Stuck on You (26 page)

Turns out it was actually way more terrifying.

Paige’s hands shook as she started down the side, leaning back as the instructor had told them. The first few steps were the worst, but once she was over the edge and on her way, her fear subsided as she focused on the task. Before she knew it, she was halfway down.

“How much further?” Zoe asked a couple of feet higher up the side from Paige.

Paige peeked at the GPS unit clipped to her chest. “Says just a few more feet. We should see the hiding spot soon. Come further down so we can find it together.”

“Okay,” Zoe called. “Wait for me.”

Paige peeked over her shoulder and scanned the rock face below her trying to find anywhere there might be a nook to hide a cache. With Zoe on the farthest outside line on the left and Paige on the line beside her more to the middle, it made more sense that the cache would be somewhere below Paige. That way, the other two lines on Paige’s right could reach the cache as well if another team happened to show up at the same time. It only made sense that the cache would be directly in the middle of the four lines so that two teams searching at the same time could have equal ability to reach the cache.

“It’s gotta be near me and in the middle somewhere. It’s the only thing that makes sense in this situation,” Paige called back up to Zoe who was slowly making her way closer.

Paige continued to search until Zoe dropped down beside her. “See right there,” Paige said, pointing to an outcropping of rock a few feet below them, directly between the middle two rappelling lines. “I think that could be where it is.”

“It’s as good a place as any to check,” Zoe said. “Let’s just find this thing and get the hell out of here. I don’t feel good about this at all.”

“We’re doing great. Don’t worry.”

The girls made their way down a little further then Zoe stopped moving. Paige stopped where she was. “Why did you stop? Let’s keep going if you want to get done and out of here.”

“I’m trying,” Zoe said, her voice shaking. “I can’t go any further.”

“Zoe, come on. I’m right here with you. You don’t need to be afraid. We’re totally safe here.” Paige tried to make her voice sound as reassuring and calm as possible. But in her head, she yelled a string of obscenities. Hanging around being scared on the side of a cliff wasn’t going to help their situation any, so Zoe needed to suck it up and keep moving.

Paige looked up to find tears brimming Zoe’s eyes. She’d only ever seen Zoe cry once and that was at the finale of
The One
. And now the girl was tearing up again. This couldn’t be as bad as being publically rejected on TV by Brad.

Paige needed to be even stronger for Zoe right now. “It’s okay, try wiggling the thingy a little to see if you can get going again.”

“No, really.” Zoe breathed in a hitched breath. “I can’t move. I think I’m stuck.”

“I can’t believe you hid this from me,” Miles said, slamming his palm against the steering wheel again.

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. They’re their own team. They can do whatever they want to now that you broke our alliance with them.”

“How did you know they were going for that cache today anyway?” Miles asked, annoyed with himself that he hadn’t figured out the girls were on their way to getting themselves in trouble.

“I saw Zoe before we left and she looked a little worse for wear. When I asked her if anything she was wrong, she mentioned being nervous about attempting the cache that had landed the firefighters in the water, then in the hospital.”

Miles cursed under his breath. This had accident written all over it. Damn it.

He skidded the truck to a stop on the side of the road next to what he assumed must be the girl’s SUV and bolted out the door. He barely waited long enough for Ben to get out of the truck before heading off down the trail in the direction the arrow on the GPS unit pointed.

“I wish you’d told me sooner. Then we could have stopped them. I just hope we’re not too late.”

Ben kept pace with Miles but his breath came out a little harsher than it should. “Maybe you don’t need to stop them. They’re stronger than you think they are, you know? It wouldn’t be the first time you’d underestimated someone recently.”

Miles glanced over to his friend and saw the sheen of sweat already covering his forehead. Miles slowed his pace even though every fiber of his being told him to sprint as fast as he could. Ben was right. He’d underestimated what Ben could do the entire time on the show. Had he underestimated the girls too?

They walked in silence for a few minutes. The ground was rough with large boulders in some areas and potholes in others. Ben stumbled more than once but Miles resisted the urge to grab his arm and steady him, knowing Ben wouldn’t want the help.

Please tell me Paige didn’t hike this in heels today.

Finally they crested the top of the gradual slope they’d climbed. The view was outstanding. A large lake, surrounded by green hills and rock bluffs on every side. Simply a little slice of heaven.

Or hell if you made a stupid mistake and ended up hurting yourself.

Or worse.

The girls’ cameraman Evan stood at the edge of the cliff, a safety rope tied around his waist. He leaned out precariously over the edge with his camera pointed down, a serious expression creasing his brow.

Shit. They’d done it.

“Are Paige and Zoe down there?” he asked one of the instructors milling around.

“Yep,” answered the closest one without elaborating.

“Well, are they okay? Did they get the cache?”

“I can’t tell you about the status of the cache or any other team.”

Miles looked to the heavens for strength not to punch someone in the face. He just wanted answers and all he got was the run around. If they wouldn’t tell him, then he’d damn well find out on his own.

He walked to the edge then dropped to his stomach before peering over the edge. Paige and Zoe dangled about halfway down. They didn’t appear to be moving but they also didn’t look as if they were searching for the cache. So what the hell were they doing? Having a picnic? Taking in the view?

He forced in a deep breath. His instinct was to tell them how silly they were for taking such a chance. But he couldn’t do that. Paige hated how overbearing he’d been with her the other day, telling her what she could or couldn’t do. He wouldn’t make that same mistake again. Nor did he want to. He wasn’t overbearing like that normally. This whole process of filming the show and searching for caches constantly was really getting on his nerves. When he’d thought they’d put themselves in danger for a stupid show, he’d lost his better judgment for a minute. But he wouldn’t do it again. He had to play this off the right way or he’d risk making his situation with Paige worse.

Of course, how it could get worse than her refusing to even speak to him, he didn’t know. But he was confident there was a worse scenario.

“How’s it going down there?” he called, forcing his voice to be casual and aloof. “Find any big prizes yet?”

“Miles?” Zoe asked.

She looked up at him, tears spilling down her cheeks. He’d only seen her cry a handful of times in his entire life and the sight of it brought back terrible, painful memories. Something was definitely wrong.

“I’m here, Zoe. Are you okay?”

Stupid question.
She was hanging on the side of a rock cliff with only a rope and a few carabineer clips supporting her while she dangled over a large body of deep water. No, of course she wasn’t all right.

“I’ve been better, actually.” She laughed.

“I can see that.” He paused while trying to decide whether or not he should attempt talking to Paige now. It wasn’t like she could run away from him at least. “Hey, Paige. How’s it going? Just taking a little break down there?”

Paige looked up at him with fire in her eyes, not fear. “I’m fine, but Zoe is stuck.”

“What do you mean by stuck exactly?” Stuck while rappelling wasn’t good.

“Something’s wrong with the metal thingy. The rope won’t go through it anymore.” Paige touched Zoe’s arm. “I can get down the rest of the way, but I don’t think Zoe can without figuring this out.”

Shit. No wonder Zoe was upset. She hated not being in control. She was terrified of being trapped.

“I’m coming down. Stay where you are,” he called, getting to his feet.

“Where do you think we’re going to go, smart ass?” Zoe snapped.

Miles stood and faced the instructors, anger bubbling to the surface now that he knew the full extent of the situation. “Why didn’t you go get them yet?”

One of them shrugged. “They wouldn’t let us.”

“So go get them anyways. What are they supposed to do, dangle there forever until they magically get unstuck?” How could they be so stupid to just leave them there?

“If we rescue them, they’re out of the game. That feisty dark-haired one threatened to stick her stiletto heel in a very inappropriate spot if I caused them to forfeit the game.” He shook his head, his cheeks noticeably paler at the mention of the very long, pointy heels. “That’s just not right, dude.”

Paige and her heels. She knew she was trying this cache today and she still wore those shoes. When he got her back on solid ground, he was taking those heels and chucking them into the lake. Barefoot would be safer than rappelling in heels.

“You’re the one who let her over the edge with those shoes on to begin with,” Miles said as he stepped into one of the harnesses lying on the ground, securing it then hooking onto the rope.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the other instructor asked.

“To rescue them.” He paused. “Why? Am I going to get disqualified if I do?”

“No, you’re free to rescue whoever you want, but your partner has to go too. Teammates must repel together to claim the cache.”

“But I’m not claiming the cache. I’m rescuing them. I don’t give a shit about the stupid cache.”

The instructor shrugged. “Rules are rules.”

Miles turned to face Ben only to find him already harnessed and lowering himself over the edge of the last line. “What are you doing?”

“Rappelling. Are you going to join me or get me disqualified?” Ben called up, disappearing over the edge as easy as he always did. No fear. No hesitation. No worry.

Miles grinned and double-checked his work to make sure he was fully clipped before following Ben. He couldn’t help the swell of pride and satisfaction in his chest seeing Ben rappel again.

Easing his way over the edge, he glanced down to see Paige and Zoe looking back at him. Just waiting and dangling. He could see how this cache would be difficult for teams to reach if they’d never rappelled or done any kind of climbing before. The sheer vertical drop was enough to spook even the person most comfortable with heights.

Miles climbed down quickly, the cliff posing little problem to him after the others he’d climbed in his lifetime. Ben stayed to the side, out of the way and with an expression of pure happiness radiating out of him.

Miles stopped when he reached Paige’s side. “Hey, you. So I’ve been trying to talk to you for days now and you just keep ignoring me.”

“Really, Miles?” Zoe squeaked. “You’re really trying to settle things with Paige now?”

He chuckled. “No, I’m only teasing her.”

“It’s not funny.” Paige turned away, effectively ignoring him again.

Even on the side of a cliff, she put up a fight. She must be more pissed than he’d expected. But he’d have to worry about her later. Right now he had to figure out how to get Zoe down to the waiting boat.

“Wearing those shoes while rappelling isn’t funny either. When we get down from here, I’m throwing them in the lake.”

“The hell you are.” The fire in Paige’s eyes excited him, made him even more eager to get things sorted out with her so they could go back to the way they had been.

“We’ll see.” He turned his attention back to Zoe. As much as he wanted to deal with Paige now, he had to deal with Zoe’s situation first. “Why didn’t you let them help you?” he asked, evaluating Zoe’s situation as well as he could from his spot a couple of feet away.

“Because then we wouldn’t just lose this cache, we’d be off the whole show.” Zoe met his gaze.

“It’s only a game.”

Zoe pleaded. “Can you get me down now? I don’t care about the cache anymore.”

Paige faced Miles. “Is that why you’ve been trying so hard to win, even at the expense of your relationships? Nice to know you care so little about people that they mean even less than some silly game.”

“I could have explained that a couple of days ago if you’d let me.” He focused on Zoe again. As much as he wanted to, he didn’t have time to deal with Paige right now. “I want to talk to you about this, but I need to get Zoe down before she really freaks out. To do that, I could really use your help.”

Paige sighed but nodded. “What do you need me to do?”

He gave Paige a few instructions and she started her descent again, stopping when she was a few feet lower — just enough space for him to cross her rope line to get to Zoe. He lowered himself another foot on his line then gripped the wall with his fingertips and dug his toes into the tiny spaces between rocks.

Miles climbed to Zoe and quickly saw the problem. The hem of her shirt had gotten caught in the rappel device, jamming it so the rope couldn’t pass through.

“It’s okay. I’m here now.” He might get annoyed with Zoe on a regular basis, but it killed him to see her so upset. “I know how to get you down.”

She nodded, biting her lower lip, which quivered uncontrollably. It was a rare occasion he’d seen her in this state and it deeply unsettled him. Best to get her down quickly.

Slipping one hand into the cargo pocket on his shorts, he removed the Swiss Army knife he always carried. “Hold still.” He sliced through the material of her blouse, carefully avoiding touching the rope with his blade. When her shirt was free, he fiddled with the device until he could pull the cut section from inside it and the rope could once again slide through.

“My poor shirt,” Zoe said softly.

“It was either your shirt or learning to live on the side of a rock.”