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“Aaron!” she said sending him a gaze that said ‘shut up’ loud and clear.
“Paige, tell us what happened,” Joel told her with his own gaze that said ‘or else’.
“Fine…the missing campers weren’t just missing; they’d been taken by a psychopath who wasn’t happy to be interrupted before he could kill them, okay? Maggie had tracked them to the base of a mountain and I relayed the info back and started climbing. I was to the top before I realized that they weren’t there voluntarily.”
“Good lord Paige,” Bobby gasped.
“What happened?” Cord demanded.
“He had them in this small inlet and when I started searching, he jumped me. In the process my arm was cut,” she said stopping there.
“That’s how you’re going to put it?” Aaron inquired shaking his head. “What she’s leaving out is the fact that before the guy slashed her arm, down to the bone, he shoved her over the edge of the cliff and if she hadn’t been wearing her harness, she’d be dead.”
“Aaron!”
“Paige Elizabeth Brighton…what in the hell?” Cord shouted. “I want to knowexactlywhat happened.”
“Alright since someone can’t keep his mouth shut,” she said glaring at Aaron, “he knocked me over the edge, but my rope caught me and when I reached up to pull myself back onto the landing, he cut my arm. Guess he didn’t realize that I’d climbed with a broken arm before so I could still manage it one handed. Anyway, I let myself down partially until he couldn’t see me and then moved over to climb back up. He wasn’t expecting me to show back up and I surprised him. Knocked him out with his shovel and then informed the team of the exact location on the mountain to find him.”
“How’d he get them up there?” Sam asked.
“Made them climb,” she answered. “Honestly it’s not as bad as it sounds.”
“Really?” Aaron questioned. “Had he cut your arm closer to the wrist you would have bled to death Paige, and you didn’t help by insisting on climbing back down with the two in case that psycho got up before the others reached you. You should have waited for the medics to get there and then you wouldn’t have spent three days in the hospital because of blood loss.”
“Aaron how many times are you going to harp on this? I’m fine, my arm is fine, the two missing people are fine despite what they went through, and the guy who abducted them is behind bars on death row. I’ve moved on, it’s time you did too,” she sighed.
“I think it’s time you tell us what exactly you’ve been up to the last ten years Paige. We’ve heard from your friends about your work with them but there seems to be four years no one can account for,” her father stated, and she knew she was walking a thin line.
Chapter 8
“Dad,” Paige said trying to soothe his mood. “There’s nothing to tell. Other than the work sites my life is quite boring, most of the time I’m simply hanging out at home. I’ve only been to the hospital a couple times, the worst being the cut. I broke my leg six years ago at an earthquake site but that’s it. Despite what people claim I’m not crazy and I don’t have a death wish.”
“That’s true,” Rabbit stated. “She was always the first one to caution us on taking risks.”
“Then turn right around and do it herself,” Craig added.
“Very funny,” Paige scoffed. “Out of us who was the only qualified one to do the surveys?”
“You but that doesn’t mean you didn’t take risks,” Jesse argued.
“Like what?” she questioned.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Hillary laughed, “how about going up to the top of that volcano in Indonesia that blew not five hours later?”
“You did what?!” Cord shouted.
“Hold on I thought you all worked mainly inside the US?” Joel inquired.
“We do, occasionally we help outside the US if we’re really needed,” Jesse answered, “but that was Paige’s idea of a vacation with her boyfriend back then.”
“Your boyfriend took you to a volcano that was active?” Sam said letting out a peal of laughter.
“He was a scientist who studied volcanos. We weren’t planning on going there but we were in the vicinity and stopped in. No one else had climbing experience so I helped,” she stated. “You know if you want a rundown as to my adventures why don’t you simply pick up your phones and search for the team’s website, go back about eight, almost nine years, and read up to the last four?”
“That wouldn’t begin to cover it Paige and you know it,” Moose chuckled.
“It’s all they’re going to get unless you plan on regaling them with our expeditions because the only thing, I’m going to do is head to the hotel and slip into a bed,” she sighed as her body began to give into the need to sleep.
