Flash Point - Savannah Kade Page 0,33

his brain flashed back to when he'd been on the harness. There had been a light rain when he’d been saving the two hikers on the ledge, and he'd slipped. In that moment, he forgave Jo for every bit of blame he’d carried.

“Jo!” he yelled out, his voice carrying through the woods.

They shouldn’t have come out here, just the two of them. But they had found Jason Ryder! It wouldn’t matter if he lost Jo, though.

So he grabbed the rope, wrapped it around his arms, and felt the bite even through all of the gear. He pulled with everything he was worth.

It took forever. He rested only on the faith that something was on the end of the rope. He felt the weight as he pulled upward and he reminded himself that something could only be Jo.

She hadn't had time to get out of the harness and that had been the saving grace. Slowly, her head appeared once again over the sloped edge of the ravine. For a moment, he stopped pulling and just held steady. His breath soughed and his mind didn’t question the relief that flooded his heart.

“I've got you!” he said and pulled again. Beside him, small hands latched on to the rope ready to help. But Jason Ryder's hands were now bare, his dark skin concerningly ashy.

“Thank you, but let go. If it slips, you’ll burn your hands,” he told the boy and watched as the small fingers reluctantly let go from ‘helping.’ “I've got gloves, you don’t.”

Leo managed to turn his head far enough to see the boy’s expression as it fell. “Just step back, I'll have her up in a moment.”

It took well more than a moment to get Jo Huston once again to the top. She emerged on her hands and knees as she came up and over the rounded edge. Though this time she came farther in, still crawling until she was almost at his feet.

Leo reached out, putting his gloved hand in hers, their joining squishing mud as they held tight. But he didn't care.

He just breathed out a heavy sigh of relief as her grip entwined with his, firm and steady.

“Can I get you to your feet?”

He hauled upward, helping, as she said, “Please.”

The word rang in his ear with a weary heaviness. For whatever reason, at that moment, his brain twisted it into something far sweeter.

Even as he pulled her to her feet, he thought he could not develop feelings now for Jo Huston. But when she stood—her big blue eyes framed with wet dark lashes, her full lips slowly widening into a smile of relief—he felt his heart kick.

The moment drew out, soft and warm. Connection in the middle of the hellscape of the wet wilderness.

Shit. He couldn't fall for Jo Huston. He couldn't.

But the reason he couldn't do it now was because he already had.

“Jo!” the young boy yelled before hurling himself at her and hugging her despite the mud she had all down her front from her fall.

Jo’s arms went around Jason and she shrugged as if there was no point in not hugging him back. Both of them were already filthy, Jason’s gloves had been discarded onto the soaked ground. And the moment was gone.

Had it ever even happened?

Leo turned his thoughts toward figuring out how to get them cleaned up here in the middle of nowhere. He had to get Jason warm. And their next task was to get the hell out of dodge.

He put his own hand out, touching Jo's shoulder. He enjoyed it too much, the feel of it as she leaned into him with one arm still around the boy. She was opening her mouth to say something when a lightning strike cracked the sky and a nearby tree suddenly lit up white.

Chapter Twenty-One

They’d run as fast as they could from the tree as it cracked and burned and threatened to fall.

Jason was the weakest link, holding them back. Jo had grabbed one of his hands, angry that her own hands were still so muddy and it was difficult to get a grip on him. Leo had him on the other side, and they pulled the boy along. His shorter legs having difficulty keeping up. The two of them were also trained for endurance and distance, while Jason was weak. He'd been out—lost—for almost a whole day, with no food, or at least none that she knew of.

When Jo felt Jason pitch forward, she glanced down and saw his feet stumble