Pain is splintering through both of my arms now, but I can’t afford to hang out here in the middle of the deluge. The helicopter might already have landed.
I gulp air and ease down the cliff as fast as I can manage. Brace my feet, slide my hands down to the next holds, then clutch them for dear life as my feet skid farther below. Press my face close to the rough, slimy rock so I can suck in little puffs of breath.
I will the throbbing in my arms and shoulders as far back as I can. Clench my jaw until it’s aching too.
Gravity is working with me rather than against me now, but a little too enthusiastically. It takes all my strength not to tumble with the falls into the shallow pool below.
By the time I’m close enough that I dare to jump the last several feet, tears burn in the backs of my eyes. Thankfully, the spray of the waterfall disguises any that have crept out.
I slog back to the bank on wobbly legs. The guys are gone—retreated to the car when they saw the helicopter coming, I assume. I’m too exhausted to even worry that they’ve abandoned me.
Regardless of how they feel aboutme, they really wanted the plastic superhero I’m carrying on my back.
The stretch of wilderness before I reach the overgrown track where we parked the car is totally black. I make my way more by sound and feel than sight. Finally, I catch the glint of moonlight off the windshield beyond the trees up ahead.
The moment I emerge, the engine rumbles to life. It must be Andreas behind the wheel, because Jacob leans out the passenger-side window to snap at me. “Let’s go!”
As if I’ve been dawdling.
I stomp over to the passenger door, passing through the glow of the running lights. When I open the door to hop into the SUV’s middle seat, Andreas has twisted in his spot up front.
“Are you bleeding?” he asks, his forehead furrowed with concern.
I glance down at my injured arm. The rock split the fabric, and blood streaks across the sliver of bare skin around the scrape, trickling down to the back of my hand. Somehow it hurts worse now that I can see how bad it looks.
“Just a little,” I say nonchalantly.
Andreas lets out a rough noise and reaches for the key, but Jacob snatches his wrist before he can.
“I know how to bandage a cut too. We need to get out of herenow.”
Oh, joy. As Andreas reverses down the bumpy track, Jacob squeezes between the front seats to join me behind, bringing a first aid kit one of the guys had the foresight to stash in the glove compartment.
“I can do it,” I inform him, not super keen on the idea of the guy who sent me cliff-climbing in the first place handling my damaged flesh.
“It’s easier if it’s someone else,” he says curtly. Like he’s annoyed that I’m inconveniencing him even while he’s insisting on being inconvenienced.
I sigh and roll up my sleeve, biting my lip against a wince as the wet fabric rubs over the scrape. Jacob grasps my hand with the bare minimum of care and dabs the moisture from my arm with a folded piece of gauze.
Then he pauses. “You did get it, didn’t you?”
I wrinkle my nose at him. “I know better than to come back without your prize. It’s in the backpack, exactly as planned.”
He lets out a huff as if even that fact doesn’t please him and dabs antiseptic gel on my arm. As the stinging radiates through the muscle, he wraps some fresh gauze around my forearm.
Annoyingly, even while he’s been such a jerk, other parts of my body have woken up with little tingles at his closeness. Someone should really give me a good shake.
And I shouldn’t want it to be him.
“There, all patched up,” Jacob says briskly, and pushes to the other side of the seat to get as much possible distance from me. You’d think I’m the one who goes around poisoning people with a touch.
“You okay, Riva?” Andreas asks.
Is he worried about the cut still or what fresh hell his friend might have wreaked on me?
I decide to assume the former. “It was pretty shallow. More an irritation than a real danger. Better I lost some skin than my whole skull going over the falls.”
Jacob frowns, but just this once, his bad mood isn’t directed at me. “That computer punk shouldn’t have said the guy would be gone all night if he wasn’t sure.”