Authors: Capri Montgomery
“W
e’ll cut out
the breaks,” Cody said and despite the protest he heard rising in the background he kept talking. “You’ll all be more comfortable sleeping up there than in the middle of the woods.”
They all thought for a moment and kind of agreed that he might be right. “No breaks unless you have to pee or need to eat something.”
“Cody.” Parker gave him a look that told him these weren’t advanced experienced hikers and he wasn’t sure if they could all pull that rate. “Fine, ten minute stops here and there, but no more.” They were all his responsibility, not just Sahara and even though he was more concerned about her right now he knew he had to put the best interest of the entire group above his need to protect this woman. From the moment she backed into him and he held her in his arms against his body he felt something for her. It was pure lust and he knew it. The thoughts running through his mind at the time included all the ways he would love to get to know the soft curves of her body, but now was a different story. Right now he felt as if he had to keep her safe and it had nothing to do with the lust-filled thoughts that had gone through his mind at first sight. She was just so small in stature that he wanted to protect her. She would probably hate that, but it was just who he was and how he was as a man. With her long mousy brown hair and innocent looking pale green eyes she was addictively beautiful. Beyond that, he really did want to declare her his woman—not for a lifetime because he didn’t know her well enough for that—but for as long as they were both willing to see where the road took them he would be willing to continue the journey.
He had planned to explore a date with her after he got them all safely back to base. He was making plans to ask her out then because the business part of the relationship would be over. Now, his mind needed to focus not on the beautiful woman in front of him, but rather on getting her and everybody else back safely. Hiking on an ankle with this kind of damage wasn’t going to be easy—in fact, he knew she wouldn’t be able to do it at all.
“I have to get your boot back on,” he said.
“Does anybody have vodka, rum, tequila…?” She paused for a second. “Just hit me over the head it’ll be about the same,” she managed to say between breaths. At least her breathing had calmed some and she was no longer taking raspy quick breaths. He finished wrapping her ankle the best he could, considering he wasn’t one hundred percent sure of the extent of damage she had. He wished he didn’t have to try to get her boot back on, but while the weather wasn’t freezing cold, it wasn’t hot right now either. It would warm up, but he didn’t want to leave her exposed while they waited for the temperatures to climb.
“You’ll be okay.”
“I can’t,” the tears filled her eyes. He knew that she knew what it would take to get that boot back on her foot and she clearly didn’t think she could do it.
“You can, and you’re going to have to,” he said. “Just think of something pleasant.”
“Oh you mean like the sale at Macy’s or long walks through the park, or that great spa in Sedona that I went to two years ago.” She kept trying to talk to distract herself, but when he finally forced the boot on she hadn’t been able to speak. She took in a sharp breath, but curtailed her scream.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he looked in her eyes.
Tears flowed down her cheeks, but she managed to speak. “It’s okay; didn’t hurt a bit.”
He smiled. “You’re a bad liar.”
“Yep,” she agreed. “Get me up and we can be on our way.”
He knew they had lost enough time and they needed to get moving if they were going to make it. He still didn’t think she would make it trying to hop on one leg. This hike was not for the faint of heart. “We need to hook some of the packs together for you to –” He could tell she was getting ready to protest again. “Look Super Girl, there will come a point going up that trail where we won’t be able to drag you, but until then, you’re riding on the packs.” That was the final word because he wasn’t going to yield to her protest.
“I can pull it,” the Baker boy said. “I’m captain of the wrestling team and I play ball, I can handle an uphill climb while pulling light weight,” he winked and smiled at her.
“Thanks,” she said, trying to keep it light, but failing miserably. Cody wanted to take her pain away, but there was nothing he could do other than try to make the hike a little easier for her. God, he wished Stacey had been the one to sustain this injury instead of Sahara. He knew his wish was wrong because he shouldn’t want this for anybody, but this was Stacey’s fault and if anybody was going to be in pain it should have been Stacey.
Once they got the packs together, Cody lifted Sahara into his arms and carried her over to her new mode of transportation. He made sure she was situated and secured before shouldering his own pack and telling everybody to make sure they had all their stuff before moving out. He looked down at Sahara who didn’t seem to be feeling any relief from the painkillers she had taken. He figured it would take a while. It wasn’t as if he had given her a shot of morpheme or anything like that. Despite being in pain she was handling it well, not complaining, not crying, although she had every reason to cry she was not making demands they would not be able to keep.
He shook his head at himself. “Sahara,” he knelt beside her. “I should have thought of this before, but I can take your boot off and put a few blankets over you to keep your foot warmer.”
“I’ll be too heavy to pull with all those blankets.”
“No you won’t,” Shell assured her.
She looked back to Cody and he could see the apprehension in her eyes. “It would probably be best. My ankle feels really cramped in this boot. Do you have an ice pack in that kit?”
He smiled. “I do, but are you sure you want to do this now instead of waiting until the temperature heats up a bit?”
“If it will help with the pain I’ll suffer the chill.”
He nodded as he took her boot off and tied it to his pack. He took the hot/cold ice pack out of one of their emergency first aid kits, activated it and then secured it on her ankle before pulling the blankets over her. The last thing he needed was for her to go into shock. He was going to keep her as warm and comfortable as possible, but he knew some of the jolting she was bound to take would cause her pain. He wished he could count on somebody else to carry the back load of the makeshift gurney, but he couldn’t and he knew that.
“I’ll share the load once we get to Crescent Drop,” Parker said.
Cody nodded. He knew they would both need to be vigilant once they reached that point, but if Shell walked in the back of the group at that point then Parker could still keep an eye on everybody else. Crescent Drop wasn’t a drop at all; it was a steep ascent but it got its name because people who tried to make the climb over the half moon shaped rocky terrain usually fell back down, thereby making it Crescent Drop. He sighed and shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” he heard her nearly silent voice. He looked down to find Sahara staring up at him. She thought this was her fault? No, she thought his head shaking was because of her and it wasn’t.
“This isn’t your fault. This injury could have been prevented and it had nothing to do with anything you could have done.” He placed his hand on her forehead and smoothed the few strands of hair clinging to her forehead back. He gave her a reassuring smile. Smiling was something he hadn’t been doing much of since Stacey pulled her stunt.
“Okay,” she said softly as she looked up at him with those big doe eyes. The pale green color of her eyes went so perfectly with her mousy brown hair and alabaster skin. She had told him her great-great grandfather had come to America from Romania, married a Dutch immigrant that he met along the way and there is where her lineage information stopped due to paper records not being kept she had no definitive records of what other nationalities happened to be in her family’s past. She just had stories that had been passed down from one generation to the next.
Whatever her lineage she had amazing features, pouty lips, full and ready to be kissed, soft skin, soft eyes, sweet voice and on top of that her body was hot—not thin, not fat, but perfect for her frame. She had curves, proportional and inviting curves that he would love to get to explore hands-on. God, this woman was beautiful. He wanted to know her in so many ways, but right now he couldn’t go there. She was in his care. He was working. There could not be any mixing of business and pleasure no matter how much he wanted it to happen. While he couldn’t pursue her now, when they made it back to base he was pulling off the gloves and making his move.
The hike hadn’t been easy and the hardest part was still to come. Crescent Drop would seem like a cake walk by the time they got to the ridge just before their camping ground. They wouldn’t be able to keep her on the packs going up there and she would have to try to pull the incline on one good leg and an injured ankle.
He had to stop more frequently than he wanted to because Shell was the only one trying to pull the weight, along with help from Parker at times, but nobody else. None of the other men had bothered to offer to help. Cody shook his head at the uncooperative spirit within this group. Instead of forcing compliance he stopped to let Shell rest, eat, breathe and get ready to do more. Shell had thanked him each time which told Cody that the kid now realized being a wrestler and ball player wasn’t the same as taking the wild terrain carrying a hundred fifteen pounds of weight. He was sure Sahara was one fifteen, one twenty at the most because he was pretty good at judging weight once it was in his arms.
By the time they made it to Crescent Drop they had to stop once again to rest. He would have preferred to keep moving because the hour was getting late and he knew the longer they took to rest the more likely they would have to pull the hardest part of the ascent in darkness. He didn’t like that idea, but they wouldn’t be able to stop to rest at the top of Crescent Drop—there was just no way to make that happen. So they took a ten minute break and carried on. Riley almost fell twice, which given his proximity to Shell nearly made the kid lose his balance. If it hadn’t been for Parker serving as a solid anchor Shell would have dropped Sahara and the descent for her could have been fatal. Cody barked out orders for Riley to move up front with his hiking partner although given Riley’s inability to stay on his feet Cody probably should have been worried he might take the entire group out if he fell, but for some reason Cody had more faith in the others ability to stay upright than he did on Riley’s. His move had been a smart one. While Riley had taken a couple more slips he hadn’t impacted Georgia, who was directly behind him. The woman had legs of steel and had no trouble getting a firm grip in the ground beneath her.
When they reached the top he opted for another break. He had to get Sahara off the packs, unhook them and get everybody else back to carrying their own packs. He also had to get Sahara’s boot back on. The swelling was minimal, but it was still there, which meant getting her boot back on still caused her some pain. She had smiled like the trooper she was and assured him she was fine.
“Parker’s going to take the lead and I’m going to help you up that,” he pointed in front of him. “Once we get to the top and hike in a bit we’ll have a stopping point for the night.” He looked at the people standing around him. “You’ll all have to pitch your tents in relative darkness, but we can set out some of the glow sticks to light it up until everybody is settled.”
“Okay,” Julian Dawson said and the others followed suit. At least they weren’t protesting the move. Maybe they all realized they didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t camp down here. They would have to get up to the stopping ground in order to camp.
“Put your arm around my waist and I’ll help support you so you can keep the weight off your ankle.”
She nodded. “Sounds like a good idea to me,” she said nearly breathless, thus proving the labor it was taking for her to move without the use of one ankle. It was going to get a lot more difficult for her, but he would be there, helping her as much as he could.