Page 44 of Searching Blind

He exhaled hard like he’d been holding his breath. “Hold on. I’m coming down.”

“No!” Panic burst through her in a white-hot rush, drowning out the pain. There was no way a sighted person could climb down without risking a potentially fatal fall, much less a blind one. The last thing they needed was for him to get injured, too. “Sawyer, please, stay there. It's too dangerous. I’ll find a way back up to you.”

“The hell I will. You’re hurt. I can hear it in your voice.”

It was typical of him, she thought, to try and be the hero even when he was at a clear disadvantage. It was in his nature to be protective, to rush into danger without a second thought for himself. “We don’t need you hurt, too.”

“Would you just trust me for once?” There was a note of frustration in Sawyer’s voice that she rarely heard. “I’m not helpless.”

“I never said you were. But?—”

“Do you trust me or not?”

Lucy sucked in a painful breath. The shadows felt like they were creeping in around her, and panic sizzled through her. She was back in the cave, the damp walls closing in around her. Trapped. Alone. Helpless. The memory of the Shadow Stalker’s cruel laugh as he left her to die echoed in her ears.

No, she wasn’t alone. Sawyer was there. He was always there when she needed him.

“Lucy?”

She swallowed back the fear. “I trust you.”

“Good. Because I need you to stay calm and guide me down to you.”

There was a rustling noise from above, then rocks tumbled through the hole. She instinctively covered her head with her arms as pebbles pelted down around her. There was a loud grunt and then a thud followed by a stream of soft profanities.

She still couldn’t see him.

“Sawyer?” she called, struggling to push herself into a seated position. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her side and the threatening darkness at the edges of her vision, she strained her ears for his response.

“I’m fine,” he grunted. “Just a small... hiccup.”

Then there he was, his body blocking out the sunlight for a moment as he lowered himself through the hole. A warm wave of reassurance washed over her at his nearness. His dogged obstinance might have been infuriating, but it was also comforting.

She could always count on Sawyer to be Sawyer.

Suddenly, the sound of a soft thump echoed through the cavern.

“Shit,” he muttered, his voice now much closer than before. Then something fell and landed in a heap a few feet away from her. There was silence, and for a heart-stopping moment, Lucy thought he had fallen.

“Sawyer!”

“Hang on, hang on. I hit a ledge. Jesus. Did you hit this thing in the fall?”

She honestly had no idea—it all happened so fast—but going by the aches and pains blooming all over her body, she wouldn’t doubt it. “Please be careful.”

More cursing. Then he appeared over the edge of the rock overhang above her, rappelling down while strapped into the climbing harness Grant had given her. Her breath rushed out of her in relief. He wasn’t climbing blindly down to her, after all. She’d completely forgotten about the harness and ropes attached to her pack.

“Keep talking,” he said. “I need to hear where you are.”

She shifted and winced as pain lanced through her side again. “What do you want me to say?”

“Well, you could start by telling me why you pulled away earlier at the waterfall. You were running so hot. You wanted me as much as I want you. What made you suddenly turn so cold?”

He would go there right now. “No.”

“Are you going to make me guess?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

---