“Could be broken. Might be a sprain. But I need to check your head first.”
Her hand groped the back of her head. When she pulled it away, it was covered in blood.
Chance steeled himself for her reaction, but she surprised him by taking a deep breath and biting her bottom lip.
“Let me have a look.” He kept his voice low and even. If she could keep from panicking, so could he.
He knelt behind her, pumping the flashlight up to its maximum. His fingertips and thumb began a gentle probe. “Tell me where it hurts.”
“Up and to the left.”
He moved his fingers as she directed and soon found a lump just behind her left ear. Roughly the diameter of a golf ball, from what he could judge. His fingers parted her hair. A nasty gash ran along the top of the swollen area, not too long, but still oozing blood.
He pulled his T-shirt over his head and wadded it into a ball, which he pushed gently against the wound. “Hold that firmly right there.” He took her hand and guided it to the makeshift compress.
“It’s chilly in here,” she protested. “You need your shirt.”
The adrenaline flooding his body had him drenched in sweat. The cool felt great for the moment, but it wouldn’t take long to get chilled. “I’ve got a flannel in my bag. It’s in a side compartment that shouldn’t be wet.” He took the flashlight and went back over to his bag.
* * *
THE IMAGE OF CHANCE WITHOUT a shirt was better than any painkiller Kyndal could have taken. Her throbbing ankle and head were momentarily forgotten as she took advantage of the blackness, covertly studying his sculpted abs and pecs, gleaming with sweat in the dim yellow glow. Shadows played along the ridges and the hollows, defining every muscle, highlighting each ripple. Mmm. Hunk calendar material. Instinctively, she reached for her camera.
Chance shrugged into the extra shirt from his pack, and the pain in her ankle and head returned full force along with a sickening lurch in the pit of her stomach. “Chance, have you seen my pack?”
She heard the pump of the flashlight and watched the light grow stronger. She held her breath as he flashed the beam around and brought it to rest on a black lump resting against a gray wall. Her pack! She dropped the wad of
T-shirt and scrambled to her feet, only to sink back down to the floor when pain stabbed through her ankle.
“Stay there.”
Her teeth gritted at the command in his voice, an unfamiliar sound that would never have come from the Chance she used to know.
He knelt and set the bag in front of her. “Want me to open it?” No gruffness this time. His voice was soft and gentle and full of sympathy. He didn’t know about her dire financial straits, but he seemed to understand what the loss of this camera would mean. She shook her head.
Her breath came in spurts as she started unzipping the middle compartment. Her hands trembled, giving the stubborn zipper a mind of its own. Chance’s hand covered hers, calming the tremor, bringing the zipper under control until it parted completely.
He focused the beam into the bag. The two tripod lamps lay on top, legs slightly bent, but not irreparable. She laid them aside. Both of the expensive bulbs were shattered.
Turning the pack and giving it a little shake, she prayed only the glass from the bulbs would fall out. Her breathing stopped as she pulled the camera out and examined it. Everything looked intact. The lens wasn’t broken.
She flipped the switch. Her heart sang to the strains of the charging battery. When the indicator light showed “ready,” she pressed the button. A flash and then an image of gray walls appeared on the screen. Not a prizewinner, but a beautiful sight to her eyes.
Chance’s breath exploded in relief, and she gave a giddy laugh. It wasn’t until he brushed a tear from her cheek that she realized she was crying. “So now we can worry about the really important stuff like where we are. And how do we get out of here?”
Chance pumped the flashlight as bright as it would go and traced the hole in the ceiling. Jagged, brittle edges surrounded a gaping hole ten, maybe twelve feet above their heads. Climbing out didn’t look promising.
“What happened exactly?” She snapped several shots of the hole. The crystal dome winked mocking eyes at them.