The Hike by Susi Holliday

Author:Susi Holliday [Holliday, Susi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2022-10-01T05:00:00+00:00

Thirty

SATURDAY EVENING

They sat there for what seemed like forever. Cat, with her knees to her chest, locked in position. Tristan, one arm around her, his head leaning on her shoulder. She listened to his breathing as it slowed back to something resembling normal. She knew she was in shock. Knew that there were things that would need to be said later on, once this was over. If it was ever over. She was alone now. No parents, no sister, no husband. Just Tristan, and a brutal side that she hadn’t seen before and wasn’t sure she liked. She was worried about herself a little, too. She had almost enjoyed what had just happened. The sky was fully dark now, the only sounds the occasional scurry of something in the woods, the odd squawk or whoop of a bird. Eventually, she found her voice.

‘So this is a fucking disaster.’

He lifted his head from her shoulder. ‘I know. Here we are, stuck up a mountain in the pitch-black, and I don’t even have a torch.’ He turned to her, stroking her face. ‘I guess we’re too late for the hot tub now?’

Cat shook her head. ‘It’s not funny. None of this is fucking funny, Tristan.’ She pulled away from him. ‘It was all meant to be simple, you said. It’ll look like a tragic accident—’

‘I think you might’ve buggered that one up when you decided to shove your sister off the edge.’

Cat felt tears prick at her eyes again. One minute she was crying, the next she was laughing. Of all the things they’d discussed, they’d never talked about how it might feel when it was done. Not that it was an issue for Tristan, who seemed ridiculously cool about it all. Terrifyingly cool, in fact. She hadn’t expected that. And she hadn’t expected to feel so lost, with the two people she was closest to in the world now gone.

Even if it had been what she wanted.

How the hell were they going to get down now? She could barely see her hand in front of her face. Then she remembered . . . Oh, thank god for corporate clients.

‘We do have a torch,’ she said, pulling her rucksack on to her lap. She opened one of the long side pockets, took out waterproofs and some other small bits and pieces that she could barely see in the dark. Finally, her fingers found a small plastic box and she lifted it out of the bag and flipped open the lid. Inside was a silver mini-Maglite, branded with a company name: Epic Solutions. ‘I know the proper torch went in Ginny’s bag – which, by the way, was a very stupid decision in hindsight—’

‘A lot of this was quite stupid, in hindsight,’ Tristan said, ‘but she wasn’t meant to go over the side with her rucksack still strapped to her back.’

She ignored his jibe. ‘I got this at that trade fair in Ascot, would you believe. I liked that it was in its own little case, so I just tossed it in.

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