Ensnared (The Accidental Billionaires #1)(41)

“Are you experienced?” a curious voice asked from behind me.

I turned to see a middle-aged woman who looked terrified.

I smiled at her, hoping to reassure her. “I’ve never rappelled, but I’ve hiked and climbed up plenty of mountains in California.”

“Are you scared?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No. And you don’t need to be, either. I’m sure our instructor will make sure we’re all safe.”

I didn’t want to dismiss her trepidation. Maybe I wasn’t afraid, but everyone had different fears. For me, it was just a bunch of boulders stacked on top of each other, but it might look like a scary cliff to her.

“I’m afraid of heights, but my husband thinks it’s silly to worry,” she said, verifying my suspicion that being on top of anything made the woman wary.

“Nobody is going to force you to go,” I said gently.

“My husband will never let me hear the end of it if I don’t. We’re trying to start pushing our boundaries. I might be afraid, but I guess I’ll do okay.”

“If you want to do it, you’ll be great,” I told her.

She patted my forearm and said, “Thanks, honey. You be careful going down,” she warned before she took a few steps back into the group that I assumed contained her unsympathetic husband. By the apparently easy conversation that was going on, I was guessing the other young man was her son.

I decided to go see what was holding Eli and the instructor up when I spied an enormous bird flying over my head. Distracted, I watched it land on a tree at the edge of the woods.

Shading my eyes, I stepped forward to get a closer look, noting that I was close to the edge of the drop. Keeping my feet steady, I reached into my pocket for my camera. With the zoom, I was pretty sure I could get a decent picture.

“Jade! Get away from that fucking edge now!”

I was so focused on getting a photo that Eli’s extremely loud bellow from beneath me startled me. It wasn’t a casual warning. He’d sounded like he was terrified, his voice booming out across the resort.

My foot went a little bit forward as my body startled, and before I could completely correct my balance, I felt myself tilting over the edge.

I flapped my arms like I was the bird I was just watching, but inevitably lost the fight to regain my balance.

I was no bird.

And I was totally unprepared for the fall.

The first thing I felt was the pain from my body hitting the unforgiving rock.

Then there was Eli’s hoarse cry as I hit the hard ground.

After that, there was only darkness.





CHAPTER 16

ELI



“You really need to eat, Eli,” I heard my mother’s voice say in a gentle tone.

My vision was blurred from lack of sleep, but I wasn’t hungry at all.

The last two and a half days had been like a nightmare that I’d experienced while I was completely awake. And I still didn’t feel like I’d been able to step out of my bad dream.

If I lived to be a century old, I knew I’d never forget the sight of Jade lying broken and bleeding at the bottom of the rappel cliff.

I was guessing my fear over the bear had just been a prelude to what was about to come.

And I thought we were doing something relatively safe.

We’d gotten Jade to a small local hospital after her fall, and they’d almost immediately transferred her by air to Billings, where she’d been stabilized. They’d fixed her dislocated shoulder, popping it back into place without major surgery, and she was going to recover from her skull fracture.

Her physician had allowed her to be transferred back to San Diego by air earlier in the day, but she was still in intensive care.

She had woken up several times, but was allowed to sleep again as soon as the medical staff determined that she was as oriented as she could be with pain medication on board.

“Thanks, Mom, but I’m not hungry,” I muttered, keeping Jade’s smaller hand clutched in mine.

I felt a hand clap on my shoulder. “Dude, you need to take a break. We’re all here now. We got this. Go eat and get some sleep.”

I looked up to match the voice with the face. For the most part, Jade’s brothers all sounded alike.

It was Noah, and he had a determined look on his face.

“I’m good,” I protested.

“She’s not going to die while you go take care of yourself,” he rumbled. “And you’re not doing her any good by getting this sleep deprived.”

“I’ll sit by her side while you’re gone,” a soft, feminine voice said from my other side.

I glanced up at Jade’s twin, Brooke, as she nudged me to move off the chair.

Standing up reluctantly, I watched as Jade’s sister took my place. “Go,” she instructed. “Jade wouldn’t want you to wear yourself out like this, Eli. You were with her for over two days when she needed you. Let us help now.”

There were several bodies present around the room. Since Jade wasn’t considered critical, they allowed all of us to hang out in the private room.

Everyone there was related to Jade, except for Brooke’s husband, my mother, and me.

My mother had shown up after I talked to her on the phone to explain that I wasn’t going to be able to host the fund-raiser that I’d promised for Jade’s charity. Mom had taken over and postponed the event, calling every attendee and vendor to reschedule with the help of my assistants.