High Risk

by Vivian Arend

  “You ready? Sometime today would be great.”

  Dane’s sense of timing was lousy. Not to mention, his sense of humour needed an overhaul. “Bastard,” she muttered.

  “I heard that.”

  Of course he had. “Bastard with Superman hearing. Good for you.” Her frustration grew. This was why she hadn’t wanted to head in this direction for their descent, only he’d insisted. Now she was caught between one bad situation and another. “Dane, I can’t see a bloody thing. I could be exactly on route, or hanging over a thousand-foot free fall for all I know.”

  Dane hesitated, then grudgingly asked, “You want me to go first?”

  Yes, as a matter of fact. And I as much as told you that before stepping over the ledge. “You couldn’t have said something fifteen minutes ago? Jerk.”

  “Yeah, but I’m your jerk, right?”

  He laughed. The sound echoed off the rocks, and she instinctively tightened her grip on the rope. His amusement at her expense wasn’t welcome right now, not after the weekend they’d spent together. The weekend that had fit in perfectly with the painfully selfish way he’d been acting over the past weeks.

  Something had changed, and she wasn’t sure she liked where their relationship seemed headed. Still, she pulled herself together and responded as plainly as possible. “Yes, Dane, you’re my jerk.”

  Because saying anything else at this moment would be monumentally stupid.

  “Bec? Love you.”

  She leaned back, staring up the hillside. What was going on? That confession was the last thing she expected to hear. “Dane?”

  All hell broke loose . . .

  CHAPTER 6

  “Becki.”

  She was more than halfway up the wall, climbing well, when she froze. Both hands in position, feet squarely set. Marcus waited for the next move.

  It never came. She just . . . stopped.

  “Becki.” He took up the extra slack, pulling her slightly as the rope he had locked in place passed over the anchor at the roofline and descended to her waist belt. If he wanted to, he could pry her free by dragging her upward, but that was a last-ditch rescue move.

  If he could get her to move, he could avoid jerking her free and risk smashing her into the wall.

  He shouted again, and when there was no response, he shifted to plan B.

  “Alisha. Drop.”

  “Dropping.” She had already let go of the wall, the self-belayer jerking into action like a modified seat belt security strap. The attachment connected to her belt lowered her slowly to the floor. She was in position, the second anchor rope loose, the fastener held in her fingers toward the wall. The instant the hook came within reach, she slammed the metal buckle of the carabiner through the cam, grabbed the vertical rope, and gave herself enough slack to remove the clip from her harness.

  The line snapped tight to the wall as she released it to race to his side. “What do you need?”

  No questions. No hesitation. Becki had been right, his team was good. “Take over belaying. I’m going to go secure her.”

  Alisha nodded. “Hold the ropes tight.” She waited until he proved he had a solid grasp. She caught hold of the carabiner attached to his harness, twirled the lock open, then transferred the hook to her own belt. One more move and she’d snagged above where he had the rope in a death grip. “On belay. You climb.”

  He allowed her to pull the weight from his grasp, not trusting until she actually took it from him.

  Alisha twirled a foot into the loose rope on the floor, turning her body into a backup anchor. He didn’t have time to rope up himself. Didn’t have time for anything but to step to the wall and climb.

  God, he should have done more of this over the past year. Not only his lack of training frustrated him as he climbed, but the mostly useless claw tool also hindered him. Only the portion directly at the base functioned as a small hook. Didn’t matter. He’d do what he had to.

  “To your right, and up about three inches. Nice big jug for your foot. Good. Now the blue ribbon on the left, there’s enough ledge for your forearm.” Alisha continued to talk him through the ascent as he scrambled mostly one-handed up the wall. He crawled over Becki, guarding her with his body, planting his feet solidly, his torso leaning against her as he caught hold of the safety rope with his right hand.

  Only then did he slip his left arm around her waist and pull her to him. “I got you, Becki. You’re okay.”

  Alisha called from below. “Got you both. Ready for lower?”

  “One second.” He squeezed Becki. “Come on, you with me?”

  A slow stuttering gasp escaped her.

  Good, someone was still home. “Becki, I need you to let go of the wall. I’m right here, and I’ve got you, but we want Alisha to lower us. You ready for that?”

  She didn’t move. Her fingers were still white-knuckling the holds. Dammit.

  He tucked his face right beside hers and nudged her cheek with his.

  Her body went slack, her weight increasing.

  “Alisha, hold tight.” Becki’s collapse put two full body weights on the rope, and his belayer was totally fatigued. This could be a quick trip down.

  He should have let Alisha climb, but logic hadn’t been a part of his thought process. It was Becki in trouble, dammit. He took a deep breath and braced himself.

  “I’m going to peel her off the wall. She’s passed out. You ready?”

  He felt it, the slight change of pressure as Alisha managed to lift their weight an inch or so. “No problem. Pull her off. I’ve got you solid.”

  “Come on, Becki, I’ve got you. Trust me, okay?” The words were unneeded, at least for her sake, but he had to say it. Had to reassure himself as he leaned back and took her with him. He settled her into his lap, his arm around her an iron bar securing her in place. If Alisha did lose control of the ropes, they’d hit the crash mats, not the floor. He’d protect Becki from being slammed too hard with his body.

  Still wasn’t his idea of a good time, crashing.

  The instant Becki was clear from the wall, he snapped out his order. “Lower.”

  “Lowering. Walk your way to the left a little, if possible.”

  Alisha released the line smoothly, and Marcus breathed a sigh of relief as they passed the fifteen-foot marker. The ten. When they reached the floor, his ass coming to a nice easy landing, he glanced to the side to discover why Alisha had issued her strange warning to move to the left. She lay flat on her back, butt to the wall and legs extended toward the ceiling. She’d jammed her feet against a couple of larger holds and slipped the rope under her body to get enough leverage to counter the double weight.

  He’d praise her ingenuity later. Now his attention was on the woman in his arms.

  “Becki, we’re down. Come on.”

  He was ready to lay her out and check her over when she sat up and blinked in confusion. “Marcus?”

  “Yeah.”

  She frowned, a crease appearing between her brows as she looked around them, at the tangle of ropes, their positioning on the mat. She glanced at the wall, then back at him.

  “Why are you—?” Her eyes widened in panic. “Oh, no.”

  Her struggles to stand were hindered by the ropes still connecting them. “It’s okay. You’re fine. No one got hurt.”

  Her lips pressed into a thin line as she scrambled at the knot securing the rope to her waist belt.

  Alisha stepped over, helping to straighten the tangled mess. “You want a hand with the knot, Marcus?”

  “No, but thank you.” He tapped her on the shoulder. “Get yourself a massage at the hot springs if you want one. On my tab.”

  Her face lit up. “Deal.” She glanced at the other woman, her concern clear. “Becki, you need anything?”

  “She’ll be okay,” Marcus cut in. “Grab your stuff, and you’re free to go.”

  Alisha slid her gaze off Becki as she nodded. “See you tomorrow at seven. Becki, I’ll call.”

  The yo
ung woman fled the gym, pretty much as Marcus hoped she would. This next part would be better done without any witnesses. He covered Becki’s fingers and stilled her attempt at the rope. “Slow down. We need to talk.”

  “No, I need to get the hell out of here.”

  “Because you had a panic attack?” Marcus circled her wrists with his fingers and pinned her in position. “Nothing happened. It worked out fine.”

  “Nothing happened?” she shouted. Becki jerked her hands back, but he refused to release her. She set her jaw and glared. “I don’t know what happened, Marcus, that’s the trouble. My God, I did it again. I blacked out. What—”

  She closed her eyes and stiffened, trembling shaking her limbs. Marcus loosened his grip, instead stepping in closer to catch hold of her neck and pull her tight against his body. She stood stiffly, her head tucked under his chin, arms rigid at her sides. At least until he’d held her for a couple of minutes, breathing slowly, willing her to relax. Willing her to put it behind her.

  When she snuck her arms around him and squeezed him tight, it was his turn to finally take a real breath.

  Becki lifted her hands to his chest and pushed them apart. “I’m sorry. Panic doesn’t help. Neither does shouting. Thank you. I assume you had to rescue my ass.”

  He nodded. “Alisha helped. You’ll want to thank her as well.”

  “Great, there goes my hero status.” Becki shook her head. “Well, I wasn’t that keen on being the climbing goddess anyway.”

  She pulled the rope end from the figure eight and loosened herself in short order now that she wasn’t shaking.

  “You’ve still got a lot to offer the team. This doesn’t change anything.”

  Becki looked at him like he’d grown another head. “It changes everything. You can’t be serious. You’re not still thinking about trusting me with your team?”

  “You thinking of giving up? Quitting completely and finding a new job?”

  Her head dropped, but only for a second. Then she stared at him intently. “Never. I will get over this. I don’t know when—”

  “And if I offer to train you, like you offered me, you think you can find anyone or any place better to help you take those steps? Or a better time than right now to start?”

  Becki undid the waist belt connections, letting the heavy harness fall to the floor with a sudden crash. “No. No, and no. Damn you, Marcus, you’re turning this into another training session, and I was supposed to be all grown up and doing the teaching this time.”

  “Can I help it if you forgot a few of the lessons I taught you? I’m offering a refresher.”

  He shouldn’t have taken it there. Not now, not when she was still freshly terrified. But hell if he was going to let her run away. Or even walk—this was too important.

  Something about seeing her freeze had changed everything. It was no longer just sexual interest he felt, the lingering desire to get physical. Her panic had triggered an emotion he hadn’t experienced in what seemed to be forever.

  The need to get emotionally involved—to make a difference. This time on a personal level, not something worthwhile but generic like the distraction of his rescue squad.

  It was as if embers had been stirred under him, cracking the icy core inside him. The desire to focus on something other than the misery he spent so much energy hiding from the team. His personal ghosts had haunted him for far too long, and by now he never expected them to go away. He’d accepted his occasional nightmares as unavoidable, but allowing her to suffer if there was any way to help was unacceptable.

  Making sure that Becki didn’t have to deal with unanswered questions for the next four years of her life—it was a good goal to which to turn his considerable attention. If he had to smack her with the one common denominator they’d had all those years ago—sex—he’d damn well take advantage of it.

  Her expression changed from indignation to passion before she snapped a lid on her control.

  Marcus didn’t let up. “Together we’ll train the team. Outside of that time, you will train me and help me figure out how to use this arm as well as I used to. In exchange, I will train you, and we’ll get to the bottom of whatever the hell happened to you.”

  “What if it never comes? What if everything stays a mystery?” she demanded.

  “Then we concentrate on getting you back to climbing.” He broke eye contact, focusing instead on freeing his own rope. “The mind is a curious thing, Becki. Maybe you won’t ever know exactly what happened during the accident. Doesn’t mean you can’t learn to climb and not have to worry about freezing.”

  She blew out a long, unsteady breath. “So that’s what happened?”

  “Yeah.” He was finally loose, straightening the rope and allowing it to fall smoothly into place against the wall. “Wait. That’s another thing on the list.”

  “There’s a list?”

  He glanced up, pleased to see she was smiling a little. “There’s always a list with me.”

  Oh yeah. Her eyes heated. “What did I miss this time?”

  “You will not apologize if—and that’s if, not when—you need to be saved again.”

  Becki stared at the wall. “Bloody sadist.”

  “Not at all. I won’t enjoy a minute of it if you don’t want me to.”

  She snorted, then gathered her things. “Why do I feel as if I signed up for something way worse than what you put your team through? And by the way, even if you’re not a sadist, you’re a mean son of a bitch. You called them out of bed after taking them for wings and drinks last night?”

  “Also made them do repeats while we had breakfast. Don’t forget that part.”

  An aura of sadness and fear still clung to her, but she seemed far more willing to keep moving forward with him than a few minutes before. Becki lifted her gym bag straps over her shoulder, settling the bag against her hip. She glanced around at the gym and shook her head. “Never thought this place would end up breaking me.”

  “It’s not going to. You’re going to come out on top.”

  She raised a brow and nodded curtly. “I am. I will.”

  The determined line of her jaw said it louder than her words.

  CHAPTER 7

  She was out the door and headed for the dorms, frustrated energy making her stride quick and wide. Her mind was stuffed full and yet empty—everything as tangled together as the ropes had been: Unusable. Impossible.

  The first holds had been perfect. The sensation of her body obeying her commands a thrill as always. She’d planned on testing her limits to see what she had to regain.

  It seemed a whole hell of a lot. Everything that had defined her now lay in a mess, her identity tangled and tattered.

  She hadn’t realized how much it would hurt to have her abilities questioned all over again, and it didn’t matter that Marcus said he didn’t doubt her. She doubted herself, and that meant she was back to square one.

  A rock kicked up beside her and she startled to discover Marcus pacing at her side. “Shit. Have you been there the entire time?”

  “We need to talk.” He adjusted the bag he carried.

  “About the team’s schedule. Right. This afternoon.”

  “Well, there’s also the issue of our training, details of which we can add to the official meeting. In the meantime, I need a workout. Want to join me?”

  A workout was exactly what she needed. Sweaty, mindless, physically demanding activity to wipe away her need to analyze and reanalyze every second of what went wrong this morning. “Another run?”

  He shook his head. “A swim.”

  They were at the doors to the dorms. “Deal. Where?”

  “Back at the school?” Marcus stood and waited, his strong body at ease like some kind of hunting cat waiting for the exact right moment to pounce. “Or the Banff Centre, or the rec centre. Your choice.”

  She wasn’t going willingly back into the school, not today. No matter what she’d said about not letting the place beat her, she needed a breat
her. “Rec centre. We can do a few weights as well.”

  “Deal. I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes.”

  He walked the slight hill to where his truck was parked, and she couldn’t turn away. His broad shoulders, the flex of his ass under his pants. She’d spent a month studying him on the sly when they’d first met, and the same magnetism that had pulled her in back then was still there. Still had her staring long after she should have gone to grab her swim things.

  What was it about Marcus? What made her lose all common sense and want to flirt and carry on like some infatuated teenager? Even shaken from the experience on the wall, he caught her attention and made everything else she should be concentrating on slip away.

  She had to rush to make it in time.

  Stepping to the exterior doors of the rec centre pulled an involuntary smile to her lips. The stonework and glass made the huge building nestle into the trees as if it had grown there. The rustic construction style was shared by many businesses and homes in the Banff area. Like the mountains rising around them, the human-made structure became a fitting part of the whole. The log features carried the taste of nature inside as well. Becki took a deep, satisfied breath as she stopped at the desk to pay.

  A sense of the familiar, the . . . rightness. This was exactly what she needed to counter her chaotic soul.

  The girl behind the desk smiled at her. “Becki James?”

  Becki hesitated, trying to place the face. “Yes?”

  “You’re already paid for. You can stop by any time and get your picture done for the pass. For now, let me put this on you.” The girl held out a brightly coloured wristband.

  Obviously Marcus had beat her to the centre. “Are there any pool restrictions today? Or in the gym?”

  The girl shook her head. “Nothing booked in the gym until after supper. In the pool, there’s an aquasize class in about thirty minutes, but the deep tank will be free, and there’s always at least one lane kept open for laps.”