Page 27 of The Hero Within
"Would I do that?"
"Colton."
He sighed. "I wouldn't do that. I would never deliberately try to make you feel uncomfortable."
She fell silent.
It was hard to trust him. She'd spent so many years painting him as the devil in her mind, but his statement forced her to reevaluate. It sounded sincere. And while he'd laid hands on her since they hit Rimside, he'd kept his touch respectful.
Blankets rustled and her eyes began to focus in the near-dark, making out a large black blur sinking into his bedroll. Colton sighed as he hauled his blankets over him, and the faint light from under the door glinted off sleek muscle.
Eden resumed her silent vigil of the ceiling, her heart starting to pulse a little swifter.
"Besides," he murmured into the quiet room. "I don't touch women who don't ask for it. I only touch them when they beg me to do so."
Eden lay so still she was barely breathing. She turned her head. "That would be a cold day in hell."
Somehow she knew Colton was smiling.
"So you keep saying. Go to sleep, Eden. You're safe. I promise. And tomorrow's going to be a big day for both of us."
Chapter Seven
Eden stoodon the mesh platform as the reivers in Rimside slowly lowered them into the enormous canyon in a rickety elevator cage that looked like it had been repurposed from an old mine shaft. CJ pressed against the walls, his eyes closed and his breathing shallow as they were slowly winched down. Sweat darkened his temples and he refused to talk to her as they descended, merely shaking his head and focusing on his breathing.
Afraid of heights. Huh.I'd have never guessed.
Not that she could entirely blame him. It wasn't as though she was looking down at the expanse that dropped away beneath the mesh. Nope. Far better to keep her gaze fixed on the horizon and pretend they weren't a mile over nothing.
She'd gotten her first true glimpse of the Divide this morning, while Colton paid the bribes. The massive escarpment sliced through the land as though two enormous hands had wrenched the earth apart when the meteor hit over seventy years ago. Sheer cliffs dropped into the enormous canyon and she could see the ripple of undulating tors sticking up here and there within it. If she squinted she could just make out the other edge, miles away.
And that was where they were going.
But first, they had to cross the treacherous Divide. Nobody lived down there. Nothing human anyway. Few people even ventured within it, unless they were desperate. Fewer still made it across.
For the first time, she was grateful CJ had talked her into bringing Johnny Colton.
"Are you ready?" Colton murmured, and Eden realized he was watching her face and no doubt reading all her nerves.
He'd been dressed when she woke that morning, but his dark hair had stuck up in patches, and his eyes had been sleepy. Morning Colton was a sight to behold. He'd also kept to his word last night and hadn't made a move toward her.
She locked down her expression, brushing a loose curl behind her ear. "More than ready. How long is it going to take to cross this canyon?"
"Two or three days. If we're lucky. And maybe another once we're out. Depends on how well this crossing goes."
Three or four days. Plus the two she'd already been traveling for. She could hear the clock ticking down in her head.
Six days to get to Cortez City, at the most. She'd been banking on five. Then she had to locate the facility Chin had warned her about, and somehow extract enough of the plague cure and a vaccine to protect the rest of her people, before heading back.
They wouldn't make it in time.
The world blurred in front of her, and her lungs squeezed. She couldn't breathe.
"Kneel," Colton said sharply, his hand curling around the back of her neck. The heat of his touch broke through the icy chains that bound her heart as Eden went to her knees.
Colton squatted beside her. "It's okay. Just breathe."
"I'm fine."
