Page 41 of His to Take

“I’m here,” she shouted. She was at the back of the vehicle. Her hand groped for the release to the cargo hold, and she swung it open. “Quick! We can save most of this.”

I sprinted over to her.

“It’s not worth it,” I growled.

“We need some of the maps at least,” she insisted. She grabbed a handle of the oversized crate and yanked it toward her. The vehicle pitched precariously but settled back quickly. I realized that since the hold opened like a car door, it had probably shifted the center of gravity more toward the back than before.

She was right. If we acted fast, we could save much of the supplies and maybe even the vehicle if we were lucky. Fuck. If the security team was here, we could attach a winch to the back of the car and pull it back off the edge, but they still weren’t here.

We’d have to handle this on our own.

“Just help me. Grab the other handle. If we work together, we can get everything we need,” she was commanding me for a change. Without another word, I did as she asked. In less than thirty seconds, we emptied the trunk of supplies. Another crack overhead echoed like thunder.

“We need to move,” I said. “Leave everything here on the ground.”

Knowing I had to move fast I grabbed her around the waist and threw her over my shoulder. In an all-out sprint, I raced back the way we had come. Another deafening noise came from overhead in the tree canopy. Without pause, I dove behind a tree and cradled Naomi in my arms as I watched a thick dead tree branch crash down onto the nose of the car. It tipped too far forward to recover. Above us, the canopy turned into a shower of leaves and twigs, and I did my best to cover her with my body so that she wouldn’t be hurt if anything fell on me.

My vehicle pitched forward, heading straight down into the deep gully far below. The crunch of metal groaned throughout the valley as it rolled. I squeezed my arms around her that muchtighter, thankful that her body wasn’t still in that car, broken and mangled along with the rest of it.

Her arms snaked around my neck just as the forest turned quiet. Several leaves flittered down to the ground, but thankfully no more twigs or branches fell.

Silence surrounded us completely. Then a bird sang somewhere off in the distance, breaking the tension and somehow reminding me to breathe.

“We’re okay,” she whispered.

“Your fast thinking saved us both,” I breathed.

“You’re not angry?”

“No. I’m just happy you’re okay.” I shook my head.

The roar of an engine sounded not far off, and she leapt out of my lap. Quickly, she waved her arms in warning.

Seth was driving one of the other two cars. He slammed on his brakes. Vince did the same not far behind them. Tires crunched in the rock and both vehicles skidded to a sudden stop. Seth looked around for ours, only jumping out when he realized there wasn’t one.

“What happened?” he called out.

“Gravity,” Naomi answered quickly. She winked in my direction, and I grinned with my own relief. As much as I wanted to hold her right now and tell her everything would be okay, she was fine.

She impressed me in new ways every day as I got to know her better, be it her intelligence, expertise, or now, ability to keep a steady head in a time of crisis.

Fuck. It made keeping my hands off her that much harder. Not that I’d been that successful thus far anyway.

“Our vehicle decided to take a joyride over that cliff right there.” I gritted my jaw, hating that these other men were here while I just wanted to grab Naomi, strip her bare, and fuck her senseless. My relief that we were both safe had me a little desperate to hold her, claim her. With a hesitant glance up, she walked toward the edge where our ride had just been not minutes ago. I was about to yell at her to be careful, but she reached out and grasped the trunk of a tree, using it to hold much of her weight as she leaned forward.

I strode over to her.

The vehicle had fallen several hundred feet below. The only reason I could spot it was because there was a column of smoke spiraling up from it. I could only see hints of its mangled tan exterior, but it looked like it was on fire.

Suddenly it exploded with an echoing boom.

“Well, I guess there won’t be any fixing that,” Naomi grunted.

“Yeah. Even I’m going to have to back away from that one,” I chuckled in amusement.

“What do you want to do?” Seth asked her.

She glanced quickly at me and then out at the horizon. “I need you and your men to load the maps and books into the back of your vehicles. It might be a bit of a tight squeeze for all of us, but we’ll manage,” she began.

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