She turned back around indicating the conversation was done before I could tell her I had had pieces chiseled off by a skilled manipulator myself. A few days ago I didn’t want to show any kind of weakness, refused to be vulnerable and open to anyone witnessing the struggle I was having, pulling my tattered shield back in place. This unexpected adventure had shown me that it wasn’t a weakness to hurt or to let other people know you were hurting.
The craggy rock formation was suddenly jutting up out of the earth in front of us, appearing far taller and sheerer than I was anticipating. My instinctive fear of heights made me balk and had sweat breaking out under the brim of the hat on my head. My hands were shaking as we rounded the formation. Ten put her hands on the rough stone and hefted herself up a few feet off the ground.
“Just step where I step, and move slow. It’s only fifteen feet or so to the top, but that’s far enough off the ground to hurt if you slip and fall back down.”
I rotated my stiff shoulder and sent up a silent prayer to whatever god kept an eye on the working men and women of this untamed land and started to follow the blonde up the rocks. She made it look like a piece of cake, even though she had a rifle strapped to her back and was still wearing her knapsack loaded down with supplies.
It wasn’t easy.
This was no leisurely afternoon rock climbing trip. There were no harnesses, no helmets and gloves. There was no Cy at the bottom encouraging me and telling me that he had me and wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me. The rocks cut into my palms and scraped across my fingertips. I ripped most of my fingernails off, to the point that they were bleeding, and my injured shoulder protested loudly every time I had to swing that arm over my head and dangle by the very tips of my fingers, as I scrambled to find a foothold. My heart was in my throat the entire time and I don’t think I took a single breath the entire twenty minutes it took me to inch my way up to the top of the outcropping. When I got to the crest, Ten immediately yanked me down to my stomach which rubbed my knees against the rock surface and ripped holes in my jeans. I was wheezing like an asthmatic which had Ten slapping a hand over my mouth as she jerked her head to the side.
“They built their camp a few hundred yards north of where the clearing is. They kept it in the trees so you can’t see the tents from overhead. They must know we use aerial imaging for search and rescue missions and to scout hotspots in fire season. There’s no way anyone would see the camp from the air.” She breathed the words in my ear so quietly I had to strain to hear them. She asked if I was good and only let go of my mouth when I nodded.
She rolled to her stomach so that we were stretched out side by side and put the radio to her lips.
“We have a visual on the camp. It’s approximately two hundred yards north of the clearing, back up in the trees. I can see at least four big military tents and they have a whole bunch of all-terrain vehicles parked around the camp. I don’t see anyone and can’t tell what tent they might have our people in, but this is no small operation.”
I squinted in the direction she was looking and couldn’t hold back a gasp as I saw not only the mini tent city hidden away from prying eyes, but also a familiar looking horse tied up near one of the tents. Now, there was no doubt that these people had Emrys and Sutton.
“That horse is the one Em was riding when we split up.” I tried to keep my voice quiet but I was shaking so hard it came out choppy and louder than I intended.
Ten gave me a look and then spoke back into the radio. “We have confirmation that the horse the woman who was with Sutton Warner was riding is tied up at the compound. Tell Cy to check that tent where the horses are first when he gets to the camp.”
“Roger, ranger.” Webb’s voice crackled back at us, tense and tight. “Give us fifteen and then set the flares off. We need as many of them as possible out of the tents if we want any chance of getting our people out.”
Her face was set in hard line of concentration. “We’ll do what we can from up here.”
The radio came to life once more and there was no missing the taunting humor in Webb’s tone, even through the static that popped and crackled over the top of it. “Just make sure you’re aiming at the bad guys and not at me when I go in and fuck shit up.”
She swore under her breath and put the radio aside so she could dig the flare gun out of her backpack. She handed it to me and asked, “Was he like this the entire trip?”
I gave an awkward half shrug and tried to find a comfortable spot on the rock to fire the flares from.
“Not really. Neither he nor Grady said much because they were lying about why they were on the trail. Webb thinks the guys in charge of the growing operation might have something to do with his older brother’s disappearance. He’s been a little off since they ambushed us and put a bullet through him. He’s not the kind of guy I would want coming after me with revenge on his mind.” And it had little to do with the fact the young man had spent time in jail. There was something about him, something a little unhinged and reckless, that let me know he was the kind of man who didn’t give a single thought to consequences or risks.
“He thinks that one of the bodies we pulled out of the river might belong to his brother?” She sounded stunned and a little bit sad when she asked the question.
“He does. We didn’t know about the body until right before the ambush. He convinced Grady to come on the trail ride thinking his brother was missing. You can’t really blame him for being slightly unpredictable. Not to mention all the blood he’s lost over the last twenty-four hours.”