The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,79

Kate came around to my side. “Oh no,” she squeaked as she peered at the new obstacle.

“I know,” I managed to say. Take a deep breath, Nate. Calm down. Inhale. Exhale.

“At least the path’s wider over there?” she said, scrunching her shoulders.

BZZZZZ!

My eyes popped open. A new message.

THREE CONTESTANTS REMAINING. GOOD LUCK!

Behind us, the German came around the bend, taking microsteps with his back against the rocky wall. With grimace stamped all over his face, he was almost as scared of heights as me.

“Nate, we have to go. We can’t let that guy win,” Kate urged.

Oh yeah? Tell that to my hammering heart. My vomity stomach. My legs cemented to this spot.

“I can’t.” The mounting pressure was too much. Taking off the wristband would end everything. The rescue people would come get me. I’d still get some money. But I wouldn’t win. But…I would also not be hanging on to a precipice for dear life after misjudging my ability to long jump to another cliff.

“You can. You will. We can’t quit now.” She walked up to the gap, studied it a few moments, and came back. “It’s only like fifteen inches. You can do it, even with your eyes closed.”

I shook my head no.

The German inched closer. A booming voice behind us yelled, “Only you two are left?”

We turned to face him. He was still clinging to the cliff wall, refusing to look outward to the forest by facing his head toward us, but he was gaining speed. Color had returned to his grayish, sunken face as he shimmied our way, where the path was broader.

Each step he took showed confidence. Arrogance. Victory. With his left hand, he fished into his pocket and pulled out a stun gun. MY stun gun, from my backpack. On his belt, my small pocketknife hung from a large carabiner. My parents had given it to me when I’d earned my Eagle Scout Award.

Kate said, “We can do this.”

Anger flooded my body. Fuck this guy. “Okay. You lead.”

We walked to the crevice, and she yelled, “One! Two!” before I could warn her that she’d miscalculated her fifteen inches. It was almost two feet.

“THREE!”

Her hand in mine, I held my breath.

We jumped.

Kate’s dismount on the other side was graceful. Her feet landed nearly together. Barely kicked up any dirt. She smiled.

Me? I had to let go of her hand because my forward momentum cannoned me to the ground, and my knees skid like a plane landing with no wheels down a runway. If I’d held my arms out, it would’ve added the full effect.

Brushing my pants off, I assessed the damage. My knees and palms were skinned, but that was infinitely better than free-falling to my death.

“You okay?” I asked Kate.

“Yeah. Now you owe me for keeping you in the game,” she said.

“I also owe you an apology. For leaving you in the cave. I was such an idiot, to think I could do any of this alone. I’m…so sorry.”

My wristband buzzed. KATE CANNOT WIN. IF YOU STAY A TEAM AND YOU BOTH WIN, YOU WILL BOTH BE DISQUALIFIED.

That message had been for me, and only me. A reminder that he was watching me. And a reminder of what I needed to do.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kate

It was time to run.

Poor Nate hadn’t expected me to take off so fast. He probably was expecting something more drawn out, but there was no time for that. I didn’t even accept his apology.

Likewise, I hadn’t expected the German to catch up to me and take a swing. To claw at my neck and pull my hair with such force that he knocked me flat on my stomach. We were at the home stretch, a few hundred yards from the finish line, and the wind had been knocked out of me. Sprawled out and helpless, gasping for air. No longer in the lead.

But the German wasn’t done with me. As I tried to catch my