Read Jump Zone: Cleo Falls for Free Online Page B

pocket, pulled out a handful of small, bright green stems, and placed them in her open palm. “Nice to formally meet you, Cleo.”
    “You found chamomile!”
    “I think I found everything you asked for,” he said, dumping the small bag of leaves on the ground between them. “I grabbed anything that looked like hairy green spades, figuring that one of them had to be right.”
    Cleo separated out the ones she wanted and added them to a shallow plate of water that she’d heated over the embers of the fire.
    “What’s it all for?” he asked.
    “The chamomile, which I’ll make into tea, has antibacterial qualities so I won’t get an infection. It also is a relaxant, which is important in the healing process. And this,” she said, holding up the spade, “we call Indian Tobacco. It’s good for healing, encourages cell regeneration.”
    She laid them in the water, waited a moment for them to soften, then layered them across her wound, wincing as each made contact. “They also act as a pain reliever, so I hope you remembered where you got them. I might need more.”
    “Or you could just ask me for some acetaminophen,” he said with his half smile. “I do have a basic first aid kit with me.”
    Yeah, I know. “Really? What else do you have?” His mouth was fascinating to watch, the way his well-shaped lips formed words. Others she’d come across during her travels through Taiga country usually had dry, cracked lips and a dullness about them that spoke of poor nutrition. But Libra’s looked soft and lush.
    “What do you need?”
    Your lips, pressed against mine— no, no, no!What she really needed, besides a hard cuff upside the head, was a good fighting knife and a couple for throwing. But she could hardly tell him that. She swallowed. “We’re going to need food—”
    “I’ve got Nutripacks—”
    “Yuk, no!” Cleo shook her head and couldn’t stop her mouth from puckering. “I’d rather starve. How about another weapon? Do you have a gun, or just that ,” she asked, looking toward the handle that protruded from the alphacat’s skull.
    “Just that .”
    “You really shouldn’t come to the Taiga so ill prepared,” she scolded. “It’s a wonder you tourists survive your little holidays.”
    “Next time,” he said with a shrug.
    “Well, it’ll do for a start, but we’ll need something to hunt with, like a wire for a snare or a strap of leather for a slingshot.”
    “You’re kidding, right? I’ve got steak and potatoes. Why would we need to kill—?”
    “No, you have tough, dehydrated little cakes that are called steak and potatoes, but it’s all chemicals. Not good.”
    “Beats spending all day stalking some poor animal.”
    “Why are you here?”
    His shoulders hitched. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, you’re an urbanite. Why are you here? What brought you to the tribe lands?”
    “I’m on vacation, trying something new.”
    “You brought your own food. That doesn’t sound like such an adventure.”
    “I wanted to see trees and birds and water that you can touch without having to climb fences.”
    “Yeah, but why the Shield?” she probed. Of all the places in Upper Amerada, the area known as the Old Canada Shield was by far the roughest, most unfriendly terrain to those untrained to deal with its challenges. “I’ve heard about parklands, protected pockets around the city. Why not go there?”
    “Not much of a hiking opportunity in three square miles of scrubby bush, and the Guard will arrest you for so much as snapping a branch.”
    She studied his expression. Tight facial muscles, tense around the neck and shoulders... He was lying.
    Don’t trust outsiders.
    “And I wanted more of a challenge. A  man-climbs-mountain-because-it’s-there experience.”
    He sounded just like Jaegar, who’d do anything because… why not?
    “Sightseers usually stay pretty close to the Cut Road,” she said. “How’d you get all the way up here?”
    “Hiked.”
    “By