Page 70 of One Last Stand
“The Hobbit? My family was obsessed with J. R. R. Tolkien. I readThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Ringsuntil the spines broke in my books. But I never needed to go on my own quest to save the world.”
“Right.”
But now that feeling was back. Andshoot, she just had to—“Shep, are we . . . are we . . . okay?”
They’d reached the backside of the mountain, higher now, with a look into the valley below. The gondola from the resort still ran up the mountain, a few of the cars swinging on the cables. The sky had turned mottled, the wind now whooshing through the trees. She hadn’t really realized the change in weather . . .
“What do you mean?”
She faced him. “I mean . . . why haven’t you kissed me again?”Oh,her stupid mouth. It said all the wrong things sometimes. Maybe shewasthirteen.
Evenhiseyes widened. “What?”
Too late to take it back. “You haven’t . . . Okay. I know this sounds weird, but . . . maybe that was just a moment. And if it was, then . . . it’s fine. Really. I mean, I was emotional too, and maybe we’re going to be just friends, but?—”
“Are you kidding me?”
Her mouth opened.
“I’ve been wanting to kiss you for the last forty-eight hours, but . . . you said maybe we shouldn’t kiss again. And there’s . . . this.” He spread out his hands to the intense alpine scenery and the valley below, with the river that dissected it. Then he turned back to her. “I wasn’t sure you wanted?—”
“Oh, I know what I want.” Then she stepped up to him, put her hands on his jacket, and rose on her tiptoes. “I’m very sure about that.”
He smiled then, slow and perfect, and when his gaze roamed her face, all the spiraling simply stopped. He bent?—
The gunshot pinged the air, took off a piece of his jacket, hit a tree behind him.
Instinct had her tackling him, hooking a leg behind him, pushing.
She landed on top of him with anoofas he put his arms around her, of course cushioning her fall.
Another shot, and this time it hit the pathway ahead of them.
“What was that?” He pushed her off him, started up, but she scrambled to her feet, grabbing his hand.
“Run!”
She took off down the pathway, and he kept up, ducking with her as another shot barked in the air. “London! What is going on?”
“I don’t know!” Butoh, maybe she did.
Whoever had picked up her abandoned contract—so much for safety in Montelena—had found her.
AndShep.
The path headed downhill, and in the distance, a roar lifted.
“The falls—up ahead.”
“To be clear, I don’t want to go swimming again?—”
Another shot. She ducked, then pulled him off the path, toward the sound of the falls. They cut through trees and scrambled over boulders until?—
“Whoa!” He grabbed her back a moment before she took a header off the edge of a cliff. Below, some twenty feet, narrow, turbulent rapids led to a lethal drop, only mist rising in the expanse.
“Let’s just think a second before we jump!”
She looked behind her at the rise of forest. “We’re trapped.”