Seeking Worthy Pursuits: A Dark Romantic Suspense Novel (Alace Sweets Book 2) by MariaLisa deMora

Author:MariaLisa deMora [deMora, MariaLisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MLK Publishing, LLC
Published: 2020-04-12T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Owen

When he opened his eyes lying at the bottom of a gully folded into the surface of a mountainside, Owen took a few seconds to realize what had happened. The dried blood and tender-to-the-touch goose egg on the back of his head told part of the story, but his landing position more than a football field length downhill from the game trail he’d been following was another part of the answer. The what and how of his fall determined, he spent a few moments trying to sort out the why, finally deciding it mattered less. No matter if the edge of the trail had given way or his ankle rolled on an unfortunate stride—he was far more concerned with the condition of his body and pack to give it more effort than that.

He sucked in a sharp breath and held it as he ran his hands along his ribs, finding an entire section where pressure against the skin made sweat bead along the back of his neck. Not broken, he made certain of that by palpating them enough to diagnose only bruising, but their current state didn’t make it easy to do anything like remove his pack or twist around to look for a water source. It was a struggle, but with the pack finally retrieved, he hunched over it as he waited for his breath to settle down; each reckless drawing in of air poked sharpened swords between his ribs.

Delving into the depths of the pack, he found his food and water were undamaged, but of all the damned things to be broken, the tablet hadn’t survived. Not intact. The surface was shot through with cracks, and he grunted in disappointment at the loss. He didn’t even try to turn it on, digging back into the pack to find the satellite Wi-Fi Alace had left with him. That seemed unscathed, not even a scratch on the sides, and when he turned it on, the lights cycled in the normal fashion, finally landing on a steady amber that told him there were no available connections. Whatever network the device worked from was either blocked by the trees or the satellite wasn’t in orbital sync. Not entirely unexpected, given the remoteness of his location, but a definite damper on his mood on top of the unrelenting pain from his torso.

Fortunately, the ribs were the bulk of his damage from the fall. He had a multitude of scrapes and bruises, but nothing else of note. Owen repacked the backpack and strapped it in place with effort. Then, using a nearby tree as a leaning post, he worked his way upright only to nearly collapse again, the rib pain now extending farther around his torso. Hands on his knees, he fought the overbalancing weight of the pack until he could stand a little straighter, avoiding landing on his face through sheer determination. Inch by inch, he adjusted until he hit the point where he could no longer ignore the throbbing, holding there while he caught his breath.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.