’t as quick, wasn’t as clear-minded?
Micah examined the mountain with new eyes. It had always been a friend at best, and a refuge at the least. Never had he seen it as a threat in itself, like the Chaos portal nearby. But now, he picked out the many dangers Jade could face. What she did was dangerous, for a human.
He peeked at Jade again, shiny black braid reflecting the sun with bluish light, and his jaw tightened. He wouldn’t be draining her quickly. It wouldn’t be safe to drain her at her claim or on the trail. He couldn’t leave her alone here afterward, with her confusion and memory loss. It was a good thing she’d asked to hire him. He’d signed the contract initially as a way to get close enough to her to drain her, but now he must stick around and do it slowly. He didn’t know much about her, but her determination meant she would be right back here, trying to mine afterward, even if she felt weak from the extraction of her Erratic powers. Draining powers caused symptoms, symptoms he could not mitigate. Symptoms that sometimes cost lives.
The image of a boy, gray, laying on rocks, formed in his mind, but he pushed it forcefully away.
How long would he have to drain her before a Chaolt tried to come or go through the portal again and noticed her presence? Gritting his teeth, Micah looked beyond Jade to where the portal was, hidden from his eyes in a cave, but not hidden from his powers. No signs of Chaolt, but he and Jade hadn’t been up here long.
Considering, Micah crossed his arms. They’d struck a deal, so Jade wouldn’t be suspicious if he hung around. And if possible, he’d drain her in a few days, and then pull out of their agreement and go back to just guarding the portal. Her claim wasn’t really in any danger. Despite what he’d said, what she’d thought, there was no one else up here. Hadn’t been since he came and closed the main hiking trail with the rock-slide.
It was just him and her, the whistle of the wind, and the whisper of the earth. Maybe he could have Jade drained soon, and go back to his spot and his solitude and his singing.