“How?” I challenged.
She met my level gaze, a slight smile curving her lips. “They started from the ground up, terracing the mountain to hold it in place.”
“So it’s all in the foundation?”
She nodded. “They layered topsoil, sand, and then granite chips so that the terraces never flooded, never had a reason to give way. Then they brilliantly channeled that water through a connected system of fountains that harnessed the local spring as well as the rain, providing clean drinking water to the population.”
God damn, I wanted to kiss her, to scream out to the world that this gorgeous, brave, smart-as-hell woman was mine. “So they turned their greatest weakness into a strength.”
“Exactly.”
Just like we will. She didn’t need to say it; her eyes did all the talking for her.
I ripped my gaze off her before it gave me away. “Okay, who wants to tell me about the granite-cutting techniques?”
Another student answered, then another, and twenty minutes later, I’d managed to complete the entire session without looking at Penelope again. I finished up telling them about the importance of the position of the altar and the prevalence of child sacrifice in Incan culture that had been uncovered by high-altitude archaeologists in the Andes at even higher elevations than we were.
Then I reminded them of our meet-up time and set them free to wander.
I hiked the various levels of the ruins for an hour, answering questions from students, asking my own of the guide. The best part of having a two-hundred-person-a-day limit for visitors to the site was that it made it so much less crowded.
How was I lucky enough to be here? To have come from where I did—with almost no chance of survival, let alone thriving? This was a sight my grandmother would most likely never see, one that my mother never had the chance to—and never would.
But Elisa would.
She would have the life she’d worked so hard for—the one she deserved. She’d lived long enough in his shadow, under his thumb, and in two more months she’d get the freedom every woman deserved, especially one as kind and smart as my little sister.
My failure wasn’t an option.
I walked carefully as I descended the carved stone steps. All it would take was one misstep and I’d fall three hundred feet down the cliff. Curving around one of the structures, I found Penelope and her friends examining the stonework on the inside of what had been a home.
“Hey, Doc,” Wilder said, his arm around Leah.
“What are you guys up to?” I asked, standing on the opposite side of the room from Penelope. “Tell me you’re not planning any stunts here. I’d hate to have to kick your asses.”
Wilder laughed. “Nawh. We might be entitled assholes, but we’re not disrespectful entitled assholes.”
“Good to know,” I told them. “You guys make it down to the lower terraces yet? You still have enough time before we have to head out. There’s a storm coming in.”
“That’s what we get for visiting in the rainy season,” Leah answered. “Pax, want to head down?”
“If you’re asking if I’ll walk you down to look at some really old walls holding up some really old terrace work, then yes,” Wilder said.
One by one, they filed out, until it was just Penelope and myself.
“You should go with them,” I said softly.
“There are a lot of things I should do,” she retorted with a grin that nearly took me to my knees. There was something about her smile that was captivating and addictive, infusing me with the joy she felt.
“Go,” I ordered softly, wishing she could stay, that I could have just a few minutes with her.
She sighed but nodded, brushing past me as she went out of the stone-enclosed house. “I can’t stop thinking about your hands,” she admitted softly, staring straight ahead at the skyline.
Those hands she was talking about clenched. God, the woman loved to keep me on edge. I glanced at our surroundings, making sure there were no students in earshot. “I can’t stop remembering every single inch of you,” I whispered across the eighteen inches that separated us. “Or thinking about how I’m going to explore those inches with my mouth the next time I get you under me.”
“Cruz,” she whimpered, her gaze shooting toward mine. Her breath hitched, and as much as I wanted to congratulate myself on being able to rile her with nothing but a few words, I wasn’t much better off.
Virgin. She’s a virgin. Slow down.
“Go meet up with your friends before we find ourselves in trouble, Penelope,” I half ordered, half pleaded.
She gave me one last, searing look and then left me standing there, watching her walk away.
…
My phone beeped with the monotone ring that signaled an international call as I balanced it between my shoulder and ear.
Two rings later, Elisa picked up.
“Hello?”
My chest loosened, the same way it always did when I heard her voice. “Hey, I got your email, what’s up?”
“Cruz! I’m so happy you called! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you for another few weeks.”
“Well, when I get an email from my little sister telling me it’s urgent that I call, I find the time. Besides, you lucked out—we’re still in Lima for one more day, so I have service.” I moved the phone to my other hand and finished unpacking. We’d gotten back from Machu Picchu only a couple of hours ago, and I was due on deck in a few moments to get ready for the next stunt before we pulled out of port.
“Guess what?”
“You found a way to dig a tunnel to Miami.”
“Ha. Ha. You’re so very funny.”
“Tell me what’s up, imp.” I tossed my empty daypack to the bottom of my closet. I shouldn’t need it again for a month or so.
“They increased my scholarship!”
A lump grew in my throat. “Really? God, Elisa, that’s amazing. How much?” I already knew I was on the hook for her tuition, but between me and loans, we’d get her through Harvard if I had to get a job with Thunder from Down Under to pay for it.
“I got a full ride,” she whispered, as if saying it at full volume would somehow make it disappear.
“You what?” I sank to my bed, my knees unable to support me.
“A full ride! Tuition, room, board, all of it!”
My eyes drifted skyward, and I muttered a prayer of thanks, automatically switching to Spanish. Everything was coming together. Last year we’d thought she’d have to defer her acceptance until I could get to her next year, but here I was, here we were, and the pieces were starting to fit as if fate herself had designed the puzzle.
“Hey, you said English only,” she chided, a smile in her voice.
“I’m just…” I shook my head. “I can’t believe it. I mean, I can—you’re brilliant, but just knowing that it’s taken care of…I don’t have words.” Her tuition was paid. Her room, board, all covered.
“I guess I wrote one hell of an essay,” she joked.
If I wanted to, once this trip was over, I could decide not to teach. I could go back to the army full time if I wanted, or take up underwater toenail painting. Sure, I loved teaching, but I’d always chosen my profession for this one purpose—this mission.
Grandma’s house would be paid off, and Elisa’s tuition was taken care of.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I feel like a lot of my future just opened up,” I told her honestly. We’d never had secrets between us, not from the moment she’d tracked me down seven years ago.
“I never wanted you to plan your whole future around me.”
“I know, and it hasn’t been a sacrifice, so don’t think that it has.”
“You give up too much.”
“Six more weeks, and then you’ll be on your way to Harvard. That’s all that matters. You have a whole wide world opening to you.”
“What about you? When this is over, what will you do besides teach? Finally settle down with that
girl you took to Grandmother?”
I grinned. “Grandma. Grandmother is too formal for most use. And how would you know about that?”
“She does know how to email, you know. She said her name was Penelope, and that she was beautiful, driven, smart, and strong enough to handle your idiotic ways.”
“Is that what she said?” I asked, lying back on my bed. Hiking for three straight days had worn me to the bone.
“Yep. And she said that even though you swore up and down that you are just friends, you’re completely—what was the word she used? Smitten.”
Smitten. Infatuated. Captivated. Enchanted. Pretty much any of those descriptions worked.
“Did she tell you that she’s my student?”
She was silent on the other end for a moment except for the sound of one very long sigh. “Yes. She said you were fighting it.”
“Would you think less of me if I didn’t fight it? If I told you I knew her before she was my student? That us being here on this ship together is either the biggest coincidence or the greatest act of fate I’ve ever seen?”
“I would say that if you found a glass slipper, then you put it on her foot—or whatever. You know what I’m trying to say.”
“This isn’t a fairy tale, Elisa.”
“All love is a fairy tale if you look at it from the outside, Cruz.”
“If…if something happens, and I’m caught, I’d get fired. I’d be thrown off the ship.”
“Then don’t get caught.”
Why couldn’t I see everything as simply as my sister did? Oh, right, because I wasn’t seventeen and starry-eyed. “It’s a really big risk.”
“It’s a really big reward. Look, if I wasn’t involved—”
“If you weren’t involved, I wouldn’t be here in the first place.”
“Okay, well, forgetting all that. If I wasn’t in the picture, would you risk it for her? Your career? Your reputation?”
I thought about it for a second, everything Penelope and I had already been through in the five short weeks I’d known her. “I would risk my life for her. Hell, I already have.”
Elisa sighed. “See? Fairy tale. Are you in love with her?”
That soft burning in my chest made its presence known, and I pushed it away. “I’ve been officially, and very secretly, dating her for about four days now. I think that’s a little soon to be throwing that word around, imp.”
“Prince Charming knew in one night.”
“Prince Charming was too slow to catch Cinderella with one shoe on. I’m holding myself to a higher standard here.”
“Fair enough.” I heard a rustle in the background. “Crap. He’s home,” she whispered. “Talk again in a few weeks?”
My stomach turned queasy. Six weeks, I reminded myself. Then I wouldn’t have the constant fear to tote around with me like a fifty-pound weight around my neck.
“Just email me with a time. Love you.”
“Love you,” she whispered, and hung up.
I couldn’t think about what would happen next—whether or not he’d be in a good mood. If she’d hidden her Harvard paperwork well enough, every other scrap of information that could ruin our plan—or her life.
Putting the cell phone in my dresser drawer, I braced my hand on the top and looked myself in the mirror, making the same promise I had every day for the last five years.
I may have failed my mother, but I would not fail Elisa.
She would live.
Chapter Twenty-One
Penna
Lima, Peru
“Wind speeds, safety measures, equipment list, and plan F, all as you requested,” I said as I handed Cruz the manila envelope.
Sitting next to him in the small van that carried us from the port to the launch site was pure heaven and hell wrapped up in one delicious scent—Cruz. Even the ocean breeze coming in from the window couldn’t overpower him to me.
“Plan F?” he asked, flipping through the papers.
“Well, if we don’t land correctly, it’s not really a plan B, it’s more like a plan Fucked,” Landon answered from behind us.
“I wish we had Little John. I’d feel a lot better,” Leah answered. “How much longer is he in California?”
I tensed, and Cruz’s eyes darted toward me. Little John. “He’ll be back when we hit Buenos Aires,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. He’d recognize Cruz, there was no doubt. I just had to get to him before that moment happened, and then I’d beg him to keep my secret.
Our secret.
“This all looks good. Dangerous and stupid as hell, of course, but I’ve learned not to expect less out of you guys,” Cruz said. “What kind of landing are you thinking?”
“One where we put our feet on the deck of the ship without killing ourselves,” Pax called out from the third row.
“Smart-assery gets you nowhere, Wilder,” Cruz said, his voice mellow and almost bored. “I’m assuming a straight on, right? Not a ninety-degree turn to approach?”
“Straight approach, no turns. Keeping the power on until we touch down for purposes of accuracy, and we’ll drop the chute at landing. If we lose them, we lose them, but I’m not having someone dragged overboard,” Pax answered.
“Good.” He nodded as he read through the plan one last time. “I really wish you’d land on the beach, but I know you won’t.”
“There’s zero challenge in that,” I said. “No use for the cameras and nothing fun.”
He shot me a look that to anyone else might look chastising, but I knew it was pure frustration. He walked a fine line between letting us do our jobs and keeping us within the parameters of what he felt was safe.
“Okay. Okay,” he mumbled to himself. “Just make sure you’re as on top of this landing as you can be. I’m still really not thrilled about it.”
“You could do it with us,” Wilder offered.
My heart skipped. “You could,” I told Cruz, trying to keep the excitement out of my voice. “This was on the list you gave us, right? You know how to paraglide?”
“Sure, recreationally, but I probably have more hours than you do,” he muttered, still examining the papers. He reached back with one hand and rubbed across his neck.
I caught myself just before I offered to take over the neck rub. It had been four days since we’d been alone together. Four days since he’d given me the most spectacular orgasm of my life. Four days since he’d told me that he was mine.
Mine. I’d never really thought of myself as possessive before. Boys were boys, and no boy was worth my reputation or a stunt. But knowing Cruz was actually mine made me want to tattoo my name on his damned forehead so every other woman knew he was spoken for.
“And you just happen to have an extra rig?” he asked as we took the switchbacks to the top of the bluff that Lima District sat on.
“No, we brought one for you,” Wilder said, grinning ear to ear. I rolled my eyes at him in the rearview mirror, and he laughed. “Come on, once you gave us that list of everything you know how to do, didn’t you think we’d con you into coming with us? You don’t get an official Renegade nickname until you complete a stunt.”
“Whatever shall I do?” Cruz drawled. “You brought it because you know I’m still unhappy about your landing zone, but you figure if I’m with you I won’t complain.”
“He’s on to you, Pax.” Landon laughed.
“And what about Leah?” Cruz asked. “I noticed she’s not with us. She didn’t want to ride tandem?”
“There was no chance I was including her in this. I’m good. Damn good, but I can’t control the wind, and if a gust comes that takes me overboard, I’m not risking her,” Pax answered.
“But he’d risk you,” Cruz whispered so softly only I heard him.
“I risk myself,” I replied. “I am just as capable, if not more so than you are, so tuck away the alpha asshole, okay?”
“You like the alpha asshole,” he whispered with a smirk.
“We’re here,” the driv
er told us as we pulled up to the site. We were in the middle of a large soccer field near the edge of the bluff that would give us enough space to get a good takeoff before the plunge. It didn’t hurt that we were using motorized paragliders that would allow us to fly.
I raised my face to the sun as I stepped out of the van. Being in South America in March definitely had its perks. Plus, in the next few weeks those perks would turn to ice when we hit the southernmost tip of South America. I’d take what I could get when I could get it.
Ironic how that describes your relationship, too.
“Penna?” Zoe asked, coming from the other van.
“I’ll catch up,” I told Landon as they headed over to where the rigs were set up, a little too close together. We’d have to space them out more before takeoff. Bobby’s crew was good, but they didn’t make up for Little John’s absence. Even if he was the one who could fully expose me. “What’s up?” I asked Zoe.
“I just wanted to say thank you for fighting for my own rig. I know the guys figured I’d go tandem, or not at all, and that you’re the one who spoke up for me.” Her brown eyes lacked their typical winged eyeliner and heavy makeup. She looked younger and a hell of a lot less vixenish…if that was even a word.
“Zoe, you have over a hundred hours in one of these. I checked the logs. I know your skill level. You’re not here because I fought for you. You’re here because you earned it. You put in the work, you’re talented, and you can land a rig better than those two idiots behind you.” I pointed to where Alex and one of the other Renegades, Nathan, stood. “I know you and I don’t often see eye to eye, but maybe we’d be a lot closer to that if you realized you have more value in the Renegades than who you’re sleeping with.”
“I haven’t slept with anyone since…” Her gaze wandered. “After that happened, I just wanted to stand on my own for a while. See where I really fit in.”
“Since Landon. I know. That’s one reason I am willing to stand up and fight for you, because you’re finally fighting for yourself. Go strap in.”
She walked past Landon without so much as glancing his way, and I blew out a sigh. That girl was all sorts of screwed in the head sometimes, but there was still hope that she’d eventually remove her head from her ass and focus more on her talent and less on her teammates. Landon had been the last in a long string of Renegades she’d worked her way through, but Rachel showing up four months ago put a prompt end to that. Landon had never stopped loving Rachel in the two years they’d been apart, and Zoe had never stood a chance. Of course she’d taken it out on him and nearly destroyed his relationship with Rachel with her pettiness, but I liked to think that change was possible for everyone.
Rebel (The Renegades) Page 21
