Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55087 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55087 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
She moved automatically as he steered her from below. Seeing the wider ledge to stand on, her energy flooded back, and she scrambled to safety. Rocco moved to shield her back and press her against the stone. The tips of her toes were still jammed into the rock crevasses of the bluff, but at least the ball of her foot now could support some of her weight. What in the world was Rocco standing on?
“Are you okay?” she whispered, flinching at the volley of bullets pelting around them.
“I’m stable, Little girl. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he promised.
“How are we going to get away?” she asked, feeling shaky.
“The guys are below us. Kestrel is above. Can you hear the helicopter? One man is down already.”
“How do you know?”
“The bullets have slowed.”
Eager for any good signs, Sadie started counting the bullet strikes. She gasped as a shard of a rock splintered off next to them and flew directly toward her face. Rocco shifted sideways to put his shoulder in front of her, deflecting the threat. She felt him flinch.
“Did it get you? What can I do to help?” she asked.
“I’m fine, Sadie. A rock cut won’t slow me down,” he promised.
A sudden silence made them pause to listen.
A few seconds later, Phoenix’s voice called to them. “Third man down. You’re safe now.”
Caesar’s voice followed. “Want to go up or down?”
“Down,” Sadie called immediately.
“We can either climb down, or if your arms are tired, we could repel,” Rocco suggested.
“Repel?” Sadie’s voice squeaked. “You mean like let go of the side of this rock and let the rope lower me?”
“Yes. Would you like to try that?”
“Not a chance,” she responded without hesitation. The idea of letting go scared her to death. “Can we please climb down the way we came up?”
“Of course. We’re going to do this together, Cookie. Just like we got to this ledge. I’m going to move under you, and we’ll ease our way down.”
Without waiting for her to agree, Rocco crawled down the bluff until his shoulder again supported her. Slowly, they descended the rock face. Rocco coached her through the entire thing. She jumped when she heard a click and almost lost her footing. Rocco held her steady. Her heart raced as she clung to the stone.
“You’re all right, Sadie. I should have warned you. I just clicked into the anchors for the second lowest track. You’re almost there,” Rocco soothed.
“We’re that close?” she heard the tears in her voice and tried to compose herself.
“You’ve almost made it.”
A few more supported shifts down and another click, and Sadie knew they were at the lowest level. “Hold on, Cookie. I’m going to lift you down,” he said.
His supporting presence disappeared. Sadie clung desperately to the fingerholds in the bluff for the few seconds it took for him to step down on the ground. Rocco gripped her tightly around the waist and lifted her off the wall.
The minute her feet touched the ground, her knees buckled. He wrapped a strong arm around her and turned Sadie to face him. Pulling her close, he buried his face into her shoulder and simply held her. A second passed, and he moved back a fraction to look at her face.
Rocco lowered his lips to hers in a light kiss that expressed so much. His hands moved over her body. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good. But your shoulder! You’re bleeding!” She yanked her hands out of her protective gloves to run her fingers down his arm. “You blocked me from getting hurt by putting yourself in danger.”
“It’s a scratch. I’ll be fine.”
“Promise?”
“Yes, Little girl. I promise.”
“Rocco, the authorities are coming,” Caesar warned. “Kestrel has called Kingsley.”
“What happened to those guys? Why did they stop shooting?” Sadie fretted, trying to turn around to look.
Rocco simply scooped her up in his arms. “Tuck your face against my neck. You don’t want to see this,” he instructed and waited for her to obey. When she did so reluctantly, he carried her a short distance away and sat with her on the ground.
“We aren’t going to say anything about your former boss, Sadie. We don’t have any proof that it’s him, and he’s back in the States, so there’s nothing they can do to him,” Rocco said as he brushed her hair away from her face.
“What am I going to do? Kingsley isn’t going to want me to stay here. I’m endangering everyone,” she said, trying to hold herself together.
“We’re going to take care of this, Sadie. Right now, we need to cooperate with the police while giving them as little information as possible. Can you do that for me?”
Sadie stared at his concerned face streaked with dust and sweat. Rocco had kept her safe while they’d clung to a cliff with their fingers and toes. He hadn’t allowed her to panic and had supported her—literally. “I’ll do what you say, Daddy.”