Something Wilder(73)

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The sun was high overhead. They hadn’t even attempted to figure out their bullshit situation yet, and Lily was already sweating.

“I can’t believe that just happened,” Leo said. “I think we just got robbed and zip-tied by the two dumbest humans alive.”

“Can you still see them?” He faced the direction those two idiots had taken off in.

“Yeah.” Leo leaned to the side. “But just barely. They’re still walking along the rock wall.”

“Tell me when you can’t see them anymore.” Her mind raced, sorting through every possible escape route. She hated Terry for bringing those guys along with him. If he hadn’t already been dead, she’d have pushed him off that cliff herself.

“Okay.” Leo was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “Lily?”

“Yeah?”

“I want you to know that last night was the best night of my life.”

She paused, frowning. “You know we’re not going to die out here, Lovesick City Boy.”

A laugh. “I know. But I could hear you doing that heavy rage-breathing thing and I wanted to distract you.”

“I’m seeing red,” she admitted, her heartbeat so strong it seemed to quake her skeleton. “I can’t believe they got the journal. I can’t believe we’re tied up here while they—”

“Lily.”

“—waltz in there and use everything my dad dedicated his life to—”

“The first time I had sex with someone after you,” he said breezily, interrupting her, “I asked her to call me ‘cowboy.’?”

In spite of the situation, she burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, what?”

Behind her, he nodded. “We were… you know, and it wasn’t working for me for obvious reasons.”

“Which were?” A cord of jealousy threaded through her rib cage.

“She wasn’t you?” he said, a grin in his voice. “I felt guilty and awful and sad, and I just blurted it out. ‘Call me cowboy!’?”

Lily bent forward, cackling, surprising herself. “I never even called you cowboy.”

“I know!” He leaned back against her. “It had been so long since I left, and I was desperate to prove to myself that I could still—but God—I mean—that poor woman. She probably told that story to her friends hundreds of times.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” she said, “I barfed on the first guy I was with after you.”

“You were so sad you actually vomited?”

“I was so sad I got hammered, and then vomited.” She paused, realizing what he’d just done. “You distracted me. Cowboy.”

“Gave you a second to calm down.” She felt him lean to the side again. “The meatheads are gone. And we have to figure a way out of these before they come back.” He tugged on his restraints.

It was her turn at serious. “No one knows me the way you do.”

He grew quiet, the air warm and heavy all around them. “Remember that later when you’re trying to tell me why we won’t work out. But first…”

A swarm of anxieties flapped wildly in her chest. She tamped them down to focus. “Right. I have a couple ideas.”

“Such as?”

“If we can push on each other to stand, you can try to break them.”

“Break them? With the strength of my love for freedom?”

She laughed. “Have you never been arrested before?”

“Is that a serious question? I create investment algorithms. I’m usually in bed by nine. In what situation would I have been arrested and restrained with zip ties?”

“Okay, so that’s a no I’m hearing.”

“Have you?” he asked incredulously.

Lily ignored that can of worms and returned to the problem at hand. “It’s easier with your hands in front but still possible from the back. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to break this kind, but you probably are. You bring your arms down with enough force that you snap the restraint near the weakest point.”

There was a long pause with no response. “And the next option?”

“Those two numbnuts didn’t check for the knife in my boot.”

“You have a knife?”

“I forgot about it when I was pissed off and plotting Terry’s redeath,” she told him. “See? It’s good you calmed me down.”

It took more than a few minutes of work, but eventually Leo managed to get on his side facing the right direction and maneuvered his way down so that his hands were near her boots.

“Can you unlace them?” she asked.

“I think so? It feels like I have ten thumbs.” With his hands trapped behind him, he fumbled a lot before he managed to get one boot untied and loosened.

“Okay, I’m going to try and push it off,” she said. “But if you can help?”

“Yeah… okay…”

“But push on that—”

“Can you squish your foot in a little?”

“How the hell do I squish my foot?”

“I don’t know, just—like, try to feel small in your boot.”