Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
“You know I’ve got to use my leg, Harlow, in order to build it up. It’s scary for me to do this. I’m not about to climb high. I’ll climb a few feet and then downclimb. I have no intention of overdoing it. I’ll stay very low.”
Harlow could see the logic in Raine’s decision. She’d been told her leg needed to be stronger. She’d completed over a year of physical therapy. She was walking, swimming, hiking and stretching daily. Climbing seemed the next step. It was just that…Harlow found herself uneasy, but then she had been for a while. She couldn’t shake the feeling that in the next few weeks a disastrous storm was coming for them.
Seeing her hesitation, Raine pressed one hand to the thigh of her bad leg. “Harlow, I have to get back to me. In all this”—she indicated the leg—“I’ve lost me. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s the truth. I’ve lost my focus and drive. I don’t even know myself anymore.”
Harlow understood. How could she not? She felt lost more often than she felt whole. “We’ll do it then.”
“You go ahead. The other side of this rock looks as if it has super-easy climbs. V1 for sure. I can practice on that. I’m not going to try more than a few times,” Raine said. “But I’ll spot you first just to get back in the swing of things. When I’m feeling more confident, I’ll try the easy route.”
It sounded like a decent enough plan. Harlow looked up at the rock surface and at once her heart lightened. Bouldering was a giant puzzle, and her mind loved puzzles. It was the reason she preferred bouldering to trad climbing. She could look at the face of the rock and begin to work out how to climb, the puzzle occupying her completely, so the rest of the world dropped away. She didn’t have to think about losing patients or people she knew and cared about. There was no room to think about her perverted father and the fact that she knew he was capable of great violence against women. Or her mother, who protected and covered for her father. There was only the boulder and her.
She found peace on the rock, no matter how difficult the climb was. Often, the more difficult, the more she liked it. She lost herself in time, climbing up, having to traverse sideways for several moves before going upward again. When she came to new holds, she downclimbed to ensure she could get back to the ground without mishap.
Raine called out encouragement, sounding excited and happy. The dogs rushed around, playing in the field and close to the rock. At times, they’d come to drink water from the travel bowls Raine had set out for them. They seemed as happy as Harlow felt. She found herself enjoying the climb far more than when she’d been on her own. One of the things that had brought the women together in the first place was climbing.
After Raine spent time watching her, stretching and warming up, she took her crash pad around to the easier side of the second boulder. It was tall but had several levels as well as multiple easier routes. Harlow was grateful Raine was doing exactly as she said she would. She should have known. Raine might be feeling lost or rebellious, but she was always practical.
The sun climbed higher, and the rock got hotter. When Harlow’s hands were too torn up to continue, she came off the rock and wandered around to the side of the boulder where Raine had been climbing a much easier route.
Harlow was very happy she’d agreed to Raine climbing, because for the first time, Raine looked completely relaxed and happy. There had been such a strain in her face for so long that Harlow had forgotten how young she looked as a rule.
Raine could easily pass for a teenager, something she found truly annoying at first, but then she viewed it as an advantage. No one noticed the silent teen in the corner with her laptop. No one ever saw her as a threat. They didn’t take her seriously unless they knew her. Few had the knowledge that she was highly respected and had one of the highest levels of clearance in the military and the CIA.
Raine referred to herself as an analyst. She claimed she was an independent contractor, but Harlow knew she worked for the government. She just wasn’t certain in what capacity that was. But Raine had access to information most others didn’t, and she was sent for at all times of the day and night and transported by military helicopters. Harlow was actually a bit surprised that they had gotten away with coming out to the Twin Devils with no one finding them. On the heels of that thought, she heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance, and her heart dropped. It seemed too much of a coincidence for that helicopter to be in the air so close and not be searching for them.