Page 27 of Hearts Don't Lie
After lunch they had scaled the chasm, donning helmets and gloves because they needed hands to climb over the steep scree- and boulder-covered slope. It was the most vertical ascent of any hike she guided, and not often at that. Her arms, legs, and core had burned while she fought for purchase. Hardin admitted that he’d been challenged too. Her body was pleasantly tired, clean after a dip in the frigid water before a satisfying taco dinner.
Mac figured she’d conk out soon after crawling into her sleeping bag since she had wanted to nod off during dinner. It was not to be. Instead, her mind returned to the man in the other tent. Her body hummed in response, her pulse skittering wildly. Too warm despite the drop in temperature, she unzipped her sleeping bag and flipped the top away from her body. The churning circle continued, her emotions and desire amping up with each cycle. Her mind and body were on fire.
The hell with it.She crawled forward and unzipped the flaps, finding her cold boots right where she had left them. Mac glanced at Hardin’s tent glowing softly from his lantern and then the starry heavens. The brisk air and the concentration needed to slip her boots on in the dark slowed her pulse. But as she walked toward his tent, her heartbeat ratcheted up. She had questions after listening to his side of their history, and her body begged for answers to others.
She inhaled deeply and was just raising her hand to tap on the tent when he said, “Come in, Mac.”
“How did you know I was there?” she asked sheepishly, stepping in after dropping her boots outside.
Hardin sat up, a tablet in his hands, its screen glowing softly.
“What’re you doing?”
“Reading. You told me the bears are bashful, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t one of those mountain goats we saw today. They’d prefer to stay clear of humans, you said. I watched the lantern move from your tent to mine.” Hardin smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“What’re you reading?”
“Seriously? You want to know what I’m reading?” He squinted at her. “Weak segue, Mac. What’s this about?”
She raised her brows and shrugged.
He sighed impatiently and closed the cover of the tablet. “Your nocturnal visit. As in why are you here? You’ve been abundantly clear there are things you don’t wish to talk about.”
“That’s not so. I didn’t have the opportunity to tell you my side of things.”
Hardin exhaled harshly. “Bullshit. Do not bullshit me, you of all people. We can talk about this but not about that. Your marriage. Your child. Why you moved here.”
“Your language is coarser.”
“Yeah. It’s the world I live in. Arrogant, false gods who think people are at their beck and call.”
“Is that what you’ve become, Hardin?”
“That you’d even ask me that pisses me off,” he said bitterly, a harsh expression passing over his face.
“Sorry. That was low.”
“Apology accepted. And for the record, your language isn’t as sweet either. Cut to the chase. You’re skirting things, Mac. I know you. I know your soul.”
“You used to,” she said, hedging. “I have my reasons and you agreed to my terms.”
“I did and I shouldn’t have. But I did and now I’m pissed off. I told you everything I know. You told me nothing. There’s your whole side of our story, like why you were gone when I came to see you in May. Where were you?”
She folded herself onto the end of his sleeping bag. “I left because Alicia left me. She fucking left me. With a hundred dollars.” Mac’s voice became more impassioned as she recounted what had occurred, in snippets that barely touched on the devastating events that had brought her to her knees time and time again. “I left because my boyfriend’s parents slapped me with a restraining order. I left because my scholarship was rescinded, and I hadn’t had the foresight to accept another because I planned to attend the same school as my boyfriend and had no idea his parents were going to fuck me over some more.” Her throat burned with unshed tears. She let them flow. When she felt more in control, she said, her voice cracking, “I left because I had nowhere else to go.” Mac sniffled and wiped her face on her sleeve. “End of story.”
“No. Not end of story,” he snarled, his fists clenched. “I’ve been trying to find you for twelve years. Since our last night before I left for college. I’ve never stopped.”
She sat back on her heels and regarded him through her tears, wiping again at her eyes and running nose. “I don’t understand,” she said with disbelief.
“I hired a private investigator ten years ago to find you. Immediately after signing my first contract. Liberty Quinn. She—”
“I met her last week. She popped into Intrepid. I talked to her about our tours and adventures.” Mac gazed at him with rounded eyes. “She was smooth. I never would have guessed she was a PI. She works for you?”
“Yeah. Lots of starts and stops. Dead ends. I sent her out to Colorado after she showed me a photo she came across in a magazine. After discovering you were one of the owners of Intrepid Adventures, Liberty was able to track you to Piñon Ridge. I sent her there to find out anything else she could. From your name change, she assumed you had married, but she couldn’t access the public records. She asked around once she got to Piñon Ridge. Discovered you’re not married and you have a kid.”
“As I said last night, I don’t want to talk about any of that. Quit bringing it up.”
“When will you? I have limited time here.”
