Page 26 of Aviator
“That’s practically candy to a military man. But it’s better than nothing. Thanks.”
She gives me the bottle of water, and I wash down four tablets. I feel like I’ve run a marathon, and I’ve barely done anything. Needless to say, hiking to this supposed ranger station is going to be a bitch.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Kenna asks, pressing a hand to my shoulder. “We can wait another day. Maybe the rescue team will show up by then.”
“We can’t risk it.”
“Well, how in the hell are we supposed to trek two or more miles through the snow with your leg like that?”
“Very carefully,” I answer vaguely. “Now, let’s take a look at that map and see what we’re working with.”
* * *
“Let’s get going,” I tell Kenna, “before we lose the light.”
It’s mid-morning on the next day, and considering my condition, it may take us hours to go a short distance. My injury, the snow, and guessing our location will make this the hike from hell. And here I thought being stranded with a city girl was the worst thing that could happen.
“I’m comin’, I’m comin’. Jeez, you’d think being injured would make you less bossy,” she huffs, shouldering her pack and meeting me at the entrance to the ramshackle shelter.
“You’d be wrong,” I say, taking a tentative step forward. The light reflecting off the snow blinds me momentarily, but I sigh when I get a good look at the landscape around us. More than a foot of snow must have fallen during the storm. “Make sure your snowshoes are secure. We can’t afford for you to twist an ankle or something.”
Kenna bends at the waist to do as I recommend, with some muttered protests under her breath, which I ignore as I do the same, although far less gracefully because it’s hard to keep one leg straight. She easily fashioned the snowshoes from branches near the wreckage and an old fishing net we kept for fishing charters, reinforcing the net with pliable limbs. The overall result was impressive, though I couldn’t tell her that.
I was too busy psyching myself up. While she checked her shoes and gear, I tested my leg and the makeshift crutches. They seemed sturdy enough, but I couldn’t say the same for my leg. A mass of throbbing pain rockets through me like lightning with each step, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t let her go alone with the guys who shot at us still possibly in the area.
The first few steps make me question my resolve, but after a while, I manage to tune out the pain or at least become numb enough to keep putting one foot in front of another. A day of rest had allowed me to regain some energy, but not nearly enough for what lay ahead.
“So, tell me about yourself,” Kenna says after we’ve put some distance between us and the wreckage. The station is about two miles down the mountain like she thought. If we’re lucky, it’ll only take a couple hours to get there. But more than likely, we’ll get there around nightfall. I’ll have to take frequent breaks and go slowly to avoid further injuring my leg.
“No,” I answer.
“You have something better to do?” She lets out a grunt as she climbs over a rock.
“Yes.”
I can’t see her, but I can hear her scoff. “Oh, yeah? I’m all ears.” When I don’t speak, she says, “Fine, I’ll tell you all about me instead.”
“Oh, great,” I mutter but doubt she can hear me over the sound of her crashing over snow and fallen limbs. It was easier to be a dick to her when I was close to being rid of her. Now that we’re stuck out here together, I can tell she’s trying to cover up how scared she is. And I hate that I fucking care that she’s scared. That I want to make her feel better. That a part of me is eager to hear all about her.
It’s hard to hide how much I want her when we’re stranded together.
“You already know about my twin Kady. She’s a librarian at the school my sisters go to. Her favorite thing is to curl up with a good book. It wasn’t until she met Jamie that she started to break out of her shell a little. He loved to push her, make her try new things. Hiking, traveling, and all that.”
“That was Jamie, alright,” I say and curb the smile that tries to appear at the thought of Jamie and Kenna’s sister happily hiking through the woods. The Jamie I knew would have loved it.
“Anyway, she’s madly in love with him. That’s why I don’t get why he’d take her and disappear. At least not without telling me. He’d have to know how terrified we’d be.”
Her voice starts to grow on me. At least it distracts me from how fucking tired and in pain I am. “Probably has to do with our last deployment.”
I can practically feel her gaze on me. “Your last deployment? Why? What happened? Kady never really told me much.”
“A good friend of ours was killed. Ryan. Ryan Tate. Died in our arms.” I don’t know where the words come from. It’s the first time I’ve talked about Tate with anyone.
Her stumbling quiets as she pauses a few feet ahead of me to turn a sympathetic look toward me. “I’m so sorry, Dean. I didn’t know. Jamie never said anything to Kady that I know of.”
I lift a shoulder in response, mentally brushing away her concern. “Anyway, Jamie had it in his brain that it was a conspiracy. He was real spooked that Tate’s death was intentional for whatever reason. He would never say why because I think he was afraid if he told us, we’d become targets, too.”
Her mouth drops open. “You’re kidding,” she says.
