Shit. Fucking shit. “Understood,” Liam said into the mic, fighting to keep his heart and breath steady as Kurt maneuvered the bird, precious moments ticking by with every rotation of the propeller blades. Moments that could cost Jaz her life. It felt like years until Kurt signaled an all clear and Liam unclipped himself from the chopper’s safety tether and rappelled down to the stone.
Scampering down the twenty-foot wall, Liam hopped lightly onto the ledge where Roman crouched. Though the wind carried away most of the words, Liam could tell that the asshole and Jaz were talking. Despite the serrated blade Roman held against her rope, Jaz was still alive.
“Step away, Roman,” Liam ordered, his voice booming over the mountain.
Jaz let out a short, unintelligible noise.
Roman stiffened. Turned. But he didn’t get up from his crouch or pull the knife away to safety.
“The game is up,” Liam said with a calm he didn’t feel. “It’s time to go. No one needs to get hurt.”
Roman’s face rose to meet Liam’s gaze. The man’s brown eyes looked darker than Liam remembered. Emotionless except for a deep-seated hatred that bordered on insanity.
“Mr. Liam Rowen. I admit to being surprised to see you here.” Roman slid the blade over Jaz’s rope, nicking apart another fiber. “You should leave, though. This is a private sort of party.”
“Is it?” Liam’s gaze surveyed everything at once. The madman standing in front of him. The fraying rope. The way Jaz’s iron discipline kept her from moving about despite the terror that must be surging through her veins. Despite everything, Liam couldn’t suppress a rush of pride. How many trained soldiers would have started flailing by now, putting strain on a rope that couldn’t bear any more insult? Returning his attention to Roman, Liam reached into the inside pocket of his jacket—the same one he’d worn to the Cosmopolitan—and pulled out his sidearm. “Change of plans. Get the hell away from her.”
Roman’s upper lip pulled back, his teeth glistening in the sunlight.
Liam pulled back the Sig’s hammer, the front sight now lined up squarely with Roman’s chest. The gun’s familiar weight felt right in his hand, and his heart tapped an even, rhythmic pulse. One wrong step and Liam would pull the trigger. It was as simple and clear as that. “Drop the knife.”
Roman’s hand tightened around the blade, his knuckles white.
Liam started to squeeze the trigger.
“Stop!” The knife fell away from Roman’s hand and clattered to the stone. “Fine. Fuck. Whatever. You’re an insane man.” Roman straightened as he spoke, raising his hands. “If you want this bitch so badly, she’s all yours. I’ve got a competition to finish.”
Beside Roman, Jaz was already pulling herself back up onto the ledge. Good girl.
“Kick the knife toward me,” Liam told Roman.
Roman’s foot swung obediently, sliding the knife toward Liam and—
Gaining momentum, Roman twisted and struck Jaz square in the chest just as her knees cleared the lip of the ledge.
Jaz screamed and fell back over, jerking the rope. The rope fibers gave an ominous creak.
Holstering his weapon, Liam sprinted a few steps to the edge where Jaz had partially caught herself on the stone, taking some of the pressure off the ripping line. Liam grabbed hold of Jaz’s harness just as her safety line gave out completely. Hauling Jaz up, Liam pressed her against his chest and drew desperate gulps of air as the reality of what had almost happened hit. Behind him, he could hear Roman scampering away along the mountain, the chopper still hovering overhead. Though the radio earpiece was still firmly settled into Liam’s left ear, the chatter of Kurt updating base camp control seemed both distant and irrelevant. “Jaz,” he whispered.
She pulled away from his chest, her dirt-and-blood-smudged face as beautiful as ever. “Liam?”
Unable to stop himself, Liam covered her mouth with his. She parted her lips for him, and he plunged inside, tasting her sweetness with a kiss that channeled all his desperation and hope and fear. And she kissed him back. It was over in seconds, and Jaz’s breath was as ragged as Liam’s own when they pulled apart and stared at each other. Liam knew this wasn’t forgiveness or absolution of the past, but an acknowledgment of the now. The joy of being alive. And that was the most he could ask for.
“What are you doing here?” Jaz asked.
“Long story.” He swallowed, not caring about the open mic. “One that ends with me saying I’m sorry for being an absolute idiot who tried to push you away.” Tucking a lock of her hair behind Jaz’s ear, Liam traced his thumb gently along her cheek. It was the most he’d let himself do, and he savored every touch of her skin. The way her scent and presence filled a void in his soul.
Jaz’s throat bobbed as she swallowed.
“I’ll climb with you if you still think you have a chance,” Liam offered. He didn’t care that he was dressed in a business suit with some safety gear from the chopper quickly thrown on over the Armani tailoring. Didn’t care how unprepared he was. If Jaz needed him to climb, he would. Even though he wanted nothing more than to bundle her to the nearest ER to be checked out instead.
Jaz let out a small chuckle. “I’m fairly certain that at this point…” The humor faded from her face with thundering suddenness, her hand tightening around Liam’s biceps. “Roman. Where is he?”
Liam frowned. “Ran off. What—”
“He’s obsessed with winning this thing. And he kept talking about leveling the playing field. I don’t know if he has a weapon in his pack somewhere. He sabotaged my safety gear, Liam. I don’t know what access he had to the others’ packs, or even if that was his way of leveling the field, but—”
“Got it.” Liam held up a hand, halting Jaz midsentence, and raised his voice. “Rowen to Kurt.”
“Kurt,” the pilot’s response came quickly through the earpiece.
“Survey the area. Do any climbers appear to be having gear issues?”
A pause. “Negative.”
“Have base camp call in the possibility of gear tampering to every team.”
“Understood.”
Liam nodded to Jaz. “Also, do you have eyes on Roman Robillard?” he asked Kurt.
This time, the pause was longer. “Negative. I can’t see him.”
“His pack is gone too,” Jaz said, reading Liam’s expression and looking around the ledge. “I don’t know what he’s capable of just now, but he isn’t in his right mind. We need to find him.”
She was right, and Liam knew better than to argue the we part. Taking a carabiner off his harness, Liam slid it over a loop in Jaz’s, attaching them both together. “Then let’s take a flight and look,” he said, tying them into the helicopter’s tether cord. “Hang tight.”
Pulling Jaz tightly against him, Liam signaled Kurt to take the slack up from the line. The helicopter obediently moved away from the mountain, plucking the pair of them together into the air. With her arms around Liam, Jaz whooped in pleasure, her joyful holler cut short as an explosion shook the mountain below.
40