Dangerous Ground 3: Blood Heat by Josh Lanyon Read Free Book Online Page B

breathing hard.
    The muddy water was steadily rising. Taylor could make out the murky tide through the pelting rain. He stared, fascinated, as the water crept still higher. How could it move so fast?
    “Climb.” Will punched him on the shoulder.
    Taylor obeyed, turning to climb.
    His boots slipped in the pine needles and mud. He grabbed for a low-hanging branch, used it to support himself till he could wrap an arm around a narrow tree trunk. Will was right on his heels.
    They left the trees and clambered up a few unsheltered feet. Taylor leaned into the wind and half crawled, half staggered forward. The wet stung his face and knocked the breath out of him. This was July? It felt like December.
    A tree branch slapped him in the cheek as they reached another stand. His skin was so numb he barely felt it. What had happened to all that sultry, sodden heat?
    Another branch hit him, and he swore. The wind snatched his words away.
    Taylor trudged on, slithering every few feet, clutching boulders, branches, jutting roots, anything to keep moving. A quick glance over his shoulder showed the paved road below submerged beneath maybe sixteen feet of water that seemed to boil through the canyon curves like a soup of boulders and tree trunks and pieces of house siding.
    Their car had slid back a few feet and was leaning still more alarmingly. It wouldn"t take much to send it toppling down into that flood.

    44
    Josh Lanyon

    Vaguely, he wondered if Will had bothered to take out insurance on the rental.
    It seemed a trivial concern at the moment, merely a point of curiosity.
    “Keep moving.” Will threw the words at him.
    Unnecessarily. Taylor might be a city boy, but he was survivalist enough to know that even six inches of water could knock a man off his feet. A foot of water could float a car. The water he saw below them? That much water could wash a small town away.
    He continued up the wet hillside, grateful as the trees grew denser, offering a little respite from the wind and wet at last. By then his muscles were burning and he was drenched in sweat, a sobering reminder that if they weren"t in peak physical condition, they"d probably be dead.
    After what felt like an eternity, Taylor reached the top of the hill, huddling beneath the dripping branches. He dropped back against the rough trunk of a pine tree and closed his eyes.
    Will, shaking with cold and exertion, crawled beside him. Taylor opened his eyes, acknowledging Will"s presence, then closed them again and concentrated on catching his breath.
    “Too close,” Will huffed, sounding equally out of breath. “That was too…damned close. You okay?”
    Taylor coughed, nodded, and wearily raised his eyelashes. “You?”
    Will nodded.
    “That was…” Words failed him. He stared at what he could see of Will"s face.
    “Among other things, that was the best goddamned driving I ever saw in my life.”
    Will laughed shakily, acknowledging what a close call they"d had. Not like their jobs weren"t plenty dangerous enough without Mother Nature getting into the act.

    Dangerous Ground 3: Blood Heat

    45

    He reached out, hauled Taylor awkwardly into his arms. For a few seconds, the world narrowed down to the hard breaths, to the hard, shaken pound of their hearts through wet clothes, to the hard grip of arms.
    Taylor"s wet face was pressed to Will"s; their breath warmed each other"s faces.
    “It could have been worse.”
    “I"ll say.”
    “It could have been my car we left on that mountain.”
    Will gave a half laugh. They moved apart enough to study each other.
    The night was fading. It was too early to be called dawn yet, but Taylor could just make out the outline of Will"s weary, unshaven face. His deep blue eyes were the only color in the gray world of rain and shadows.
    Will leaned in, and his mouth covered Taylor"s, rough but sweet, his tongue seeking Taylor"s. Taylor opened willingly to that kiss, forgetting for a second his scratched, scraped hands and the rain running