Page 76 of Their Cruel Love

Go slow.

I don’t take my eyes off the face, pick my way downward, hanging off handholds and toeholds. I check what’s below me and find that railing with my toes, crouch and drop straight down onto the ledge.

My feet hit bumpy rock. It’s flat but debris has accumulated over the years. “Ouch!” I grab at the metal railing to stop myself when I stagger backward. Good of them to install one. Even better that it didn’t rip loose from the cliff when I stood on it. I will need it to get back up there, unless I climb out sideways. I lean out to eye that part of the cliff.Nope. Not doing that.

“Are you okay!” Marcus and Razor are yelling.

“Yes!”

“Jesus Christ!” That’s Marcus, but I’m grinning and too busy examining my find to reply.

“How are you getting back? Do I go get a rope?”

“A ladder would be nice!” I’m joking but maybe they missed that from the next swear words I hear. “Joking! I can get back up.” I’m unfit as a toad that’s been flattened by a lorry, but I can make that small distance. Something to thank stepmum for. A school climbing certificate, level four, used to sit on my dresser. Mother wanted me to be an all-rounder, to make her proud.Barf.

“I’ll yell when I’m returning! There is a ledge.” Duh. “There is a door.” Another old, metal door. The rust streaks are plentiful. No one has been oiling it much, though painting it would be what I’d do to keep the metal happy. The key lock also seems rusty. If only I had… What are they called? Lockpicks. Yes. And the skills to use them. And a bucket of grease.

Have any of our evil hosts seen what’s happening here? Are binoculars are trained on us? Or a drone? I scan the skies and see nothing. If the room thatmustexist beyond the door is used for snuff films by that Killer Crew, this exploration would be a problem for them.

The men have shut up.

“There is a locked door down here!”

I check for windows and see nothing to show there is one. Unless there is a window further around? Which is possible. This ledge is only about three yards long. I lean out and reassess my impending climb, test the railing, again, to check it will hold if I place a foot on it. Then I drag myself upward using it to take some weight. I stand and balance on it, finding handholds above, using the rock to my left to steady myself.

Without proper shoes, the metal is slippery.

If I fall, I die. But if there is one thing Milli taught me, it is that who dares to try, has more fun. Or they do until that final curtain falls.

Also, if you never ever try, you never ever win. The SAS would love me.

When my foot slips off while I’m halfway up, I remind myself of that slogan and my stupidity, while I hang in mid-air over a several-hundred-foot drop, give or take a few yards—I don’t have a ruler on me. If I fall and hit the bottom, it will pulverize my skull, break most of my bones, and turn my brain to mush, that I do know.

Two seagulls swoop below, gliding on air.

I swing there for a few seconds then clench my teeth, curse the skies, and dredge up my bitch attitude cultivated by years and years of being under the thumb of the stepmother from Hell.

I heave my body upward on my puny muscle power, and barely manage to reach and jam one hand into a new crevice, grinding off skin. Then I scramble and haul myself up the last section until the men can grab me and begin to pull me to safety. Hands lock in my T-shirt, under my arm. One of them is lying flat and has me, the other man is holding onto his ankles, so he doesn’t slide off the cliff.

On all fours now, on solid ground, I look around, sweat dripping down my face. It’s Razor who has my shirt still fisted in his grasp.

I roll and lie on my back, lungs dragging in air, my hand stinging, and listen to the guys swearing at me, asking if I’m okay, then swearing again.

I smile up at them. “I’m okay.”

Marcus looks scaredandangry.

Sometimes, you have to say thank you to your stepmum for what she?—

No, scratch that. Fuck no.

“Thank you.” I lick my lips then laugh. “Had to save your fucktoy, hey?”

They both glower at me.

Back to normal.

30

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