Page 20

PATRICK

I was sweating hard and it had nothing to do with the heat outside.

Our movements were slow, and after traveling all fucking day, we’d probably made it a mile from our original location.

My whole body was shaking from the pain, and Piper was exhausted from hauling me around.

We wouldn’t be able to make it much further tonight, and we had no water. Fuck, I’d made things worse.

Thankfully, we hadn’t seen the bear all afternoon.

“Alright, stop,” Piper sighed, her legs practically collapsing beneath her feet. “We need to stop.”

“I can keep going,” I gritted out, but I couldn’t. Not really. My leg was fucking broken. I knew it the moment I tried to put weight on it. I had basically been hopping the whole fucking walk, using Piper to haul my ass around. We were both exhausted, but stopping here was tantamount to suicide.

“I can’t. Not yet. I need a break.”

I nodded, allowing her to help me to the forest floor. Relief flooded me the moment I was off my leg. The pain was excruciating, made worse by hobbling around instead of putting my damn leg up, but doing nothing wasn’t an option. Not if we wanted to live.

“I’m going to walk ahead and see if there’s a good place to stop for the night or maybe another spring.”

“That’s not a good idea,” I warned. “I don’t like the idea of you wandering out there on your own.”

“Afraid for my safety?” she grinned, though it was forced.

“Afraid for mine. You might wander off and leave me out here. You’re my only protection,” I teased.

She chuckled and got to her feet, barely taking a rest. She was still walking around barefoot, and her feet had to be torn up by now, but she didn’t show any signs of pain, and she hid her exhaustion as best as she could.

I wanted to give her a weapon to protect herself, but I didn’t even have my gun on me.

I couldn’t bring it through the airport, and hadn’t gotten it back on the plane.

I was too focused on getting the hell off the ground.

Luckily, before she walked off on her own, she took my walking stick.

It was of no use to me without her, but at least she could use it to defend herself.

She looked back at me after walking a few feet, her eyes worried as she looked at my sweaty form. “I won’t be long. Don’t go anywhere.”

Despite feeling like shit, I chuckled at her joke and waved her off. As her form disappeared in the distance, the pain became overwhelming and I started to drift off. I tried to fight it, but with nothing to distract me from the pain, I quickly lost the battle.

When I came to, Piper was leaning over me, her eyes filled with concern and something else. It didn’t take long to recognize that I’d been out for a while when I saw the position of the sun. I took stock of my body, glad that the rest had lessened the pain in my leg a degree.

“Any luck?”

“I found a cabin. It’s a hike, but there’s water and a few old cans of beans that are questionable.”

And yet she still came back for me. I was a little surprised by that. She was resilient, but she could have easily left me out here and collapsed in the cabin. I wasn’t about to wait around when a cabin was close enough to spend the night in. Piper looked exhausted and had to be dehydrated.

“Alright, let’s get moving.”

She got to work helping me up, and then we were off, trudging as quickly as possible through the forest. It was painfully slow-moving, and as the sun set, I began to question whether or not we’d get there any time tonight.

But just as I was thinking we should call it quits for the night, the cabin came into view under the moonlight.

“Almost there,” she panted, her arms shaking as she helped me hobble along.

“You know, when this is over, I’m gonna buy you the fanciest, most expensive dinner ever,” I panted, seeing spots in my vision. I needed water, too. Fuck, I wasn’t sure I was gonna be able to move after this.

“No thanks. I already dated a man who bought me expensive dinners. That didn’t turn out so well.”

“Right,” I huffed. “A Big Mac, then.”

“How about tacos? Or Chinese food.”

“Let’s not talk about food anymore.”

“Agreed.”

It took us another ten minutes to get to the cabin, but getting inside was just as fucking frustrating as walking up a hill.

The steps damn near killed me, and as soon as I saw the couch, I nearly wept for joy.

In just a few more steps, I was to the couch and being lowered down on my ass.

Piper positioned my leg carefully on the couch and then was off, rummaging around in the kitchen.

I was going to ask her what the hell she was doing, but I was already fading out from the massive amount of pain coursing through my body.

“Drink this.”

My eyes fluttered open, staring at the woman sitting on the edge of the couch. Damn, she was beautiful. “Where’d you get that water?”

“The sink. I boiled it first. Thankfully, they have a gas stove.”

How long had I been out that she boiled water? The glass was already cooling, which meant it had been sitting around for at least a few minutes. I was a fucking wreck. After helping me sit up, she grabbed some cushions from another chair and stuffed them behind me so I could lean back on them.

The water coursed down my throat like sandpaper. I never thought I would be so fucking thirsty in all my life. But even when we were by the stream, we didn’t have that much water since the pouch was so small. At least now we could boil more at a time and rehydrate.

“Get some for yourself,” I said, taking another swig of my water.

“I’ve got some. We need to clean up your leg. I found a few supplies, but nothing that will do much good other than to clean the wound.”

“It’s fine,” I muttered as she started to remove the splint.

The pain increased with every move she made, but there was nothing that could be done.

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists as she quickly worked at pouring water over the wound and dabbing at it with an alcohol swab.

When she was done, she wrapped it in gauze and reset the splint.

It wasn’t enough, but it would have to do.

“Now I need to see what food we have.”

“Don’t fucking poison me with beans that are expired. I don’t think I could handle it after walking all day.”

“I make no promises.”

I watched her get up and move around while I laid there like a useless lump on the couch. It was supposed to be me taking care of her. I was the protector. I was the man who was supposed to look out for her while we were lost, and instead, she was doing all the damn work.

Having had enough, I sat up and worked my leg to the edge of the couch.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snapped, rushing over to me.

“Helping you.”

“With what?”

I ground my teeth, annoyed at the anger in her tone. “With whatever needs to be done. I’m not gonna lay on my ass until we’re rescued.”

She huffed out a laugh, her penetrating gaze almost frightening. “Let me tell you something, buddy. I did not hobble through the forest with you, only to have you pass out in a cabin and leave me here all alone to deal with God knows what. You will sit your ass down and do as I say.”

“Is that what they tell you to do in your romance novels?” I snapped.

“No, the men are usually just as pig-headed as you are.”

“Then maybe you should fucking listen and let me do it. Maybe I’ll be the one to get us out of here.”

“Ha! You’ll be the one who gets us fucking killed!”

“I’m not the one who argued with a bear!”

“No, and you’re also not the one who made the bear disappear. That was me!”

She had a point there. Not that I had to like it, but I hated that she pointed it out to begin with.

Grumbling, I leaned back and listened to her, but only because she looked exhausted, and the sooner she finished, the sooner she would sit down.

This had nothing to do with the nearly blinding pain that was shooting through my leg.

I stewed on the couch, forcing myself to stay awake as she rummaged around in the other room.

But it was the scent that mostly kept me awake.

I’d recognize that scent anywhere. Finally, after what felt like hours, she brought over a bowl and shoved it in my face.

I forgot all about how old the cans were as the scent of Bush’s Baked Beans filled the air.

“God, I love these,” I groaned as I shoveled a spoonful into my mouth.

“They’re just beans.”

I paused as I was about to eat more and glared at her. “Just beans?”

She scooped up a bite and swallowed it with a shrug. “Yeah.”

“They are not just beans. They are the king of beans!”

She snorted at that. “I had no idea there could be a king of beans.”

“Okay, technically, there’s not a king, but if there were, this would be the king.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it. I’ve never much cared for beans, and if we’re here too long, I might never want to eat them again.”

“Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” However, the reality was that we didn’t know how long we would be here. It shouldn’t take that long for the team to find us, but just in case, we needed to ration our supplies. “How many cans do we have?”

“Seven,” she admitted, her eyes flicking to mine momentarily. “That won’t last long.”

“No. We should probably stick to one can a day.”

She nodded, scooping up another spoonful. When she was done, she took my bowl and headed into the kitchen and rinsed the bowls. “We should get some sleep.”

“I don’t think I can move,” I admitted. “You should take the bed.”

She hesitated for a moment before heading to the back. Once she left, I finally let the pain take over and passed out.