I was up and had everything packed when he returned to the cave. We stopped briefly so I could splash some water in my face. The icy cold water was a shock and woke me up instantly.
As we made our way through the woods, I noticed that I was a bit sore in a particular area. However, I would rather die than admit weakness. Besides, the soreness wasn’t entirely unpleasant. It certainly brought a reminder of the incredible feelings I had experienced the night before.
We didn’t speak as we traveled. We didn’t want to bring attention to our presence. Plus, we were saving all of our strength and oxygen for the trip. The man moved fast, and my legs felt like rubber. However, my rubbery legs never let me down.
I focused my attention on the country we were passing through. Despite the reasons why I was hiking through the woods, I noticed that the land was beautiful. The trees were the most intense green I had ever seen. The water was clear, and I could see the fish swimming through the frigid liquid.
This was definitely a grand adventure. One for the history books.
5
Jared
While we were traveling, my mind was mostly on my task, as my main priority was getting Elise back home safely. However, Elise was also ever-present in my thoughts. Not her as a job. Her as a woman.
I was angry when I found out that she was a virgin and didn’t tell me. However, that anger soon faded. It wasn’t like she was an eighteen-year-old kid. She was a grown woman who knew what she was doing.
Knowing that she had remained a virgin for so long but decided to give me that part of herself was an honor. For a lot of men, losing their virginity was a rite of passage, and not a lot of thought was given to it—except the thought that now that they had gotten laid, every woman was a potential source of fun.
For most women, however, their virginity was sacred. Although the differences were sexist, and in some people’s minds, old-fashioned, it remained a truth. I felt that Elise was one of those women. She valued her virginity and did not give it to me lightly.
This contradiction was part of what made Elise so intriguing.
I hoped that once the case was over, and once we managed to get back to the real world safely, we might be able to continue our relationship. I had girlfriends, and even committed relationships, in the past, but none of them ever lasted. I knew I could be hard to live with, and I had very high standards. Either I failed, the woman failed, or we both failed to meet each other’s expectations.
Elise was so different, though. She could set me straight when I started to be difficult without being a shrew about it. She didn’t seem to be the type of woman to freak out emotionally over every difficulty. She handled it like a boss.
On the other hand, what did I have to offer her? She was a millionaire’s daughter and would be a millionaire in her own right after she took over the company, growing it and making it even more successful than it already was. I was a shell shocked veteran who had seen the worst that humanity had to offer. We came from two entirely different worlds.
Mentally, I smacked myself. Although she was the daughter of a millionaire, she didn’t act like a hoity-toity, stuck up debutante. She had a rough start in life and succeeded despite of it, or maybe because of it. She was intelligent, physically and mentally strong, and tough.
She was the kind of woman I could fall in love with. Correction, she was the woman I could fall in love with, if I let myself.
To be truthful, I had never thought of settling down in the past. Thinking of myself tied down with one woman and kids would have terrified me and would have sent me running for the hills.
My military career was a part of it. I had worked intelligence in the Army and had been a Ranger. I was usually deployed to some dangerous part of the world, whether we were at war in that area or not. The lifespan of an Army Ranger wasn’t terribly high. The last thing I would want to do is leave behind a wife and kids. Plus, I wouldn’t have been home long enough to spend quality time with a family.
Now, I was retired, though. I was earning decent money with my retirement from the military and income from our security company. Maybe my life was settling down now. Maybe it was time to let someone in.
Once I made this statement in my mind, I focused on the scenery around me. It truly was a beautiful county. The steep mountainous trail gave us a great view of the surrounding forests and the trees that reached to the sky. Occasionally, we would see some of the local wildlife. At one point, I looked down and saw a bear drinking at the pond, looking peaceful. For half a second, I wondered if it was Gage, but then realized that he was coming in from a completely different side. We also spooked a gazelle who ran across our path, but then stopped to look at us as though he were trying to figure out what we were.
So many of the places I had been to were gorgeous. The majority of the people were wonderful. It was really too bad that both were being destroyed by war—war that was often caused by greed.
I continuously scanned the area for followers. I never saw any strange movements among the trees or landscape. No unusual movement spooked the birds or other animals. There was no disruption in the serenades of the insects or birds.
However, there was no way that I was going to become complacent and believe that we weren’t being followed.
Finally, darkness started to fall. I was surprised to see that we had made such good time. The cave that I had mapped out wasn’t too far ahead of us.
After checking out the cave for other inhabitants, I asked Elise to unpack the blankets. I also asked her to grab a couple of MREs out of the other bag with a pan. I was going to risk a small fire for a few minutes so we could have a hot meal. She certainly deserved one.
I pulled out some Sterno and lit it. While I waited for the water to heat, she decided that she needed to clean the day’s travels off. She braved the frigid spring waters to clean up again. She was definitely a tough woman.
Both of us had spaghetti by Sterno light. There was no wine, no flowers, and no fine china. Not exactly the most romantic setting I could think of. She didn’t seem to notice. She wolfed down her food and seemed to be satisfied. A woman after my own heart.
We cleaned up and then sat just outside the cave. We really didn’t talk. This was also a new experience. With other women, there seemed to be some compulsion on both of our parts to fill the silence, even if it was with meaningless chatter.
Yet, with Elise, the silence was comfortable. We sat together, with a blanket wrapped around the both of us. Her head was on my shoulder as we stared up at the stars twinkling in the sky, both lost in our own thoughts. The perfect domestic scene—if we weren’t in the middle of a hostile country running from a group of terrorists who wanted nothing more than to kill us on sight.