Page 16 of Creed (Rock Hard Mountain Men #3)

Kayden

Two days.

We’d been held captive for two days. Locked in a small, windowless room, there was no sunlight to show us the passing days, but there was a clock to mark each second that ticked by.

At least there was a bed. When we’d been dragged off, I’d feared these crazy cult people would lock us in a dungeon of some sort, but it was just a regular room. Small, and likely underground, based on the staircase we’d been brought down to get here, but a normal room otherwise.

I sat on the bed and leaned against the wall as I watched Creed work at the desk in the corner.

The room had very little furniture, literally just the bed and the desk.

It was barely big enough for one person, let alone two, so although Creed was technically across the room from me, he was still close enough for me to reach out and touch if I wanted.

He’d agreed to decipher the journal for the cult leader.

There wasn’t really another choice, unless either of us suddenly turned suicidal.

Even when Creed had stood up to the cult leader, acting like he wouldn’t give in to the old man’s demands, I knew it had been an act.

Playing along with what they wanted was our only means of survival.

Still, it had been terrifying, and I’d bitten the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood to keep myself silent during the nerve-wracking moment when Creed had been staring the leader down.

Now he sat hunched over a table, pouring over the papers spread across its surface. The cult hadn’t trusted him with the original journal but had instead given him copied photos of all the pages.

For hours at a time, Creed just sat there, constantly scribbling on a notepad. I had no idea what he was doing, but based on his frustration he didn’t seem to be making any progress.

Over the last two days, my fear had quickly given way to boredom. There was nothing to do but stare at the blank walls while Creed worked.

Curious, and with nothing better to do, I waited until I noticed Creed’s pen stop scratching over the paper and left the bed to stand beside him.

“Any luck?”

Creed leaned back in his chair, making the old wood groan, and stretched his arms above his head until his back made an audible crack.

“No sudden breakthroughs, if that’s what you’re asking.”

I picked up the notepad, looking over what he’d been writing. It looked like the same gibberish that filled the journal.

“What exactly are you doing?”

With a heavy sigh, Creed threw his pen down onto the table.

“Well, with these kinds of things there’s generally two ways to crack a code.

The first is to study the author and figure out what kind of code they would use, and they probably would have written about so that you know what you’re looking for.

Unfortunately, this author has been dead for nearly a century, and nothing is known about this journal, so that’s not an option. ”

“So, what’s the second option?”

He looked up at me with a tired grin. “Brute force. I keep trying different methods until something works.”

“But...” I turned my gaze back to the pages and pages of nonsense letters. “That could take forever.”

“Not if you know where to start.” He pointed at one of the pages lying on top of the pile.

“Small words, with only one or two letters, are the key. Assuming this is written in English, only two words are spelled with a single letter. ‘I’ and ‘A’. Plus, there’s also only twenty-four commonly used two letter words.

So, I make an assumption on what the word is supposed to be, and work backward to figure out what kind of code would result in the letters found on the page.

Then I take that code and see if it works on any other words.

Rinse and repeat until I find an answer. ”

So far, despite all the pages that Creed had filled with writing, I still wasn’t seeing any words.

“So, are you close?”

“Nope.” He picked the pen back up, tossing it in the air a few times before pulling over a new sheet of blank paper.

“I think the author might have used multiple layers of codes, or different codes for different types of words, but I’m going to finish writing out all the possible options first before moving on to other ideas. ”

The desk only had one chair, so I threw myself back onto the bed rather than continue standing around.

“Why? If you know you aren’t on the right track, why keep plugging away on an idea that isn’t working.”

Creed’s pen hovered just over the surface of the blank paper without touching it.

“Because the longer this takes me, the longer we can stall for time to figure out a way out of here.”

My mood instantly dimmed. I’d almost forgotten why we were really here. For now, we were safe so long as it seemed like Creed was giving them what they wanted, but the cult would only wait so long.

And if Creed did succeed at cracking the code and deciphering the journal, then they would have no reason to continue keeping us alive.

The scratching of Creed’s pen on paper was the only sound that filled the room for several minutes.

Each new letter that he wrote set my teeth more and more on edge until it felt like my nerves had been twisted into corkscrews.

I wanted to scream and bang my head against the wall, but when I finally managed to open my mouth, my voice came out incredibly small.

“I’m sorry.”

The sound of Creed’s pen stopped.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

I rolled over on the bed, so I was facing the opposite wall away from him. “You’re only here because of me.”

For a minute there was nothing but silence, but then wood scraped against wood as Creed pushed his chair away from the table. A moment later, the bed dipped and Creed lay down behind me. His arm wrapped around my waist and his nose pressed against the back of my neck.

“I repeat, what the hell are you talking about?”

Even under these circumstances, I couldn’t resist the urge to turn around so I could get a better view of Creed. I’d pined after the man for so many years, that being able to hold him and be held by him still felt like a dream.

“You only got captured because I dragged you off into the woods for a dumb camping trip. If I hadn’t been so selfish, you’d be back safe in the home you were building with your friends.”

Our foreheads pressed together, and Creed bumped his head against me just hard enough for it to feel like a reprimand.

“Brody and Magnus have both been attacked, and even captured, several times already. Sitting safely at home is no guarantee that nothing would happen, especially with determined enemies like this. Besides, it wasn’t dumb. It was for your job.”

Dipping my head down, I buried my face under his chin so I wouldn’t have to look directly at him.

“No, it wasn’t. I told you before, remember? My publisher wanted to send me somewhere else. I only begged them to let me take a domestic trip, so I had an excuse to come see you.”

“Oh, right.”

Creed’s voice had an awkward hitch to it, and for a moment I thought I’d made him uncomfortable, but when I tried to pull away, he just held me tighter.

“Kay?” The sound of my nickname on his lips made me shudder.

He spoke those three letters as if he were tasting them, and it felt almost as intimate as a kiss.

“I meant to ask this earlier, but when you first told me why you actually came out here, it sounded like you’d been interested in me for a while. ”

I sighed and pressed closer against his chest. If he was going to continue offering physical comfort, then I was going to keep lapping it up for as long as I could.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I’ve been... Well, there’s no easy way to say it, but I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”

I thought he would question the word love. After all, it had only been a few days since my confession. I’d been obsessing over Creed for years, so love was an easy word to use, but for Creed this must all feel like it was happening very fast.

However, he surprised me. Instead of fixating on the word “love” like I’d expected, he instead latched on to a different part of my admission.

“A long time? How long, exactly?”

I tried to just shrug and play it off like I didn’t know the answer, but Creed didn’t accept that. He called me by my nickname again, using that same intimate tone of voice that filled me with warmth all the way down to my toes, and I was helpless to keep anything from him.

“I guess I always kinda had feelings for you, but I knew for certain that I was in love with you when I was fifteen.”

Drawing back to put some space between us, Creed tipped up my chin, so I had to look at him.

“Your fifteenth birthday party?”

I cringed. “You remember that?”

“I remember you threw a fit. I didn’t remember why you were upset, but you said that I was a terrible friend and then didn’t talk to me for two weeks.”

I desperately wanted to look away from him, but he still held my chin, so I was forced to face him.

“You brought that girl from our class as a date to the party. I wanted to die inside, watching her sit on your lap like she belonged there. It took all my self-control not to drag her off of you by the hair.”

Dark eyes opened wide as Creed gaped at me.

“That’s why? Fuck, I don’t even remember her name.

What was it... Cindy? Carol? I don’t know.

We dated for like, two weeks. The only thing worse than dating her was trying to break up with her.

” Creed suddenly stopped talking for a moment, and I could practically see the lightbulb flash to life in his eyes as he made a connection.

“Oh, that’s why you started talking to me again. ”

“Don’t remind me,” I mumbled. My face burned with embarrassment as I recalled the childish actions of my teenage self. “God, I was a mess when I was younger. Still am, but now I can at least hide it better. Younger me was a jealous little monster.”