“Ridge!”
Lani’s scream was the last thing he heard before everything went black.
CHAPTER TEN
“Oh, my God. Ridge. Oh, no. Aurelio, help him. Where are you?” Lani cried out in the darkness, shock shooting through her even as the icy fingers of fear encircled her heart. “Ridge. Say something!”
She flung her arms wide, trying to get her bearings in a darkness so solid it felt like a heavy weight pressing into her.
There was a sudden flash of light and Aurelio appeared. “I found my flashlight, Doctor,” he said. “His shout. He made me drop it. I am here now.”
He ran forward to shine the light down on Ridge who lay flat on his back before them.
Lani scrambled forward and dropped to her knees. “Ridge. Oh, Lord. Ridge. Open your eyes. Please.”
No response.
“Ridge. Please, honey.” Lani pressed her fingers to his neck, desperate to find his pulse.
“He is not conscious, Miss. He cracked his head on the ground.” Aurelio laid his flashlight on a rock so it would shine down on Ridge and then he reached out to loosen the collar of the prostrate man’s shirt. “We must let him breathe,” the elderly man said. "Give him air so he can come back to us.”
Lani began to help Aurelio, loosening buttons like he was doing, and as she did she drew in a shuddering breath. It was all her fault. She should never have let Ridge come on this trip. Worse, she should never have let him hike deep into the jungle with her and Aurelio. If she’d made him stay back at the camp none of this would have happened.
Her heart quaking at the sight of him lying there hurt, Lani leaned down to press her ear to Ridge’s chest. She drew a breath of relief when she heard his heart beating a slow, steady rhythm. And then she heard him groan and it was the sweetest sound she could have heard right then. Ridge was coming around.
“Ugh. What happened?” His words were followed by a moan and he lifted his hand to his head.
“You slipped,” Lani told him. “You fell and hit your head.” She reached out a hand and pressed it against his shoulder as he shifted. “No, don’t get up. Not yet.” Sitting back on her haunches she stripped off her jacket and rolled it up into a ball then, ever so gently, she lifted his head and slipped the makeshift pillow beneath. That done, she looked back at his face. “How are you feeling?” she asked anxiously. “Are you in pain?”
Ridge groaned again. “Outside of feeling like a boulder just slammed into the back of my head, no, I’m fine.”
Lani’s face broke into a smile, albeit a tentative one. “The fact that you still have a sense of humor tells me you’ll survive.” Relief began to loosen the vice of anxiety that had gripped her heart. She was so focused on Ridge that she didn’t even remember their travel companion until he dropped to his knees beside her, a bottle of water in his hand.
Aurelio held the bottle to Ridge’s lips. “Sip,” he ordered. “It will settle your head.”
Ridge groaned again but he didn’t resist. He’d taken only a few sips when Aurelio pulled the bottle away.
“No, not too much,” he said. “We wait a bit and then I give you some more.”
With a sigh Ridge settled back against his balled-up-jacket pillow and closed his eyes.
Lani threw Aurelio a worried glance. “What if he falls asleep?” she asked. “Is that safe? If you have a concussion you’re supposed to stay awake, right?”
“Con…what is that?” Aurelio gave her a puzzled look.
“Never mind,” she said, reaching a hand out to touch Ridge. “I’ll keep him awake.”
“No, he is not sleeping,” Aurelio said, shaking his head. “He is resting. Let him rest. Very important." Now Lani didn’t know what to do – listen to Aurelio who had years of experience behind him and should know a thing or two, or go with her gut?
In the end the gut won out. Ignoring her guide, wise though he might be, Lani leaned down again, this time to whisper in her husband’s ear. “Wake up, Ridge. Open your eyes. I want you to look at me.”
The only answer she got was a deep sigh.
Wanting to waken him but in the gentlest possible way, Lani dipped her head to touch Ridge’s lips with hers.
Immediately, she got the reaction she sought. Like her touch lit a spark within him Ridge gave a soft moan, his lips parting to receive her kiss, his arms sliding up to wrap around her, pulling her down on top of him.
Before she knew what was happening Ridge was the one in control, capturing her head with his hand, deepening the kiss. And it didn’t seem to matter that they had an audience. Ridge was kissing her like a man drowning, drawing from her the air he so desperately needed.
When he finally released her, allowing her to draw back and away from him, he was panting slightly, like the kiss had been enough to drain him of his energy. But he was smiling. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I needed that.”
And just seeing him like that, still on his back but more importantly, with a smile on his face, made Lani smile right back. From the look of things he was going to be all right.
Wanting to give Ridge time to recover from his injury they didn’t leave the cave until a couple of hours later and even then they moved at snail’s pace. Not wanting to take any chances Lani insisted that Ridge get down on hands and knees and crawl along the ledge to safety. She couldn’t risk him standing upright then getting woozy and toppling over the edge. Just to make sure he would comply she led the way, dropping to her hands and knees ahead of him and crawling out of the cave and along the length of the ledge with Ridge close behind. This time it was Aurelio who brought up the rear but he didn’t join in with the knee crawl. He just waited until they’d crossed and then he walked across, as easy as pie.
Now came the hard part. Ridge had been the one carrying the bulk of the gear but with the crack he’d taken to the head there was no way he could manage that. Lani tried to get the bag onto her back but it was too bulky. In any case, Aurelio had given her such a sour look when she’d grabbed Ridge’s bag that she could guess he never would have allowed her to hike back to camp with it.
They ended up having to go through all the bags, ditching as much as they could survive without, and then with the bags half as light as they’d been on the way up Aurelio took Ridge’s rucksack, Lani took Aurelio’s and Ridge took hers. She didn’t have the heart to tell him how comical he looked with her little bag on his back.