Page 65 of Damned
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Bree was fairly certain they were close to the top of these freezing cold pillars since they were now bathed in bright sunshine. Once they’d left the shadows of all the trees behind, they’d been out in the open. She had no idea what time it was. Despite what Kruze said, she was still in a race to get out of sight. She was a few feet ahead of him when her foot slipped. All at once, she was hanging by her fingertips, her feet pedaling the smooth stone column for traction. Panic flooded her brain. Robin, Kruze, and Baby Bean! They needed her. She didn’t want to die. Not like this.
She’d no more than lost her nerve, when a big, wide hand slammed up under her backside, holding her firmly in place, as if she’d simply landed in her office chair.
“I’ve got you.” Kruze’s calm voice was just what she needed. “You’re not going anywhere. You’ve got a solid foothold just left of your right foot. About three inches over.”
Blindly, she kicked at the rock, searching for that toehold. At last.Got it!
“There you go. Wedge your toes in nice and tight. Trust me. It’ll hold you.”
“Th-thanks.” Her heart was flipping out, but Kruze was right. The tip of her shoe fit in that narrow crack; she wasn’t going to fall. Bree closed her eyes and hugged the stone face.
Whew! That was close.
“Okay, now that you’ve had another damned coffee break,” he drawled as if she really were a slacker, trying to lighten the tension, poking at her to let her know he had her six. “Start moving sideways, Bree. Not up. We’re only going about ten, fifteen more feet, so take it slow. Baby steps.”
She did as he said.
“That’s it. You can do it. I’m right behind you, moving with you. No way can you fall.”
Her heart was still throwing a fit, but Kruze had a solid hold of her backside, just like a father might do with his daughter, while he was teaching her to ride a bike. The comparison humbled Bree. She could clearly see Kruze running beside a pink, little bike with training wheels, holding the back of Robin’s seat or maybe her pants pockets. Maybe even her little butt, while the bike teetered from side to side. Robin would be grinning, just because her daddy was teaching her how to ride.
The tender picture brought tears to Bree’s eyes. Lord, she loved this man so much that it hurt. She needed him in her life. Robin needed him, too.
She saw it then, a much wider crack, rising up between the columns to her right, wide enough to crawl into. At least, she could catch her breath there, maybe eat another tasteless protein bar. Maybe even warm up an MRE or two—or three.
“Is that where we’re going?” she asked, nodding her chin at what looked more and more like a small cave.
“Yeah. It’s perfect, right?”
“It is.” Bree swiped a quick hand over her eyes, and carefully made her way to her nextcoffee break. It was essentially a hollowed-out hole, a bubble in the basalt column. It was deep enough they’d both fit. Crawling in as far as she could without bumping her head on the narrow, rounded ceiling, Bree pulled her knees to her chest to make room for Kruze.
As soon as she’d wedged herself in the farthest corner, a wave of brain-numbing claustrophobia struck, strangling her. Damn it. Suddenly, she was back in that cold, narrow hole. She had to get out of there. She needed sunshine and air and—
“Hey, sugar. You got room for me in here?” Thank God! It was Kruze blocking the entrance. Not Josephus. Not his mean women. Just Kruze. The light around and behind him made him look like a grizzly bear with a crazy halo. She wasn’t trapped. He was her very best friend. Her lover.
Bree was so frazzled, her heart all but tap-danced on her ribs. “Okay, okay, I can do this. I can.”
He settled beside her. “Nice digs you got here.”
She bowed her head so Kruze wouldn’t see the panic in her eyes and think she was a complete lunatic. “Yeah. It’s all the rage, shabby chic, caveman style. I k-k-knew you’d like it.”
For heaven’s sake, she’d come undone over nothing. This was no hole in the ground, and Kruze would never let anything happen to her. She forced her head up. The smart man had fastened his gear bag on his back somehow. But when he looked at her, Bree’s heart fell. The whites of his eyes were a bleary red, and his forehead was slick with sweat.
“You’re sick.”
“Yeah, I’m a little warm. Where are those pills you rescued for me?”
“Here, in my, err, your jacket pocket. Get all the way in first,” she scolded, scooting out of his way as much as she could. “Then I’ll give them to you.”
This hole in the basalt wasn’t a crack, as much as a big, rounded sphere, possibly the remnants of a bubble that had formed inside molten lava in prehistoric times. It wasn’t deep, but it was wide enough they could either sit or lay side-by-side. Its ceiling narrowed into darkness, limiting headroom, but the floor was comprised of small stones and black sand, almost comfortable. They were out of sight. That mattered the most.
Kruze slouched out of his gear bag, while Bree offloaded her backpack. His bag ended between them, while she put hers at her right, out of the way. Bree unzipped his bag and pulled out two bottled waters. “Here’s the antibiotic. I’ll fix something to eat.”
For once, he was obedient. Kruze gulped the pills and emptied the entire bottle, before wiping the back of his hand over his mouth and stuffing the tiny bottle into his jeans pocket. “Is this a good hideout or what?” he asked wearily, his wrists on his bent knees.
Bree nodded. “It is. Do you have any hand warmers?”
