Page 47 of Jagger

“No!” she yelled, struggling to right herself. She lunged toward him, pulling back her arm as if ready to punch him.

“Whoa.” I caught her arm just in time, wrapping my other around her waist and pulling her against what little heat my parka might offer her. “We’re not doing this. Do you hear me?”

“We can’t stay much longer,” David chimed in once again. He wasn’t winning any points.

Bella sobbed for a few seconds as she constantly swung her light from side to side. When she suddenly jerked from my arms, I aimed my light at whatever she was looking at. “There. There!”

I had no idea what she was pointing at, but she took off trying to run through the snow, falling once but continuing to press on.

“Bella. Don’t go that way. Do not go that way!” I turned to David and yelled, “Stay here.” I wasn’t going to have the chance if forced to rescue both of them. Shit. She was headed for the blind drop-off. It was steep enough she would break a leg or worse.

“She’s here. That’s her shoe. That’s her shoe!” Bella was yelling, the wind trying to muffle her words, but I heard them.

And I was sick inside, the rage increasing minute by minute. Losing her wasn’t an option either. With my longer legs, I made some headway, but it was slow going given the snow drifts. “Bella. Just stop. Stop!”

But she didn’t.

With the horrible sound of a limb snapping in two, I used every last bit of energy to rush toward her, swinging the light furiously.

She’d almost taken a tumble over the edge, stopping only because a limb had somehow broken her fall. She lay motionless in the snow, face down with her arms outstretched. Fuck.

Hearing footsteps, I was thankful David had ignored me.

“Oh, my God. Is she…”

“Do not go there,” I snapped at him. “Shine the damn light right there.” I pointed exactly where I wanted the beam. “And do not move.”

“O-Okay,” he said in a gruff voice. Hiking, mountain climbing, and tracking were entirely different. He’d had no full understanding of what he was getting himself into.

But I had.

I dropped into the snow, doing a controlled slide toward her. I’d left the damn grappling hooks inside the bag. My mistake, although there was no guarantee a single rock or crevice could be found to use.

“Okay, baby. If you can hear me, I’m coming to get you. Just don’t move.”

I don’t know whether I should have thought of the slight lift of her head as my reward or a foretelling of things to come. I did my best to shut out my demons, inching closer. The rescue would be dangerous, but I didn’t care at this point.

The truth was I had nothing to live for anyway.

With every foot gained, I felt a portion of the hill sliding away. I was almost to her, calculating the best way to bring her to the top. In daylight and in warm weather, doing so would have takenseconds. The weather hindered every movement, every single breath.

The moment David changed the beam’s direction, the light shining directly down on my head, I was thrown into a moment of my past. The images were so vivid I was stopped cold, completely paralyzed. As I tried to get back to my safe zone, the words I’d learned to drag me there wouldn’t come. I couldn’t think of them.

“You can do it!” a call came from above.

I was the only one who could. I slammed the grappling hook into the rock, pounding it in as I’d done so many times before. But those had been for recreation. This was to save a life.

The recent snowstorm had drifted, leaving a single exposed area. With the single member of my team hanging on to a failing rope, I had little time to react or think about my training.

I just reacted. The hook in place, I slid further down now within a couple of feet. “Tom. Listen to me. Don’t move. I’m coming to get you.”

“I can’t hold on. I just can’t.”

“Yeah, you can. Just breathe for me. Okay? I’ll be right there.” The slope was still icy as fuck. What few places I had to place the toe of my boot were slippery as hell. Twice I almost fell, gasps from topside pissing me off.

There was no way two people could have handled the rescue operation even though our squad leader had insisted on it. I’d gone against orders while he’d been barking on the phone tosomeone from headquarters. There’d been no time to wait for bureaucracy.

“Hurry,” Tom reminded me.

---