She blew air out of her lips, waited a moment, then put her hand on top of mine. “I’ll decide for you. We’re doing this.”
Her determination buoyed me. I chewed my lip. Tugged at my hood. Stood up. Spun in a circle and found her again to grip her shoulders.
“Okay.” I swore under my breath. “Okay. But I’ll jump first … if it’s not survivable, you’ll know not to jump.”
“Your pep talks could use work, but let’s do this,” she said with a shaky laugh.
Chapter 14
Bee
Every ounceof bullheaded self-assuredness went out the proverbial window the second the literal window opened. Okay, it was the door, but that wasn’t clever wordplay.
We spent ten minutes making a plan and gathering supplies. We found headlamps and a few more blankets to wrap around ourselves that would help with the wind. Owen radioed to Azi to inform everyone of our new plan. If I wasn’t careful, a sense of guilt gnawed at me.
In hindsight, should I have tried to lock myself in the tourist shop overnight and cut my hair in a fit of desperate inspiration? Probably not, but there was no changing the past and so here we were.
Still, I wished Owen wasn’t quite so worried. The fear in his set jaw and pinched brow was bothersome.
Since our kiss—and yes, I was aware that the situation was now dire and my priorities were jacked—I couldn’t help but want more of him. It might take some time to get me riled up, but once that motor was revved, it couldn’t be stopped. I was aware of every movement he made as I held the flashlight for him. Thegentle strength in his massive body. The way he fussed over my clothes, insisting I keep the hat and gloves. His forehead was creased with stress that I wanted to smooth away with kisses. I wanted to be swept up into his lap and let him toss me around in any way he saw fit.
“Okay. We can do this.” His shoulders heaved up and down in the beam of the flashlight.
I nodded, shivering from head to toe.
“Just remember to keep a cool head. That’s the most important thing,” he said.
I clicked my tongue. “You’ve said that four times now. I’m starting to think you aren’t just telling yourself.”
He was silent; the light from my headlamp made him squint. “I’m just reminding you.”
“I’m great in high-pressure situations,” I said.
“Like when you attacked me in the bathroom?”
“Self-defense,” I mumbled.
“Or the spider?”
“Are we going or wasting time rehashing the evening’s events?”
“Okay,” he said and took a bracing breath.
He pulled apart the doors, then used his body to keep them propped.
The breath was stolen from my lungs with the blast of freezing air. With the realities of life outside the tram, I forgot all about the kiss. Or at least moved it down the priority list, just below survival. The snow was no longer friendly fat flakes as it had looked from the top of the mountain. It was sneaky fingers that burrowed into every nook and cranny. The wind sliced icy shards across any and all exposed skin.
Welp. We were screwed.
“Bee?” Owen yelled from where he blocked me from falling out the open door. “Don’t look down!”
So, obviously, I did. He should have said “Don’t look up” if he was serious.
It was a terrible mistake. Time and space zoomed in and out. My vision narrowed down to a pinpoint at the same time, it shot out infinitely. My knees went watery. My gut churned. There was a deep instinctual voice of survival that yelled,This is the way to death, turn back!
This was why it was best to act and not think. Too much planning meant living through scenarios that may never happen. And if they were to happen, why experience them more than once?
I could hardly hear Owen over the screaming weather, but he gave me the play-by-play of how to get to the center pole where the ladder was located so we could climb down and jump.
