Page 64 of Echoes of You

“Nash,” Caden barked. “Grab the rock.”

I was instantly on alert. Caden’s tone wasn’t the kind giving me a hard time. He sounded panicked.

I righted myself, reaching out for a hand or foothold. The snapping sound might as well have been a gunshot. The rope flew through the air at an unbelievable speed. But everything slowed around me.

The thoughts came between heartbeats as I searched for anything to grip, Maddie’s face flashing in my mind.

My fingers caught on the edge of a piece of rock. My shoulder jerked, and white-hot pain flared through the joint. I cursed but forced my feet and other hand to find purchase. Breathing heavily, I took a few seconds to get my bearings.

Shouts and curses sounded from below.

“Stay where you are,” Holt barked. “Did you not check the rope?”

My back molars ground together. “Of course, I checked. I didn’t feel a damn thing wrong with it.”

“I’ll climb up and bring you a rope,” Holt said. “Everyone else, get back on the ground. I want to do an equipment recheck.”

I glanced down as pain pulsed in my shoulder. I had at least fifty yards to go, but the adrenaline was already leaving my system. “I gotta move, or my body’s gonna give out.”

Holt cursed. “Slow and steady. Someone get the damn mats.”

I could hear a commotion below and knew they were placing the mats for free climbing beneath me. But those wouldn’t help me much if I fell from this height. I didn’t let myself think about that. I only focused on putting one foot below the other. I could barely move my left arm, but thankfully, I could still grip with my hand—it just hurt like the blazes of hell to do it.

As I stepped down, my foot slipped. Gasps sounded from below, but I grabbed the rock with everything I had, righting myself again. The pain had spots dancing in front of my vision.

“You got this,” Caden yelled. “Don’t be a wimp.”

His words had a pained chuckle escaping me. “Sure you’re not talking about yourself?”

“Naw, remember that time I pulled you out of the rapids? You would’ve drowned without me.”

My lips twitched. “You mean when you saved the cooler of beer tied to my innertube?”

“Potato, po-tah-to.”

Caden kept shooting the shit, telling story after story, until I finally reached the ground. When my feet touched the mat, a whoosh of air left my lungs, and my legs trembled.

“Sit,” Holt ordered.

I collapsed to the mat, cursing as pain flared again in my shoulder.

Holt instantly began assessing me. “Your shoulder’s dislocated.”

“I know.”

“We need to get you to Doc.”

I groaned. “She’s gonna be so pissed at me.”

“She’d be more pissed if you got dead,” Caden cut in.

“What the hell happened?” Holt asked.

“I’ve got a decent idea,” Roan said, striding up.

I hadn’t even known he was here today. But what was new? My brother moved with a kind of silence jungle cats would envy.

“What?” Holt growled.

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