Until Time Stands Still (7 page)

            “Where are we going?” She finally asked.

            “We need to find some water, and somewhere to bed down for the night. It will get dark soon.” He said, holding a branch out of her way while she stepped over a log. Her foot sank into some mud. She knew well enough to not complain about it. He’d just yell at her again. “Are you familiar with this area at all?” He asked.

            “No. I’m not sure where we are. Shouldn’t we be trying to head back to the city?”

            “If you want to live, you have to stay with me until I get word from Graham that the threat is over.” By all rights, he knew he should do the right thing and send her back to civilization. Back to her home and her husband. The police probably could protect her. But…he couldn’t stand the idea of never seeing her again. He frowned at the way his thoughts were turning. He had no business taking her away from her life. There was no reason in the world, in any time period, she should want to stay with him. But there was just something about her. Her eyes, the way she looked at him. She made him feel alive somehow. He just couldn’t let her walk away from him.

            “Oh.” She frowned. “We could get the police involved.”

            “A professionally trained sniper will just kill them.” He paused. “Are you sure you don’t have any enemies?” He would hunt down each and every one of them, if that’s what it took to keep her safe. Yeah…he was definitely maybe falling in love with her.  It was just like him, to fall for someone who he knew he couldn’t have. She was already married.

            “Does your husband have any enemies?” He asked.

            “Lewis is a business man. I’m sure he does.” She said flatly.

            “Could he have known about this?” He asked carefully.

            “My husband’s been cold toward me lately, but he would never hurt me.”

            “Are you sure?”

            She was silent, thinking.

            He stopped and turned to look at her. “You’re not sure are you?”

She shook her head, sadly.

“Has he ever hit you? Pushed you?” He demanded. The idea that someone would hurt a woman made every protective instinct in him stand up and scream. A man would be lucky to have any woman, in his time. If you hurt a woman, there would be a whole slew of men that would beat the tar out of you for it. Then they would take her from you and treat her like a queen. Well, some didn’t, especially these days.

“I feel like I don’t even know him anymore.”

“Why would he want to kill you? Do you guys fight a lot?”

            “Not really. We are both very busy. At some point…”

            “What?” He frowned.

            “We just started living separate lives.” She shrugged.

            “Could money be a motive?” He asked. “It’s obvious you come from money.” He said, gesturing to her fancy clothing, now torn, bloody and smeared with mud.

            She nodded. “We have money.”

            “Well, there’s the motive.” He pulled on her hand. “Come on, we need to get deeper into the woods.” He said quietly. She looked at him sharply and frowned.

            He couldn’t quite hide the angry edge to his voice. How could anyone hire a hit man to kill her? He barely knew her and he could already tell she was smart, calm under pressure, confident. And she was gorgeous. All his protective manly instincts kicked into high gear when he was around her. She was a woman who deserved to be cherished. He wanted to hunt her husband down and hurt him. Slowly.

At some point, close to dark, he had led her to a small stream, barely more than a trickle of water. By the time they reached it, her feet were swollen and blistered, and she was nearly in tears, exhausted and at her limit of endurance for the day. He hunkered down and opened his pack, pulling out two small tubes and handing her one. “Drink with this straw. It will purify the water so you don’t get sick.”

            They drank for several minutes, until she felt bloated. The cool water was refreshing and staved off the worst of the hunger pains. She hadn’t eaten all day, and the measly breakfast she’d had wasn’t enough.

            “Do you have anything to eat in that pack of yours?” She asked, sinking down against a large fallen tree.

            He grinned and grabbed out two vitamin blocks, and tossed her one. “I won’t lie. They taste like cardboard. But you won’t be hungry.” He ripped open the foiled package with his teeth and bit into the nutritional supplement. In his time, eighty percent of his diet was various flavours of these damn things. He was sick of them, but they had all the vitamins, fiber, protein and trace minerals a person needed to survive.

            “It tastes like gritty chalk! They are worse than those icky health food bars!” She sputtered, gagging.

            He laughed. “Yeah, it’s pretty terrible. But you get used to it.”

            “I’d rather not.” She muttered, “I’m not even sure my dog would eat this.”

            “If you’re not going to eat it, give it back.” He said.

            She shook her head and bit into the food block. “No…no…I’ll eat it.”

            “Good.” He said, seriously. He stood and rustled through his pack for a small axe. “Don’t move from this spot. I’ll be right back. I doubt whoever is after you will be searching for you in the dark, so you’re probably safe. I’ll be within hearing distance, even if you can’t see me. If you need help, holler.”

            He went in search of the right kind of trees to make a suitable shelter for the night. He had seen a good tree for the base of his shelter, but needed several long strong branches to build the sides with. He found a small grove of sapling trees and began to cut. It took longer than he had planned, but once he had enough, he lashed the poles together with a rope and dragged them back to their camp.

            She sat at the water’s edge and worked on massaging the cramps out of her calves. She wasn’t used to walking around in the woods, and every muscle ached. Her feet felt like they were on fire, pinched in her shoes. She unbuckled the straps, and slid one shoe off and then the other, gasping in pain. Her feet were swollen, and blistered. Carefully, she sank one, then the other of her feet into the cool water, biting back the urge to curse at how cold the water was. In minutes her feet were blissfully numb. She took her shirt off and used it as a washrag and began to clean some of the day’s grime off her. After the day she had she felt gross. She wanted a hot shower, and soap, but a cold sponge bath would have to do. She took off her pants and washed from head to toe, until she was chilled and shivering.

            It was actually quite peaceful outdoors, now that she wasn’t stumbling along behind Mykel. She sat against a tree and closed her eyes, utterly exhausted, and dosed off.

            “What the FUCK!” Mykel dropped the branches he had dragged back to their makeshift camp. He was shocked to see her passed out on the ground topless when he got back. He ran to her side. “Get your feet out of that freezing water woman!”

            She jumped, startled and sat up, stunned. “What’s wrong?” She asked, pulling her feet out of the water quickly.

            “What’s wrong is, you’re feet are blistered and wet, which makes the skin of your feet thinner and more vulnerable to infection from parasites in the water, and to top it off, you could die of hypothermia if your body temperature gets too cold! Your lips are already blue! Don’t you have any sense at all?” He hollered. Seeing her all helpless like that was terrifying.

            She stared at him dumbfounded, and promptly burst into tears, covering her face with her hands.

            Oh shit! He sighed and went to sit by her. He tried to put his arm around her. She shoved him away. “Go away!” She cried. “Leave me alone!”

            “Look…I didn’t mean to yell like that.” He said. “I’m sorry. It’s just been a long day. For both of us.” He sighed. “Please don’t cry.” He put his arm around her and rubbed her back. Women crying made him uncomfortable. He never knew what to do to make it stop.

            She only cried harder. Her day started sucking at breakfast and got exponentially worse as the day wore on. She had been at her limit when she crawled across the floor getting shot at. Spending hours tromping through the woods in the most uncomfortable shoes ever was torture and pushed her to the breaking point. She was scared, and exhausted. Worst of all, today, she killed a man. Isabelle sobbed harder, her whole body shaking, mostly from the cold. She gasped for air, and gagged in between sobs. She was going to make herself sick panicking like that.

            “Okay…shh…” He wrapped her in his arms and held her like a baby, rocking her gently. “It’s okay. You’re safe with me. Don’t cry. You’re ok.” He crooned softly in her ear, rubbing her arms and legs trying to warm her. Honestly, he had expected her to completely melt down sooner than she had. She had trampled through the woods without asking to stop even once, trusting him to lead them. She had been silent most of the time, and even kept pace with him, despite her footwear. Most women would have whined after twenty minutes. But the shock of the day was finally hitting her. She was a lot tougher than most women would be, but at the core, she was still a woman who had been through hell today, and she needed comforting.

            He held her, crooning nonsense until she took a final deep breath and sighed, her tears dried on her face. She melted in his warmth, and for the first time in months, felt cherished, cared for. She could feel his heartbeat through his shirt, strong and steady and breathed with him, until she felt the last of the shaking stop.

            “I’m sorry.” She muttered. “I must be a total mess.”

            “Don’t be.” He said, simply not wanting to let her go. “You’ve been through hell. No one expects you to look perfect.”

            She pulled away from him, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, effectively smearing dirt across her cheek. She had leaves in her hair. To him it only made her more beautiful. Before he knew what he was doing, he pulled her lip up to his mouth and kissed her. It was a brief brush of his lips against hers, but it was enough of a spark to send fire racing through his veins, and everything below his belt to wake up.

            “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” She said, shoving him back.

            “It’s called kissing, darlin’.”

            She glared at him. “I’m married, doofus.”

            He roared with laughter. “Your so called husband doesn’t give a rip about what happens to you. He’s the only one with a motive to want you dead and he hired a hit man to make it happen. I’d say you haven’t been married for a long time.”

            “That’s beside the point.” She said hotly.

            “Hardly. That IS the point.” He countered. “You like me. Admit it.”

“I trust you with my life Mykel, I thought that much is obvious."