He moved toward the sound, straining to see past the confines of the narrow light.
He found her, yards away from where he’d left her, leaning against a boulder, taking shots of…a wall?
“Spiders.” She kept her voice low as if she were afraid of giving her location away to the enemy and pointed. “There.”
Chance peered in the direction she indicated, swirling the light around the base of the wall until it fell on a place where the texture seemed to change, even from a distance. The reason for the difference caused his throat to constrict.
The wall was no longer an inanimate object. It had come to life, covered by a multitude of white, scurrying bodies.
Chance stepped back enough to have a head start should they decide to give up their exploration of their home for the promise of fresh meat. He slid the light up the wall and drew a sharp breath. The limestone edifice was a solid mass of intricate webbing, teeming with shimmering, eight-legged bodies.
For reasons he couldn’t quite fathom, the one wall seemed to be the habitat of choice. None of the other areas had any sign of spiders or webs. A water source perhaps? Deep within the rock? The idea made his throat go dry. He and Kyndal would have to be careful with their water. Doing battle with this number of enemies would be an exercise in futility.
“Aren’t they beautiful?” she whispered.
“Ghastly. Creepy. Hideous.” He shuddered. “Only a tree hugger could see beauty.”
“Only someone with his head up his ass couldn’t.” She continued taking her shots.
“And yet I still manage to keep my nose clean.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She leaned against the boulder and turned toward him.
“I searched you on Google you last night—interesting article, by the way. All about a scandalous end to your beloved website.”
“I haven’t read it so I’ll take your word. Oh, wait…I probably shouldn’t make that mistake again.” She snatched up her bag and stuffed the camera back into its chamber, keeping the flash out.
“I never lied to you, Kyndal.” The tops of his ears started to burn.
“Obviously, saying you’ll never leave means something different in Brennan-speak.”
“Damn it, Kyndal. You haven’t been entirely truthful, either.” He caught her arm as she pushed past him, but she jerked it out of his grip and hobbled toward the far end of the cavern, which they hadn’t explored yet.
He moved faster, checking the area for additional spider colonies or any other movement. “Why didn’t you tell me you were out of work?”
When Kyndal plopped down against the wall, her face contorted in pain. “Why should I? I’m not out of work. I’m just out of the kind of work that supplies luxuries—you know, the stuff you’ve had all your life.”
The gloves came off at that remark. “The people who lost their jobs because of your damn website needed to eat, too—or didn’t that occur to you? Maybe you’re just reaping what you sowed.”
“If that’s true, your storehouse would be full of bullshit.”
They glared at each other for a long, angry moment, the past hanging between them like a piñata waiting to be broken.
Chance drew a long breath, his own words eating at him as much as her retort. “I’m sorry. I really don’t think you deserve what’s happened. But bad choices follow us—”
She held up her hand to stop him. “I’ll live with my choices and you live with yours.” She waved at the openings. “Now go find us a way out of here. There has to be one.”
Light played off the wall he had yet to explore. Three openings offered hope of a way out—or at least a smaller cavern where they might be warmer.
“Someplace free of spiders,” he grumbled. “They won’t listen to reason, either.”
* * *
KYNDAL LET OUT HER BREATH as Chance disappeared into the wall.
What was it about that man that made her lose control and go off the deep end? One part of her wanted to get as far away from him as possible while another part relished the feel of him against her.
Talk about bad choices. Coming to this cave with him was one of the worst she’d ever made—and not just because of the accident.
Maybe the bump on her head had given her a concussion that had scrambled her thoughts. Or maybe, she’d never gotten over Chance Brennan in the first place. Whatever the reason, she had to get her emotions under control and keep steering the conversations toward the present and not the past.