Ginger shook her head.There wasn’t any way she could hold Noah alone.She didn’t know how Sarah had managed it for so long.“Noah, I’m going to crouch underneath you.Put your feet on my shoulders.”
Noah couldn’t argue with her.Ginger stooped beneath him, and Sarah helped guide his feet to her shoulders.As Sarah released him, his weight crushed the tops of her shoulders, bruising her, digging deeply.She gritted her teeth, crying out despite her best efforts.
She could do this.She could hold him.
She would hold him until Sarah cut the rope.
Sarah was behind her, where Ginger couldn’t see.She heard the sawing of the blade against the rope and she prayed.
Hurry, Sarah, please hurry.
She could do this.
The pain in her shoulders was blinding.She struggled for breath, trying to concentrate, seconds turning to minutes.
Noah breathed with equal strain.
She had to do this for him.
“I’m nearly there,” Sarah called out.“When I get to three, let him go, Ginger.Or he’ll fall on top of you.One … two …three!”
Ginger dove out from under Noah.He fell, free of the rope, landing on her legs and pinning her down.Her hips slammed into the stone, bruising painfully, and she cried out, gasping.
But he was free.
Noah rolled off her, and she crawled to him where he lay, his chest heaving.His face was streaked with sweat and grime.His body shook, and she kissed his lips gently.“Thank God,” she whispered, unable to hold the tears back now.
Sarah helped Noah cut the rope from his wrists.He sat, stretching his shoulders, his face marked with pain.He took Ginger’s face in his hands, then kissed her again.“I love you,” he said.
She returned his kiss, her heart still constricted by the fear she’d had for him.He was safe.He’s safe.
A gunshot rang out in the distance and they all looked up.
Osborne?
Ginger handed her gun to Noah.Even if his arms hurt, he was still likely to be a better shot than her.“What just happened?”Noah managed, his voice tight.
“We’ll explain the whole thing later.”Sarah grinned.“But, really, it was your wife who thought up the entire plan.”
Ginger felt too numb with the events she’d witnessed to feel any pleasure in the plan having worked.She never wanted to see Noah like that again.She gave him a wan smile.“It wasn’t the best plan.”
“Don’t be modest.As you Brits say—it was ‘bloody’ brilliant.”Sarah winked, then lifted an oil lamp as footsteps approached.
Ginger reached into her bag for the grenade again, trying to prepare herself for another confrontation.
As a figure came closer, her eyes widened.Jack.
Jack held a gun.“Am I late?”His voice was hoarse, and he still looked as sick as when they’d left him.He scratched his fingertips over his chest.“I … uh … killed Osborne.Near the entrance.You can thank me later.”As though feeling a sudden wave of malaise, he reached out blindly toward the stone wall beside him, steadying himself.
Ginger’s mouth dropped open.She exchanged an astonished look with Noah.
She didn’t know what shocked her more: the news he had killed Osborne or the fact that he was here.
She rose to her feet, and unexpected laughter bubbled up and choked her throat.Tears stung her eyes.
Osborne could never threaten them again.
“Jack Darby, I’ve never been happier to see you in my life.”
