Page 58 of Natalie's Nighthawk

Lauren’s last words rang in her head. “I’m not.” What did she mean by that? She wasn’t what? She wasn’t going to kill her. Natalie was still alive. So that made sense. Lauren wasn’t going to kill her herself. No, her plan had been much more devious. She was going to let the elements, starvation, dehydration, hypothermia … whatever … do it for her. Natalie hadn’t been shot, but she was as good as dead trapped down here.

Unless she could think of a way to get herself out. She had climbed with Graham a few more times since that first time, slowly building up her arm strength. But could she climb out of this? One-handed? That remained to be seen. She had to at least try.

With her uninjured hand, she reached out and felt for the walls. What were they made of? Dirt? Stone? Whatever it was, it felt damp. Circling the pit, she heard sloshing in one spot. There was still water in here. If she wanted to survive, she had to make sure to stay away from that water or she’d freeze to death. Back on the dry side, she felt the walls again. Okay, she could do this. She just needed to find some handholds. Or dig some out.

Keeping her injured arm out of the way, Natalie reached up as high as she could with her uninjured hand. She dug her fingers into the damp earth. Trying to dig as much of a handhold out without the rest of the earth around it crumbling away. The dampness of the dirt was helping. When she was satisfied, she reached lower. She lifted her left leg as high as she could, measuring where to dig out a toehold. She dug two, shoulder-width apart from each other.

She held her breath as she placed her toes in the first hole while reaching up for the handhold. Okay, so far, so good. She balanced her weight on her toes and proceeded to dig out another hole where her foot could reach. Then another one slightly higher. She gingerly moved one foot to the next hold and pushed herself higher, grabbing the handhold she’d already made. Head throbbing, she paused to breathe. Damn the pain. It was so hard to concentrate.

She kept at it. Dig, pull, dig, pull. She thought she got about halfway up when the dirt turned drier. Each hold crumbling as soon as she put any weight on it. She attempted to dig one more, refusing to admit defeat. But the wall she was clinging to gave way. She fell with a scream as dirt and rocks collapsed on top of her.

Dazed, Natalie lay still. Her hair and injured arm in the water. Tears threatened. Hopelessness seeped in.Stop it!

Get up! Okay, she could do that. She put her hand down in the water to push herself up, momentarily forgetting the injury as pain swamped her.Fuck. Fuck.FuckityFuck.She gasped, hugging her arm to her chest, willing the pain to ease as tears threatened. She looked up, resolutely compelling the tears to dry up.

Okay.Donotdo that again! She had to remember her injury or things were only going to get worse for her.

She nearly laughed out loud. How could things get worse? Things were already bad. As bad as bad can get. She took stock of her situation. Again.

Natalie tried standing, but the pain pulsing in her head made her dizzy. She plopped her butt in the newly fallen earth, her back against the wall, injured arm cradled in her lap. Thankfully, the dirt she’d knocked down made a nice little pile. Which meant she was slightly higher, away from the water.

She shifted slightly to dislodge the rock that was digging into her ass, but the damn thing followed her.Wait! That wasn’t a rock. Cell phone! How could she be such an idiot? She hurriedly dug it out and looked at the display and her heart sank. No service. She held it higher, thinking that would help. Nope. She struggled to her feet and held the phone as high as she could. No use. She dropped back down in defeat. The tears that had threatened finally spilling over.

Chapter 20

Natalielayonherside; her injured right hand cradled between her breasts. She shivered, kicking herself for not grabbing her heavier parka.

She hurt. Everywhere. She’d tried climbing again this morning, only to fall. Hard. She may have bruised her ribs this time. Or maybe broken one or two. The cold was making things worse. Her body tensing as she shivered, triggering muscle aches.

She wondered vaguely what day it was. Saturday, she thought. Saturday night. Or maybe it was Sunday morning by now. She was too tired to take her phone out to look. No matter what, she’d been in here for over twenty-four hours now. Surely, Maddie knew she was missing. She had to have gotten people out searching for her. Natalie thought a few of the Nighthawks had stayed behind. Finch, perhaps. Or maybe Jude. Maddie would certainly have gotten their help.

The problem was they didn’t know where to start the search. She hadn’t left a note or a text to anyone to let them know where she was going. She imagined Graham would have been trying to reach her too, if the number of calls he’d made the other morning was any indication. He might know something was wrong when she didn’t answer any of his texts or calls. He’d mobilize the team. All she had to do was hold on a little longer.

Or he’d think she was still angry with him. In that case, he would give her space.

Her stomach growled, tearing her from her morose thoughts. She moaned.I get it already!You’rehungry! Well, too damn bad. She hadn’t thought to pack a meal. It was just going to be a simple walk with a friend. How wrong she’d been. She certainly was glad now that she had eaten the cheese and crackers before this little adventure.

Natalie started humming to distract herself from her misery. That only worked for so long, though. She pulled her phone out instead. If she was going to die, she wanted to leave her loved ones a message. She pulled up the messaging app and started to record. Her first message was to Maddie and her dad. She let them know she loved them, and she was sorry to leave them.

Next, she began a message to Graham. It was harder than she thought it would be. She wanted more time. Time with him. A future with him. She wanted to make a home with him. Have his children. Grow old together.

She told him she understood his anger the other night and that she forgave him. Then she told him how much she loved him and how happy he made her. As she spoke, she started to cry again. She sniffed back her tears as best she could to finish her goodbye to Graham. She didn’t know if anyone would ever get those messages. Maybe someday someone would find her skeleton and her cell. Maybe they could even retrieve the messages. She doubted it would ever happen, but she’d had to do it anyway.

Natalie put her phone back in her pocket. It was nearly dead anyway. She lay still, letting the tears slide down her face. Regrets overwhelming her again. So much wasted time. Twelve years of wasted time. A month of wasted time.

Had it only been one month since that day in his office? Natalie tried to think back. It’d been late October. A day that was so dynamically different than the one twelve years ago. One day held a chill in the air. The other day’s heat stole your breath. And yet those two days were also similar. The easy camaraderie. The instant attraction, at least for her. She wasn’t sure if he’d been as attracted to her as she was to him all those years ago. But that kiss he gave her…The way he’d grabbed her back and deepened it. The way he’d held her, could he have felt what she did back then? She liked to think he did.

And since that attraction had had twelve years to simmer, when they finally were together again, it boiled over. Exploded. Their passion was intense. He made her feel things beyond her wildest imaginings. He was beyond good in bed. An Adonis. And she, his Aphrodite. She could hardly believe he had been all hers. At least for a little while.

She wondered morbidly how long it would take him to move on after her. She hoped to hell he wouldn’t move on with Lauren. She kicked herself for not telling Graham about Lauren in her message. Pulling out her phone again, she attempted to record another message. The damn device died before she could finish.

She had to get out of here. But how? She’d tried everything she could think of, injuring herself further. The well was too deep. Too dark. She had nothing to help her.You still have your brain! Yeah, but she couldn’t think of anything else to do. She was so tired. So cold. She fell asleep even as she yelled at herself to think.

Grahamheldherin his arms. He was so warm. So soothing. She felt so content. She loved laying in his arms. Loved the attention heshowered on her.Loved to feel his fingers stroke her back.Her hair.Amoanofgratificationescaped her lips.She reached up her right hand totouch his face.Jeez Louise, that hurt.She let it fall limply as the pain radiated up to her shoulder. Frowning, she looked at the offending hand.Had she injured it somehow? Maybe it had just fallen asleep.She’dfeel the pins and needles of it waking up soon.Her mind drifted. Away from the pain.

So tired.She struggled to keep her eyes open. She wanted to gaze at Graham for a while longer. Memorize every feature. But her eyeswouldn’tobey. They were so heavy.“Chickadee.” She could hear him call.She wanted to wake butcouldn’t.“Chickadee.”He was louder this time. She felt herselfrecoil. Hisvoice explodedharshly. Urgently.Something was not right.She foughtto wakeup,but she was so tired. “Chickadee! Wake Up!”

Natalie awoke with a start. Convinced she’d heard Graham. She looked up at the roof of her prison. It might be daytime. But it was darker than it had been previously. Slowly, her sluggish brain registered the rain. It was raining. Hard. Falling through the holes in the plywood that had been her lifeline to the light. Filling her prison with water. Water creeping steadily toward her. She scrambled back away from the growing puddle knowing instinctively that with these temperatures if she got too wet, it would be game over. But she’d get wet anyway. The rain would see to that.

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