Silver Linings, стр. 6

Mattie promptly collided with him.

“Oooph.” She staggered backward a step and caught her balance. It was like running into a rock wall, she thought resentfully. No give in the man at all.

“Here we go,” Hugh said, apparently oblivious to the collision. He was looking up.

Mattie followed his gaze, aware that the roar of water had grown considerably louder during the past few minutes. She realized why when she peered around Hugh's broad shoulders and saw twin waterfalls cascading out of the old lava cliffs in front of her.

The two torrents plunged fifty feet or more into a fern-shrouded grotto. The pool at the base of the falls was nearly hidden by masses of huge, exotic blooms and the twisted rock formations typical of long-cooled lava.

Mattie frowned. “This is Cormier's escape route?”

“The escape route is behind the falls. There's a network of old lava caves in this mountain. One of the tunnels leads to a cavern that opens in the middle of a sheer rock cliff that faces the sea. The cavern is partially flooded. Cormier always kept a boat in there.”

“Caves?” The sense of uneasiness that had been bothering Mattie since they had entered the dense jungle crowded closer. “We have to go through a bunch of caves?”

“Yeah. Don't worry. Nothing tricky. Cormier marked the route so we won't get lost. Ready?”

“I don't think so, Hugh.” Her voice was high and thin.

Hugh shot her an impatient glance as he started toward the grotto. “Don't dawdle, babe. I want you off this damned island as soon as possible.”

He was right, of course. They could hardly hang around here. There was too much chance of running into the same people Paul Cormier had recently encountered. But oh, God, caves. Her worst nightmare made real.

Mattie was already damp from the rain and her own perspiration. Now she felt icy sweat trickle down her sides and between her breasts. She took a few deep breaths and chanted the mantra she had learned when she had taken lessons in stress-relieving meditation techniques.

Hugh was already moving along a rocky ledge that vanished into inky darkness behind one of the falls. He balanced easily on the slippery, moss-covered boulders, his movements unconsciously graceful. He looked back once more to make certain Mattie was following, and then he disappeared behind a thundering cascade of water.

Mattie took one more deep breath and prepared to follow. She reminded herself grimly that she had once vowed to follow this man anywhere.

What a fool she had been.

The mist off the falls looked like smoke as she passed through it. If she had not already been soaked by the rain and her own sweat, she would have been drenched by the spray. As it was, she barely noticed the additional moisture.

But her Italian leather shoes had not been designed to undergo this sort of abuse. Mattie clung to her purse and string bag and struggled desperately to balance on the uneven surface. She felt her left foot slide across a slick patch of moss, and everything started to tilt.

“Oh, no. Oh. no.” Wide-eyed and helpless to save herself, she started to topple backward into the pool at the base of the falls.

“Watch your step, babe.” Hugh's hand shot out of the darkness and clamped around her wrist to steady her. With effortless ease he yanked her to safety behind the falls.

“There you go, babe. No sweat.”

“Tell me something, Hugh,” she asked acidly. “Were you always this fast on your feet? You move like a cat.”

“Hell, no. I used to be a lot faster. I'm forty now, you know. I've slowed down some. Happens to everyone, I guess.”

“Amazing.” Her voice was drier than ever, but Hugh didn't seem to notice.

He was busy rummaging around in the string bag. “And I'll tell you something else, babe,” he added, “No matter how fast you are, there's always someone faster. That's one of the reasons I finally got smart and took that nice cushy job with your aunt.”

“I see.” His answer surprised her. It also made her curious. She really did not know all that much about Hugh Abbott. “Have you ever actually met someone faster than yourself?”

Hugh was silent for a heartbeat. “Yeah.”

“What happened to him?”

“He's dead.”

“So he wasn't quite fast enough.”

“I guess not.”

But their conversation couldn't distract Mattie from the horrible darkness that loomed ahead. A cave. She would never be able to handle this, she thought. Never in a million years. This was far worse than any elevator or dark hall or jungle. This was the real thing, straight out of one of her childhood nightmares.

Mattie's stomach twisted.

She started to tell Hugh she could not go another step when something went crunch under the toe of her expensive, ruined shoe. Automatically Mattie looked down and saw the flattened body of the biggest cockroach she had ever seen in her life.

“That does it,” Mattie announced. “You'd better get out of the way, Hugh. I'm going to be very sick.”