Page 117 of Risky Desires

“It’s okay.” I rested my hand on her bare back.

She squinted at me, and the scar on her forehead seemed much more red in this golden dawn hue. She smacked her lips together. “Don’t tell me it’s morning already?”

“Okay. I won’t tell you.”

Groaning, she pushed off me to stand, and as she strolled out of the cave, she plucked her bikini bottoms from between the cheeks of her gloriously toned butt.

It was a spectacular way to start the day.

Every muscle ached as I stood, and my back was so stiff from a night on the unforgiving ground I had to force my spine straight. I stepped into the open air. “I miss my pillow.”

She turned to me with a cheeky smile.

“What?”

“Officer Fancy Pants, you and your luxuries.”

“A good pillow isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity.”

Frowning, she turned her gaze to our view.

Below our cliff edge, the steep rock cut away like the land had abruptly shifted sometime during millennia, dropping the section that had been up here to seventy feet below. Dense vegetation covered that section, and amongst that field of green somewhere, were the bodies of the two men who had attacked us. The fall probably broke every bone in their bodies, but if by some miracle they survived that, I doubted they would have lasted the night.

I still couldn’t believe Clark had jumped, but it showed how terrified he was of the asshole he worked for. I’d thought Chui was an evil bastard, but we have been looking for a man who was much, much worse. I’d looked evil in the face before and that had scared me right into my core. I’d survived that then. I would survive this now.

We would survive this.

The first rays of sunshine pierced the horizon, casting away the shadows below, and I studied the tiny, uninhabited island. There wasn’t a single sign of life. No buildings, or boats. I couldn’t even see a plane. I groaned.

“Don’t see the swanky resort you were hoping for?” Indiana cocked her eyebrow at me.

“Yeah, something like that. I was hoping there would at least be a boat we could signal.”

She shook her head. “We’re on the wrong side of the shipping lanes. Most boats have no reason to come out this far. So, if you’re hoping for a rescue, then you better pray harder.”

“I don’t believe in praying,” I murmured.

“Huh. Me neither. Gave up on that crap when Mom was murdered.”

My jaw dropped. “Oh fuck, Indy. I didn’t know she was murdered. I’m so sorry.”

Her fingers brushed over the scar on her forehead, and I knew the scar was somehow connected to what happened to her mother.

She saw me watching and dropped her hand. “So, detective, what do we do now?”

“Ha. That’s the first time you’ve called me detective.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, I’m kinda hoping you have some skills that will get us out of this mess.”

I returned to the limited collection of items I’d removed from Clark’s tactical vest and squatted. Indiana fetched the two water bottles then stood at my side, giving me a marvelous view of her long legs and the nasty scars on her thigh.

Were those inflicted at the same time as the one on her forehead?

She handed the bottle to me, and after I took a large sip, I pointed at the gear. “There’s no phone.”

“So?” she frowned.

“They must have had some way to communicate with the chopper.” I turned toward the cliff edge. “Maybe the other guy had a phone.”

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