Page 7 of Marked by the Mountain Man

“Your leg,” he says. “You’ve lost a lot of blood.

“Tell me about it,” I chuckle, shaking my head and wishing I could wake up from whatever this nightmare is.

Chapter Five

HUDSON

Iexplain, “You’re in shock.”

Classic shock.

Hadleigh breathes in quick, shallow bursts, her skin cold and clammy. Nervous laughter shakes her frame until tears spring to her eyes, and she’s disoriented, unaware of the looming dangers pressing down on us.

“Shock is the least of my worries,” she counters, waving her hand in the air. “If you knew even half of what I’ve been through today.”

“Tell me about it,” I order darkly. Better to keep her talking.

But she presses her lips together, silence overtaking us.

I remove my bugout bag, locating the first-aid kit and the sealed package with bandages and disinfectant. “This may hurt, but your leg needs attention.”

“It won’t hurt,” she says flatly. “I’m so cold, I can’t feel anything.” She speaks thick-tongued. Her flesh is covered in a thousand goosebumps, and I work hard to keep my eyes from her panties, pulled up on one side, revealing half of her shaved camel toe.

For God’s sake, I can’t think about carnality with a storm on our asses and the desperate need to push to higherground animating my tired body. But neither can I deny her mouthwatering perfection.

“Eat this,” I order, handing her a protein bar. I don’t want her to pass out from blood loss.

“I’m not hungry,” she counters, trying to push it away.

“Eat it,” I repeat more firmly.

Her eyes widen, but she grabs the opened bar from me, shoving the end in her mouth. “This tastes terrible,” she complains, chewing like she has a pack of gum in her mouth.

“It’s not for pleasure. It’s for survival.” I add, “We need to warm you up, too. But first, we need to get to higher ground and find shelter.”

“What are you? Some kind of search and rescue guy?” she lisps, struggling to sit up and hand me back half of the bar. I fold the wrapper over the open end and return it to the sack. At least, she ate something.

“No, I’m Hudson Adair. I own Forever After Tattoo Parlor, the shop you were abducted from today.”

“Wait,” she says, lifting her head and eyeing me unbelievingly. She sounds drunk, her words heavy and clumsy, her lips pale blue, and her face icy white. “You’re Andy’s boss?”

“Andy? He goes by Drew at the shop.”

She chuckles. “He thinks a different nickname will garner respect. He doesn’t get the fact that respect is earned, not given.”

Her voice has a caustic tone. As his employer for the last few months, I can sympathize with how frustrating being related to Drew must be.

“Maybe he’ll figure it out someday,” I grunt, tightly securing the bandage covering her calf to staunch some of the bleeding. She’ll need stitches, but we have far more pressing matters to face.

I eye the churning river, noticing the chop of the water has grown more agitated than before. We have to move to higher ground before the gorge floods and sweeps us over the falls.

Eyeing the rocky surface above us, I spy a steep, narrow game trail rising to the top of the cliff face. Thank God. But Hadleigh couldn’t be more ill-equipped for this terrain, barefoot and nearly naked.

Gripping her ample hips, I pull her tight-fitting, damp dress back down to a couple of inches above her knees. I toy with giving her my jacket. But the bulky, oversized coat could be more of a liability. The last thing she needs, climbing a sheer rock face, is an oversized garment that will cover her hands or cause her to slip.

“We have to move now, Hadleigh.”

“Move where?”

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