Page 22 of Atone in Darkness
He watched as she finished her granola bar and the rest of her water. That small effort exhausted the last bit of herenergy reserves. Heck, he was about to crash and burn big time himself. Rather than fight it, he refilled the water bottle one last time and then sat down on the ground beside her. The shelf of rock jutting out above them would offer protectionfrom anyone hunting for them as well as any possible rain.
Marisol was already asleep but shifted restlessly as if trying to find a comfortable position. He slid his arm behind her neck and tugged her over against his body. A second later, she sighed and snuggled in closer. As the dark silence settled around them, he listened hard for any sign they weren’t alone in the area. Satisfied that theywere safe for now, he closed his eyes and let himself drift off to sleep.
•••
AN ELBOW INthe ribs jarred Chase awake. He almost fought back until his fogged-up brain finally realized that he wasn’t under enemy attack. Marisol moaned and stirred, clearly fighting a battle in her sleep.
He moved away a few inches before trying to wake her. When his first effort didn’t do the job, he shookher shoulder a little harder. “Hey, Doc, you’re having a nightmare.”
Her eyes finally popped open as she jerked upright, looking startled and not a little scared. “What? Where?”
“You were fighting in your sleep. As to where we are, my best guess is that we’re sitting by a creek at the bottom of a hill.”
She was awake enough by now to actually smile at his assessment. “Good enough for me, althoughI’ve come to suspect we’re somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.”
He’d been thinking along those same lines, but wanted to know how she’d come to that conclusion. “Are you just guessing or have you remembered something about how you got here?”
“A little of both. These trees are Douglas firs and cedars, which are indigenous to that area. Also, I was living on the East Coast when I received thejob offer, and I boarded a charter jet in Virginia. I slept the whole flight, even though we must’ve stopped to refuel at some point. We finally disembarked at a rural airfield. I fell asleep again almost as soon as we got into the vehicles that were waiting to take us to the compound.”
When she lapsed into silence for several seconds, he prodded her to continue. “So if you slept through it all,how does that add up to being in the Pacific Northwest?”
“We left early in the morning and arrived late in the evening. I don’t remember any of it, so I lost the whole day in the process. Unless we flew in circles, we had to have come a long distance.”
“Logical. Let’s hope you’re right, because that means I have friends close by.”
She angled her head to look up at him. “The ones you wantedto e-mail?”
“Yes.”
“Will they help you... help us?”
Staring out at the night’s shadows, he nodded. “Yes, if they can trace the e-mail back to where it originated.”
Of course, there was no telling what they’d do when they got there. Judging from the number of explosions they’d heard earlier, the bastards might have done more than murdertheir own people. If they’d also blown the physicalstructures to hell and back, he could imagine how his friends would react. He knew damn well they’d been hunting for him since his disappearance. They’d be ecstatic to finally hear from him and would come running, only to find nothing but death and destruction.
He hated knowing Jarvis and the others would beat themselves up badly for having gotten there too late. There was no way to save themthat pain, not until he reached someplace where he could contact them again. He only hoped they didn’t tell his sister what they’d found until they’d exhausted every possibility.
It would kill Gwen. She’d been as much of a mother to him as a big sister. For years, it had been just the two of them against the world. Then Jarvis came calling and their lives had changed forever. The older Paladinloved Chase’s sister and did everything within his power to make her happy. He’d also taught Chase what it meant to be a Paladin, giving his life purpose and a place to belong.
He clenched his fist, aching with the need to be back with the people who were at the center of his world.
It occurred to him that Marisol hadn’t reached out to contact anyone when she’d had the opportunity. “Is theresomeone out there looking for you? Well, besides the obvious.”
When she didn’t immediately answer, he glanced down to realize Marisol’s eyes had drifted shut again. Deciding questions could wait until morning, he settled back to sleep more himself when she finally spoke.
“No.”
There was such emptiness in that simple one-word statement. “Because they knew you’d be out of touch for the lengthof the contract?”
“No, because there is no one who cares where I am.”
No family or friends? He started to ask for clarification, but she’d already turned away from him. Her breathing was too irregular for her to be truly asleep, but he’d allow her that small ruse for now. He had no reason to doubt the truth of that stark statement, and it also explained why the people who hired her had soughther out in the first place. Granted, she must have had the credentials they were looking for, but the real bonus was that they could eliminate her with no repercussions if it became necessary.
He just wished he knew if they’d pulled the plug on the operation because they’d learned what they needed to from her work or if there was some other reason. They’d spent a lot of money and resources tohave thrown it away for no reason. So many questions with no answers. Right now he was too tired to make sense of it.
Meanwhile, his companion had curled up on the ground, her breathing deep and slow. Good. While she was asleep, he had something he wanted to take care of. He dragged himself back up to his feet and waited several seconds to make sure the movement hadn’t disturbed her slumber.Satisfied she was too far under to notice what he was doing, he made his way back over to the edge of the creek, where he gathered up seven rocks, all about the size of a softball. He carried them back to the log he’d sat on earlier and pulled out the combat knife he’d stolen from the unconscious guard.
He almost felt as if he should apologize to thehigh-quality blade for abusing it as he scratcheda letter onto each of the rocks. When he was done, he hid the rocks out of sight on the ground behind the log. If his friends did follow his trail leading away from the compound, he wanted them to know they were on the right track.
Having done all he could for the moment, he returned to where Marisol lay sprawled on the ground. Setting a mental alarm to wake up at dawn, he settled in beside her.Like his companion, he’d need all the energy he could muster; tomorrow would be another bitch of a day.
