Higher Ground by Becky Black (notion reading list txt) 📗

you’re dead.” Did he mean it? Would he shoot? He hadn’t even been in a fight since school. Killing a man lay far beyond the realms of inconceivable. But for Zach…

Glyn slipped the medical kit off his shoulder, moving nothing apart from his arm, as if the gun pinned him in place. He held the kit out at arm’s length.

“Simon, take it, please,” Adam said.

Keeping well out of the line of fire, Simon grabbed the kit and ducked back behind Adam.

“Thank you,” Adam said to Simon, never taking his eyes from Glyn, even as he lowered the gun. “You can go.”

“You’ll regret this.” Glyn pointed at him. His finger made Adam want to laugh. It seemed like such a pathetic echo of the gun. “I’ll see you in court for this.”

Adam batted the pointing hand aside. “Yeah, fine. See you at the top of the mountain.”

He turned away and took the medical kit from Simon. Behind him, he heard Glyn snapping at the people who’d decided to follow him to hurry up. And some arguments that sounded like a few had changed their minds.

“Where the hell did you get that?” Simon asked as he helped Adam finish making the rope harness and get into it.

“It’s Barbara’s. She deputized me before she left.” With luck, that at least might keep him out of jail.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Zach, can you hear me?”

Zach could hear him. Adam’s voice coming from above. He had to open his eyes and answer. No, answering meant he had to open his mouth. The eyes were optional. He took the option anyway. Though the daylight seemed painfully bright, he opened his eyes and looked up. Adam was descending toward him out of the sky. How strange and wonderful. Like an angel.

No. Not literally. In a few seconds, Zach made out the rope supporting Adam, who pushed himself away from the side of the cliff and descended again, coming closer.

“Talk to me, Zach.”

“Adam.” His voice appeared unsatisfactory, cracked and whispery. He cleared his throat, but that turned into a cough, and the movement made awful pain shoot up from his leg, and he fell back into a semiconscious doze.

He woke to the scuff of boots on rock and opened his eyes. Boots filled his vision, right by his face. Familiar boots. Adam’s boots. Legs, knees, Adam kneeling at his side. Adam’s face. His beautiful face all strained and pale.

“I’m here, Zach. You’re going to be okay. I’m getting you out of here.”

“My leg is broken,” Zach croaked out.

“Which one? No hang on, I see.”

Good, because Zach didn’t think he could tell left from right at the moment. He knew which leg hurt. He could point at it. But with his brain so dulled with pain, he couldn’t tell if it was the left or the right.

“Anything else? What about your head? Did you hit it? Did anything else hit it?” As he spoke, Adam gently ran his hands over Zach’s skull.

“Don’t think so. Head doesn’t hurt.”

He remembered the fall with total clarity. The rock he’d been clinging to had surfed down the rockslide. He might even have been uninjured, except for the other rocks—make that boulders—bouncing past and hitting him.

“I’ve got a painkiller here,” Adam said. Zach felt the whoosh against the skin of his neck even as Adam spoke. “Lie still while I check you over.”

Pain retreated to a distance, though it didn’t vanish entirely. This cleared Zach’s mind enough to allow him to raise his head and to speak more coherently.

“Adam, my leg is broken.”

“I know. I’ll get it sorted in a minute.” He ran his hand under Zach’s shirt, checking his ribs. “I’ve set a bone or two in my time. You’ll be fine.”

“No, listen to me. I can’t walk. I can’t climb. You have to leave me. That’s the only smart thing to do.”

“Call me an idiot, then, because you must be smart enough to know I’d never do that.”

“The others—”

“Do you think I got down here on my own?”

“Oh.” Zach frowned. “I won’t let you all risk your lives for me.”

“It’s a good thing you’re not in charge anymore, then.” Adam withdrew his hand and pulled Zach’s shirt back down into place. “Your ribs seem okay. I’m going to have to turn you on your back so I can set your leg. I’ll have to get your pack off first. Don’t try to move, okay? Let me position you.”

“I’m in your hands.”

He’d done what he could, given Adam permission to go on without him. He could do nothing else but let Adam take care of him. Adam took out his knife and moved behind Zach.

“I’m going to cut through the straps.” In a second, Zach heard the sound of ripping fabric.

“Are you only doing this because it’s me?” Zach said.

“Yeah, sure,” Adam said. “If it was Simon down here, I’d happily leave him to die.”

“There’s no call for sarcasm.” Zach supposed it was a silly question. Adam would do this for any of the group.

“If you mean am I doing this because I love you, then no.” Adam paused. In the silence, Zach heard the ripping again. The strap fell away from his right shoulder. “No, I’m not doing it because I love you. I’d do it whether I loved you or not.” He started sawing at the other strap. “The fact I do love you has no bearing on my choice at all.”

Despite the pain, Zach grinned.

“Thank you,” he said and heard Adam chuckle. The other strap fell away. The pack was free but still keeping Zach upright on his side.

“Here we go,” Adam said. “Relax and trust me.” He moved the pack away but supported Zach with his arm. He fussed around with something, then carefully lowered Zach down onto his back. Not onto bare rock. There was something underneath him. Clothes perhaps.

Zach cried out as the movement jarred his broken leg, and he heard Adam groan. Once Zach was on his back, Adam leaned over and kissed him