Page 49 of Risk It All
“Hey.” The unusually gentle note in Henry’s voice brought her attention away from the slope that could easily kill her with one misstep. While she’d been preoccupied with staring downhill, he’d moved closer and was standing right next to her. Her gaze locked on his face, which was a thousand times more reassuring than looking at the rocky slope. “You can do this. We just need to make it over there, and it levels off somewhat.”
When she just stared at him with wide eyes, unable to take that next step that could send her sliding down the mountain, he reached over and took her hand. “Wait,” she protested, her voice sounding higher than normal. “Now I’ll just pull you down with me. We both don’t have to die.” She tried to make it sound as though she were joking, but she couldn’t hide her all-too-serious worry that her clumsiness would kill them both.
He raised his eyebrows in mock-offense. “You think you’d be able to pull me down? Please.” Still holding her hand, he turned and started to make his way across the sloping ground. Pretty sure that he’d just drag her across with him if she didn’t move of her own volition, Cara took one shaky step and then another. The tread on her boots gripped the surface of the rocky ground, and she relaxed a tiny bit as she followed Henry, her fingers clinging tightly to his. It was easier, she quickly found, to keep her eyes on his back, rather than looking down. The lack of trees made the area look dizzyingly huge and empty.
It was hard to believe that her feet could grip on such a vertical slope, and every muscle in her body was tight with the fear that just one bad step could sent her plummeting down. The steepness of the ground made her light-headed when she glanced down the hill. It appeared almost vertical, and every bit of physics knowledge in her screamed that there was no possible way for them to stand on such a slope. She swayed a little, her head spinning with fear and vertigo. Henry’s hand tightened on hers.
She took it step by single step, trying not to think about how far she still had to go. With each successful movement, she felt her confidence grow. Henry had been right. She could do this.
Just then, her boot slid on some loose bits of shale. Her leg pulled to the side, making her body lurch, and she knew she was going down. This was it. The slope looked steep and endless to her panicking mind, and she was furious with herself at the same time. After everything—bullets and car chases and hand grenades—a little bit of loose rock would be the end of her. Her throat clenched on a held-in scream as she braced for the moment she started falling. Her feet slid faster, sweeping out from under her as her free arm pinwheeled, trying to grab something, anything that could keep her from plummeting to the rocks below. Her shoulder wrenched as her body dangled over open space, nothing beneath her feet but emptiness.
She swung in midair, dangling from Henry’s hand.
Before it even registered that she wasn’t going to die, he hauled her upright. She managed to get her feet underneath her, although her legs shook violently, barely supporting her weight.
“Okay?” he asked as she panted for breath.
Ignoring the way her legs trembled from residual fear and adrenaline, she gave a nod, not wanting to speak and hear how shaky her voice was. She was also sucking in too much air in long, heaving inhales to be able to get an intelligible word out. As she calmed, her breath came more easily, although her legs still felt wobbly.
“Ready?” He didn’t even sound breathless, and he was the one who’d been holding her entire body weight.
Again, she nodded, her steps tentative as she followed him across the slope, clinging even more tightly to his hand than before. She carefully placed each foot, testing every step before daring to put her entire weight down. Only when she had her breath back and thought she’d sound somewhat normal did she say something. “You’re really strong.”
He shot a slightly bemused look over his shoulder. “Thanks?”
“You’re welcome.” That didn’t seem right, though. “I mean, I should be thanking you for keeping me from falling down the mountain.” She pictured herself tumbling end over end, cartoon-style, picking up snow as she went until she was stuck in the center of a huge snowball that smashed into the rocks below.
His only response to that was a barely audible grunt, which made her smile. He was really bad at accepting any kind of gratitude, which she found oddly endearing. It made her want to heap gratuitous praise on him just so she could watch his discomfited reaction. Glancing at their locked hands, she resisted the urge, grateful enough for his reassurance and help that she didn’t really want to tease him.
Her foot slipped again, just a few inches, but it was enough to remind her of their precarious position. Forgetting about poking at Henry, she focused on where she was placing her feet, not looking up until she walked right into his back and realized that he’d stopped.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking around now that their feet were planted and she didn’t have to worry about taking a dangerous step. They’d reached another thin patch of trees, where the ground—as Henry had promised—wasn’t sloped as severely as the section they’d just crossed. The sun was brighter, and the patches of snow covering the tree branches were dripping onto the rocky ground below, making it sound as if it was sprinkling.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he said, although the way his eyebrows drew in toward each other contradicted his words. “Just trying to decide on the best way.”
Peering around him, Cara saw what he meant. If they continued straight, they’d run into a patch of loose, broken pieces of shale. After nearly being taken down by a few poorly placed pebbles, she could only imagine how treacherous crossing that would be. The other route took them up above the trees, and she made a face.
“We’re going to have to go up more before we can go down, aren’t we?”
His look was a little bit amused but even more sympathetic, which surprised her. “Yeah. You okay?”
“Sure,” she answered honestly. Having Henry—especially this helpful, evenkindversion of Henry—there made everything feel achievable. There was something about his calm confidence that kept her from panicking, and holding on to his hand felt like a literal lifeline. As they started up the rocky surface that could generously be considered a trail, she could almost pretend that they were on a fun hike in the mountains. Her only complaints were her aches and pains from the day before and the sweat that was prickling underneath her multiple layers of clothes. With the bright sunshine beaming down and their brisk pace, she was starting to get overheated.
Reluctantly, she dropped Henry’s hand so she could unzip her coveralls to her waist. He immediately stopped and turned toward her when she released him. As he watched, she pulled her arms out of the coverall sleeves and then pulled off her fleece top. Leaving the top part of the coveralls to hang down around her hips, she tied the fleece around her waist.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m set.” She waited for him to start walking again, but he extended his hand toward her instead. After a surprised pause, she took it, lacing her fingers with his. Only then did he start walking again. On this flat section of rock, she wasn’t in much danger of falling unless she really tried, so she didn’t need him to catch her. Still, she was pleased he’d offered. She liked having that reassuring physical connection.
Although climbing up was easier than going down, especially when the trail wasn’t sloped, it still took most of her concentration to stay on her feet and keep up with Henry. Every step higher was frustrating in that she knew they’d have to go that same distance down again to get to the river. She tried not to think about that, focusing on one step at a time.
Once they’d crossed above the area with all of the broken shale, they started making their way down, crisscrossing back and forth across the face of the slope.
“If we could go straight down, we’d get there in one-tenth the time,” Cara commented as they made yet another hairpin turn.
Henry gave her a wry look over his shoulder. “Yeah, but the idea is to get there in one unbroken piece.”
“Good point.” She climbed over a sharp, protruding rock edge. Before she could say anything else, a distant hum caught her attention. Tipping her head, she tried to identify the sound. “Do I hear traffic? Are we close to the road?” She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. If they could hitch a ride with a kindly Good Samaritan, that would be wonderful, but with their luck, they were more likely to stumble over some of Abbott’s people out searching for them.
Henry cocked his head as if he was listening. “That’s the river.”
