Page 90 of Trusting Skulls

The sound of footsteps is closer now, hurried.

“Help! Oh god, please help me!”

Rocks slide over the edge, raining down on me as I cover my eyes. Graham’s face appears above me a few seconds later.

“Lexie!” he yells down.

“Oh god, Graham, Ash fell. He fell.” I begin to cry again and push myself up to a sitting position.

I’m sure I look quite the dirty fucking mess.

Graham takes in the scene around me, spotting Ash’s shoe. A slow smile spreads across his face as he sets his gun down beside him. “I’ll get you, sweetie. Just calm down.”

“But he’s down there somewhere. What if he’s dead?”

“Oh, he’s dead.” Graham shrugs out of his pack and then lays down on the ground. “Give me your hand.”

I stand up slowly. “I think I broke my ankle. I don’t think I’ll be able to reach you.”

“Let’s just give it a try. If I can’t get you, I’ll go back and get some rope.”

As soon as I’m upright, I plaster myself to the side of the mountain just like Ash told me to do.

Seconds later, a scuffle erupts above me. I close my eyes and pray.

Please God, please. If you let Ash live, I’ll do anything. Anything!

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Ash

Once he’s laid his weapon down beside him, I begin to move in. Quietly. Stealthily.

I slow my breath, moving an inch at a time as I watch his every move. The minute he’s on his stomach, reaching for Lexie, I pounce.

Only seconds pass before I have him kicked over the edge.

He yells out, but the fucker doesn’t fall far.

“Lexie. Lexie, give me your hand,” I hear him plead.

I lean over the cliff and see him holding onto the rock where Lexie is perched. She’s clinging to the wall just as I instructed her to do.

“Don’t move,” I tell her.

“You can’t let me die, Lexie. You’re not a murderer. Please, just sit down, and put your foot against that little tree there. I just need something to steady myself. You don’t have to pull me up.”

She slowly turns her head to look at the tree he’s talking about.

Rocks slip beneath his feet, the angle of the mountainside too steep for him to get a good foothold.

“Lexie, don’t move,” I warn her at the same time I pick up his gun and point it at him. “Stop talking to her. You only have two options here. Fall or be shot. You might survive one of those things.”

I begin counting back from three. At two he lets go. He knows it’s his only chance of survival, because I won’t miss. He slides several more feet before falling backward. His body disappears into the top of some trees, and I lose sight of him.

“You okay, Lex?” I yell down. She’s curled up in a little ball. “Lex?”

She remains quiet and unmoving.

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