by K. A Knight
By the time we’ve unloaded the next batch of equipment, Fin is descending. We don’t speak as we unpack everything, causing Fin to throw us knowing glances. Then Riggs and Tyler are down, followed by Michael and one of Tyler’s new hires, whose name I don’t know yet.
We all continue to work in silence, and once we’re done, we gather at the passage leading down. Tyler peers into the darkened entrance before looking back at us. “Suits on, but no masks yet. It’s too tight down there to get into gear, so always do it when you can. I want four extra bottles on everyone’s hip. Kalen, take more deco with you and tie it onto the guideline as you go.”
“I’m going first,” he concludes.
Tyler nods and grinds his teeth, knowing he has no choice but to send me too. Riggs is better with computers. He’s a great diver, but he can be overly cautious, while Finn is too reckless. I’m the perfect mix, and he knows it. Even with as much as he hates me, I’m the best choice. “Peyton, you go with him. Let us know when you’ve reached an area where we can set up the forward base and how far it is. If you pass three miles and there’s still nothing, radio in.”
“Got it.” I nod, being nice for once as I slip into my gear. He’s right—it will be too tight down there to do it. I secure my main and extra masks to my side. Michael helps strap on my extra tanks and ropes, as well as checking that everything is tied down securely. It can’t move, all it would take is one string getting caught on a jagged rock and I would be dead.
Down here, everything is a game of life and death, and every time we do this, we roll the dice.
Kalen is ready and waiting while I grin at Michael. “See you soon, old man.”
He claps my head and drags me closer, pressing his forehead to mine for a moment—a ritual. “Stay safe, Minnow.” I nod, staring into those fatherly eyes. He releases me, and I step back, and then he looks to Kalen.
“I don’t give a fuck what your problem is, you watch her back or I’ll kill you,” he warns. Chuckling, I pat him on his arm as I pass by.
“Kalen might be an asshole, but he’s not stupid enough to let me die.” I look at Kalen. “There is no room for your bullshit down there, get it together and let’s do this.”
After all, anything can happen down here in the dark. As much as I hate him right now and he me, we have to depend on each other. We have to keep each other safe and alive.
He grinds his teeth and turns away without a word. Tyler glares at me and steps up next to his brother. He whispers something, making Kalen nod, and then Tyler moves back. “I want constant updates, that’s an order,” he demands.
Kalen ducks through the opening first, and I follow after him. I stay a few steps behind him as he switches on his head torch. I do the same, leaving my primary and secondary diving lights off until we go underwater.
I keep my steps slow and measured like his, knowing the cave could drop off at any point, so we need to go slow. The tunnel is small, barely big enough to stand in, and as we move deeper, the light from the entrance chamber slowly fades away until we’re plunged into darkness. Our lights are the only source of illumination down here.
Our breathing is even but loud as we carry on walking, the drip of water occasionally reaching us. We don’t talk, and it saddens me. This used to be when we teased, talked, and shared. Our nerves and excitement bonded us—hell, it was the only time he was really nice to me.
The only time I got to see below that angry, war hardened exterior to the man beneath. The man I fell in love with.
I watch his back as we walk. His wide shoulders almost scrape along the wall, and he even has to turn at one point. I press my talk button, which is built into my mask, but when we aren’t wearing them, we have to use a version of walkie-talkies. “First tunnel is tall enough to walk in, barely wide enough to fit through, sloping down and dark, will need lights throughout. Still going,” I report, before letting go.
Kalen doesn’t talk. He’s the one who’s supposed to spot any issues while I report them. We fall into the routine easily, but this time, it’s filled with tense silence and shared pain. The tunnel begins to slope down in a steeper angle, so I bend my legs slightly and watch my footing, ensuring I don’t slip.
“Gets darker up ahead, can hear water,” he calls back. A moment later, I hear it too. It’s faint but definitely there—rushing water. It could be a current or a rapid in a syphon or something else entirely. Excitement fills me, and I find myself smiling, knowing Kalen will be doing the same.
This is why I do it—for the unknown, the thrill that at any moment, the tunnel could change. We might have to dive, climb, scale, or stop. The twists and turns always keep us guessing, on our toes and feeling alive.
“We can hear water. At mark ten, the incline is steeper,” I report.
“Understood,” Tyler replies sharply.
Kalen snorts, and I roll my eyes. “What?” I ask, unable to help it.
“Nothing, princess, nothing at all.” We both freeze at the use of his nickname for me, but this time, it sounds bitter and filled with hate. It’s not like the tender way he used to say it. It was the only weakness he ever showed towards me, even in front of others…now it’s filled with regret and pain and a whole lot of anger.
“Stop,” I snap, and he sighs and glances back at me, his light blinding me for a moment.
“Being an asshole?” He moves closer, almost touching me, our breaths mixing between us. We’re alone in the dark, which only heightens all of our emotions. “Don’t like it, then fucking head back.”
I roll my eyes again. “I meant stop, I felt something,” I retort sharply, and he freezes. His eyes narrow, he knows to trust me on this. There’s a reason I was always first scout, I have a sense for things.
Closing my eyes, I press my hand to the wall and just listen and feel, ignoring his weighted stare. “There,” I murmur. “The air is changing, less stale. It’s blowing back and the wall is vibrating slightly.” I pop my eyes open, and I can’t help the grin that curves my lips. “I think there’s a fall up ahead.”
He grins back, his excitement filling his eyes before he remembers he hates me, and it fades to a scowl. “Fine, we go slow, stay close.”
He turns and starts walking again, sliding his feet forward in case of a sudden drop. His guideline drags behind him until we find a place to clip it to at the end of this section.
“We think we can hear a fall up ahead, might be the source of water, proceeding with caution, about thirty meters in,” I tell Tyler, and he acknowledges me.
We keep walking. It’s slow going, and my heart speeds up with each step we take. The sound of flowing water grows louder and louder until it’s almost a roar.
It’s so close, I can taste the spray. Kalen freezes and whistles, so I step up next to him, and my mouth drops open. We are on the lip of a ledge.
It’s a fucking waterfall.
I let out a laugh, and it echoes out over the sound of crashing water, so I cup my hands around my mouth and let out a whoop, listening to it resound.
I turn and spot Kalen watching me. His eyes are lost and confused, and his mouth is tilted up slightly. I suck in a breath, rolling my lips in as his dark gaze drops to them hungrily. The air sparks between us as the electric connection that was always there returns with a vengeance until we’re both nearly panting. His hands are curled at his side to stop from, what? Reaching out?
Grabbing me?
Fuck. I swallow again and watch as he does the same, his Adam’s apple bobbing before he turns away. “Let’s clip the rope back there.” His voice is hoarse and low.
“Sure,” I concede, blinking at his sudden change in demeanour.
Maybe being here is stirring up memories for him too?
Maybe about that night…that night I admitted how I felt and kissed him?
Mouth tasting sour, I work silently to help him secure the guideline, my own regrets and pain making me quiet. Fuck, this is going to be a hard fourteen days.
Chapter Eleven
Kalen
“Sixty feet in, waterfall with natural flowing water. Guideline is secured just before it, rock is slippery. We’re going to clip in and see if there’s a way down or up, and then look for the next tunnel,” Peyton relays.
“Understood… Be careful,” Tyler calls back.
She drops the button and checks the harness with a tug before slipping on her helmet, fumbling in the dark to fasten it. I sigh but step forward. “Let me,” I growl.
I don’t want to be anywhere near her, but here I am. Close enough to touch…to taste.
She nods and lifts her chin, her green eyes focused on the top of the cave. Her lips are so close, I can almost taste the sweetness of them. The memory of the plump flesh against my own makes me rush to secure and check her helmet before stepping back.
She wiggles it and turns on her light before peeking over the edge, totally unaware of my dirty, traitorous thoughts. Just like when we found it, I’d been so tempted to get it all out in her—in her lips and body, but we both know that’s not going to happen.
Not ever again.
It can’t. Peyton is an obsession, and every taste only makes me want more. I can’t let that occur again. As soon as this dive is over, she’ll disappear, and I can’t let that wreck me anew.
Not when she destroyed us before.
I’ve faced a lot of hard times in my life, especially during my tours overseas, but none were as hard as watching her leave. I can’t let her get close to me again.
Not this time. This time, I’m hardened against her. We are nothing but ghosts to each other. I step up to her side, ignoring the awareness that always comes when I’m near her. An aching knowledge of where she is, of each breath she takes, each tic and smile.
I hate that I’m still so in tune with her. It helps for dive buddies, but right now, it makes me despise her more.
She grabs onto the wall and sticks her head out of the opening, making me bark a warning at her, which she ignores as always. She swivels her head, searching above us before looking down. “Okay, no tunnels or signs of entrances up top, but I can see one down below, maybe twenty feet. We could climb down the side—it’ll be slippery but possible—and then tether a rope for the others.”
She looks back at me with a grin. “Shotgun.”
“Peyton, just let me go,” I demand, but she laughs, and I know she won’t, she never does. She’s reckless, strong, and infuriating. She can do anything I can do and usually better.
“Anchor me. You have a better shot of keeping me upright if I fall than I do with your big ass body,” she teases, making me grunt in response as she steps back. Grinding my teeth once again, I strap her to me and anchor us as she slips on her gloves and cracks her neck.
“Ready?” I ask.
“Ready,” she replies. “Don’t let me fall.” She grins at me.
“Never,” I counter automatically, the word falling like a stone between us, and she winces and looks away.
She walks backwards towards the ledge, and I spread my legs, keeping the rope in my hand as she moves to the left side of the wall and, with a deep breath, reaches out across it to grab some handholds. When she has them, she swings out onto the wall, hitting it with a smack, eliciting a grunt from me at the tug as I keep the line taut. “You okay?”
“Yup, sharp rocks though, keep the line tight so it doesn’t snag and rip,” she murmurs. Her tone is even and unaffected, despite the strain on her body, so used to relaying everything to me as we work together. Our actions are always in sync.
I hear her breathing and the crumbling of the wall as she descends it, moving quickly as usual as she finds footholds and handholds and swings herself down. She was always the fastest of our group. In the water, she’s like a fucking fish, but she’s an amazing climber too.
It’s annoying. Is there anything she can’t do?
I loved that about her once, how easily she could keep up with all of us. When I first met her, I hated that she was working with us, thought she would hold us back, slow us down. It was the opposite. She could fit in spaces we couldn’t, climb what we couldn’t, and it made us unstoppable.
After she left, we had to change how we worked and even turn down some jobs—the reminder of that has me snarling, “Fucking be careful!”
“Calm down, Kal,” she replies, and I peek around to see her more than halfway down. The slip of my name doesn’t even faze her. I don’t think she even realised she did it. It’s what she always called me, even at the beginning, when I told her to her face she wouldn’t last a week.
She proved me wrong then.
She will now.
It makes my anger ease a little, but all it takes is for her to glance up at me with a grin for my rage to return. She’s acting like this is so easy, like she isn’t upset to work with me again, like this doesn’t hurt.
Like she doesn’t miss this.
Did we mean so little to her?
Did I?
She goes quiet, but the movement of the rope tells me she’s okay, and two minutes later she calls, “I’m down! Going to secure the rope.”
Stepping back, I wait for the big tug on the line. “Secured!” she shouts.
I release my hold and strap myself in. Time to test it. It’s better if I get hurt than the others. That’s the job of a first scout, to find and secure. I just wish it didn’t come so easily to me.
But when I came back from the military, Tyler knew I needed this, needed a way to feel alive, to express the death wish I had. At least this way, I’m rolling the dice, but it’s with my own life to protect theirs.
And hers.
Chapter Twelve
Peyton
I made it! I crane my neck back with a smile and look at the wall I free climbed down, my belay in place to secure the rope. I watch Kalen walk backwards to the edge and easily push off and descend the wall like this is second nature. Which, for us, it is.
He makes it look easy.
His ass also looks amazing, so I turn away to stop myself from staring at it, knowing if he catches me, he’ll probably spit more threats my way.
Out of breath, I relax for a moment as I shine my torch into the tunnel we’re likely going to take next. I listen to him coming down, although the water is louder down here and splashing my arm and legs. When I hear him land behind me, I turn back to see him unclipping and securing the line, as well as some tanks.
“At the bottom of the waterfall, a belay is in place to descend, tanks are secured at the base, and new opening is to the left. It’s big enough to walk through, so we’re going in.”
A moment later, Tyler’s voice fills the cavern. They are undoubtedly all listening in as Riggs takes notes and forms a map for us to follow. “Understood, no farther than three miles,” he reminds me.
Yeah, yeah. I don’t answer him as I look back at the tunnel, wondering what awaits us down there. I hear Kalen stepping up next to me, ready to move on.
He stops by my side, and I glance up to see him staring at my chest with laser eyes. Following his gaze, I look down and wince—my necklace has come free. I quickly tuck it away and turn away from him, not wanting to see his expression at me having kept it all these years.
They have clearly moved on, forgotten about me, and hate me…but I was stuck between the past and the present, and my necklace is a reminder.
“I’ll go first, seems smaller than the last.” I tie on my guideline, linking it to the other, and without looking back at him, I duck into the tunnel. I don’t want to see his reaction, his anger, or worse…his pity.
This tunnel is darker than the last, and they will gradually be more so the farther into the earth we go. Some will be pitch-black, which is why we always have so many lights. Nobody wants to get caught below water or in a dark cavern without light, it could mean the difference between life and death.
Mine shines around now as we slowly make our way through it. The shaft seems to be straight, with only a few twists and curves and some sharp edges
we have to duck and squeeze through. Kalen reports them all, while tying off the guideline as we go.
The sound of rushing water fades the farther we venture in, and I spot something up ahead, making me squint as I still. Only years of practice keeps Kalen from ramming into my back, but I feel how close he is. The heat of his hard body and his breath blowing over my neck makes me shiver. “What?” he murmurs.
“Looks like a crawlspace,” I tell him as we tread closer. Sure enough, the obstacle before us is an almost full rock wall we’ll have to crawl through. The space is wide enough for equipment and people though, which is good since none of this would make a good forward base.
“I’ll go first.” I slip from my equipment and place it in ahead of me as Kalen helps boost me into the hole, his hand on my ass. I hesitate at his touch, but then I ignore it and shuffle in, my legs kicking behind me. I still have my helmet on, and my light shines brightly as I use my elbows and knees to propel me and my bag forward.
My breathing is loud as I wiggle and move through the crawl space. “Okay?” he calls.
“Fine,” I reply instantly. It’s only about a two-minute crawl until it opens up. I pause at the end, and with a grin, push my bag through and climb from the hole, shining my torch around.
“I’m through!” I yell, and look back through the crawlspace, seeing him waiting. “You’ve gotta see this, it looks like we’ve found our forward base.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Coming through,” he calls.
I step farther into the room, a smile curling my lips at the immensity of this opening in the cave system. I’m betting this is going to be a huge network, and I can’t wait to explore the rest of it.
“A short fifty-meter walk to a crawl passage, wide enough for equipment and others, out the other side into a potential forward base. Waiting on Kalen, then we will ensure safety and sustainability,” I inform Tyler.
