He disappeared up the rock face, then when he reached a ledge, he walked into some opening she couldn’t quite see.
A few moments later, he reappeared and bounded his way back to her side. “This will work. It’s high so that if the bastard who paid for your abduction sends a search party, we won’t be immediately visible. There’s a little bit of an overhang to protect us from the wind. We’ll still have to watch for things like scorpions and mountain lions, but we were going to have to be cautious about those wherever we stopped.”
Some protective rock sounded great, but . . . “How do you expect me to get up there?”
He crossed his arms over his chest as if this point was nonnegotiable. “You’re going to climb.”
Automatically, she shook her head. Yeah, she wanted to be brave, but she knew her limitations. That wasn’t happening. “I can’t. I’ve never climbed a rock like that in my life. I don’t know how, especially in the dark. Isn’t there something else closer to the ground?”
“There might be, but I’m not wasting more time searching for it. We need to eat something, drink more water, get settled, then catch some sleep. You might find that harder as the sun and the temperature come up.”
And he wouldn’t? Then again, she knew from that military film of her father’s that hard-core soldiers like him could close their eyes and sleep just about anywhere. They trained themselves to grab a few minutes of shut-eye here or there, never knowing when the opportunity would come again.
Mystery looked up the face of the rock again. It wasn’t a sheer vertical climb, but it still looked steep and daunting. She tried the honest approach. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m scared.”
His body language relaxed, losing the stiff and authoritative stance. Instead, he bent to her and clasped her shoulders. “I’ll be with you every step of the way. The man who abducted you didn’t defeat you. The desert hasn’t gotten the best of you. A few rocks won’t, either. I’ll take your pack up with me. You’ll do great, princess.”
It had to be the trauma of the last few days, coupled with lack of sleep. She teared up. His encouragement was some of the nicest words anyone had ever said to her. He believed she could do it—whatever she set her mind to. No one expected her to be capable of anything. Her father had always indulged her and told her to do whatever she enjoyed. So she’d shopped a lot, read, hung out with friends, and had done just enough to slide by in school. College had been more for show than anything. Daddy was an implacable, driven man. Kind of like Axel. Suddenly, she was a little ashamed that she hadn’t developed more drive or more spine as she’d grown from a child into a young adult. Maybe Axel was right; maybe she could do this.
“I’ll try.”
“You’ll succeed,” he promised. “You watch.”
She gave him a shaky nod.
He bent a little lower and put his face directly in front of hers. “Be verbal. We’ll need to communicate as we climb.”
She’d forgotten. “Yes, Axel.”
He picked up his pack and slung it over his beefy shoulder beside the rifle, then took Alvarez’s pack, stuffed with a canteen and most of the food, in his hand. “Now grab that rock just above your head. When you set your fingers back deep enough, you’ll find there’s a little dip that will make a nice ledge for your grip.”
He eased the strap of her pack up his arm, to rest in the crook of his elbow, then anchored both of his hands around her hips. As he touched her, pure lightning heat zipped through her body, flashing to her extremities, then conflagrating inward, centering between her legs. She gasped. That had never happened to her. Ever. The few boys she’d had sex with in high school had been ultimately uninteresting and forgettable.
Somehow, she already knew she’d never erase Axel from her thoughts.
“Something wrong?” he asked, releasing her middle from his grip.
“No.” She swallowed and tried to think of a plausible lie. “I just can’t believe I’m going to do this.”
“Believe, princess. You’ve got too much spark to let a rock defeat you. Put your right foot on the jutting section of that stone at knee level. Yes,” he coached as she did what he asked. “Now just use your hands and the muscles in your legs to pull yourself up. It’s not much different than climbing a tree.”
Mystery refrained from mentioning that she’d never climbed trees as a kid. There weren’t many in Beverly Hills not manicured within an inch of their lives. Besides, the nannies her parents had hired when she’d been younger would have had a heart attack if she’d tried to shimmy up some bark to hang out on a limb.
“Sure.”
Axel gripped her hips again, and as she hoisted herself up, he gave her a push, his thumbs so, so close to cupping her butt. Did he think of her as a child? Or had he noticed that she was a woman? The thought distracted her from all worries of falling and breaking half the bones in her body. Suddenly, she stood on the little outcropping and had a better view of the vast landscape all around them, along with Axel smiling up at her with something like pride.
“I did it!” Mystery knew she wore a cheesy grin that TMZ and the tabloid press would make fun of, but she didn’t care.
“Told you. Wait for me there. I’ll coach you through the next level.” He reached for her pack, tossed it up to her, then headed up the face of the cliff again, climbing as if he’d been doing it forever.
She watched in fascination, then felt her body ping when he stood beside her again. The ledge was narrow. They had to stand close. Axel didn’t touch her, but she wished he would.
She sent a smile up his way before she felt heat rush through her, and she pretended to look up as if studying the next part of the climb. “Now what?”
“This part is a bit trickier . . .”
But like before, he coached her up, holding her by the hips and lifting her when the rocks beneath her felt a little crumbly and unstable. They repeated that twice more before she stood at the top of the hill and glanced at the outcropping as he pulled himself up beside her, slinging the last pack onto the ledge below her feet.
“Here we are. You did great.”
She loved the way he encouraged and praised. It seemed unusual for a soldier to be so good at what her father would call touchy-feely stuff. Even his communication skills were amazing. Mystery wondered where he’d learned and gotten so much practice that it seemed as natural as breathing to him.
“With a lot of help from you, thanks. The rescue was harrowing, but the journey since could have been grueling and terrible. You’ve made it really . . . all right.”
He nodded her way, pretending to tip his imaginary hat at her. “Just doing my job, ma’am.”
She giggled. “That is the worst cowboy accent.”
“We all have our limitations.” He shrugged.
In her estimation, he didn’t have many. He’d make a great husband and father someday—if he wasn’t already. OMG, she hadn’t even considered that. She’d been mooning over him and crushing hard, and he might already have a significant other in his life. The thought deflated her. He was too awesome to be alone, and imagining him with a wife or girlfriend tugged her into a sad little exhaustion.
“Here’s our home sweet home for the night.” He pointed to an alcove under an overhang of rock. Another outcropping protected them from the fierce oncoming wind swiping at them up this high.
It didn’t look like much, but it certainly beat dropping onto the sand and trying to drift off, she supposed. She ducked under the overhang and started to lower herself to the cold rock below.
“Wait.” He fished through his pack and extracted a flashlight, quickly scanning the area. Seemingly satisfied, he flipped it off, then pulled out a thin, khaki blanket with a tinfoil-looking lining. “We’re clear. I needed to check for scorpions and any other venomous creatures that like warmer, dark spaces.”
Yikes, she hadn’t even thought of that. “I’m glad we’re alone. I don’t like pinchers.”
“It’s not just the
bite, but the venom. Bark scorpions lurk around here. I know a guy who got stung once. He said it was the most painful seventy-two hours of his life. They’re hard to see because they’re about a third of the size of the desert hairy variety, but those suckers can be lethal. We’ll start a fire to keep them away. They burrow. They like warmth but not flames. So now we just need to be careful of rattlers doing their equivalent of hibernating. They’re too sluggish to move this time of year because they’ve already hunkered down against the cold, so if you disrupt them, they’re more likely to strike.”
He knew everything about the landscape and the wilderness. Again, he filled her with total awe. Kind, smart, built, manly . . . “Is there anything you don’t know and can’t accomplish?”
Axel looked taken aback. “I don’t think I’d do too well if you tried to put me in a ballet.”
Mystery tried to picture him in a tutu and burst out laughing. “Probably not.”
“But I cook a lot, sew when I have to, keep things tidy because I don’t like clutter.”
“The woman in your life is really lucky. My dad can’t boil water. And he won’t pick up after himself. I’m constantly moving his stuff out of my way.”
He shrugged, and she held her breath to see what his answer would be. The whole fishing expedition was a little silly. He probably had no interest in her, but that didn’t stop her from wishing.
“I probably have it easier since I live alone,” he said. “I only have to keep up with myself.”
He sounded single. That made her sizzle. He might not consider nineteen grown up . . . but she was pretty mature by virtue of being an only child and having grown up in Hollywood. Dad tried to shelter her but she’d experienced more than a few adult vices. She wasn’t an innocent kid. Maybe if Axel saw that, he’d see her as woman enough for him.
“Let’s get settled,” he suggested before she could continue their conversation.
That would probably be best. She felt a bit tongue-tied, and the wind was picking up. Alvarez’s jacket blocked some of the cold, but her exposed legs were freezing.
Axel spread out his blanket, then crawled in and bunched his jacket into a makeshift pillow. He set it against the rock behind him and eased his head back. Then he patted the spot beside him on the odd silvery material. “C’mon, princess.”
Sleep curled up with him? She flushed hot. No, it wasn’t exactly a sex invite, but lying beside him, sharing blankets barely big enough for two, entwined together all night . . . it seemed so intimate. She wasn’t a virgin but she’d never actually shared a place to sleep with anyone of the opposite sex. Her heart stuttered.
“Something wrong?”
Mystery wished she could have a minute to herself, but where? The little ledge on which they slept wasn’t big. Two steps in any direction and she’d be falling down the mountain, probably to great injury or death.
“No. I’m good,” she lied, then dropped to her knees beside him. She couldn’t stop herself from looking into his eyes as she slid under the blanket. It was a buffer from the wind, but Axel was far warmer. Being against him was like cozying up to a blast furnace. After hours of feeling her hands stiff and tingly from the chill, she breathed a contented sigh.
He dragged his pack into his lap and unzipped a bulging pouch. It tipped over and into her lap. Holy cow, that sucker was heavy. And he’d been carrying it all day? Slinging it around like it weighed nothing?
“Sorry,” he muttered, then righted it again, delving inside.
“It’s fine. I guess we’re going to be really close up here. Not a lot of space.”
“Roger that.” Moments later, he withdrew two brownish plastic pouches from his backpack and handed one to her, along with another bottle of water. “I want it all gone.”
Mystery held the little package and tried to read the black writing in the dark. She didn’t have a lot of luck. “What is this?”
“MRE. I think you’ve got the meatballs in marinara sauce.”
She tried not to wince. How was that going to work without a microwave? But she knew soldiers survived on these all the time. It fueled them while they defended the country, so she could swallow it down and just thank God she was still alive. “Good. What about you?”
“Scalloped potatoes with ham.” He smiled at her in the darkness. “They all suck. You get used to it.” He bumped his MRE with hers. “Bon appétit.”
“Bon appétit.”
As she pulled her meal open, a little glow warmed her inside. They felt a bit like a couple on a camping trip, having an adventure for the hell of it. With Axel, she could almost forget that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to abduct and keep her hidden from her father and the world. Beside Axel, she felt safe again.
Oh, she had it for him bad.
In silence, they ate. The dehydrated meals tasted like cardboard, and she’d be damn glad to get back to some of her favorite restaurants. She’d certainly never look at a ham sandwich again without thinking about her terrifying days at the shack.
“How did you find me in the middle of nowhere?”
Axel swallowed a bite and washed it down with some water. “The club had a parking lot cam that captured footage of your abduction. We noted the license plate of the van. Whoever pulled the job either didn’t know he was being taped or didn’t care if we caught the plate number. We managed to pick up that same plate number on freeway cams on Highway 14 heading north out of Palmdale, so we knew the general direction he’d headed. The last place we picked him up on camera was on the 395 junction with 190, and he headed east. From there, we worked with the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office. We did a thermal sweep of the area, and they were able to tell us where the heat signatures from towns and settlements should be. We started investigating anything that didn’t belong, which led us to you.”
“Wow, you made quick work of finding me.”
“We got a couple of lucky breaks, and your father moved mountains to make it happen.”
Money talked. It always had, and Dad was never afraid to throw it around if he believed in the cause. “I’m so grateful to everyone involved. I’m particularly sorry for Carr’s and Alvarez’s families. I feel awful that my stupidity caused their deaths.”
He took her hand in his. “You weren’t stupid, and nothing you did caused their casualties. You were being a teenager, Mystery. Which meant you were sneaking away to do typical stuff teenagers do. You didn’t ask to be kidnapped. When Carr, Alvarez, and I took the job, we knew the risks. We plan as much as we can for every eventuality and all do our best not to get dead. Not every mission goes our way. It’s something you accept as a soldier.”
“Carr and Alvarez did something for me I can never even thank them for. I feel terrible for the wives and children they left behind.”
“Carr only had a mutt I’ll probably inherit. His parents passed away last year. He never married or had kids. Alvarez’s wife, Rose, will take it hard. They’ve only been married two years. Their son is six months old.”
Hearing that was like a stab in the heart. She had to talk to her father when she got home, see if he could do anything to help the poor woman who’d just lost her husband and become a single parent.
“But if I hadn’t gone to that awful club . . .” she choked out.
“If the asswipe who took you hadn’t accepted that job, if someone with cash and a nefarious purpose hadn’t contracted your abduction . . . Mystery, it’s really not your fault. Don’t beat yourself up.”
“Do we have any way of knowing whether the guy you killed outside the shack is the same one who took me?”
Axel nodded. “Yeah. That’s him. I pulled off his ski mask and saw the same prince charming who appeared on the traffic cams. I got a good look at his face on some footage from a gas station where he stopped to fuel up.”
That was a terrible relief, to know that the bastard who’d forced her into the van and taken her away couldn’t do that to anyone else ever again. But that presented another problem. “Do we hav
e any idea who hired him?”
Axel looked reluctant to answer. “No. It will take a little longer to identify this guy and comb through his finances, see if we can track the mastermind that way. Your captor was a pro, though. Whoever hired him wasn’t an idiot. I’m not expecting to find anything but a dead trail.”
Anxiety seized her. “So that means whoever wanted me kidnapped in the first place could do it again. He could hire someone else to—”
“Maybe. But you’re more aware now. You know better than to have your head in your purse while you’re walking through a dark parking lot. When I get you home, you need to take self-defense classes. When you go out, observe some basic safety precautions—go out in groups, always be aware of where you are and who’s around you.”
“My dad will hire a bodyguard, I’m sure.” The idea depressed her a bit. This whole incident smacked her again. It represented the end of childhood, freedom, and in an odd way, innocence.
She’d grown used to the idea of her father being so public and everyone wanting to talk to him. Mystery had always regarded