The Maze (ATCOM) (17 page)

“Two,
maybe three stitches. Did the ball get you anywhere else?”

“No.”

“We
need to wr—”

The
wall Attie leaned on suddenly opened up and they tumbled forward. Attie reached
for something to prevent her fall and found nothing but air. Noah grabbed her by
the arm and pulled her back before she tumbled head first over the ledge they
now stood on.

Regaining
her balance and gritting her teeth against the pain in her shoulder, she spun
around and leapt toward the door that was sliding closed.

“Stop
it from closing,” she cried, slamming her palms on the steel door. It slid
closed anyway, leaving them stranded on a two-foot ledge.

“Dammit.”
She slapped the door with both palms. “That was the only way out.”

“Not
the only way. Look.”

Carefully,
Attie maneuvered around so that she stood with her back to the door, her body
flush with Noah’s.

“Below
us,” Noah said, laying a hand on her shoulder and pressing the shirt to her
wound. Somehow he’d managed to keep hold of it.

Attie
carefully leaned over to look over the edge and felt a chill sneak down her
spine. Two feet below them was a makeshift rope bridge that stretched across to
the other side of a darkened valley. It was too dark to see how far the drop
was or what lie beneath. Definitely too far to jump. Carlos wouldn’t make it
any less dangerous than that. The bridge looked rickety and barely intact.

Three
feet beside it, a very narrow platform led to the opposite side. The platform
was barely wide enough to place both feet on. It looked sturdier than the
bridge. Both avenues led to a separate door.

“I’ll
take door number one,” she mocked, not liking the situation one bit. It didn’t
take a rocket scientist to figure out what they were supposed to do.

“You’re
still bleeding,” Noah said. “Lift your arm.”

Biting
back a grimace, Attie did as he asked.

While
balancing beside her, Noah quickly and efficiently rolled up his shirt and
wrapped it under her arm and around her shoulder in a makeshift bandage and
tied it off on top of her shoulder.

“Test
that for mobility.”

Attie
rolled her shoulder. The bandage held secure. “Feels good.”

Noah
gave a curt nod and turned his attention to the obstacle course in front of
them. “Looks like we have two options.”

“Yeah,
and neither looks promising. If we take the rope bridge we have two sides to
hold onto but it looks ready to collapse. I doubt it would hold both our
weights, even if we went across separately. The platform looks stable but it’s
narrow. If we lose our balance there’s nothing to stop us from falling.”

“I
agree. The rope bridge is shoddy. Look at the platform. It’s glossed to a high
shine. My guess is it’s slipperier than hell.”

She
looked closer. “You’re right. That makes the bridge the most logical choice. We
can take our chances on it.”

“It
would seem.”

Attie
glanced over at him. “You don’t think so? If we lose our footing, Kincaid,
there’s nothing to prevent our fall and I don’t really feel like finding out
how far down the bottom is. At least the bridge gives us something to hold onto
even if it falls apart. We can still climb.”

He
was staring at the two doors, eyes narrowed.

She
reached over and gripped his forearm. “What are you thinking?”

“Earlier
Santiago made reference to a soft bed and a shower.”

“Okay?”

“Well,
I think that behind one of those doors are a soft bed and a shower.”

She
glanced at the two doors, separated by a rock wall that went all the way to the
edge. No way to get from one to the other. The only way in was to cross the
bridge to one, the platform to the other.

“All
we have to do is choose the right door.”

“Right.
Santiago wants us to continue on through his maze, not get nice and comfortable
in bed.”

Attie
shot him a wary glance at the double entendre. Getting comfortable in bed with
Noah was the last thing on her mind right now. Making it through this alive was
all she could think about. Later, when they were safe, she would think about
taking refuge in his arms.

“So
you’re suggesting we take the platform? It would be the most difficult route.
It would make sense to take the easiest way across…if we wanted to continue on
this journey into hell. Clever. Very, very clever,” she said as realization
dawned. “If we take the hardest route across we should end up in a soft bed.”

“Exactly.”

“Then
the platform it is. How do you propose we cross this thing?”

They
studied the glossy surface together. It looked suddenly very daunting. One
wrong move and…

“Not
by walking upright.”

Attie
nodded. “Definitely not.”

“We’ll
have to crawl across it.”

“On
hands and knees?”

“Belly
crawl.”

Not
an easy task, but it could be done if they were careful and went very slowly.
Carlos wasn’t going to win this one.

“If
we wrap our hands and feet around the edges it should prevent us from sliding
off.” He glanced at her. “Will you be able to pull across with your injured
shoulder?”

“I’ll
make it.”

“I
can carry you across on my back.”

“I
said I’ll make it.”

Noah
held up a hand in surrender. “Okay, okay. Ready to do this?”

In
response, she dropped to her knees and inched over the edge onto the platform.
She eased onto it and slid a few inches forward.

If
they made it out of this alive, she was going to sleep for a week straight. The
adrenaline highs and lows were wreaking havoc on her nerves.

“Nice
and slow, Attie,” Noah coached from behind her as he moved into position.

She
wrapped her hands around the edge and used her arms to pull the rest of her
body along. Each pull caused pain to shoot down her arm but she ignored it and
trudged forward.

All
she could see below her was darkness. God only knew what was down there.

Progress
was slow and by the time they were halfway across, her shoulder throbbed. It
hurt to extend her arm and to use the muscles in her shoulder to pull herself
along. She could feel Noah’s shirt growing warm with blood, but it didn’t stop
her. Noah’s steady presence behind her kept her going. She knew he would never
give up and neither would she. Not as long as Carlos had her brother.

Willing
herself to ignore the pain, she reached up and prepared to move herself forward
when a spasm shot through her neck and down her spine, paralyzing her muscles.

She
cried out as her body bucked from the shock. She lost her grip and careened
over the edge.

And
screamed.

Chapter
16

Noah
saw Attie’s body buck, heard her scream and watched her dive head first over
the edge of the platform. He would never know if luck or some other force
helped him grab onto her ankle, but he managed to wrap his fingers around her
just before she disappeared.

He
gripped his feet firmly around the edges, his free arm straining under their
combined weight to keep them in place. Her added burden tugged painfully on his
shoulder and the muscles in his arm bulged under the stress, but nothing
compared to the terror filled-scream echoing in his head.

The
impact of preventing her fall about tore his arm out of its socket. He ignored
the numbing pain, grinding his teeth against it. He could hear her gasping for
air below him.

“Attie,
we have to work fast, I can’t hold you like this very long. I need you to use
my arm as a rope, double over into a sit-up position and use your upper body to
pull yourself on top of me,” he instructed, clenching his jaw as she moved. He
knew her abdominal muscles were strong, as was her upper body. Her wound would
inhibit her movements, but she had worked through pain before. She was in good
shape and as long as he maintained his hold on her she could do what he told
her. It wouldn’t be easy on either of them but as a team they could pull it
off.

“Okay.
Here goes.”

Noah
braced himself for the pain he knew was coming when she started to move. His
arm extended over the edge was on the verge of dislocating as Attie moved on
the opposite end. Her hands wrapped around his bicep as she moved into a sit-up
position. The movement had to be costing her with that wound on her shoulder.
He hadn’t told her how serious it was, with good reason.

“I’m
coming up.”

“Go.”

She
got a hold on his shoulder and using him as leverage managed to pull herself up
and over until she was lying on top of him, panting and gripping him so tightly
he figured she’d draw blood with her nails where they dug into his flesh. She
collapsed fully on top of him, her breath coming in short gasps, her body
quaking.

He
wrapped his arms around the platform and prepared to slide them to safety.

“Would
have been easier if you’d accepted my offer for a ride in the beginning,” he
said, trying to lighten the mood and take her mind off what had just happened.
He could feel the tension in her body and smell her fear. She was shaking like
a leaf and much too quiet.

When
Attie didn’t respond, he knew she was in bad shape, so he began pulling them
toward the opposite side as quickly as he could. Rage simmered in his gut. He
had never wanted to kill a man as badly as he wanted to kill Carlos Santiago at
this moment. They had been through hell because of the bastard today and he was
quickly exceeding the limit for what he could take.

He
got them to the other side and onto solid ground. Attie scrambled off him and
ran to the door. She began shouting for Santiago to open the door. Rising to
his feet, Noah followed her through the door as it slid open, praying that he
had been right and a bed and a shower waited on the other side. He didn’t think
either of them could take much more tonight.

* * * *

Attie
walked into the room, unable to stop shaking. Adrenaline crash from her near
death experience. She recognized it well and knew she had to sit down before
she fell down. Her relief at seeing a bedroom was overwhelming. Noah had been
right. They had chosen the most difficult path and won.

It
resembled the bedroom she had been in when she arrived and she couldn’t have
been more upset to see it. She should have been happy, but she wasn’t. They
weren’t being tested again. She couldn’t be grateful; she was too distraught.

Red-hot
fury ripped through her. She stopped inside the door and stared at the bed
where two stacks of fatigues lay, along with a First Aid kit. A room service
cart loaded with food sat in the corner, the scent of salted chicken and black
beans filling the room and making her stomach turn. For reasons she couldn’t
explain, the sight of clean clothes on a freshly made bed along with the scent
of gourmet food pushed her over the edge.

It
could have been because of what it represented: a reward. Or the adrenaline
pumping through her veins, or simply the aftershocks of what she had been
through, but either way she lost it. She ran to the bed, grabbed the clothes
and launched them across the room. For the first time she hated what they
signified: her failure and Carlos’s fantasy. Right now she couldn’t handle
either. She’d always been proud to wear the uniform as a symbol of her
accomplishments but tonight they represented a madman’s fantasy and she hated
him for it.

Boots
thumped and hit the wall, clothes scattered. With a strangled cry she began
tearing the room apart looking for bugs and cameras. She had to remove the
bastard from the room.

She
ignored Noah, who stood inside the door watching her in silence. Maybe he
understood her need to lash out and release the stress that had built inside
her, or maybe he was just too tired to stop her, but either way Attie didn’t
let it slow her down. Only when she’d flushed the bugs did she stop and take a
deep, shaky breath. She stood in the middle of the room, staring at the mess,
chest heaving. The bed sheets were in a pile in the middle of the bed, the lamp
overturned, their clothes scattered on the floor and the chair knocked over.
And now she was exhausted with a migraine and more aches and pains than she
could count.

“You
should eat,” Noah said quietly.

She
turned to look at him. She couldn’t read his expression. He didn’t look angry
or tired or ready to lose it. No, he was a machine. Nothing like her. He
wouldn’t give in to such weakness. He didn’t let his temper get the best of him
when he felt it closing in on him. Hell, she didn’t even know if he had a
temper. She’d never seen it. He never allowed that show of emotion and it made
her want to shake him until he let go of his damned control. She wanted to see
the human side of him instead of the machine. He never wavered, rock steady.
That was Noah and it made her crazy at the same time she craved it.

Food
held no appeal right now. All she wanted to do was take a shower and go to
sleep. She doubted she’d have to worry about the nightmares that had plagued
her for the past year because she had a whole new set of nightmares to keep her
company tonight. Through the pounding in her head she doubted she’d hear Seth
whispering to her. Which suited her, because she wasn’t up to trying to save him
in her dreams tonight.

Her
eyes dropped to Noah’s arms. Arms that had prevented her fall and withstood her
weight long enough to save her life. The impact must have been astounding, yet
he never let it show, never wavered, just calmly bore her weight and instructed
her how to survive.

A
new set of mixed emotions rushed through her. They scared her more than nearly
falling to her death. She didn’t want to deal with her feelings for Noah right
now. She wasn’t sure she could handle them.

Feeling
suffocated, she took a deep breath, only to have it catch in her throat. She
had to get out of here. Get away from him before she gave in to temptation. His
arms would feel good wrapped around her right now and that was dangerous.

“I’m
going to take a shower,” she announced and spun around toward the bathroom.

“Attie.”

She
stopped but didn’t turn around. “What?”

“Let
me remove the necklace first.”

He
was beside her and searching for the lock before she could answer. She
pretended not to notice how close he was or how strong his hands were as they
worked the necklace. It took all of her strength not to look at his bare chest,
a mass of muscular planes and contours. Before this was over she was going to
be a nut case. How much more was she supposed to endure?

Suddenly
the necklace fell off into Noah’s hands. Stunned, Attie backed up a step and
stared at it as if it were a poisonous snake, slowly shaking her head. He had
done what she’d never been able to do.

Once
again saving her and making it harder to stay strong. Her feelings for him were
changing with each passing second. She had known him for four years now, but
never allowed her feelings to rule her actions where he was concerned. Before
now they had been bound by rules and their careers, but things were different, they
were different. She wanted to lose herself in him, let him take away her past
and forget the present. In his arms that would happen. She wanted it more than
her next breath, but she could have neither because a giant wall stood between
them.

“How?”
she murmured.

“I
used the three most important dates to Santiago. The date he met you. The date
you became his. And the date you betrayed him.”

“Never
again,” she declared, meaning the necklace and her inclination toward him,
before turning and running into the bathroom before she broke down. Her
emotions threatened again. She wanted what she couldn’t have. Needed, and was
afraid to take. She was alone with secrets and didn’t want to be.

Tearing
off her clothes, she stepped into the shower and turned the water on so it
could pelt away her misery. A hiss of pain escaped her lips when the spray hit
her wounded shoulder. The pain reminded her she was alive and still in control.
It drove away the feelings she didn’t want to deal with. She washed quickly and
turned the shower off when she noticed the water turning red and her head
started to swim.

She
wrapped in a towel but couldn’t lift her arm without a tremendous amount of
pain so she left her hair in a tangled mess around her shoulders and walked out
of the bathroom. The room had been put back together and a First Aid station
set up near the dresser. A chair sat next to it.

Noah
stood behind the chair, expression carefully neutral. He motioned for her to
sit.

All
she really wanted to do was go to bed but knew she’d bleed out so she moved to
the chair. She was back in control and coming down from the adrenaline high.
Her mind was sluggish and her movements even more so.

She
shuffled to the chair and dropped down into it. Seconds later two white pills
appeared in front of her nose.

“Take
these,” Noah ordered.

Too
tired to argue, she popped them into her mouth, washed them down with a swig of
bottled water Noah handed her, then handed it back to him and waited.

She
heard him move into the bathroom, rifle around in a drawer and return. Seconds
later a brush tugged through her hair. With gentle strokes he brushed the
tangles out. Attie started to fall asleep from its hypnotic effect. Who would
have though having her hair brushed would feel so good? With gentle hands, he gathered
her hair into a ponytail and laid it over her uninjured shoulder. Attie was too
relaxed to argue, so she let her head fall forward until her chin touched her
chest.

“There’s
no topical to numb the area,” he said.

Attie
shrugged. Right now she didn’t care. All she wanted to do was sleep.

“Alcohol,”
he said a moment before the cold sting of a gauze pad soaked in fire touched
her skin.

She
drew in a sharp breath as he cleaned the blood off her skin. She stared at the
bed, not so tired now, and noticed their clothes were neatly folded once again.

“Who
taught you to fold clothes?” she asked to distract herself from the fire poking
at her shoulder.

“My
mother insisted her boys know how to cook and clean for themselves. She used to
say no wife of a Kincaid should have to clean up after them, so she schooled
us.”

“I’m
sure your wife will appreciate that.”

“Mom
wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Camron
too?”

“Yep,
but he’s better at it, not that I’d ever tell him that. He has more patience
than me.”

She
couldn’t imagine anyone being more patient than Noah. Camron must be catatonic.
“Right,” she murmured. “The competition thing.”

Noah
chuckled softly and Attie shuddered. It was such a rare thing that lit her up
from the inside out.

“Yeah,”
he said. “Never could settle for doing anything less than Camron.”

She
wanted to meet his brother he spoke so fondly of. To see if he really was more
stoic than Noah.

“You’re
going to feel the needle now.”

Attie
braced herself. This was going to hurt. She’d had plenty of stitches put in
when she returned from South America but most of those were done while she was
out. She’d seen enough in the field to know what kind of pain was coming.

The
needle pierced her skin and pulled the wound closed. Dots swam in front of her
eyes as she swayed in her chair, reeling from the shock. It stung like a hot
fire poker from her shoulder to her hand. Tears blurred her vision and she had
to blink rapidly to keep them from spilling down her cheeks.

“Doing
okay?” Noah asked as he prepared to put in the second stitch. “Two more should
do it.”

No,
she wasn’t okay. She was about to pass out.