Jonas (Minnesota Marshalls #2)(4)
Author: Susan May Warren

 

“Ina. And this is Sibba.”

 

He glanced at her, nodded. “I’m glad we found you. It’s going to get cold tonight.”

 

She didn’t know why, but the concern in his voice caught her, held her. He had dark eyes, maybe blue, and stayed on her for a moment.

 

He turned back to Ina. “Can you get on my back?”

 

“I can try.”

 

He pivoted around, still crouched. “Nixon, can you grab her pack?”

 

“Sure, boss,” Nixon said and picked it up. “What’s the plan?”

 

“I’ll go up with her. You stay behind me in case I slip. Then we can come back for—” He looked at Sibba, one eyebrow up.

 

“I can walk.”

 

“You sure?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Because you don’t need to be a hero. I don’t mind coming back for you.”

 

Maybe she minded. The fewer people who risked their lives up here, the better, thank you. “Listen, Spiderman. The last thing I need is for you to fly off this mountain trying to save me. I’m. Fine.”

 

He held up a hand. “Okay. But if you change your mind—”

 

“I hear what you say.”

 

He raised an eyebrow.

 

Oh blimey. “I’m fine. Really. It’s you who we should be worried about. You sure you can climb up this with someone on your back? It’s slippery—maybe we wait for rescue?”

 

“I’m all the rescue you got. Right here, right now.”

 

“But—”

 

And then he took her hand. Warm, solid, and so painfully…kind? She simply didn’t know what to do. Especially since it sort of grounded her. She hadn’t realized she’d lost herself a little, let the storm loosen her bones. But yeah, being out here, in the rain, in the wind and even the lightning…

 

Maybe she needed his grip more than she wanted to admit. Still. “Just…don’t fall.”

 

“I got this,” he said, his gaze in hers. He smiled, and it in was something she couldn’t place. Tease? Trouble? Warmth? “What was it you called me? Spidey?”

 

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

 

“It’s already in my ears, like a chant. Spi-dey, Spi-dey.”

 

Of all the rescuers…couldn’t she have gotten a nice Swede?

 

His smile turned solemn. “Okay. You stay behind me. Nixon—”

 

“I’ll make sure we all stay on the mountain.”

 

Then Jonas stood up and took off his jacket. “Ready, Ina?”

 

Ina leaned up, grunting, and Sibba helped her onto Jonas’s back. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I can help walk.”

 

“Nope. Here’s what we’re going to do.” He handed his coat to Nixon. “Strap her onto my back—tie the coat around her backside and under her legs. Then I don’t have to hold them.”

 

Okay, she had to give him points for ingenuity.

 

Nixon tied on the jacket, then grabbed Ina’s pack. Sibba picked up her own pack. “I’m right behind you,” she said to Ina, in Slovenian.

 

Sibba hadn’t put Jonas as a big man the first time she saw him. But then again, she’d barely looked at him.

 

But he was big. Six foot three, maybe, and strong.

 

And, apparently, capable, just like he said, because he worked his way up from the cliff, nearly on his hands and knees, grabbing onto boulders and outcroppings. Sibba trekked behind him, also bent over, her hand on Ina’s back.

 

They went slowly, and Nixon moved up beside her to also help steady him.

 

Jonas’s feet dug into the shale, finding purchase, and he grunted now and again, more toward the top as he found the trail. He finally crawled onto the wider path, illuminated by Nixon’s headlamp.

 

Sibba pulled out her torch again.

 

Rain rivered down the trail, and she cast her light on the path they’d just climbed.

 

“Don’t do that,” Jonas said, adjusting Ina, still strapped to him. She’d managed to hold in her moans, probably so as not to rattle him. But her eyes were closed, her jaw tight.

 

“Don’t do what?” Sibba said.

 

“Don’t look down. You’ll just scare yourself.”

 

She lived in a state of scared, really, so this…

 

Okay, this might have taken off a year of her life. Which put her life expectancy at…well, at least today.

 

She didn’t look ahead any farther than that.

 

But she wasn’t going to tell him that, so, “I’m not afraid.”

 

He raised an eyebrow. “I promise. Keep your eyes on me, and you’ll be fine. I won’t let you get hurt.”

 

Usually that was her line, which felt a little weird.

 

“Want me to take her, boss?” This from his friend, Nixon.

 

“No, you light the path. She’s not heavy.”

 

Ina seemed in no rush to get off Jonas’s back, the way she grinned at Sibba. Oh brother. Fine, he was…capable. And maybe a little heroic. But it didn’t matter—she didn’t have room for anyone extra in her life, no matter how capable and heroic he might be.

 

“Let’s go,” Jonas said, hiking Ina up higher on his back and now looping his arms under her knees.

 

Nixon moved to the front and shed light on the path as they walked. Jonas braced himself against his friend’s shoulder as they reached the rougher parts. But after a hundred meters, the ground started to level out, turned muddy instead of rocky, and despite the chill, the moan of the wind, the pelleting of rain, she didn’t hate the walk.

 

Mostly because it drowned out all other thought. One step. One step more. Next step. Another. She didn’t have to think about how close they’d come to disaster.

 

“You okay back there?” Jonas turned as they came to a rocky patch. “Watch your step.”

 

“I’m not the one carrying a ten-stone backpack, freezing to death without a jacket,” Sibba said.

 

Ina lifted her head off Jonas’s shoulder. “What? Eight stone, max!”