Chapter Three
Nick knew Kitty wouldn’t go for the idea. It was why he hadn’t thought about it until now.
Overcome one obstacle at a time.
In the ambient light, she scowled at him. She must have heard that.
Well, it didn’t make any difference. They still had to get out of here, and this was the best way he and the special ops guys could find. The complex was situated on the side of a hill. They would use a series of zip-lines to slide down the mountain.
At least, that was the theory.
“Wait—a series of zip-lines?” She glared at him, wrapping her arms around herself in the cool air. “That was the theory?”
Yes. But it was the only option.
“Come on.” He rested his hand at the small of her back, trying to coax her over to the setup. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
The gear appeared undisturbed. Which meant that no one knew they were up here. Yet.
He’d chosen this corner of the building because, as far as they could tell, it was hidden in one of the blind spots from the camera. It had meant a longer journey through the ducts, but they’d decided that was less risky than somewhere more conspicuous.
Opening the pack that held the harnesses, he went through the systematic checklist to ensure their safety. Again. He’d performed the same check when he received them and then again when he’d packed them. They still appeared intact.
He stood, holding a jacket and the smaller harness out to Kitty. They’d had to guess at her weight, estimating high. From how thin she was there wouldn’t be a problem. He tamped down on his anger. Hadn’t they bothered to feed her?
Kitty stood still, staring at the harness as if he offered her a rattlesnake.
He shook it. “You have to put it on.” When she still didn’t move to take it, he sighed. “We’ve come this far. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
It was a promise. He’d done this countless times, was confident he could get her through this part safely. The only thing that made this situation dangerous was Kitty’s inexperience and the highly trained military operatives chasing them.
She snatched the gear from his hand, her scowl enough to melt stone. He smiled. Better her be angry than afraid. “Let me help you with that.”
Her eyebrows dropped, but she nodded. She didn’t like that she needed help, but it was obvious she didn’t know how to use the gear. He focused on the clips, the metal carabiners. He tried not to notice that his fingers were shaking at being this close to her. He didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.
She could hear his thoughts, after all.
After double and triple checking everything, he attended to himself. But this was his personal gear and went faster.
The sounds of shouting drifted up from below them. If anyone saw them leave, it couldn’t be helped. The jacket he brought covered her chest, but the pants of Kitty’s ridiculous orange jumpsuit were still visible. Christ. Orange. Probably for this very purpose. Hard to hide someone wearing caution-cone orange.
He snapped them on to the zip-line, him in the front, before he turned to give her instructions.
“I’m going first. Watch me. We’ll jump off the edge of the building. You’ll follow me down the mountain. The end is attached to a tree there.” He pointed to the south. “You’ll keep your feet in front of you and together, and lean back.”
“I need to jump off the building?” Her horror might have been comical if she weren’t so obviously terrified.
“It’s not really jumping off the building, Kitty.” He did his best to keep his voice calm. “You’re attached to the line. You’ll follow me.” He reached back, squeezing her arm. “You can do this. I’m sure of it.”
She stared at him, at where his fingers curled around her arm, then nodded again. He didn’t know if she believed him or not, but he didn’t think more time to worry about things would help.
“Let’s go.” He shuffled over to the ledge, doing a bit of a bouncing hop-step. “Follow me,” he repeated.
He dove off the edge.
He’d always loved zip-lining and doing it in the dark was the best. He’d only jumped at night twice, but there was something about diving into the blackness, of letting his body fall into the abyss, that appealed to him. He could let go, feel nothing but the air whipping past him. Up high, attached to his harness, he was unable to control everything, even if he wanted to. It was frightening and exhilarating all at once.
As he twisted through the trees—down, down, down—he finally allowed himself a moment to think about Kitty, outside her line of hearing.
The unexpected reaction he was having to her was inconvenient. Yes, Kitty was pretty, gorgeous even. But this wasn’t about that. He’d come here to right a wrong. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what happened to her, and it had eaten him up inside.
When they met, she’d had eyes for his roommate, Jeremy. That jerk had never been any good for anyone. When Nick had tried to tell her, to give her a heads up, it had come out wrong. Kitty had seen him as some overbearing dickhead when he’d only been trying to protect her.
Jeremy had been a wild card, he’d known that. He’d gotten into the kind of trouble that he couldn’t talk his way out of, which made him capable of anything. Nick knew that Jeremy couldn’t be trusted with Seth and his friends’ secret, and yet he’d done nothing. If he’d spoken up, maybe he could have saved them some trouble.
Kitty wouldn’t be here, obviously malnourished. Despite what she’d been through, her features remained haunting, her stare infinitely intuitive. It tugged at his heart.
He forced himself to stop thinking about that. She hadn’t wanted anything to do with him months ago, and she didn’t want anything to do with him now. Making it about attraction…it was distracting when they couldn’t afford distractions. He would get her out of here, and that would be the end of it. Debt repaid.
He shook his head, preparing himself to think of her as one of his sisters, as another soldier. Or even as his grandmother.
But if he ever got his hands on whoever starved her, he’d rip them apart.
As he reached the tree where he’d anchored the end of the cable, almost three hundred yards from the roof where they’d begun, he hit the spring mechanism at the end that stopped him.
He quickly unhooked, wiped his sweaty palms on his legs. He moved, positioning himself to catch her when she arrived.
He waited. And waited.
After long moments passed, his heart pounded in his ears. Where the hell was she?
Had she panicked? Balked? Had she waited too long and been discovered?
He knew this was a lot for her, but Kitty had to be one of the strongest people he’d ever met. She heard what people thought, their awful and wonderful things, and she didn’t buckle under the weight of it. She’d been here, in this hellish place, a captive, for months. Yet, she’d still been able to get lippy with him when he’d ordered her around. He’d hoped that would be the case. Better her with her back up than curled into a ball.
But he saw it in her. That spark, that thing that divided the soldiers who survived from the ones who didn’t. Kitty was a fighter.
She’d jump. She had to.
He listened to the night, but only silence met him.
He hated times like this, moments when he felt helpless. He’d led her to her escape. But he couldn’t make her take the last step. She’d have to do it herself.
Maybe he should have pushed for a tandem harness. They’d disregarded it, afraid it would be too hard to get into in the darkness, too awkward to attach to the cable, and waste too much valuable time. But at least he could have been sure that she would be out of that complex.
When he began to think that he might have to abandon the zip-line, figure out a way to go back for her, he heard it—the unmistakable hiss of the carabiner on the cable. He exhaled, closed his eyes, and offered a silent prayer of thanks to the guy upstairs.
That a girl.
In the moonlight, he watched her slight form descend toward him, and he caught her, holding her for a moment, his hands curling instinctively. He allowed himself another breath in, his relief overwhelming.
“You did it. Way to go.” He couldn’t help the pride.
“You told me it was the only way down.” Still defensive and prickly.
Why couldn’t she take praise? “Yes, but you could have decided not to do it.”
“I wasn’t staying there.” She pushed out of his arms. The angle of the cable forced her to stand on her tiptoes as she attempted to get away from him. He tried not to let that bother him, but it did. He dropped his arms.
She’d just left a horrible situation. She needed patience.
“Let me help you.” He pulled his knife out of his pocket and cut the cable. She dropped to the ground as the line returned up the hill. When he’d requested equipment, he’d insisted on the retracting cable wire. That way, they wouldn’t be able to track them as easily.
“Thanks.” She didn’t sound appreciative, though.
He sighed. It sure would be easier if she didn’t have a chip on her shoulder.
“I don’t have a chip on my shoulder.”
Christ. “Right. Sorry.”
Focus. There was no time for this conversation. Time to go up another tree.
She glanced up. “We’re going to climb the tree in the dark?”
“So much doubt.” He wished she could give him some credit, at least for a minute. “I’ve already attached handholds to this tree and three others. We’re going to do this same maneuver, three more times, until we get down the hill. We’ll stay at a camp in the valley there until we can be extracted.”
“We’re going to zip-line three more times, after we climb three different, very tall trees?”
“Yes.” He glanced down at her stark face in the moonlight. He reached for her, gripping her shoulders. He squeezed softly, and his eyes held hers. “Listen. You can do this. You’re strong, and I’m going to help. But you have to be in this with me. Are you here with me? Because I can’t get you out by myself.”
Her eyes flickered back and forth between his, as if she was searching for something. This was probably the most terrifying thing about Kitty. She could see into a person’s soul. For real.
He forced himself to remain reassuring, to put his confidence in the forefront of his mind.
It must have worked, because she nodded. “I’m here, right?”
He squeezed again, exhaling. “Yes, you are.”
In the distance, he could hear the sound of motors. Damn it. Were they already out looking for them? He did his best to cover up the equipment he’d used to anchor the zip-line cable. Pushing it aside for the moment, he turned to the tree. “You first, lady.”
He pointed out the handholds, and she nodded, scurrying up with more agility than he’d expected.
“I grew up in the mountains, Nick.” Her snarky whisper rent the air. “I’ve climbed trees.”
He chuckled to himself. That’s what he got for assuming.
He followed her, removing each of the handholds as he went. Kitty sat perched in the tree next to a zip-line mechanism exactly like the one he’d used at the complex. He dropped the handholds in a bag he’d anchored to the tree and hooked her on. “You’re first this time.”
A flash of fear washed over her face, but she quelled it immediately. She nodded and set her jaw. Without another word, she pushed off the tree, gliding down the mountain in front of him.
God, her courage…
Dampening that train of thought, he latched on and followed after her. The faster they put distance between themselves and Goldstone, the better.
He stopped his momentum before he ran into Kitty at the next stop point.
They made quick work of unlatching, cutting the cable, and burying the anchor. Kitty didn’t even comment before scurrying up the side of the tree like Spiderman. He followed, using the same procedure with the handholds, collecting them then dropping them in another bag in the treetop.
Up the hill, he could see small lights circling the cement-block building they’d left.
He’d gotten her out. He’d done it.
“I helped, you know.”
He laughed. With some distance between them and the building, he felt lighter, as if his chest might explode with the joy of it all. “Yes, you did.”
He reached over, before he thought anything else, and attached her to the zip-line. She rolled her eyes at him and was off again.
They repeated the process once more. Finally, at the base of the mountain, he cut them out of their harnesses and hid the remains of them in a hollowed tree trunk nearby.
He led her through the trees until they reached the stream that cut through the valley. It carved its way between the mountain they’d come from and the one in front of them, etching into the landscape. Kitty went to the water’s edge, washing her hands and her face. He crouched down a few yards away, giving her a few moments to collect herself.
He splashed some water on his own face and neck and then scrubbed up to his elbows. The stress of the entire situation had left him feeling grimy, and the water’s coldness sharpened his senses.
He stood, gathered the remains of their things, and joined Kitty. She remained in a squat, staring into the water.
“I’ve hidden an ATV over there,” he said, motioning to some underbrush nearby. “We’ll take it to a cave, four miles downstream. We’ll stay there until dawn, when the extraction team is scheduled to get us.”
She nodded, still studying the gurgling stream. After a long moment, she said, “Thank you. For coming for me.” She glanced up, and her thin face was sober, without the defensiveness he’d come to expect. In the moonlight, her skin shone translucent. He blinked, unable to move, held captive in her gaze. “It was…being there…” She shook her head. “Just, thank you.”
He swallowed, finding it difficult to speak. She’d been through hell, he knew, but he had the strangest urge to reach for her, to hold her and to comfort her. He stayed still. Finally, he managed, “You’re welcome.”
She nodded again, standing and heading for the brush.
He reached down, flexing his fingers in the water and gritted his teeth. Man, what was he doing? He’d hoped that if he rescued her, that he would be able to forgive himself. Well, he’d accomplished that goal. The rest of this attraction was only confusing everything. It was unproductive.
Standing, he shook out his arms and ran his hand over his hair, smoothing it back. It took a few deep breaths, but he pulled himself together.
As he caught up to her, he realized he’d left her in her socks. Shame swept through him. How had he forgotten? What kind of asshole let her climb all those trees in her socks?
Gritting his teeth, he called to her, “Come here, please.”
Kitty stilled. “What?” He could feel her tension, even in the dark, across a handful of yards.
“Your feet.” Nick pulled the strips of sheet from his pockets. “I forgot about your feet.”
She picked her way across the forest floor to stand in front of him, holding out her hand. “You can let me do that.”
“Nowhere for you to sit down. Let me help.”
After a moment, she nodded. Placing her hand on his arm to steady herself, she lifted her left foot. In the moonlight, he could see that the material of her sock had torn away in a few spots. The skin underneath didn’t appear to be broken, though. “We should wash these.”
“No. They don’t hurt. They’re just dirty.”
“Are you sure…?” He couldn’t wrap her dirty feet. It was bad enough he’d forgotten them in the first place.
“I would have said something, you know.” She squeezed his arm. “They are my feet, and I could have said something. I knew you had the strips.”
“I know…” He shook his head. She didn’t understand.
“They’re fine. Really. Please just put the wraps on.”
He did as she requested, wrapping with a series of knots he’d learned in his military training. When satisfied, he lowered her foot to the ground, and she lifted the other.
He repeated the process. The knots should hold until he got her to the cave. He had an extra change of clothes. The shoes would be too big, but they’d be better than nothing. When he dropped her second foot to the ground, he motioned toward the east. “This way, then.”
They did the short hike to the ATV in silence. When they mounted up, she crawled behind him. They went slowly, with no light, farther downstream. When he reached the opening where they could sleep, he pulled the ATV under some brush to conceal it from above, and they dismounted.
He’d stumbled across the enclosure when they’d been doing recon and decided it would be perfect for this op. It would keep Kitty safe and protected until they could get her out of here tomorrow, and away from everything she’d been through.
But when he pulled out the flashlight he’d packed on the ATV and shined it inside the cave, he found that he wasn’t the only one attempting to protect things.
The beam landed on a mountain lion. Behind her, he caught the barest glare from the eyes of her cub.