The Gilded Cage (11 page)

“Fenn?”

“Yeah?”

“Will someone find us?” She tucked her chin under his.

“Yes.”

“What if they don’t?”

“They will,” he vowed. If they didn’t, he’d climb the damn mountain himself in order to get help. “This road is heavily traveled, or it will be by morning. Someone has to see the semi-truck. It didn’t come down here with us, so it must still be up there. I hope the driver’s alive.” There hadn’t been any falling debris or an explosion from above. He prayed the man was all right, if he was, he might be able to get them help.

He knew they would be found, but he didn’t know how long it would take. In this weather, they could both go into shock. He wrapped his arm more securely around her shoulders and tucked her head under his chin, hoping that the sharing of warmth would keep them both safe for now.

Fenn closed his eyes. A flicker of surprise, a pinprick of pain trespassed behind the layers of his consciousness as exhaustion took its toll.

Where are you?
The voice asked, tentative, searching. His voice. Why was he asking himself where he was? He already knew that.

Halfway between Elk’s Pass and Walnut Springs.
He focused on visualizing the sharp bend, the semi-trailer crashing into them, and the steep fall off the ledge.

I will make sure you are found, brother.

The last word was so faint he was convinced he was stepping into dreams. The voice in his head was just his voice, no one else’s.

“Help is coming,” he assured Hayden, but she’d already fallen asleep. How she could fall asleep after what they’d just endured amazed him, until he found himself yawning. The adrenaline was wearing off. The storm gave way to dull endless rain as night took over, and finally he gave up hoping they’d be found before dawn.

E
mery jerked out of the uncomfortable hospital chair with a gasp. His heart pounded and he blinked rapidly. After a moment he remembered he was safe in the hospital with Sophie sleeping in her bed nearby.

Yet he’d been dreaming of a winding road through mountains. He’d seen a crash, an explosion, a lonely ledge with two bodies huddled together on it.

“Oh God!” He dug around in his coat pocket for his cell phone and dialed Wes.

“Emery, everything okay?”

“I should be asking you. Where’s Fenn?” His chest burned as he held in his breath.

“Uh…well, he went to town for supplies with Hayden this morning.”

A small well of hope blossomed in his chest. “And they’re back.”

There was a heartbeat of a pause, then Wes replied. “No. They aren’t. But Hayden accidentally left her purse and cell phone here. They were supposed to be back tonight.”

“Are there mountains where you are?”

Wes laughed, but it was a nervous sound. “It’s Colorado. Of course there are mountains.”

“Ha, ha, you bastard.” Emery rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

“Why?”

“This is going to sound insane, but I think something’s happened to Fenn. A car crash, maybe? On a mountain road, a sharp bend, halfway between—” He wracked his brain for the remnants of the dream. “Elk’s Pass and Walnut Springs. Do those names sound familiar?”

“Yes,” Wes said. “I’ll call as soon as I know anything.”

Emery exhaled. “Thank you.”

After Wes hung up, Emery leaned back in the chair again and tried to relax.

“Emery?” Hans Brummer, his bodyguard and friend, leaned in the open doorway, alert despite the fatigue on his face.

“It’s Fenn. Something’s happened. I dreamt he was in a car accident. Wes is going to try to find him.”

Hans closed the distance between them and rested a hand on Emery’s shoulder for a brief second.

“If he’s survived this long, have faith in him now. He’ll be okay. Wes will find him and bring him home.”

It was so easy to lose himself in his own grief and worry that he sometimes forgot others around him. He could only imagine how Hans must feel. Hired to protect one of a pair of twins, every instinct demanding he protect both men—how could he feel about all of this? To know Fenn was alive yet unable to go to him must be hurting Hans, too.

Once Fenn was home, everything would heal in time. It had to. Emery wouldn’t accept any other outcome.

“Thanks, Hans.”

“Why don’t you rest for a bit? The nurse said they can bring in a portable bed so you don’t have to leave Sophie.”

That sounded good. He really hadn’t slept well since the night before. The last twenty-four hours had only allowed for some restless catnaps.

“That would be great.” He scrubbed his hand over his face and focused on breathing deeply as his bodyguard went off to find the nurse and the cot.

Emery was bone weary. Early this morning he’d told his parents the truth, and it had unleashed a floodgate of emotions he hadn’t realized he’d been holding back. Only a few days ago he’d finally told his parents what had happened the night he escaped his captors, how Fenn had stayed behind to buy Emery time to escape. And then how—as Emery had been sprinting across the field away from the crumbling mansion that had been the twins’ prison for three months—he’d heard the gunshot and felt it explode out of the back of his head, as if he’d been shot himself. Then everything had gone dark in that shared part of his soul. Fenn was dead, or so he’d assumed, since the connection between them had been severed.

But now…now he could look back over the last twenty-five years and recall singular odd moments when the connection had been there, faint and tainted with pain and confusion, but there nonetheless. What he’d assumed had been delusions had actually been glimpses into that tenuous connection.

The door to the room opened, and Hans rolled in a small bed which he dropped onto the floor. It folded out and he tossed a small pillow on one end of the thin mattress.

“Get some rest,” Hans ordered as he prodded Emery toward the cot.

Emery almost laughed. He was thirty-three years old, but Hans still treated him like the eight-year old boy he’d been hired to protect. Even now, in his early fifties, Hans was an impressive man, solid and muscular, and didn’t look much older than his early forties. He’d signed on to protect Emery as a young man, and had spent his best years doing just that.

“Hans?” Emery eased down onto the cot and smiled ruefully as his friend took the seat he’d just vacated.

“Yeah?” The other man rested his hands on his thighs, within easy reach of the gun concealed by his jacket.

“When this is over, you won’t have to protect me or Fenn.”

He hoped Hans would pick up on the implied meaning. He’d wasted his life on this job, and it might be too late to marry and have a family.

“Perhaps,” Hans grunted.

“Your mission will be done. You’ll be able to move on.”

Hans chuckled. “Trying to ditch me already?”

“I mean it,” Emery said. “I’ve cost you your whole life. I don’t want it to be like that forever.”

Hans turned in his chair, propped one elbow on the armrest and stared at him.

“That’s what you think? That watching out for you was wasting my life? Kid, you are a real idiot sometimes.”

Kid
. Even after all these years the nickname heated the inside of his chest and made him feel safe. Violence had taken so much from him, made him doubt himself, but Hans had brought his confidence back, taught him strength, discipline, and street smarts.

“Here’s the truth, Emery: I need to protect you as much as you need me to. When your father hired me, I was alone in this world. You and your parents became my family. I’ve never wanted anything else. So quit worrying, and go to sleep.”

Emery lay back and sighed. “Some things never change,” he muttered, but he was finally smiling as he closed his eyes.

Warmth almost completely covered Hayden. Little shivers of cold tickled her nose and her cheeks and one of her arms. She shivered and searched blindly for her blanket to tug it up around her shoulders. Instead, her hands were trapped against her body by a large masculine arm. Groggy and a little confused she opened one eye, and then froze. Straight ahead was a steep descent and then a forest for miles, illuminated only by moonlight. Storm clouds were barely visible in the distance.

Where the hell—

She seized, every muscle going rigid as memories of the crash ripped through her mind. She and Fenn were on a ledge nearly twenty feet down from the road. Her body felt bruised and battered, and the sudden tensing didn’t help.

“Oh God,” she whispered, forcing a hard swallow as she tried not to let terror strangle her. She was sitting upright but leaning into Fenn’s body. Although she could see he was asleep, his hold on her was solid and strong. The man never ceased to amaze her; even as he was most vulnerable, he was still strong enough to protect her.

Wind whistled across the cliff face with such force it roared in her ears. Somehow she had managed to fall asleep in this. Maybe she could do it again.

“Hayden!” The shout was distant and seemed to cut out in a few places, like her grandfather’s old transistor radio when she toggled the knobs.

“Fenn! Where are you?” Another shout, more audible this time. Had she heard right?

Struggling a little, she shook Fenn awake. He came around quietly but quickly.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Listen.” She cupped her ear, hoping to hear better.

“Is anyone down there?” A flashlight beam cut like a silver dagger through the black night above them.

“Here!” she tried to shout, but it came out a hoarse, whispery noise. Even after she coughed, she couldn’t make a sound loud enough to be heard. The sudden wave of helplessness engulfed her. If they weren’t found because she couldn’t scream…

“Down here!” Fenn bellowed. The sound carried up the rock face, sliding between the slivers of invisible wind.

More beams of light arced down through the air, and then hit her and Fenn in the face.

“Found them!” someone shouted above. “Bring me a rescue harness!”

The minutes that followed seemed to last forever. She held her breath until she was almost dizzy and her lungs burned. Finally something black on a rope scraped its way down the mountainside and landed in her lap. It was a large body harness.

“Here, let’s get this on you.” Fenn moved back and pulled the harness out farther so he could see the straps in the moonlight.

“You g—go first.” Hayden stammered a little and covered his hands with hers when he tried to put the harness around her waist.

He growled like a wolf, warning her she was treading on dangerous ground.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“But—”

“Hayden, if you go there again, I’ll brand your ass with my hand, even if I have to do it on this damn mountain.”

She was too tired and on edge to argue. He wrapped the straps around her thighs, stomach and shoulders before tugging the rope, testing it.

“She’s ready to be pulled up,” he shouted to their rescuers. The rumble of his voice was so loud it made her entire body vibrate.

The rope gave a mighty jerk, and she flew up a few feet, hanging in the air like a panicked cat, clawing wildly and spinning. The rocks below seemed to shoot up toward her.

“Hayden, calm down.” The deep commanding tone snapped her back into focus. The next time she spun toward the cliff, she caught hold of the rock and held still. The flashlights fell on her again and stayed there as the rope started to drag her up in slow increments.

Refusing to look down, she kept her eyes locked on the dark outlines of the rocks right in front of her, carefully grasping handholds. After three minutes, when she’d exhausted the French alphabet and the first one hundred numbers to keep calm, strong arms reached for her and helped her up over the cliff and back onto the road.

“Hayden, thank God!” Wes was squeezing the life and breath out of her, but she didn’t fight. She was so relieved to be alive that all she could do was stand there, legs trembling hard enough her knees knocked together. The second her brother released her, she crumpled to the ground.

“Fenn, get Fenn,” she gasped, struggling to get the harness off herself, cursing when her hands got tangled.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” Jim Taylor knelt beside her and helped Wes remove the harness. “Callie’s over by the ambulance. Let’s take you there so she can help you, all right?” Jim’s fatherly concern was so comforting that he willed her panic into a useless little emotion at the back of her mind. He lifted her up and with an arm around her waist, helped her to walk over to the ambulance, where red and blue lights were flashing.

“Hayden!” Callie rushed to meet them and hugged her fiercely. “I’m so glad you’re okay. When we got here…we feared the worst. The truck driver hit the inner part of the mountain. He’s in critical condition. They’re rushing him to the hospital. We only knew where to look for you because he said something about the cliff right before he passed out.”

Hayden tried to listen, but everything inside her was suddenly numb. Sounds were muted and her vision spun slightly, enough to make her dizzy. She fell against the side of the ambulance.

“You okay?” Callie gripped Hayden’s arm, holding her so she wouldn’t fall. Two paramedics rushed over.

She was prodded, poked, her eyes examined, her blood pressure measured. But she wasn’t really listening. Her gaze was riveted to the cliff’s edge. Only when she saw Fenn’s hands clawing at the earth, and then his head appearing over the edge, did she actually relax. Her brother hauled Fenn up and away from the cliff. They spoke in hushed tones and Hayden wished she could hear what they were saying, but they were too far away. Her mouth opened in shock when Wes pulled Fenn into a hug and slapped him hard on the back before letting him go. As they walked toward her and Callie, both of their faces were solemn. Only when Callie seemed positive Hayden wouldn’t collapse did she dart over to Fenn and hug him.

Wes watched the interaction, eyes cold and dark as a winter sea. Then he blinked and focused on Hayden.

“What happened?” He brushed a lock of hair back from her face with gentle hands.

“The semi-trailer’s tire blew out, I think. It happened so fast. I wasn’t really paying attention,” she admitted. That whole time leading up to the accident she had been indulging in a pity party and staring out the passenger side window. All because Fenn had chastised her—correctly, of course—and she’d acted childishly. What if they had died? Her last few minutes in this world would have been wasted.

“We were coming around the bend when the trailer’s tire blew. I steered away from it. My truck landed in a tree and we were able to get to that ledge before the truck crashed down into the ravine.” As Fenn effectively summarized the single most traumatic event of her life, all she could do was stare at him.

The paramedics checked Fenn over and re-bandaged his ankle. Jim, Wes, and Callie stood by in quiet vigilance while Fenn and Hayden recovered from the ordeal and the police took their statements.

Once everything seemed to be winding down and the sheriff’s deputies assured them they could leave, Wes pulled out his cell phone.

“It’s me. We found them. They’re okay.” Wes told someone then paused, listening to whoever was on the other end of the line. Hayden would have bet her life he was talking to Emery.

Wes’s gaze flicked to Fenn. “I’ll ask, but I can’t guarantee he’ll agree,” he said into the phone, and then he held it out to Fenn. “Your brother wants to speak to you.”

“Your brother wants to speak to you.”

Fenn stared at the phone for a long moment, torn in two directions. If he didn’t take the phone, he could keep burying this supposed new truth. If he did take the phone, he’d be facing what scared him most, the past…and the future.

He reached for the phone, cursing silently when his fingers shook as they closed around the slender box. He raised the phone to his ear and let his gaze fall on Hayden. Seeing her grounded him, made it possible for him to do this. Her lips were parted, and she seemed to be sucking in shallow breaths. She mouthed, “You can do this,” and gave him an infinitesimal nod. He swallowed hard then opened his mouth.