Flame (Ruin Outlaws MC #4) (8 page)

Logan squints at the horizon for a moment. "If I remember the landmarks..." he trails off and points out the red cliffs in the distance. He traces his finger across the sky and mutters to himself. "This way."

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me."

We're on a slight incline, and he starts hiking to the top of the slope. He waits for me at the crest and hands me an energy bar and a bottle of water. "You should eat."

"You should too," I point out. He chuckles a little. "What?"

"Bossing me around now? I let you get too comfortable," he says. I shake my head with a smile and push him, nearly knocking him over. He catches himself and laughs, which is infectious. I try and stop myself from grinning, but it's hard when he keeps going. It feels ridiculous to be laughing when our vehicle just broke down and all we have are some energy bars and water. But, actually, that only makes it funnier.

Even out in the desert, maybe stranded for dead, he can make me laugh. I unwrap the energy bar and take a bite. It's gummy, but chewing feels really good.

He unwraps his and gives me a sideways glance. He nudges me with his elbow, and I try and brush him off. "Stop that," I tease. I can feel his smile. We'll survive.

I pull out the phone and gesture to it. "Who will you call?"

"Two of the guys to come pick us up," he says.

"Have you done this before?"

He shakes his head and kind of smiles. "That thing has GPS right?"

"I'm pretty sure," I say, beaming at him.

"It better," he grins.

After a few more minutes of walking together, our shoulders brush together and I feel my heart race. He reaches out and grabs my hand, deftly sliding his fingers between mine. My heart melts like butter on a hot pan. I stroke his forearm and pull him near me, and we walk in sync down the dusty trail, if you could call it that anymore. My hand throbs and feels warm. I try to ignore it, but it makes me scared. I should have told him about the cut earlier, but he was so focused.

. . .

The heat rises in waves off the red earth like invisible snakes. We've been walking for miles, and for what feels like hours and hours. Our pace has slowed to a crawl, and Logan's taken off his shirt and given it to me. I've wrapped it around my head and finished all the water.

"Check the phone," he says, his voice cracking with thirst.

"I just did," I snap back at him. I can barely focus on anything, my vision going blurry from the heat and light. I grumble and fish the phone out of my pocket, and turn it back on. Its battery has slipped down under 30% and we still don't have any service. I shake my head. "Maybe the next hill. These are baby slopes, but... they feel like mountains, don't they?"

"Yeah," he grunts.

Earlier, Logan sliced open my jeans so I could roll them up and get some relief from the heat. I'm covered in a layer of sweat, but Logan's shirt-hat keeps it from dripping into my eyes. He doesn't have such a luxury. His muscles twitch under his skin, and his shoulders look burnt and red already. I wish I could do something, but if I give up his shirt, I'll probably pass out. My hand feels terrible.

I wander closer to him and hang off his shoulder. He chuckles. His skin is slick and glistening. Forget about me, he might not even make it at this rate. Our shadows are almost invisible. I glance up to see the sun is almost overhead. Shit.

"It must be over a hundred degrees," I say.

"I've had worse," he says. His breathing is so much more relaxed than mine, I'm actually jealous.

"Worse?"

"Rode through Death Valley once with a bunch of the guys from my old crew for a drug deal. We ended up having to stay an extra day longer than planned... It was definitely worse." He shields his eyes and looks at the sky. "Although right now, I can't remember how much worse." Logan looks down the trail behind us, and sighs. "I wish we didn't have to leave the bike."

"Come here," I say. I extend my hand and grasp his and pull him close. We stop for a moment and just look at each other. "We will make it out of this, we've made it out of all this other shit. The sun won't kill us now. That'd be too embarrassing."

He breaks into a smile. "You got that right, Cass," he says. He dips down and kisses me, his lips tasting salty and dry, but still so delicious. How is that possible? I'm desperate for water, but for a few brief seconds, that desperation vanishes. We break away and I see the renewed vigor in his eyes. The same iron eyes that I saw as he passed me on the highway a lifetime ago. Steeled, unnerving, determined. An outlaw's eyes.

To add to my delirium, I'm starting to wish that the border patrol would catch us right now, just so we wouldn't have to be walking through the desert like this. Any wind is brief and tantalizing. Animals skitter and scatter around the trail as we stomp down it, and a rattler makes its presence known with a few lashes of its tail. We avoid it, passing as far away from it as possible without falling into the sage.

I glance over the horizon toward the red crags, which have moved a bit behind us. With the heat waves coming off the ground, and my vision so battered, they do almost look like skyscrapers. God, if only Phoenix was that close. Within sight. We'd definitely have reception.

"It's stupid we don't," I mutter to myself. Logan glances at me, and I realize I said the last part of my thought aloud. "Have reception," I explain. "What kind of shitty state doesn't have reception in the desert? Where people can die?"

"People do die all the time," he says. "You're right."

I tighten my dry lips and try and suck some saliva from my mouth. Anything to fight off the dryness of my throat. I gather some and swallow it as hard as possible, feeling little relief. "Should've brought more water," I joke. It falls flat and he doesn't answer. I shrug it off.

"Check the phone again," he says. I unlock the screen and the No Service signal disappears for a brief second and my heart freezes. A small 1x appears on the top left of the phone's screen and I almost drop it in surprise. "We have service," I strain to say. I jog up to him and shove the phone into his hands.

"Seriously?" He takes it from me and bursts into laughter. Gut-clenching, fall on the ground laughter. He cheers and pulls up a map. It loads slowly and as it does, the battery drains quickly. It warns us that it only has 20% battery left. He clenches his hand under his elbow and tries to hold the phone up into the air. "Come on, motherfucker."

The GPS map springs into view and our location is marked. The map zooms in and shows us how close we are to Phoenix. Logan cheers. "At least I know where we are now. We can't keep walking... but now I can call for help."

It's so quiet out here, I can hear the line ringing as if the phone was up to my own ear. A man's voice picks up. "Yeah?"

"Surge, it's Bomb. I need some help."

"Bomb?" Surge sounds surprised. "What are you doing? Where are you? You're still in Mexico right?"

"Not anymore," Logan says. His eyes flit from the horizon to meet mine. "We need a ride. Bring two guys... and some water."

"We?" Surge answers with some incredulity. I don't understand why he'd be so surprised to hear from one of his club members. One of his oldest friends by Logan's definition, if I remember right. A long pause. "Alright, tell me where you are."

Logan pauses and looks at the map again. "Here are our coordinates," then he rattles off a bunch of numbers. I'm too exhausted to listen. There's a rock outcropping nearby, and I start moving towards it. Shade would be an amazing relief right now. After reaching the hanging rock, I scare away two rattlers and climb underneath into the shade. It's even better than I thought it would be.

Some grumbling on the other side of the line, but it's indistinct. Logan looks worried and he clenches his jaw and balls a fist with his free hand. "Can you help us?"

The line is silent for some time. "Okay. We'll find you. I got the coordinates." The line goes dead.

Logan stares at the phone. "He..."

"— Sounded surprised. Is that weird?"

He shrugs. "No. He's usually really relaxed. But this whole Skeletons thing might be getting to him." Logan strokes his beard and rubs his temple. "Unless... No, I can't believe that shit."

"What shit?"

"Remember what Victor said in Mexico about Surge?"

My eyes go wide. "You don't think...?"

"I don't know what to think anymore." Logan scratches his head and groans. "What if he's always been fucking with me?" He kicks the ground and a stone goes hurtling out into the sage. "Why would he do that? To what end? Just... for fun?" I haven't seen him like this before, and I'm sure the  terrifyingly hot sun isn't helping.

"I don't know, Logan, but come here. Get out of the sun already."

Logan relaxes and drops his shoulders. He nods to me and exhales. "You're right." He climbs under the outcropping and joins me. He breathes a heavy sigh of relief as his forehead hits the shade and he sits down.

I peel off his shirt from my head and hand it to him. He pats himself dry with it, his shoulders looking really raw now that we're out of the direct sunlight.

My hand burns with pain, but I can't let Logan know. It'll only worry him more, and he has enough to worry about right now.

I swallow what spit I have left and my heart races. I hide my bandaged hand by forcing it under my butt. Maybe it isn't nerves, but just exhaustion setting in. I wouldn't call the sleep from last night the best I've ever had. Logan's eyes move to me, and he reels my hand out from under me and strokes it. I breathe and he kisses my hand, and rubs my skin until I relax.

"It'll be okay, Cassie." He kisses my bandaged hand again and I flush from something other than the heat. I feel so silly blushing at him kissing my hand, but it's sweeter than anything I've come to expect from him.

He lifts his eyes and looks at me. "I told you I won't let anything happen to you."

I believe it. He hasn't let me down yet.

And I won't let him down, either.

2
4 Karat Romance, in partnership with Zirconia Publishing, is a new-discovery resource for romance eBooks. 24 Karat Romance handpicks and promotes romantic stories from well-known and up-and-coming authors so you receive the best eBook romance recommendations. We source and post alerts about discounted and free eBook deals, so you don't have to search for them. We also host fun giveaways on our website. To receive your invite to win free eBooks, Amazon gift cards, and much more, sign up for our newsletter at
24KaratRomance.com
.

We invite you to also join the conversation on
Facebook
!

24 Karat Romance - where true romance shines brightest

––––––––

< < < < < > > > > >