Page 35 of Take a Hike
He went still, staring at the splintered wounds for a frozen second before Charlie found herself being grabbed and rolled beneath him.
“Umf,” she grunted, squashed between his considerable body weight and the rock-hard ground. She was pretty sure there was a pine cone jabbing into her right shoulder blade too. “What are you doing?”
He ignored her question, his gaze scanning the surrounding area, his face set in grim lines.
Before Charlie could politely request that he stop squishing her into the unyielding rocky ground, her leg buzzed. With some wriggling, she managed to retrieve her cell phone from her pocket.
“At least I didn’t break another phone.” She lost and broke and drove over enough electronic devices on the regular that she wasn’t sure if her sisters would provide her with another one, and she didn’t want to have to pay for a new phone just because she needed to save a rather ungrateful Kieran’s life.
When she finally managed to get the screen within viewingrange, she saw another text from Rory.
All clear
Relief swept over her, and she gave Kieran a poke in the ribs. “Let me up, Keeks. Rory says we’re all clear.”
“Keeks?” His massive form didn’t budge, and the press of his very heavy and attractive body was starting to give her hormones some inappropriate ideas.
“You didn’t like Kiki, so…” She shrugged as well as she could while being pinned to the ground.
“What’s wrong with Kieran?”
“Too long. Now move. We need to see if Rory has footage of the person shooting at us.”
“It’s two syllables. Two.” Despite his grumble, he shifted off of her, rolling to his feet with an easy fluidity. “Exactly the same number asKiki.”
Shaking off the distraction of watching the way his muscles flexed beneath his clothes as he moved, Charlie shoved herself up with far less grace. “You okay?” she asked, belatedly realizing that they hadn’t checked for any injuries. She scanned over his body and then what she could see of hers. Adrenaline could hide pain pretty well—at least until it wore off and a person realized their arm was missing.
“I’m good. You?” His gaze raked over her, and she could almost feel a physical stroke following the track of his eyes.
Not seeing any blood, she hopped in place a few times, checking for any pain and also to expend a little of her pent-upenergy. “Fine. Finer than usual, even. Let’s go find out what Rory saw.”
They made their way through the woods toward the gun shop. Charlie prided herself on going with the flow, but getting shot at wasn’t something she experienced on a daily basis—which was probably a positive—so she found herself to be a tad jumpy. Every crack of a twig or chirp of a bird made her flinch, and her head swiveled back and forth as she tried to take in the entirety of her surroundings in one glance.
A huge hand enveloped hers, closing around her fingers with a gentleness she’d not expected. Surprised, she swiftly turned her head toward Kieran, who was looking as cranky as usual, possibly even more than usual, which was understandable, with the shooting and all.
“We’re okay,” he grumbled, the tone not matching the words at all. It was so unexpected for him to attempt to reassure her that she was struck silent for a solid thirteen seconds, until a shrill whistle came from a tree across the parking lot.
Charlie, to her infinite embarrassment, jumped at the sound, her head snapping around to locate the source. Kieran overreacted even more, yanking her behind him as he fell into a crouch that seemed to scream that he was ready to wrestle any foes into submission.
“Yo! Charlie!” a voice shouted, and she felt even more ridiculous for the way she was acting.
“Not now, Bones,” she called back, turning toward the gun shop door. “There was gunplay this time.”
“We heard it!” Bones yelled back from the tree she and Rhyshad chosen for a reconnaissance spot. “We didn’t see who shot at you, but we just wanted to tell you that it wasn’t us! Any of us! Dave can’t hit the broad side of a barn with a firearm, and the rest of us like you too much to shoot your head off.”
“Good to know, Bones.” Charlie gave a wave over her shoulder without looking toward the treasure hunter’s tree. “I appreciate you not wanting to kill me! Except for Dave, but I guess that’s fair, considering the whole Grand Junction incident.”
An offended yelp came from behind a different tree, drawing her attention to the poorly camouflaged man attempting to hide behind it. “You promised you’d never bring that up!”
Kieran’s strangled cough-laugh had a bit of a snarly edge to it this time, which Charlie could appreciate. The treasure hunters were a lot to take sometimes—most of the time—even when they weren’t all acting like fairly benign but also incompetent stalkers.
Charlie paused before turning back to the tree holding Rhys and Bones. “Who’s the sixth?” she called.
“The sixth?”
“There were five treasure hunters—you two, Dave, Tassie, and Lachlan. Now there are six of you. Who’s the late arrival?”
There was quiet, only broken by faint muttering as, Charlie assumed, Bones and Rhys discussed the sixth treasure hunter. “There isn’t a sixth,” Bones finally shouted.
