Bastian's Storm

Chapter Sixteen

“So what’s your plan?” I asked. My teeth were starting to chatter, which was a really bad sign. Whatever we were going to do, we were going to have to do it quickly. My head was throbbing as well, and I was pretty sure the dizziness and nausea I was feeling were indicative of a concussion.

“Neither of us can move without help,” he said, stating the obvious. “I’m guessing you can’t see what I see.”

“A kid I’ve killed in the past?” I said. “No, I don’t see that.”

Evan shook his head.

“Not him,” he said. “The position of the rock next to your leg.”

I had to crane my neck and tilt my head over as far as I could, but I finally saw a glimpse of what Evan was talking about. To my right, below Evan, there was a channel of snow. The ditch would have been formed by the rocks lining one side of it—the same rocks that pinned my leg to the ground below me.

“I’m pretty sure I can move the rock up against your leg out of the way with my foot,” Evan explained. “Once it’s gone, you should be able to pull yourself out and keep your leg intact. Well, as intact as it is now. It’s broken.”

“Yeah, I can tell that.”

He looked at me closely.

“That’s gotta hurt like a bitch,” he commented.

“It does.”

The corner of his mouth turned up a little as he gave me an appreciative nod.

“It’s gonna hurt worse when I move the rock,” he said. “I don’t have the best angle, and I’ll probably end up crushing your leg more.”

“Great.”

“Beats staying where you are.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

“You ready, then?” he asked.

We looked at each other for a moment before I nodded.

“Do it.”

I held my breath, and Evan began to push down on the rock against my leg. I had to grit my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut as he did it to keep from screaming out loud. I felt it shift a little, and heard the bone crack.

“Fuck!”

“Almost got it,” he said calmly.

“Fucking hurry.”

“That’ll hurt more.”

“I don’t give a shit!” I yelled. “Just fucking do it!”

I heard him take a deep breath and saw him pull his leg up close to his chest. As he thrust his leg forward, I couldn’t hold it in—I screamed as I heard a rock tumble off the edge of the cliff. Reflexively, I yanked up my leg. For the first time, it actually moved.

My head swam and my vision went dark. I had to choke back the bile that rose in my throat as I felt the tendons in my knee tear. Forcing myself to keep my mouth closed, I squeezed my eyes shut again and just tried to keep my cursing to a minimum.

“I think that did it,” Evan said.

“Fuck,” I said with a rush of breath. “I should have asked for a bullet to bite on.”

“I have a few,” Evan said. “I should have offered.”

“Bastard,” I muttered.

Evan chuckled.

“Can you move it yet?”

“Gimme a sec.” I focused on my breathing for a couple minutes, trying to force the pain into the back of my mind. I looked down at the top of my thigh, just barely visible, and tried to push more of the snow off of it. I twisted and turned my fingers right next to my body until I managed to make a large enough hole to grab my leg with my hands. “Here goes nothing.”

I yanked, but nothing happened other than causing additional searing pain to run through my body. I told myself not to be such a fucking pansy and yanked harder. It moved a little more. With my arms straining against the pressure, I gritted my teeth and kept pulling. An inch. Another.

“Fuck!” I screamed as Evan kicked at another rock.

“You do like your F-bombs, don’t you?” he mused. “There was one more in the way. Try again.”

“Motherfucker!”

“Quit your bitching,” he commanded. “Just do it.”

I tried to remember what rank he had held in the Marines. He sounded a bit too much like Landon for my taste. The tactic worked though; I grabbed hold of my thigh and pulled as hard as I could, and my leg finally came loose.

Panting, I dropped my head back to the snow and tried to get myself together before I pulled out the other leg. With the extra space made from releasing my first leg, the second came out a lot easier. It also wasn’t broken, though my thigh hurt like a bitch from the bullet wound there.

With my body free from the snow, I held myself up by my arms and pushed myself out of the hole, rolling off to the side and slamming into Evan in the process. He grunted a little but didn’t say anything as I got up on my hands and knees.

I looked to him and observed his wary expression. This was it—the last real choice I had to make. Right now, I could easily kill him where he lay; there was no way he could stop me. I could break this allegiance and take him out, securing my victory.

But only temporarily.

If he lived up to his side of the bargain, Franks would be out of my way for good. It wasn’t an opportunity I was going to pass up.

I let him wonder for a minute, though, because I’m an asshole.

“Shall we get you out?” I finally said with a grin.

His shoulders relaxed, and he closed his eyes as he nodded.

Using one of the loose rocks as a shovel, I dug around one side of Evan’s trapped arm. It took a while to get through the ice and rock, but once his arm was free we both worked to release his leg, and he crawled out of the snow bank.

His shoulder was dislocated, but he stood still and silent as I shoved it back into place with a loud pop.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’m good. Your leg is a mess.”

I looked down at it. It wasn’t just fractured but cracked, and I thought the tibia was likely crushed. I couldn’t even feel my foot, but that might be a good thing.

“How are you going to climb?” Evan asked.

“I’ll manage,” I replied. “How are you going to get out of here?”

“I’ll manage,” Evan said with a smile.

I laughed through my nose as I looked down the edge of the cliff. This was going to suck, no doubt about it, but at least I had the hope of someone finding me at the bottom. Evan was going to have to avoid that.

“Keep out of sight,” I said.

“I’m pretty good at that.” Evan looked me over. “You’re going to tell them I’m dead, right?”

“That’s the plan,” I said. “I don’t think they’re going to spend much time looking for you.”

“They won’t,” he said. “Rinaldo knows me too well.”

I didn’t know what he meant, but I was too cold and in too much pain to start asking a lot of questions now. Time was running out.

My leg hung loosely from the rest of my body. I couldn’t put any pressure on it at all, and I couldn’t see anything around to use as a splint. I thought about Hunter’s crossbow, the body of which might have worked, but it was too far away. Then I remembered the bolt I had grabbed during his fight with Reaper.

I pulled it from my waist and held it up to my calf. It wasn’t really long or thick enough, but it was better than nothing.

“I can do that,” Evan said.

I looked up at him, and my paranoia set in. Would he try to betray me at this point?

I shook the thought from my head. If he wanted me dead, all he had to do was bash me with a rock or something. I wasn’t in any shape to fight anymore.

“I do have some training as a medic,” Evan said with a shrug.

It was my only option, so I let him splint my leg using the bolt and one of the pieces of piano wire I still had on me. He wrapped it securely but not tight enough to cut off any circulation.

“The thick clothing should provide a little extra support,” he said. “Don’t put any weight on it if you can help it. It won’t hold you.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

“It’s going to have to be reset,” Evan said. “A few more hours, and it’ll have to be broken again to get it to heal right.”

“Whatever,” I said. “I’ll deal with that when I get to the bottom of the mountain.”

“Yeah, I was wondering how you were going to do that,” Arden said. “I’m going up and over, away from where they might try to land a helicopter.”

“You know there’s no other way off this island,” I said. “It’s not like you can swim it.”

“I have an idea,” he said. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I’m not,” I replied. “I don’t give a shit about you, but I do have a vested interest in your survival now.”

His mouth turned up in a half smile. The look was almost challenging, like he’d still be willing to fight it out, but I didn’t acknowledge it. There wouldn’t be any point.

I did give a shit, though, even if he wasn’t going to take out Franks on my behalf. I wanted him to make it. He was in better shape than I was physically, but I didn’t see any fucking way he could survive.

“I’m going now,” Evan said.

“You’re not going to make it,” I said.

“Yeah, I will,” he replied. He smiled as he looked at me. “You’ll know it, too—as soon as you hear the news about Franks.”

I nodded, still not completely sure I could trust him to go through with it, but I also knew it was a better option that what I had planned, which was nothing.

Evan reached out his hand, and I took it a little tentatively. We shook briefly, and he turned without another word to start up the slope. I watched him for a minute and then headed over the side of the cliff.

I probably could have brought myself down the side of the mountain with one leg and both arms on a good day, but it was rough going, considering the state I was in. I was still mostly frozen, and my body didn’t want to do anything I told it to do. My arms and shoulders ached. My head was swimming and clouded, and there was a throbbing in the back of my skull that kept reminding me that I’d hit my head pretty hard.

Grasping the sharp rocks to scale my way down the cliff, my one good foot tried to find a decent place to rest as I caught my breath a little. The rock I stepped on held me, but it wasn’t enough to let go with my hands. It only gave my shoulders a little relief as I leaned my forehead against the cliff and took some breaths.

Back to it.

I didn’t know how long it took to get down. The sun never set; it only dipped low on the horizon before it started to rise again. By then, my body was done. Only my mind with images of Raine and Alex kept me from letting go in defeat.

Can’t stop.

Hand over hand, balancing on one foot, and reliving my time on the island with Raine, I kept on going. I never looked down as I progressed and was surprised when the cliff flattened out somewhat and allowed me to let go of the rocks with my hands. As I did, I lost my balance and put weight on my left leg.

“Fuck,” I groaned as my leg gave out from under me and I fell, rolling down the rest of the mountainside between two short ridges. I threw my arms out to slow my descent but continued to tumble anyway. I didn’t have enough strength to stop and ended up just going where gravity took me. I managed to turn myself just enough to point my feet downward and try to dig in the heel of my good foot, but it wasn’t enough. In the process, I slammed my temple into the ridge on my right, and my head jerked to the side. A moment later, I landed at the bottom, just short of where land gave way to the ice floes.

My lungs burned as I tried to get some oxygen into them. The pain in my head was excruciating, and I was sure I was going to throw up, but I couldn’t even roll to my side. The exertion from the fall had been too much—I couldn’t move anymore. As much as I tried, my body simply wouldn’t listen.

I tried to get my bearings. I was at the bottom of the mountain and would be easily visible from the air. I was close to the water, and the ground was wetter here. I knew that was a death sentence, but I couldn’t manage to do anything about it.

My body was done.

Darkness lifted, and I saw the bright white of the snow on the ground with the blue water not far off. I tried to move my arm, but it appeared to be frozen to the ground. Shooting pain traveled up my left leg as I tried to pull it closer to my body to secure a little more heat. I was lightheaded, dizzy, and thirsty, but I couldn’t remember where my canteen was. Even if I could recall its location, I wasn’t sure I could move enough to reach it.

I wasn’t cold. That was bad.

After all this shit, I’m going to die waiting for them…

Curling into myself as much as I could, I closed my eyes and waited.

I never heard the helicopter; I just heard Landon.

“Give me a sign, buddy.”

The word sounded strange to me. Landon wasn’t one for terms of endearment. For a moment, I thought maybe I was hallucinating. Maybe if I opened my eyes, I’d see the imaginary kid Evan had gone on about. I wanted to find out for sure, so I forced my eyelids to open.

“There you are,” Landon said quietly.

As I looked up into his face, I saw him smile. It looked strange on him. It wasn’t sarcastic or snippy, but a real, genuine smile as if he were really, genuinely happy. I’d never seen him smile like that, and it made me think that I was hallucinating after all.

“Can you talk?” he asked.

I swallowed and opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

“Okay,” he said, “don’t try.”

“Where’s Arden?” another voice called out. “There’s no sign of him.”

I cleared my throat and licked my lips. Pulling air into my lungs, I managed to utter a single word.

“Dead.”

“You sure?” Landon asked.

I nodded.

“Snow,” I croaked. “Avalanche…”

“Yeah, I got that idea.”

“Found his Barrett,” another voice said. I couldn’t tell who was speaking and couldn’t move my head enough to figure it out. “The barrel’s damaged, but I know he’d never leave this particular weapon behind, damaged or not.”

“Are we calling this?” another voice asked.

“Not without a body.”

“You want to dig through all of that?” a woman’s voice snapped. “It’s fucking freezing already, and the temperature is dropping.”

“There has to be proof.”

“If Moretti says Arden wouldn’t leave without his rifle, that’s good enough for me.”

“Fine.”

“Agreed. Get me off this fucking rock.”

“Folks,” I recognized Franks’ voice as he spoke, “we have a winner.”

There was a lot of motion around me, but I couldn’t quite keep up with it. I heard myself scream as I was lifted and placed on a stretcher of some sort. The whirring blades of a helicopter filled my vision as I was maneuvered through the open door and onto the floor. Without the wind rushing over my body, I felt my muscles relax a little as the warm air inside the helicopter seeped into me.

Landon knelt beside me and began to release the fastenings on my parka. As he got it open, I warmed a little more. My stomach lurched as the craft took flight. Landon continued to remove my outer clothing.

“Shit, Sebastian,” he muttered.

I felt his hand against my leg and then a sharp pain. I closed my eyes against the sensation and gritted my teeth as my head swam, and my vision went dark.

I didn’t know how long I was out, just realized how sick I felt as I regained consciousness. I opened my eyes to look around, but everything was blurry. I knew I was inside a helicopter. From the motion, I could tell we were in the air, but I couldn’t really identify anything I saw. There were human shapes moving around me, but I didn’t know who they were.

“Can you focus on my finger?” Landon asked.

The voice came from a nondescript mass in front of me, so I assumed it was him. I tried to focus on his hand where he held it up, but there were at least three of them. I shook my head, but that was a big mistake.

The nausea that had been building inside of me took over, and Landon had to roll me to my side to let me puke all over the inside of the chopper. Once I was done, he rolled me to my back and straightened me out.

“Sebastian,” Landon said, “I’m going to have to reset your leg. It’s better for me to do it now; we won’t have proper medical treatment for at least twelve hours.”

I tried to nod, but wasn’t sure if I managed it or not.

“You hear me?” Landon called out. I felt his hand on the top of my head. “Fucking answer me if you can.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

“I’m going to set your leg now. You want a fucking bullet to bite on?”

“No.” I laughed, but it hurt like a motherfucker.

“Good.”

Maybe I should have asked for one.

I heard the crack and then myself screaming. After that, everything went dark.

Gunter Darke used to tell me what banging heroin felt like. He would describe it in great detail, everything from the needle prick in his arm to the pressure of the fluid filling his veins. Then he’d talk about the warm, sleepy feeling like it was the best fucking thing in the world, better than Christmas morning, better than rich desserts, better than orgasms.

I was sinking. I felt heavy everywhere though there wasn’t any discernable pain. I was dizzy, and when I tried to understand why, I realized I didn’t have any idea where I was or what had happened to me. My eyelids felt heavy as I pried them open.

I’d been in enough hospital rooms to recognize the setup. There were white walls, dimmed lights, and a lot of beeping machines. I was on my back with a sheet pulled up to my chest, but my arms were on top of the covers. One of them had an IV hooked up to it. My left leg was encased in a cast and elevated off the bed in traction.

“Bastian?” a feminine voice spoke.

I moved my eyes toward the sound, and a dark-haired, dark-eyed woman sat near me in an oversized chair. She was a tiny thing—petite in frame with long, straight hair flowing past her shoulders. She stood as I looked at her and moved close to the bed.

She was beautiful, but her eyes were sad.

I tried to place her, but nothing came to me other than pain and throbbing. My throat was dry, and I couldn’t swallow properly. She reached over to touch my face with her hand. Her expression was so tender and familiar, but I couldn’t remember who she was.

As I looked around again, I figured I must have recently finished a tournament though I couldn’t remember the details. All the games kind of flowed together anyway. Obviously I’d won, or I wouldn’t be here at all.

Where’s Landon?

I couldn’t speak to ask.

The woman’s eyes filled with tears. Had I been sleeping with her before the tournament? She wasn’t dressed like a nurse, but she seemed awfully concerned for someone who had just spent a single night with me. Maybe she was just like that. I wished I could remember her name.

“Can you hear me?” she asked.

I opened my mouth, but my lips were as dry and cracked as my throat felt. The woman reached over to the table beside the bed and held a glass of water with a straw up to my lips. I couldn’t lift my head to drink, but she angled the straw for me to take a few sips.

“Are you in pain?” she asked.

I still couldn’t place her. I thought about her question and did a mental evaluation of my body before I tried to speak.

“Leg hurts,” I croaked.

“It’s broken,” the woman said.

I’d assumed so from the cast. I took a deep breath and focused on my other limbs. My right thigh felt a little strange, and I was achy almost everywhere. My head was pounding, making it hard to think.

“What else?” I asked.

She pulled a rolling chair close to the side of the bed and took my hand in hers.

“Your leg was basically crushed,” she said quietly. “You’ve gone through two surgeries to fix it. The ligaments and tendons around your knee had to be repaired, too. You have a really bad concussion, and Landon said you…you…”

She choked up a little, took a breath, and went on.

“You were shot in the leg. He said it wasn’t that bad, but it was infected by the time they found you. They had to give you a skin graft there.”

I closed my eyes and focused on my right thigh for a moment. It was itchy, and I figured that was due to the graft; I’d had them before. I recalled a brief flash of the pain from the bullet, and I remembered the snow and ice surrounding me as I tried to clean it up. It had been too cold to leave my flesh exposed long enough to do it properly.

Cold. Ice. Snow.

“Avalanche.”

“Right,” the woman said with a nod. “You were caught in it.”

A slight dizzying sensation overcame me as I remembered tumbling down the mountainside. The pain in my leg throbbed as I recalled the abrupt stop as I hit the rock ledge below. Visions of being trapped and unable to move traipsed along in my head together with images of a little piece of folded paper with a drawing on it.

It all came back to me like a bright and violent flash of lightning as it strikes a tree.

One final tournament in the frozen north. No one but me and a certified hit man left in the game. Certified and certifiable.

Evan Arden.

We had both been covered by the snow and had formed an unprecedented alliance to free ourselves. I had to survive. I didn’t care about the money or a fucking trophy. I had to get back to her. To them.

“Raine,” I whispered.

“I’m here,” she said.

“Oh, fuck—Raine!”

Ignoring the tug of the IV needle in my hand, I reached out and brought her to me. I’d done it. I’d lived up to my promise to her. She was here with me, safe and protected again. Somehow, I had gotten out alive and back to the one woman who mattered in my world.

With the help of my key competition.

Did Evan make it? Did he get off that island alive? There was only one way I would ever know, and that was if and when I heard that Franks had been murdered. Assuming Evan made it, how long would he wait before taking action? Days? Weeks? Longer?

Would he even bother to fulfill his promise to me?

I only thought about it for a moment before deciding that yes, he would. Evan Arden was about as fucked up as they get, but I didn’t think he was a liar. I also got the idea he was a guy of principle—he’d never back out of a hit. If he did survive, I had no doubt that he would get the job done. I’d just have to be patient.

Not my best attribute.

Raine was crying against my shoulder, and I placed my hand on the back of her head and pressed my lips to her temple.

“I’m all right, babe,” I told her. “I got you.”

“They said you might not make it,” she cried against me. “They said even after the surgery, you might not wake up.”

“I’m awake,” I said. “I’m going to be fine, Raine. I’m going to be fine.”

I had no idea if it was true or not, but I wasn’t going to contradict myself. I made it down a fucking mountain with a crushed leg. There was no way I was going to die in a fucking hospital bed.

I held her as long as I could, but my head was aching, and I nearly passed out again. Raine summoned a nurse to tell her I was awake, and the woman checked my pulse, temperature, and the output of the various machines connected to me.

Raine stood to the side, wringing her hands and biting her lip.

“Where’s Alex?” I asked.

“With John Paul,” Raine replied. “They’re in that building where we were staying.”

“He’s okay?”

“He’s great,” Raine said. “He and John Paul hit it off. I didn’t realize that man was such a child at heart.”

I smiled, but it hurt my head.

“Landon?” I asked.

Raine’s face scrunched up at the mention of his name.

“He left a little while ago to get something to eat,” she said. “He should be back in an hour.”

A doctor showed up and checked me over in greater detail. She pulled back the dressing on my thigh, ordered the nurse to add something to my IV, and shined a flashlight in my eyes.

“How does your head feel?” she asked.

“Like shit,” I replied.

“Bastian!” Raine snapped.

“Well, it fucking does,” I muttered.

“Quite all right,” the doctor said. “He’s got a few reasons to curse. You might want to consider a safer hobby.”

I wasn’t sure what she thought my hobby was, but I figured it was best not to say anything else. Raine watched as the doctor finished up my examination and then left. The nurse came back with a bag of something to add to my IV drip, and Raine gave me a little more water.

“You okay?” I asked her.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Just worried about you.”

“No worries,” I told her. “I always bounce back.”

Landon appeared in the doorway just as the nurse was finishing up. He stood quietly near the entrance until she was done then asked Raine to give us a few minutes alone. She glared at him without responding but stood from her chair. She leaned over to kiss my forehead and run her hand through my hair.

“I’ll be outside,” she said sharply. “I’m going to let John Paul and Alex know you’re awake.”

“Thanks, babe.”

Landon moved out of the way as Raine passed, a slight smile on his face. He watched her walk out before shutting the door and coming to sit by my side.

“You look a little better,” he remarked. “There was a time I thought I’d have to convince them to give Raine your winnings posthumously.”

“Thanks for your vote of confidence.”

“You were in bad shape,” he said. “You had hypothermia along with your injuries. Bad infection in your leg, too.”

“So I hear.”

“Prognosis is good, now that you’re conscious. Your leg is going to need some physical therapy once it’s mended enough, but you should be back to normal in a few months. You gained a few more scars.”

“Just additions to the collection,” I mused.

“If you are going for a record, I think you might have won.”

I had to keep myself from laughing at his comment—moving hurt.

“Did you find Arden’s body?” I asked.

Landon shook his head.

“No sign of him,” he said. “Considering the depth of the snow, I doubt he’ll be uncovered any time soon. We’ll just have to wait until global warming takes its toll.”

I gave him a half grin, but it hurt to do so.

“I saw him go down,” I told him. “The only way I kept from being buried was from hitting a ledge part way down. That’s what broke my leg, but it stopped me long enough for the rest of the avalanche to pass over me. He kept going to the bottom.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” I hoped I sounded convincing.

“Any chance he could have survived?”

“Not as far as I could tell.”

Landon took in a breath, filling his lungs deeply before he stood up.

“I’m heading back to Seattle,” he announced. “John Paul is arranging for you to be moved to a hospital in Miami. It will take a day or two, but you can finish your recovery from there. You were in a skiing accident in case anyone asks.”

“Good to know.”

“I’ll be in touch.” He started for the door.

“Landon?”

He turned back to me.

“I’m done now,” I said as I looked straight at him. “No more tournaments. No more favors. This was it.”

Landon nodded but didn’t look back at me. I had no doubt that he was simply agreeing because he knew it was what I wanted to hear. Evan had been right—there was no way out of this except to eliminate those who had leverage over you.

I have to kill him.

First things first—I was in no shape to go after Landon.

Should have asked Evan to do it.

No, that wasn’t right. I needed to take care of Landon. I wanted him to know it was me. I didn’t give a shit about Franks—I’d wanted him dead since that night I watched him torture and murder people, Raine’s father included. I didn’t care how it happened as long as he was gone. Landon was a whole other issue. I was going to get him out of my way once and for all, but I couldn’t do that in my current condition. Even at full strength, Landon wouldn’t be an easy man to eliminate, but that wasn’t going to stop me. I still needed to get myself back into shape before I conquered him.

My plan would wait. At least for now, I’d let myself heal.