Page 7 of Kneel for Me
In any other circumstance, I’d have laughed. Prodded at him some more. Instead, I just remained silent. None of this was funny anymore. We were in serious danger, and it was up to me to get us out of this safely.
Andalive.
6
Adrian
It was cold as fuck. I could barely feel my toes anymore, my teeth were chattering, and I’d bitten my tongue by accident three times now, so it was unpleasantly swollen. I was beyond fed up with this whole fucking ordeal. We’d been walking nonstop forhours, not even stopping to swap the backpack and flashlight. We just swapped the items while continuing to walk because stopping for even a mere moment could be the line between life and death.
But I knew Ivan was even worse off than I was because he was just in a pair of slacks and expensive Oxfords. But he hadn’t uttered a word of complaint. He just kept muscling through the snow and wind, refusing to stop. Hell, we hadn’t even paused to get some water and a granola bar in our systems. We ate and drank while walking, too.
“I’m going to break James’s fucking jaw for this,” I snarled when a particularly harsh gust of wind slapped against my already freezing face. I was losing feeling to my extremities, but I refused to stop. I had to keep pushing forward.
I wasn’t goddamn dying out here.
“Stop bitching,” Ivan growled. “I’m stuck out here, too. Don’t forget I wouldn’t be out here right now if I hadn’t decided to help your fucking family.”
If I wasn’t afraid my gums might freeze, I would have bared my teeth at him in a snarl. Instead, I just growled in frustration and kept my mouth shut. We were relying on each other to make it out of this bullshit, no matter how much I fucking hated it and hated him. Couldn’t stand to admit it, but I knew if it weren’t for Ivan, I’d be dead already. I knew without a shred of doubt that if we weren’t forcing ourselves to keep moving, to keep putting one foot in front of the other, we would be dead and frozen, left for someone to find once all this fucking snow melted.
The sound of a helicopter’s wings thumping overhead drew my attention, and I came to a stop, reaching out to grab Ivan’s jacket sleeve. He turned to me, his face barely visible in the dark. “Why the fuck?—”
“Helicopter,” I told him. He frowned, looking up, probably hearing it now that he wasn’t so focused on stomping through the snow. I was hoping like fuck it was someone who could help us and not an enemy. But we were going to have to take our chances. “I know it’s dangerous, but so are these conditions,” I told him. “Wave that flashlight into the air.” I grabbed my pistol from the small of my back. “If they’re enemies, I’ll do my best to keep us safe.”
He nodded once, then began waving the flashlight in the air, beaming it up toward the helicopter that was now almost on top of us. I hoped like fuck they were someone we could trust. I wanted out of this snow. I wanted a hot shower and a warm bed and a damn good hot, spicy bowl of soup. And then, I wanted to sleep for the next goddamn month.
The helicopter began to hover over us, and I watched as a rope dropped down, and then, a man began to descend. He was dressed in all black, but I noticed Ivan relaxed at the sight of him. “Friend?” I guessed, lowering my gun.
“Mark,” Ivan confirmed. “He must have made it back home and realized I was missing and went hunting for me.” He grabbed my coat sleeve and tugged me forward. “Let’s go.”
I slipped my gun back into the waistband of my jeans at the small of my back as Ivan began to stomp through the snow again, this time heading toward Mark, who was jumping down from the ladder and coming toward us.
“Fuck, boss. You good?” he asked, gripping Ivan’s upper arms and looking him over. “Got home and you were MIA. No one had heard from you. Flight showed you’d already left Seattle, so I started searching the route you should’ve taken home, backtracking it.”
“I could kiss you,” Ivan said, and my stomach twisted at his words, even if they were playful. Didn’t knowwhyI reacted so viscerally to that statement, but I refused to focus on it either.
“Keep your lips to yourself, boss,” Mark said. “Let’s get y’all up there and home. You’re both going to need to see the doctor as soon as possible. We’ve already got him on standby.”
“Knew I hired you for a reason,” Ivan said, clapping his shoulder. He passed me the flashlight, now turned off, and I stuffed it into the bag. He took a moment to shake out his arms and stare down at his feet for a moment before he leaped and grabbed the bottom of the ladder, pulling himself up and beginning to climb.
“You next,” Mark told me, jerking his chin toward the ladder once Ivan was safe inside the helicopter.
I grimaced. My feet were completely numb, and that numbness was quickly spreading into my legs. And now that I was standing still, I wasn’t feeling all that great on my feet. “I’m going to be honest with you, man, I can’t feel my fucking feet, and the numbness is spreading.” His eyes widened just the tiniest bit, and I knew that was alarming.Fuck. “I might need assistance getting up there.” I had no fucking clue how Ivan had managed it. I was staying upright by sheer force of will at that fucking point.
Mark grabbed a small flashlight and shined it into my face. I winced, holding my hand up to shield my eyes, but he shoved it aside, cursing as he did so. “You’re hypothermic, Adrian,” he said, turning the flashlight off. “Holy fuck.” He glanced toward the rope ladder, then clenched his jaw. “Can you climb?”
“I think I’ve got enough strength in my arms to manage,” I told him. I had to have enough strength. Otherwise, I was dying here, and quite frankly, that wasn’t a goddamn option for me.
He nodded. “Then come here. Let me heft you up, and then, I’ll go up after you in case you need the support.”
I winced. “Is that safe?” I asked, eyeing the ladder. There was only so much weight that was supposed to be on a rope ladder at one time.
He grunted. “Going to have to be. Ivan will have my fucking head and my balls if you die.”
I scoffed at that because I seriously doubted if he actually gave a fuck whether I lived or died, but I kept my mouth shut because I was too fucking cold to argue any longer, and standing still was making me shiver more, and my breathing was slowing. I needed to get a fucking move on before I actuallydiddie.
Once I was at the bottom of the ladder, Mark bent at his knees, then wrapped his arms around my thighs right above my kneecaps and lifted me. I grabbed the ladder, and my fingersburned. I hissed through the pain and gripped tight before reaching up and grabbing the next rung, pulling myself up with sheer upper body strength.
My feet and legs were goddamn useless—numb and frozen. I couldn’t fucking feel anything in them exceptpain. Grunting, I pulled myself up one ladder rung at a time, my shoulders and arms burning from the strength needed to keep pulling myself up and up and up.
