They moved like that for what seemed like hours, until the little bit of sunlight capable of piercing the canopy of leaves overhead faded into a dim, distant glow. Night crawlers and animals hummed and chirped and howled. Her legs screamed with fatigue.
She'd stopped thinking about how dry her mouth was hours ago, or the gnawing pain of hunger gripping her stomach. There was no way in hell she was going to plead with Mack to stop on her account.
And the man hadn't even bothered to turn around and check on her once. What if one of those giant snakes had popped down and swallowed her whole?
He'd probably be glad he didn't have to deal with her anymore . . .
Poor Maddie-the Air Force would've realized her plane was missing. Had someone called her father? Had they told anyone? Her throat closed off at the thought of the pain and suffering her family would endure from that kind of phone call. She knew from personal experience after having received a phone call like that herself. Her husband's commanding officer had been the one to break the news that he was missing in action. And then the funeral officer had arrived at her front door to deliver the news of John's death.
No. She would not do that to her daughter. She wouldn't put Maddie through that kind of pain.
She'd crawl out of this place on her hands and knees if that's what it required.
Mack came to an abrupt stop, and Marley didn't have time to register it before slamming into his solid back. She caught her own body before falling and muttered out, "I'm sorry." She'd have to get her head in the game if she was going to survive this place. Everything in this jungle wanted to kill her. Human and animal alike.
"Wait, we'll sleep there." Mack pointed up and moved toward a sheer solid gray rock face right in front of them. She had failed to notice it until this very moment because it was mostly covered in dark green vines and vegetation. There, where? All she could see was what looked like a thousand-foot wall jutting up into the treetops and disappearing into the sky beyond. He wanted her to climb that?
"Yep."
She shook her head and dropped her chin to meet the intent gaze. "What?"
"The answer to your question is yes, I do want you to climb that wall."
"You heard me say that?" She hadn't even realized she'd spoken out loud.
His expression took on a look of shrewd knowledge and Marley fought to keep her own face neutral. Why did she get the feeling she wasn't going to like whatever he was about to say next?
"You are afraid of heights."
Marley choked and then tried to play it off as a sort of laugh. She rolled her eyes, forcing her seriously thudding heart to slow the hell down before she had a coronary. "You're crazy, I'm a pilot."
He nodded slowly, in an irritating, knowing kind of way that made her want to cross her arms and let out a huff and stomp her foot.
"I've seen it a couple of times before. I think it has something to do with actually seeing the ground beneath you. When you fly, you only see the clouds, and besides, you're in complete control of the airplane. But when you have to jump out and parachute or you're dangling from a tree, you don't have much control there, do you?"
"You're psychoanalyzing me now? Well thanks for the diagnosis, Freud, but you couldn't be more wrong." Dear God, the man was astute. How had he figured out her little idiosyncrasies so quickly?
Mack shrugged in an offhanded manner. "Just a hunch."
She let the floodgates of irritation open-anything to protect her from the vulnerable feeling of this man knowing her secrets. Marley planted her fist on her hip and glared. "Good thing you're not a psychologist. Because you suck at it."
Mack let out a long-suffering sigh and promptly gave her his back.
Had he really just dismissed her? Oh, Marley Mitchell did not get dismissed.
"What exactly is so interesting about this cliff you keep staring at? And how do you expect us to sleep up there? There's nowhere to sleep."
"About thirty feet up to your left, there's a small ledge. If you look carefully, you can see it's a cave"
She'd be alone all night in a cave with Mack and his steely gray eyes and hard muscles. "Can we find somewhere else?"
"You have a better idea?" Yeah, anywhere that didn't involve her being trapped in close proximity to a man who sent her heart into a tailspin every time he looked at her. She still hadn't figured out her strange reaction to him.
With John, everything had been so natural, as if fate had lined up for them to be together. Everything in their perfect little life had gone according to her master plan-right up until he died. She'd spent years silently grieving not only the loss of her husband and Maddie's father, but also the loss of her dream. John had been exactly like her. He had paid attention to details, made plans for everything, and run through life like a well-oiled machine.