Midnight Sacrifice (31 page)

Where was she? Stretched out on his belly, shoulders hanging over the precipice, rain ran into his eyes. “Mandy!”

He strained his ears but heard only the rush of water and wind.

“Where are you?” he shouted.

“Here.” Her voice was strained.

Danny batted the underbrush aside. He caught a flash of bright orange. Her jacket? Lightning flashed. And he saw her, hanging onto a tree root five feet below him. Her feet dangled a few yards above the river.

“Hold on.” He slid back. Where the hell was her backpack? There. He spotted the yellow-and-black nylon on the trail where he’d dropped it to try and catch her. He dug out a coil of rope, tied one end around his waist, and made a loop at the other end. Returning to the trail edge, he tossed the loop toward her. “Grab this.”

Her free hand swiped through the air and missed. The base of the root, loosened by her movement, jerked partially out of the dirt.

“Oh!” Mandy slid another foot down the nearly vertical slope. One hand clutched the loosening root while the other clawed at
the dirt for another purchase, but there wasn’t anything else for her to grab. Pebbles and dirt cascaded into the river below.

“Stop moving.” Danny coiled the rope and threw it again. It bounced on the slimy slope beside Mandy’s head. She inched a hand toward the rope ring until she gripped it in a tight fist. Slowly, she pulled it to her body and worked it over her head and one shoulder. The root sprang free.

“Ah!” She let go and caught the rope in both hands. Danny shifted back on his haunches and pulled on the rope. He dragged her up over the edge and back onto the trail.

She lay still in the mud for a minute.

Danny crawled over to her. He put his hand on her back. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and sat up. Her hood had fallen back. Rain plastered her hair to her head, and her sodden ponytail dripped. Mud splattered her face. “We have to get moving.”

That’s my girl.
Danny stood and helped her to her feet. He picked up her pack and stuffed the wet rope inside. She led the way up the trail while the rain, driven sideways by the wind, lashed their faces. A hundred yards farther, she stopped and pointed to the left. “There!”

Danny looked where she pointed. Between the sheeting rain and the dark, he didn’t see shit.

She led him away from the river. The trail widened around an outcropping of boulders. Thirty feet of sheer rock rose from the earth. Danny put a hand to the wall, which was already blocking some of the deluge. They continued, circling to the side opposite the river. Millennia of rock movement had resulted in a five-foot-deep, ten-foot-wide overhang that looked as inviting as a five-star hotel.

Mandy shone her light into the space. “Empty.” She sounded disappointed, as if maybe the girls could’ve found this tiny hole. Danny was just glad there weren’t any bears inside.

She scuttled into the space. Danny followed. He couldn’t stand without hunching his shoulders and ducking his head, but the tiny shelter was blissfully dry.

The tent and a fire wouldn’t both fit in the tiny space. Since the overhang was blocking the rain, the warmth from a fire won the mental coin toss. “Let’s see if we can start a fire.”

“OK.” Mandy’s voice trembled, and her teeth chattered. “Our chances of finding dry wood aren’t good, but I have fire starters, which should help.” She set her pack on the packed earth. Her hands were shaking from cold or effort or both. “I’ll scrounge up some mostly dry wood.”

He was not sending her out in the rain. Danny emptied one of the packs. “I’ll do it.”

She didn’t argue. With her can-do attitude, she must be in worse shape than he thought.

He tightened the cord around his hood and stepped out of the shelter. The rocks blocked most of the rain. Danny rooted around until he found some nearly dry pinecones and twigs under a fallen tree. Using the knife blade of his Leatherman tool, he scraped dry timber from the underside of the tree and stuffed everything into the backpack to keep it dry. He scouted under rocks and logs for moderately dry wood and gathered an armload before heading back to the overhang.

When he was shipped off to Iraq, he’d thought the training exercises in the woods had been a waste of time. Finding dry stuff and keeping warm hadn’t been an issue over there. Now he was grateful the army had prepared him for survival in multiple environments.

Danny dumped the dry bits from the pack in the rear of the shelter. “We’ll start with some of that. Make the fire small so we can keep it going. Build it at the edge in case the damp stuff smokes.”

“I got it.” Mandy knew what she was doing. She rummaged in her pack for matches and fire-starter sticks. Danny left her to it while he scraped the wet bark from the wood he’d gathered and stacked it out of the rain. By the time he’d finished, a tiny flame was dancing in the center of her timber pile.

Mandy rubbed her hands over the small fire. Her teeth chattered loudly enough to carry over the sounds of wind and rain lashing through the surrounding woods.

“How wet are you?”

“Not very. J-just cold.”

Danny pulled out their sleeping bags and unzipped both. There was just enough room between the fire and the back wall to squeeze them in. He spread one out and laid the other on top. The rock around and above them was trapping the heat from the fire nicely. He stripped off his wet jacket and tossed it over a boulder to dry. Underneath, his T-shirt was damp around the neck where rain had leaked in. Danny removed his shoulder holster, then pulled the shirt over his head and spread it on a warm rock. The thighs of his fatigue pants were wet, but they were made to dry quickly.

He fished in his pack and came up with another shirt. Next to him, Mandy was fumbling with her jacket.

“Let me help you.” He unzipped her nylon shell and tugged it off. Her fleece sweater, like her pants, was made of synthetic material that didn’t hold water. He put a hand to her neck. Her skin was freezing. “Why didn’t you tell me you were this cold?”

He tugged off both their wet boots and pulled her toward the sleeping bags.

“Didn’t want to s-slow us down.”

Danny lifted the top cover and pushed Mandy under it. He climbed in with her and wrapped the down snugly around them both. Her shivering body clung to his bare chest.

Really, she probably could have warmed up all by herself, but after her tumble-and-dangle act over the water, he needed to hold her. He wrapped his arms around Mandy’s body. Her softness fit his hard angles just right. Breasts squished against his ribs. Maybe the wilderness didn’t suck as badly as he’d thought, even in the rain.

Her shivers faded. Danny remembered her turning down peanut butter sandwiches. “Did you eat dinner?”

“No. I was too worried.” She sat up. Too bad.

Keeping the blanket around their shoulders, Danny reached into his pack and pulled out the M&Ms. “Quick carbs first.”

“I brought plenty of trail mix.” She opened two packs of candy while Danny cracked out the beef jerky and a bottle of water. Slim Jims and chocolate were surprisingly good together.

“Your cut is bleeding.”

Danny held up his hand. The thin latex glove hung in shreds around his hand. Blood seeped through the soaked bandage. “Must have torn the stitches.”

“Let’s get it cleaned up. Hand me the first aid kit.”

Miraculously, only two of the stitches were ripped free. Mandy did her best to close the wound with butterfly strips. She covered his hand with fresh gauze and tape. Watching her, it occurred to Danny that if he hadn’t rested his hand all day, he might not have been able to save Mandy.

The radio crackled. “Mandy? Are you OK?”

Mandy picked up the receiver. “We’re fine, Jed. Just holing up under some rocks until the storm passes.”

“The weatherman says this front will take a couple of hours of clear out.”

“Got it. Thanks. We’ll hang tight.”

She tossed the receiver back into her pack and finished off a handful of candy. Her eyes were bright, her color back to normal, but her expression was still tight.

“What’s wrong?” Danny added a few skinny branches to the fire. Damp wood popped and crackled.

“I’m worried about the girls.”

“We’re doing all we can to find them.”

“I know.” A tear trickled down her cheek.

“Come here.” Danny tugged her back into his arms. “We’ll find them.”

Thunder boomed. Mandy jumped. “I hope they’re not out in this storm. They could be hungry and cold—”

“Shhh.” Danny tilted her chin up and silenced her with a kiss.

His mouth was hot and tasted of chocolate. Mandy wanted more. Heat sprinted through her veins to her core, fueled by adrenaline overload from her near plunge into the river. The turmoil of the past four months had intensified from fear to terror with the disappearance of the girls. Were they lost or was Danny right? Was Nathan out there, gathering a fresh crop of victims?

Her brain rejected the debate, electing to yield control to her body.

Danny’s mouth angled. His tongue slipped into her mouth, and all she could think was how much she wanted more. Desire swept aside all the self-control she’d practiced over the winter. She couldn’t hold her emotions back anymore. She had to have him again. This afternoon by the river had been beautiful. This was desperate.

Danny pulled back. “Whoa. Um, you’re getting a little ahead here.”

“Please.” Begging didn’t feel as humiliating as it should. She grabbed the back of his head and pulled his lips back to hers. He took her mouth again.

The man kissed like a pro, the perfect balance of demand and restraint. His hand remained at her bicep. For all his bad-boy talk, Danny was a gentleman. He had no intention of this turning into anything but a kiss.

But desire hummed under Mandy’s skin. Held in check all winter, her emotions churned for release. His palm on her arm was hot as a brand. She wanted him to touch her everywhere. She pressed her hands against his bare shoulders. The muscles were gloriously hard under her touch, the skin smooth. Hair dusted the center of his broad chest. She pushed him down on his back.

“Are you sure?” Danny’s voice had gone husky. His eyes darkened in the firelight. “You didn’t like the outside bit last time.”

She met his gaze head-on. “I need you.”

The noise that rose from his throat was half surprise and half groan. He rolled to one side. For a man with only one good hand, he had her sweater over her head and her bra tossed aside in seconds. He filled his palm with the weight of her breast. His thumb gently circled her nipple. He bent his head to draw it into his mouth. Desire pooled between her legs. His hand slid down her rib cage to her belly. A finger slipped under her waistband.

Her body arched toward him. Her limbs were on fire. “Touch me already.”

A choking sound leaked out of his chest. His hand slipped into her pants. “Jesus.”

That about summed it up.

“Danny. Now.” Mandy couldn’t get her hand on enough of him fast enough. Smooth muscles were sleek under her palms. She unfastened his pants.

“Wait a second.” He shucked them, reaching into the cargo pocket for his wallet.

“Condoms are part of your hiking gear?”

“I don’t have hiking gear.” He wiggled out of his pants, then helped her do the same.

Mandy took a minute to appreciate the ridged muscles of his abdomen, the strong planes of his chest, the powerful hips that were pressing into hers. There wasn’t much room to maneuver in their makeshift bed. Good thing Danny knew how to make every movement count.

He stroked her hip while he kissed a path from her neck to her collarbone, nipping playfully at her shoulder. The hand on her hip squeezed, and he moved it to stroke the inside of her thigh. He cupped her center. She pressed against his palm. His fingers went to work in a gentle circle. The momentum built. Mandy’s body tightened. Pleasure built in a tidal wave. Her body arched as all her muscles contracted until the release spiraled from her core through her limbs.

She just lay still for a minute until her heartbeat slowed and she could feel her toes.

Danny’s hand slipped between her legs again. “How about an encore?”

Before he could work any magic, she wrapped her hand around his impressive erection.

His body bucked. His face burrowed into her hair. His breathed into her ear. “Easy does it. I’m a little too turned on by watching you come right now. You’re so freaking perfect.”

And flattery will get you anything…

Mandy grabbed the condom and opened the package. She rolled it over him. Danny shifted her under him. She wrapped her legs around him and guided him home. The fit was perfect, as if he’d been made just for her.

He moved, sliding back and forth, stroking a response from the inside of her just as he’d coaxed an orgasm from her a few minutes ago.

“My God, you feel too good.” His face strained with the effort of holding back.

Mandy felt the pressure rise again. Her core tightened almost unbearably.

“Come on, baby. Ladies first.” Danny shifted higher, increasing the friction.

She closed her eyes. And her body imploded in a haze of sparkling lights.