“It was wedged between two boards in the wall. I couldn’t get it out while you were counting down. I had to leave it there.”
“When I discovered the arrow—”
“I never saw the arrow until you broke it over your knee.”
“I thought I’d trumped you.”
“So did I. I knew I had only one chance to get to that broken propeller.”
“And you took it.”
“Yes.”
“That was brave. But remember…if you’re ever in a similar situation…”
When his voice faltered, she prompted him. “What?”
“Go for the kill.”
“I’ll bear that in mind.”
She heard the rustle of the tarp beneath him as he moved restlessly, then he lay still and silent for a time. Finally, he said, “You…you…”
She pulled her legs out from under her hips and leaned down closer. “Yes?”
“You could have killed me a dozen times over by now. What’s kept you from it?”
“I told you, and I meant it, that I didn’t want you to die.”
“Because of the kiss?”
“The kiss?”
“You remember it. Sexy as hell? When we went from zero to sixty in about a second and a half? Virtual foreplay?”
“I don’t recall it like that.”
“Hell you don’t.”
“I just don’t want you to die, that’s all.”
“Okay, okay. Thanks for that.”
He groped in the darkness until he found her left hand, drew it to him, and laid it on his chest. The hair on it was soft, the skin hot. It was rising and falling rapidly and erratically. He rubbed the back of her hand and rolled slightly onto his right side, the one uninjured.
“But in case…in case you were to change your mind…”
Too late she realized what he was doing. He clipped the plastic cuff around her left wrist and his right. She made an inarticulate sound of outrage, mostly at herself for being so easily tricked by talk of sexy kisses.
She pulled hard on her hand, knowing already that it was futile. Then she remembered the knife. She had set it down after using it to cut the bandana into strips. She began searching for it with her free hand.
But he was ahead of her on that, too. “It’s in my seat pocket,” he said, “where the cuff was. It was careless of you to set it down within my reach after you used it.”
“I was trying to keep you from bleeding to death!”
“If I do, you’ll be able to roll me over, get the knife, and cut yourself free. But the only way you’ll get to it is if I’m dead.”
“Please don’t do this. I can’t help you if I can’t move around.”