Deep Trouble Read Online Free Page B

she thought Gabe had something unpleasant to say.
    “What do you want then?” She slipped the noose around her waist while she waited for an answer.
    She noticed that he was standing on a ridiculously narrow ledge. He began moving to the far side. When he was well off to her side, he took a few seconds to pull on leather gloves then wrapped the rope around his own waist and around his wrists several times. He looked up, and though he was farther away, he was at more of an angle so his face wasn’t quite so tilted. She could see him quite well. That was definitely another grimace.
    “I want you to jump.”

Four

    G abe wished there was a better way to word his plan.
    “You want me to what?” Shannon had obviously recovered somewhat from whatever had happened to her. Recovered enough to be horrified at his idea. He was a little horrified himself. “Are you out of your mind?”
    Gabe had been rehearsing this. Not because he wanted to convince her, but because he was trying to convince himself. “It’ll be like swinging. I’m off to the side, and you’ll fall at first, a little.”
    “A little? Fall a little? At first? I will
plummet
straight down to the earth like a stone… only more easily killed.” She paused as if waiting for him to show signs of intelligence, then added, “It’s called gravity.”
    “But then you’ll reach the end of the rope, and you’ll swing. Since I’m off to the side, see?” He held up the rope as if to show her where he was. As if her eyes weren’t already locked on him in horror. “It won’t have the impact of just jumping straight down with a noose around you.”
    “It’s called being hung. It’s a method of execution.”
    “Now, Shannon. That’d only be true if the noose was around your neck. Your belly is a lot tougher than your neck.”
    “You hope.”
    He did hope. “It stands to reason. They don’t hang horse thieves from the
belly
until they’re dead after all.”
    “How long was I unconscious?”
    Gabe didn’t have a watch, but it had taken him awhile to crawl down, fiddle with the ladder pieces, give up, get his rope, and climb back. The sun had lowered past the rock wall they were standing on. The caves were facing east, and the whole canyon was filling with shadows. “Not long.”
    “Obviously not, if this is the only plan you had time to come up with.”
    “Shannon, c’mon.” Gabe froze. That tone of voice. He hadn’t heard it for a long time. It was his “little brother” voice. Many of his big brothers would call it whining. He paused for a second to apologize silently to his brother Abe, whose home Gabe was heading to before he’d heard Shannon’s screaming.
    He was gonna be late. Not that he minded. Whenever he was near any of his six big brothers, he immediately began feeling about ten years old. He caught himself acting like a kid, too.
    Deepening the tone, he said, “I haven’t been able to think of another way to get you down. It’s this or nothing.”
    “What’s wrong with your voice?”
    Gabe glared at her. “Don’t change the subject. Come up with a better plan or jump.”
    “My belly isn’t all that tough. Not today certainly. And it feels a little queasy besides.” Partly from her abusive day, partly from Gabe’s plan.
    “Got the collywobbles, huh?”
    “The what?” Shannon had a second to wonder if this was another part of Gabe’s plan to save her. “Collywobbles?”
    “It’s what my ma called it when our food wouldn’t stay in our belly.”
    “Oh, collywobbles. I’ve never heard it called such before.”
    “The rope around your stomach won’t help, I’m afraid.”
    Shannon was afraid, too. Very, very afraid. “We have to think of something else.”
    “Okay.” Gabe could swear he heard a clock ticking in the silence. He’d been thinking until he’d about worn a hole in his skull. “I looked at the ladder. It’s broken off too short.”
    Women liked to talk. His big brothers, all six of them married,