Page 47 of Impossible Rapids

She rolled over and faced the exterior of the tent.

Shawn didn’t back away from her. “Jules. Please. If I could explain …”

Julie didn’t dare roll over. She’d probably kiss him again, and that was all kinds of wrong. “Let me guess. You can’t explain.” She didn’t mean to sound snippy, but she was annoyed with herself and with him and with Mercedes, which was completely unfair and ugly of her.

“I can’t,” he admitted, his voice full of resignation. “Maybe someday.”

She waited for him to say more, but apparently that was it.

“I’m sorry, Jules.”

Julie didn’t reply. She had no idea what to say. She was an expert at fixing things, organizing, working hard. None of her skill set could help her or Shawn right now.

The air in the tent felt much thicker than earlier. Before their kiss, the air had been thick with anticipation and longing. Now it was thick with discomfort and unanswered questions and a heaviness that made her feel like the air was smothering her.

She heard Shawn roll away from her. Fingering the bracelet he’d given her, she wondered how she could Woman Up, Baby in this situation.

Be brave and kiss him again, obviously, Mercedes said in her head.

Stop, she begged. I’m not kissing your husband again.

Wimp, she replied in the brightest and happiest Mercedes tone imaginable.

She closed her eyes and tried to close her mind to Mercedes’s silly taunt.

Please help me, she begged heaven above.

The fears over the weird men in black boat attacking were the furthest thing from her mind. All she wanted to do was repeat those kisses with Shawn and that made her feel like a horrible human being, despite the made-up Mercedes’s voice in her head saying exactly what Julie wanted it to say.

Chapter

Thirteen

Shawn didn’t dare move or speak. His heart hammered and his body ached to pull Julie close again, tell her everything and beg her to wait for him. It was unfair, but it had been wrong of him to kiss her and confuse her. He just felt all around awful.

As he lay there, wondering how to make things right, or if he even could, he was struck by how quiet it was outside. He could hear Julie’s quick breaths, and the river flowing by, but he couldn’t hear Brylee and Cash speaking, their guards shifting and maybe brushing against the tent or a rock, crickets or birds or anything.

He rolled over and whispered, “Jules, stay here and stay flat.”

“What?” she asked.

“Please,” he added just as quietly.

In the darkened tent, he could just see her outline. She nodded.

He grabbed his M9 and the extra magazine and ever so carefully unzipped the tent. Pulling the flap back, he eased out and looked at Hays, who stood like a statue above him. He straightened next to his friend.

Looking around, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. The river flowed by peacefully. The men’s camp about a hundred yards away had a low-burning fire and he could see a couple of the men sitting near it on a log. They didn’t have tents, and he’d noticed a string of sleeping bags on the ground earlier but it was too dark to make them out now.

“What is it?” he asked Hays.

“I don’t know.” Hays’s gaze darted around. “You feel it though?”

Shawn only nodded.

Brett shifted, his grip on his M16 rifle tightening. Hays tilted his head and Brett went to the tent nearest him while Hays moved back to the tent behind him. They were waking Paul and Theo. Would the men attack? Was there a grizzly bear or a mountain lion out there? What was it? There was something eerie in the air. The men at the other campfire either didn’t notice it from that distance or knew what was happening. He prayed it was the former. Shawn never minded a fight but he wouldn’t risk Julie, Brylee, or any of these men getting hurt.

Shawn crouched next to his tent and whispered to Julie, “Come here, please.”

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