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be black and blue tomorrow. “Are you okay?”
    She flipped onto her hands and knees then climbed to her feet. At least her backpack seemed intact.
    He stumbled out of the dark towards her. “ You stupid, bungling idiot ! You could have broken your neck! Got us both killed. For what ? Mannaggia! This is all so fuckin’ pointless!”
    Tahima stepped back, stung by his anger. “ You’re the one with men coming to track us down.” She began to make out the details of his face and cowered to see his eyes gleaming with rage.
    He advanced and she retreated once again. Where was her gun? Her heart pounded. The rush of fear was heady.
    Rossini was still venting. “They’re not interested in you . You should have let me go.”
    “One more step and I’ll zap you,” she threatened. He stayed put and she thought quickly. “Look, the cabin isn’t far now—we just took a shortcut—but I need to find the path.” Her throat squeezed tight. “I lost my flashlight.”
    He went briefly silent. “Okay, I’ll help you look.”
    “No. You can’t catch yourself if you trip. Wait here.”
    To her surprise, he didn’t argue. Tahima circled around him and tried to work out where she had fallen. An under lit rock caught her attention. She grabbed her flashlight and systematically scanned the area until something reflected back at her. She sighed with relief, collected the stun gun, and returned to where Rossini stood waiting.
    “Found it?”
    She guessed he’d realized she’d lost the stun gun. “Yes.”
    “Wonderful.”
    There was something off about his tone. Tahima shone the flashlight into his face making him squint. “Are you okay?”
    “Nothing a hot bath wouldn’t fix. Can we go now?”
    She ran the beam down the rest of him. His left shirt sleeve was torn and bloody. She spotted a thin branch poking out from the flesh of his upper arm. She hissed.
    “What?”
    “You’ve got a stick in your arm. Can’t you feel it?”
    “My arms are dead, remember.”
    She gestured to a nearby rock. “Sit down.”
    He shook his head. “I just want to get to this cabin.”
    “Sit down,” she snapped, running out of patience. Guilt lent an edge to her tone. This injury was her fault.
    He shuffled forward then sat on the rock. “You know there is a reason not to hike cross-country at night,” he muttered, annoyingly echoing her thoughts.
    Tahima rolled his torn sleeve out of the way and examined the damage. The beam revealed the twig had gone deep. She got out her first aid kit, selected wipes, peroxide, and bandage, and then gripped the flashlight in her teeth so she could see what she was doing.
    “This might hurt,” she mumbled around it.
    “Nothing compared to my pride,” he snarled. “Just do it, will you?”
    Tahima pulled the splinter gently; scared it would break and leave debris inside.
    Now he hissed. “Okay, I felt that.”
    The thin branch slithered out, a whole inch ending in a sharp point. She took the flashlight out of her mouth. “I think I got it. Not much bleeding.”
    He grunted.
    She decided not to mess around and poured peroxide directly onto the wound. Rossini nearly launched sky high.
    “ Cazzo ! Some warning would have been good.”
    Tahima slapped gauze on top of the wound and pressed hard. “Don’t be a baby. This is nothing remember.”
    “I never put you down for a sadist.”
    “I’m learning a lot about me, too.” She started wrapping bandage around his arm, forcing it between the narrow gap between his arm and upper body.
    His body tensed as her fingers brushed his ribs, and it wasn’t a reaction to pain. His face turned towards her.
    She finished wrapping, but didn’t move from his side. She couldn’t help herself, not with his lips mere inches away. He had a magnetism that drew her in. Her lips brushed the corner of his mouth and she shared his indrawn breath.
    His shirt was already half out and it didn’t take much to tug more free from his pants. When he didn’t resist, her