Horizons by Catherine Hart Read Free Book Online

I’ll help him,” the corporal supplied.
    “I will, too,” the steward piped up.
    “Count me in on that,” Kelly added for good measure.
    “Mighty brave of y’all, with me trussed up like a Thanksgivin’ turkey,” Roberts sneered. “Look, just ’cause I done my old lady in, don’t make me crazy or mean I aim to kill anyone else.”
    “Maybe not, but we can’t take that chance, which makes me glad I took those cuffs you left behind,” Zach told him. He held the key in plain view before putting it back into his pocket. “Don’t even think about trying anything, Roberts, or I’ll personally push you over the first cliff we come to.”
    “You need me to help carry that wounded guy,” Roberts protested. “I can’t do that tied up like this.”
    “Nice try, no cigar. We’ll manage somehow, even if we have to strap the man to your back.”
    As it turned out, they didn’t need Roberts’s assistance in that area after all. Upon checking their wounded, they discovered that the unfortunate fellow had succumbed to his injuries. After conferring for a moment, the men determined that it would be best just to leave the body where it lay, and to mark the spot with a bright piece of cloth so a search team could find it later.
    Kelly disputed their decision. “We can’t just leave the poor man here, where birds and animals might get him! It’s … indecent! Can’t we at least bury him?”
    “How? With what?” Zach argued. “The ground is harder than cement, and we have no tools for digging.”
    “A cairn,” Blair suggested. “If nothing else, we could pile rocks on the body. It would better mark the site as well.”
    “We’re rather pressed for ti me here, ladies,” the steward reminded them. “And we have two other injured people whose medical attention should not be delayed.”
    “If you won’t do it, I will,” Kelly insisted stubbornly.
    Zach raked his fingers through his hair and heaved an exasperated breath. “Okay, we’ll do it. Then we’re on our way, with no further delay. I don’t mean to sound harsh or unfeeling, but those of us who are presently alive are not out of the woods yet ourselves, and I mean that both figuratively and literally. We can’t jeopardize our own lives for those who are beyond help.”
    While the men, all but Roberts, assembled the rocks, Kelly bound Wynne’s ribs, using strips of the lining from one of the jackets she’d collected. She also wrapped Blair’s swollen ankle, doing as best she could without removing the woman’s shoe.
    “I think we’d better leave the shoe on for the time being,” she advised, noting how far the bruised flesh was puffed out over the edge of Blair’s low-top sneaker. “Otherwise, you may never get it back on again.”
    Blair agreed. “This business of trail blazing is hard enough without trying it in bare feet. The only thing keeping me going is the thought of reaching the beach, and soaking my ankle.”
    “Do you want me to look at your elbow?” Kelly offered, turning to Alita.
    “After the way you yanked at Zach’s shoulder and head?” the singer said with haughty disdain. “I think not. I will wait until I can get proper medical attention from someone who knows what he is doing.”
    “Suits me,” Kelly replied readily. “That way, if you decide to sue someone, it won’t be my butt on the line.”
     
     
    I t took them the rest of the afternoon to complete their laborious descent—skirting around steep drop-offs, encountering sheer cliffs hidden by jungle growth and having to backtrack to find an easier route, working their way carefully down and around the hazardous slopes. At last they found themselves on fairly even, less-rocky ground, though still amidst the dense growth of towering trees and knee-high brush.
    “Which way now?” the corporal, who had told them his name was Gavin Daniels, asked.
    “Might just as well flip a coin,” Frazer Benson, the steward said, leaning heavily on the limb he was using