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I actually do have to pee, so I take my time finding a spot and then shuffle back to the river when I’m finished. I stop short of the ledge and watch him leaning back on his hands. His shirt is off, and the sun kisses the white scar tissue on his shoulders.
They’re a part of his body I can’t look away from, but I don’t see them as deformities or imperfections. Only a part of him. One that makes him stand out. If I’d ever spent a night with him, before he kidnapped me, I never would have forgotten him.
Why am I thinking about this?
Loud squawks reach my ears, and I glance up to see two squirrels running from a bird. It pecks at the squirrels, and they hurry across the branch directly above me.
One squirrel makes a noise that sounds like a laugh, and I laugh with it.
My gaze follows them down the branch, and my laughter dies in my throat when I spot a hornets' nest balanced between two branches that are above Lorenzo.
The branch bounces with the squirrels' movement. A sickening feeling starts in my stomach.
“Lorenzo!”
He looks over his shoulder at me.
“Get up!”
“What?” he asks, lifting his feet off the ledge. He stands and I wave him toward me, my eyes glancing up at the hornets’ nest.
“Get over here, I think that nest is about to—”
With one last leap, the squirrels run beside the nest, and it hurls toward the ground. It crashes in front of Lorenzo, and his eyes go wide with surprise. Dozens of angry hornets zoom from the nest, and Lorenzo stumbles backward. He slips on the edge, and I scream as he falls.
I sprint to the ledge, swatting at hornets and wincing as they sting. I’m as far from the nest as I can be, but they’ve scattered and are all around. I spot Lorenzo just as his body slumps off the branch that stuck out from the water. It’s broken now.
“Lorenzo!”
I will him to swim, but his limbs don’t even move. His body is taken by the current without any fight, and his face is against the water.
He isn’t conscious.
I take a deep breath and dive off the ledge without thinking. Cold water squeezes my body, and I open my eyes, the river stinging them slightly. I’m instantly carried away, and I drive my arms forward, kicking my feet as fast as I can. I swim faster than I ever have, with panic and the current pushing me.
I lose control when I’m hurled over the drop through a rapid but quickly regain it. I shove upward out of the water and gasp. Lorenzo isn’t far up ahead of me.
I paddle my arms and legs and make it to him. My heart races as I flip him over and hold his face above the water. His eyes are closed, and I can’t tell if he’s breathing, but there isn’t any time to check.
Our bodies rush down the river, and it’s all I can do to try and plunge us toward the shore. I wrap my arm around Lorenzo in a headlock and, with all my might, manage to drag us to the bank. We’re far from our path.
It takes more strength than I have to drag us both from the water, but all the adrenaline pumping through my system finally works in my favor. I manage to get us out and drag Lorenzo by his arms onto land.
I fall to my knees and hold his face in my hands.
“Wake up!” I slap his face, but he doesn’t flinch. “God damn it, wake up, you asshole!”
I open his mouth and pinch his nose while leaning over him. I press my mouth to his and blow three times before jerking up and pumping between his pecs. I blow in his mouth again and repeat three more times before water sloshes out of his mouth and he rolls to his side in a coughing fit.
I fall back on my ass and put a hand to my chest. My eyes burn and I close them. I choke with emotion and think I might start to cry.
Lorenzo’s coughing stops, and his heavy breathing follows.
I open my eyes and crawl next to him, my eyes searching his. I don’t know what I’m looking for until he takes my hand and closes his eyes.
“I’m all right, Kitty.”
Reassurance. That’s what I was looking for. Jesus, he almost dies and I’m the one who needs reassured.
