by Redding, Mae
A drop of rain hit my cheek and I absently wiped at it, reminded instantly of the tender bruise. I opened my eyes. With as miserable as I was, I dreaded the idea of hiking in the rain more.
“I’m ready...” I barely heard myself speak as the wind carried my words away. I wasn’t sure if Gage heard me. I glanced at him and saw him watching me through the turbulent air. His eyebrows lifted as if to ask me a question and I watched the words form on his lips.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” I voiced, and then nodded. My head pounded and despite the threatening angry storm that brewed overhead, what I really wanted to do was curl up in a ball, pretend I was at home in my bed and go to sleep.
Trey pulled a flashlight from a side pocket on the pack. My eyes adjusted as the narrow yellow glow pierced through the inky darkness causing everything around it to look blacker. “We’re almost there, Jade! It’s not that much farther!”
We had at least another hour of hard hiking. However, after I considered how far we've come, we were almost there I guess, even though the most difficult part lay ahead. I watched as he moved ahead of us into the dark night.
Gage leaned towards me and offered his hand. I glanced at it as I gave him mine. Dried blood smeared lightly across his hand and I looked closer to see fresh raw cuts, crevased into his skin, some deeper than others. I ran my thumb over his bruised knuckles, acknowledging them. I glanced up into his soft blue eyes. I hadn't noticed before, the newly pink skin underneath one of his eyes, evidence of the fight. I sat dumbfounded, frozen to the cold ground. More at the realization of what he did for me, than not being able to move, but just the same, tremendous gratitude paralyzed me as I watched him through heavy lidded eyes. Someone had heard me and came to help, Gage had.
A crooked smile grew slightly at the corner of his lip as he knelt down in front of me to meet my gaze. He brushed a strand of my windswept hair out of my eyes then reached an arm around me and gently helped me stand.
“You sure you're ready?” He asked, his voice deep and soothing in my ear. I turned to look at him, his cheek, inches from my lips as he huddled closer and sheltered me from the wind.
“Yeah…”
Gage practically pulled me the last half-mile, with his arm curled around my shoulders as he steadied me and kept me warm. I clung to his shirt and forced myself to focus as Trey forged a trail ahead of us. One painful step at a time, I willed my legs to move over fallen logs, around large rocks and boulders. Trey led the way and stopped just short of the meadow just below the cabin.
“Wait here while I make sure the place is empty,” Trey said. The despair on my face, apparently difficult to hide so he quickly added with an empathetic grin, “I’m sure it is. I just want to make sure, besides it will give you a chance to rest. You know what the last hundred yards are like.”
“Oh, and the last three miles have been a piece of cake,” I said sarcastically.
Trey laughed. “I’ll be right back.”
Sheltered by the thick pines, the wind felt less forceful. The intense pressure in the atmosphere seemed to press the air from my lungs. Too tired to argue, I sat on the ground and closed my eyes, with my arms and head resting against my curled up knees. As my breathing recovered, my body trembled and I couldn’t stop it. I realized then, my strength had left me a long time ago and I might not be able to get back up. They could just leave me here. I would be fine with that. I didn’t want to go any farther.
I felt Gage next to me and I lifted my head up to see him. Sleep called me and I felt the weighty sting underneath my eyelids as I closed them. Above the angry howl of the wind and the whipping of the trees, above the screaming pain in my head or the burn in my back, above all else, I heard Gage’s calming breaths as he moved closer with a protective arm around me. We didn’t say a word, just sat there next to each other and I let myself drift off as my head found his shoulder.
I must have fallen asleep by the time Trey returned. I barely heard the sound of his voice as he tried to shake me out of a numbing fog. The dizziness spun into a whirling tornado inside my head then a jolting pain struck sharp against the back of my eyes. I muffled an uncontrollable moan as I clenched my jaw tight and grabbed at my temples with no relief. A prickling sensation grew across my tongue and it became bitterly hot as beads of sweat formed on my head.
“Jade, It’s clear…”
Trey said something else but I couldn’t make out what it was, and I didn’t want to listen as it hurt too much to do so. Their voices faded in and out. I didn’t care anymore. I couldn’t hold back as I turned away from them and threw up onto the forest floor. I wiped my lips with the back of my hand.
“I’ll just stay here,” I said with a shaky voice.
“Jade… Look at me…” With his hand on my cheek, Gage turned me towards him. A blur of black and silver at the base of his neck swirled before me like the swirling in my head. I reached for the pendant to steady it and missed. My heavy hand dropped against his chest. He grasped my head with his hands and forced me to look up at him. His voice grew more distant as if he stood at the end of a long tunnel while his face became a darkened blur. I let my eyes close as I felt them roll back. He picked me up in one swoop as I struggled for consciousness.
“I can walk...”
My voice grew weak and I wasn’t sure if he heard me, then Gage whispered close. “I’ve got you, Jade...” Unable to argue, I let my head fall against his chest and I sunk into his arms…
CHAPTER 13
The sound of their voices, fragmented and distant, faded in and out. I tried to grasp their words. I couldn’t speak out, my mind and mouth failed to connect. My head swam with dizziness, physically torturous as I tried to remember where I was.
I ignored the intense throbbing against the insides of my skull as I turned my head to see a red glow beside me. The blur of a dark room spun with orange tracers from a fire. I closed my eyes.
“Jade?”
The sound of someone’s footsteps echoed against a hollow floor towards me. I tried to sit up. My tongue, like cotton. I licked my dry lips and I made a failed attempt to swallow as a raspy whisper emerged from somewhere inside me.
“Trey...”
“Shhh, don’t try to get up yet.” I heard Trey’s familiar voice as his hand rested gently on my head then the sharp contrast of a cool wet cloth against my hot skin.
“My head hurts,” I said, and drifted back to sleep.
***
I woke with a severe headache. An intense pain stabbed like a thousand knifes in my back as I stiffly rolled onto my side. I winced and pushed my face into the stale bedding to muffle my moan. With much difficulty, I rose to my elbow and looked around. My disheveled hair hung in my eyes and I half-heartedly brushed it back, only to have it fall in my face again. Gage sat in the chair by the table and he turned from the window to me.
“Where’s Trey?” I asked, my voice wavered with an idle rasp as I shivered from the cold. I coughed to clear my throat and winced, instantly reminded of the pain in my head.
“He went to get Kane.”
With heavy eyes, I watched as he stood and walked to a pot on the stove. Billowy white steam curled upwards then dispersed into the chilly air as he poured the hot steaming water into a cup. The refreshing scent of mint and lemon wafted through the cabin as he walked over and handed me a drink.
“This’ll warm you.”
The warm cup felt good in my cold hands. The scratchy, heavy wool blanket kept the chill away but I still shivered from the cold. I sipped the tea slowly, warming my insides.
“Thanks… How did I get here?”
“You walked... Do you remember what happened yesterday?”
I tried to pull the memory of yesterday through the fog in my mind. “I remember, I just don’t remember how I got here,” I paused again, as I slowly reached my hand up to the side of my head and tried to rub the headache away. “The last thing… we stopped to rest… And saying something about cake?” I was puzzl
ed.
Gage smiled as if he remembered something and then he laughed. “Yeah, you said our hike up here was a piece of cake,” he said then, his smile slowly faded. “You passed out…”
“Oh… And?”
“And… Then I carried you the rest of the way.” As I tried to absorb his last sentence and the events of yesterday, I sat hastily upright on the bed and gave him a look of irritation as he walked over to the stove. I immediately regretted the sudden movement as the pounding in my head increased exponentially.
A slight twitch of his lip told me he was amused but ignored my protest and poured a pot of warm water into a basin. From the steam in the air, I could smell the familiar sterile scent of antiseptic from home that my mom would use to clean wounds.
The friction of the table legs scratched loudly on the old wooden floor as he pulled it closer to the bed, then he sat beside me and gently put a washcloth up to my injured cheek. I winced and pulled back from the sting. I felt the tightness under my eye as I scrunched my brows.
“You’re pretty scraped up...” His glance shifted to my cheek briefly, then back to me as he held his hand out with the washcloth and waited for me to take it. My arm felt heavy as I reached for the table and set down the finished cup of tea. His fingers brushed mine gently as he set the cloth in my hand. My heart skipped a beat. I held it over my face and closed my eyes as I soaked up its warmth. It made my cheek sting but it felt good to wash my face. I handed it back to him and he put it in the basin.
“Can I look at your back?”
I slowly unbuttoned the top two buttons of my shirt and slipped it cautiously back, exposing my injured shoulder. He looked down the back of my shirt and cringed.
“Your back is raw...You need to get your shirt off.”
Feeling uneasy, I wrapped the blanket tighter and turned to face him. “I can’t just take off my shirt.”
“I’ll step out... Wrap up in the blanket,” Gage suggested. “You’ll feel better if you get it cleaned up.”
My wounds needed cleaned and there was no one else to do it. I knew my stiff and painful body wouldn’t let me do it myself.
“Okay. You can just turn around.”
From underneath the blanket I unbuttoned my shirt as Gage kept his back to me. My body shook and I wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or the pain my shirt inflicted on the sensitive parts of my back. I felt the tearing of skin as I managed to peel off my shirt, stuck to my wounds. The blanket fell, exposing my bare skin to the cold and I looked quickly to see if he remained turned away. He was.
I covered the front of my bra with my shirt as I tucked it under my arms and wrapped up in the blanket. Resting my chin on my knees, I gripped them tightly as I glanced over my shoulder.
“Okay.”
The weight on the bed shifted as he sat behind me. My hair hung down and covered my back. He gently brushed it into the contours of my neck and pulled the blanket down past my shoulders. He cringed again.
“We should have done this last night…”
I tensed with a raise of my brows.The unexpected spring in the spandex gave way as Gage unhooked my bra. I clutched the blanket closer to my chest. My breath caught in surprise and slight embarrassment but then the gentleness of his rough fingers as they touched my skin eased my worries.
Gingerly, Gage cleaned my wounds as he pulled gravel and dirt from raw flesh. Water trickled down and sent a shiver up my spine with prickly goose bumps that followed.
I leaned against the cold cabin wall and turned my face into it to hide the pain. It smelled damp and musty. I bit at my lower lip and looked out the window as a distraction. Overcast and wet outside from the previous nights' rain, a cold draft seeped between the logs of the cabin over my skin.
I buried my face into my knees and squeezed them tighter to force away the trembles deep in my bones. I tried to remember if I had ever felt this kind of smoldering raw pain before. I decided I hadn’t. Gradually, the intense pain turned into a dull burning then eventually numbness as the warm, heavy weight of exhaustion moved through me. I relaxed as he applied a soothing ointment, then with a gentle hand on my shoulder he leaned forward. His breath tickled the back of my neck. “Trey said there were clothes in your pack for you to change into.”
Heat emanated from underneath his shirt as it touched my bare skin and I gasped from the chill he sent over me. I glanced over my shoulder and watched as he moved away then walked to the door and opened it. Fresh steam rose from the water as he poured it from the basin onto the cold ground.
“I’m going to go to the stream for more water if you want to get cleaned up,” he said, then set the basin on the table and filled it once more with the remaining hot water from the pan on the stove.
My eyes followed him as he fumbled around a bit, he wouldn’t look at me. I wanted the comfort of his presence and I sensed he wanted to offer me space.
“Gage,” I said, as I turned towards him and reached for his hand. As our fingers touched, my heart skipped unexpectedly. His eyes caught mine. He sat on the bed as if he recognized my need to have him close.
“Thank you.”
He pulled the blanket up over my back and wrapped it tighter around me. I wanted him to know I was glad he was there, thankful he helped me. His jaw clenched under his silence. Torment surfaced on his face and sorrow in his soft blue eyes as if he somehow felt the pain I felt.
The first time I’d talked to Gage, I stomped off mad because Kane had completely humiliated me in front of him. Later, he came by to see me and I refused to talk to him. Then, as if I needed more, I was rude at the assembly. He probably thought I was a spoiled brat. He was so kind and chivalrous under his rugged appearance and even if he’d thought so about me, he didn’t lead on that he did.
A weak smile formed through his tense lips. He looked as if he would say something, but refrained. The thought of what Damian would have done if Gage hadn’t come flashed through my mind. I felt his hands, invasive and overpowering all over again as he tried to force me into his truck. I suddenly felt smothered and couldn’t breathe. Tears welled to the surface and I forced them back. My mind flooded with the memory of yesterday as the shock wore off.
I didn’t want him to leave. The emotional rawness I felt slipped away as Gage surrounded me with his arms, strong yet gentle and pulled me to his chest. Silent tears streamed down my cheeks as I hid my face in his shirt. His hand touched me softly as he brushed a wisp of my disheveled hair from my brow and skimmed over my bruised cheek with his thumb. He cupped my chin and brought my eyes to meet his.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, my emotions raw.
His brows wrinkled. “Don’t be.” He offered a fleeting smile. Except what little I remembered of him as a child, I didn’t know much about him at all, the guy who used to walk by my house. Yet, I felt close to him, as if I’d known him for a long time, as if he never moved away. Somehow, I knew I could trust him and I felt safe with him here.
His eyes skimmed over me, the look in them changed instantly from sympathy to worry as he went fuzzy before me. The weight of my eyelids drew my eyes closed briefly and I struggled to re-open them.
“Maybe you should rest,” he said. The sound of his voice distant and warped as he helped me back into bed.
“Okay,” I said, then reached for my pounding head as I fought for consciousness. “I’m… dizzy…” The slur in my own voice scared me, “Gage… don’t leave…”
“I’m right here,” he said, his voice soothing. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The need for sleep suddenly inundated my body. My mind hazed over in a whirl as a sudden rush of heat swept over me. The dizziness took over and everything closed off black.
***
I woke to the sound of voices in my head. No, not in my head, not a dream, but real. Familiar. I focused on Gage’s voice, distant in hushed tones. Another voice spoke. “Need that run to Vegas soon…more weapons…”
Kane.
My body ached with sore muscles as I
rolled to my side. I glanced through heavy lids to see Kane and Gage at the table. I started to sit up then stopped as I realized, I didn’t have on my shirt, thankful the blanket surrounded me.
Kane glanced my way. Then chair legs screeched against the worn wooden floor as he moved his chair close to me. Gage stood. The hinges of the door creaked as he opened it and walked out. Cool air rushed in then stopped suddenly as he closed it behind him.
I pulled the blanket tighter under my chin. I looked up at Kane. His jaw pulsated as he clenched his teeth to force back the fierceness of his anger.
“Gage said you are passing out.”
I shrugged nonchalantly, irritated at myself for doing so. “Where’s Trey?”
“I needed him to stay with Emery. He can’t come up here for a while. They’re watching us. I had to do some maneuvering to get up here.”
I gave Kane half a smile. “How did you get back so fast?”
“I didn’t feel right about going, so I turned back. But it looks like I was still too late.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Kane asked, and then inspected my eye.
“This is my fault. I’ve been so selfish... You’re doing everything you can to make things better… And all I can do is think of me.”
“Jade, don’t. The only person I hold responsible for this is Damian and Morrison for allowing it.”
“Kane, I…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it without tears and they rolled down my cheeks and fell on the blanket. “I killed Quinn.”
“No… No you didn’t. Quinn was killed doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. Your hands are clean. Do not blame yourself for that! I mean it!” His concern resonated in the sternness of his voice. I nodded. “I brought you some food and a few other things you might need. You’re going to have to stay up here for a while, until I can figure things out and until you feel better. You need to rest, okay. You have a bad concussion and need to stay down.”
