Page 41 of Fence

I couldn’t blame him for it. I would ask the same questions if I were still back in the caves, unable to do any searching myself.

Miles’s face settled into hard lines. He didn’t like being second-guessed. “Absolutely. We searched for hours the second time we visited the cave. Not a single clue.”

“It wasn’t only that,” Gate added. “There were no clothes or other belongings. There was no food. Like somebody had gone through and cleaned the place out. The only thing we found were the two computers, and we shipped the hard drives to Mary.”

“Her team will work on taking them apart. Maybe we’ll find something there.” Pierce sighed. “But somebody’s alive. Out there, somewhere. By the time you get home, we might have some answers.”

We couldn’t get there soon enough.

When the call was over, I turned to Ciera. She had remained quiet throughout, but the look on her face told me she was listening. And she was excited.

“This is huge,” she whispered when the guys left to finish packing. “This means…”

“It means somebody’s still out there. We haven’t lost all hope.”

She rose and walked into my waiting arms. She fit perfectly, like she was always meant to be there. Because she was, of course.

She nestled against me. “I’m so glad. I would hate to think of you making this trip and going home with nothing to show for it.”

“Nothing?” I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “You shouldn’t call yourself nothing.”

“You know what I mean.” But she laughed, too. “I’m glad you think I was worth the trip.”

“That’s an understatement.” I kissed her forehead, just beside the spot where she’d hurt herself.

There would be a bruise there for a while, but I couldn’t even be sorry for it—outside the pain it had caused her, of course. If she had run from that cave, we might have missed each other. And she might have gone on with her work, even published her research. And I would never have the chance to protect her from whatever force was out there in the world, working against us. And she wouldn’t be mine.

“I never thought I’d be glad to be such a klutz,” she sighed.

Almost as if she were reading my thoughts.

For all I knew, she could. Standing on tiptoe, she rubbed her cheek against the stubble covering mine before planting a kiss there.

“I’ll be sure to order padding for all the bedroom walls,” I promised with a grin.

She grinned back—wickedly. “I’ll settle for padding the headboard, thanks.”

“Careful,” I warned, sliding my hand down her back and over the curve of her ass. “You’ll make us miss our flight.”

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