Forbidden River (The Legionnaires #2.5)(28)

Way too soon, she pulled away. Her smile faded, her eyes turning down in the creases. Laid bare and uncomfortable with it. “Thanks,” she whispered. “Last night was... Thanks.” There was a finality in her tone. Officially sealing the experience into the box marked One-Night Stand.

He should say something profound that would convey how much more it’d meant, without suggesting they had a future. He said the first words that came: “My pleasure.”

He felt like a jerk, but what could he say? I’ll call you. Let’s do this again sometime. Run away with me because you’re the hottest—and coolest—woman I’ve ever met. And then what? A woman couldn’t join the legion. And what would he do in Nowheresville, with too much time and space for dark thoughts? A few days in a year of days was cool, but any longer and he’d drown in the silence. Even if they went somewhere new, somewhere busy, his regret and heartache would come, too. She deserved better.

She stepped back and turned with a clumsy hop. “Right. Let’s get on the water.”

And there it was. The End.

Their awkwardness lifted after they pushed off, with rapids to force their concentration, and hard paddling in calmer waters. Her leg impeded her more than the day before, not that she complained. Hard to use the force in your arms without a solid anchor in your legs. After half an hour a light drizzle settled, more mist than rain. Icy drops trickled down his nape. Below Tia’s helmet, her hair glistened like a spiderweb beaded with dew.

The forest was noisy with birds—bells and whistles and coos and clicks and warbles and screeches and rustling that had him itchy with nerves. The hunter whistling? The clunk of a bolt sliding home? The rustle of dogs?

As he rounded a sharp corner approaching rapids, a parrot with a rust-red belly swooped across the river, screeching. He flinched. It barreled into foliage and disappeared.

“Kaka,” Tia said behind him. “I’ve never seen one up here. There used to be thousands.”

“Let me guess. Before humans?”

“Yep. We suck. Seriously, the world would be a better—”

He glanced over his shoulder. She was frowning at something ahead, on the right bank. He followed her gaze. A wire trailed downriver, attached to a tree root. He paddled into an eddy, skimmed his hand through the water and picked it up. It was no random piece of rubbish—someone had knotted it tight.

“Any good reason for this to be here?”

She eddied out behind him. “Look,” she said, nodding at the far bank. “Straight across. Another wire.”

It was tangled in scrub on the water’s edge. “The other end of this one? Why would you string a wire across a...” He blinked. “Shit. He clotheslined a kayaker?”

Cody yanked and the wire pinged free, the root splashing into the river. He coiled it and stashed it in his kayak.

“Cody.” Tia’s voice was flat and urgent. She pointed downstream. Something red was caught in a sieve, under a tree canopy. A paddle. “He boasted about setting traps for humans, about hunting women. Maybe this was him trying to get a woman off the river, force her into the bush where his dogs could catch up.” Tia scanned the ferns along the banks, backpaddling. “So where is she now?”

“Maybe the kayak overturned. Maybe she bailed. If we find her kay—”

A bark, low-pitched and husky. A shout: “Shut up!” Close behind. Shit, Shane had caught up fast. Cody kicked into gear, pulling hard into the current.

“Tia, I want to find her, too. But right now we gotta stick to the plan, stay ahead of him.”

She nodded curtly, her lips thin.

“We get past the waterfall, we’re home free.”

Another nod.

The next rapid was short and brutal. No more sign of kayakers. Then the goddamn river began to meander, just when they could have used a solid patch of straight water to pull ahead. Every bend, every cliff, every bay, Cody expected to see camo gear, hear the zing of a potshot. The dogs had silenced—under control, on the hunt? The rush of the rapids turned into a roar, the roar into thunder. Mist billowed around an upcoming blind bend. The waterfall. A sudden scream cut overtop.

Tia charged up alongside him. “Hear that?”

“Yep.”

“It was close—just through there.” She nodded at a strip of stony beach on the right bank.

“Tia, we gotta get to the waterfall before he does.”

“It could be her.” Another scream, indistinct. “I can’t not...”

His gut churned. Fuck.

“You go ahead,” she said, paddling for the beach. “I’ll check it out.”

Dammit. He followed, ripping off his spraydeck as his kayak skimmed to a halt behind hers. He jumped out with a crunch and pulled the boat under a clump of ferns as she did the same.

“You have to keep going,” she said, stepping out of her spraydeck. “Stick to the plan.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

She unclipped her life jacket and tossed it on the kayak. “This is about your brother, isn’t it?”

“Don’t bring him into this. It’s about you.” He nodded into the forest, trying not to shout above the crashing water. “It’s about her.”

“I can look after her—and me. Best thing you can do is raise the alarm. You’re not thinking straight because of what happened before.”