Horizons by Catherine Hart Read Free Book Online Page A

as a crutch.
    Zach eyed the sky, noting the slant of the sun. “There’s no way to tell which is the shortest distance to the coast, but if we head west, we might have more daylight. I’d guess the trees will start to thin when we near the shore.”
    They turned west, trudging wearily along in Zach’s wake.
    Early on, almost as a matter of course, Zach had assumed the role of leader, the others deferring to his decisive manner, his natural air of authority. On the job, he was used to being in command. Now it was reflexive. That no one questioned his doing so was of no particular significance to him. At this point, his primary goal was to find a way out of this tropical tangle, to gain the shore and whatever aid and safety was to be found there.
    It was an hour before the trees began to thin, as Zach had predicted they would, and another ten minutes before they spotted traces of blue water through the verdant foliage and heard the muted rumble of the surf. The soil grew looser, sandier. Then the beach loomed before them, pristine and beckoning. The vast, empty ocean beyond, with a red sun hovering slightly over the horizon, served as a deceptively serene backdrop.
    One by one, the survivors set down their burdens and sank onto the sun-warmed sand.
    “I’ll never go camping again,” Blair swore on a groan. “I ache in places I’d forgotten I had.”
    “So do I,” Kelly commiserated. “And to think I prided myself on being physically fit.” She blew her bangs off her forehead and sighed. “Oh, but doesn’t that breeze feel heavenly? God, but it’s good to be out of that jungle!”
    A few feet away, Alita sat examining the remains of her spike heels, and the huge broken blisters on her feet. “My poor feet will never be the same again!” she lamented. “And just look what those rocks did to my shoes! They’re in shreds!”
    “Better your shoes than your feet,” Zach pointed out. He looked past her, down the long stretch of barren beach. “Damn! Not a building in sight. Not so much as a thatched hut!”
    “No piers, no boats, no sign of civilization,” Frazer added morosely. “There’s not even any litter, though I never thought I’d hear myself complain of that.”
    “Maybe all the activity, the ports and villages, are on another part of the island,” Gavin Daniels suggested.
    “Possibly,” Zach concurred with a worried frown. “Could be there are too many reefs on this side, making this section inaccessible to ships and large craft. Still, you’d think there would be some tangible evidence of human habitation, if only a gum wrapper or a discarded beer can.”
    “Yeah, I could really go for an ice cold beer right about now,” Roberts muttered, his tone surly. “On second thought, it could be piss-warm, and I wouldn’t care, long as it was wet. My mouth’s ’bout as dry as an old maid’s twat.”
    “Sir!” Wynne Templeton spoke up for the first time in hours. “There is no call for such vulgarity. There are ladies present, and a gentleman would monitor his language.”
    “Well, la-de-da!” Roberts grumbled. “Didn’t know I was travelin’ with the Queen’s grandma.”
    “It certainly beats traveling with a murderer,” Blair announced bravely.
    Roberts’s eyes narrowed. “Look, you little … ”
    “Oh, por Dios! ” Alita butted in. “The old woman just lost her husband. Have a little consideration.”
    “James is lost?” Wynne asked confusedly. “Oh, my! Someone must find him.”
    Kelly heaved a sigh. “Great! Now see what you’ve done? Thanks a heap!”
    Zach pushed to his feet. “I’ll go look for him in a little while, Mrs. Templeton,” he fibbed. “First we have to see to our prisoner and get a fire going. It’s going to be dark soon.” Zach led Roberts toward a sturdy palm tree. “We’ll anchor him to this. Daniels, lend me a hand here.”
    “Hey, wait a minute!” Roberts protested loudly. “Least you can do is give a man the chance to take a whiz!”