West (The Henchmen MC 19)

Crushing myself against the trunk, I closed my eyes like a child who believed doing so would somehow stop any bad things from finding them.

There were a dozen beats. A hundred. Before I felt safe enough to open my eyes.

The car was making its way down the road.

It wasn't safe.

They would circle back.

Maybe even go on foot.

Especially if they didn't need to go to the hospital, if I didn't do that much damage.

I wanted to be all badass GI Jane or Black Widow or, I don't know, Wonder Woman or some shit, but I understood how clumsy my moves had been, how weak my weapons were.

They were likely fine.

But pissed.

Very, very pissed.

And wanting to take it out on me.

I needed to get one branch higher.

The very idea filled me with dread, but it would get me safer, let me wait out a chunk of the night until I could safely get back down.

Sucking in a steadying breath, I let my legs back down, one balancing on the limb, the other dangling as I raised my good arm up, hooking it around the next branch, slowly pulling myself upward.

"Alright, God," I said aloud, but kept my voice low. "I don't know if you even exist, but I figure I can use help from just about anything right now. Or anyone," I added, raising my bad arm. "I'm really, really hoping to be able to use this arm without blacking out, falling, and becoming alligator food," I said, exhaling my breath, then yanking upward without another thought.

I dropped on the next branch up.

Sobbing.

But alive.

Even if I was pretty sure I was going to need some serious surgery. Steel bars and bolts and whatnot.

Lots of recovery time.

No work.

The branch next to me jolted, making my body do the same, nearly sending me toppling before I caught myself, gaze shooting over, somehow imagining European dudes dangling there.

I found a damn iguana instead, skin a reddish-brown.

"Listen you prehistoric bastard," I told him, trying to calm my frantic heart. "If you try to whip me with that tail, I will knock you off that limb. And then you are alligator food. You feel me?"

His eyes stared at me for a long moment before they started to close.

Tired.

"Yeah, man," I agreed, taking a deep breath, settling forward against the trunk, the bark scraping at my cheek. But it felt cool and reassuring against my skin, allowing me to take a few deep breaths, calm my system down. "I'm beat too," I added, closing my eyes for a moment.

The car circled back twice. At certain spots on the never-ending road, they got out, and looked around, before getting in again, driving.

It felt like days passed, waiting for them to come back, to shine the light just right, to find me.

But as the sky went a little lighter, they were nowhere to be seen.

"How are you going to get down, huh?" I asked my iguana buddy, lovingly named Berton. "Oh, right. You have the mega claw daddies. I don't have those. And I have this busted arm," I added, looking downward.

If I could get to the limb below me again, the fall would be survivable.

Not fun.

But I would make it.

And in the clear light of morning, there were no predators in sight.

I just had to get back to the road, flag someone down.

"Alright, me first, Berton," I said as he looked blankly at me again. "I just need to get this arm around..." I started, leaning forward, hooking my good arm around the limb as I slid one leg down, feeling it dangle.

Then feeling myself slip.

I tried to use my bad arm, but it was even more useless than the night before.

As I fell, I heard a buzzing.

A car maybe?

Hopefully.

Because as I fell, my head whacked hard against the limb I'd been trying to grab.

And if someone was there to see and help me before I got eaten by an alligator, that would be ideal.

Then again, I was out cold once again, so I wouldn't even know any better."Shut up," I snapped, wanting to stay in the dream where I was having some good sexy times in a nice cool pool, but the damn bleeping noise kept trying to drag me toward consciousness. "Shut up shut up shut up," I demanded, groaning, lifting my arms to press to my ears, feeling one that was too heavy, and the other that was pulling oddly at my wrist.

Something pulled at the corners of my consciousness, recognition, a memory of classes I'd been in, hospitals I'd been in.

Hospitals.

An IV.

I was hooked up to an IV.

My eyes sprang open, finding exactly what I expected. Whiteness, harsh lights, a TV on the wall across from me.

My gaze moved down to inspect my heavy arm, seeing the cast, knowing I'd been cut open and put back together again.