Girl From Above #4: Trust Read Online Free

head and squinted at the winch’s scaffold braced across the top of the shaft. “Grab it. On three.”
    This is it. If we miss, it’s over. Just one more push.
    “We’re not dying,” Fran snarled.
    “Not today. Three, two, one—”
    I pushed up and against her back. We straightened, levering ourselves higher. And then, just as I wrapped my fingers around the scaffold’s pole, the Cande bastards blasted somewhere deep in the mines. The shaft, the scaffold, and the rock face trembled. Fran’s fingers snatched for the scaffold, but her fingers sailed past it.
    Fuck, no! Clutching the scaffold with one hand, I swung out with the other and made a grab for her arm.
    “Cale!”
    I caught her wrist. The jolt burned through my arm, across my shoulder, and up my neck, almost snapping my arm out of its socket.
    “Cale— no me dejes caer! No dejes ir! ”
    Terror widened her green eyes. She swung her right arm up, clamped her hand around my forearm, and dangled. Below, darkness yawned.
    I can’t hold us. My grip on the scaffold shifted, fingers burning. I can’t save her and me.
    “Caleb, don’t …” Her Asgard scar cut deep, stark red against her pale face. “Don’t.”
    Fire sizzled through my shoulders. “I can’t hold you!”
    “You can, you son of a bitch. You can. Don’t you fuckin’ drop me.”
    I squeezed my eyes closed but already had her horror-filled face etched into my memory. Maybe she didn’t deserve to be saved, but neither did I. She’d betrayed me in every way possible—she probably would again—but I couldn’t let go. I couldn’t let her die and live with myself. I knew all too well what that felt like.
    “ Por favor—por favor, no me mates .”
    I wasn’t dying here. I wasn’t done. Neither was Fran. Pulling on reserves I didn’t know I had, I levered my arm up, lifting Fran until she could clamp her legs around mine. She circled an arm around my waist and grabbed the scaffold, instantly relieving my grip of her additional weight. I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d made it to the edge of the scaffold or hauled myself out of the shaft.
    Breathing hard, I scrunched my fingers into the red dirt and waited for the pain to fade.
    Count the stars.
    Rolling onto my back, I gazed up at the blood-red night sky.
    “Thank you,” Fran whispered, close enough for me to feel her words brush my cheek.
    “Don’t make me regret it.” I turned my head. She was lying on her side, her brow furrowed and her expression tight. I smiled. She didn’t.
    “C’mon, Captain. We’ve got a ship and a few tons of explosives to steal.” She got to her feet, half-caked in red dust and clearly trembling, but color had returned to her face and the glint of her passion was back in her eyes.
    “You go. I’m fine right here.” I wasn’t sure I could move.
    She scooped up my limp hand and tugged me onto unsteady legs. “You can quit when we’re off this rock. Now move your ass, Shepperd.”
----
    A t least , covered in red dust from head to toe, we blended in with the locals roaming the night market. The winds dropped in the half dark, which meant less dust in the air, hence nighttime browsing for supplies.
    Our hoods hid our faces from the crowd, but if anyone got a good look at us, there was a chance they’d recognize us, especially Fran, who’d made a name for herself as Turner’s Asgard catch.
    She had tossed her red sash down the mineshaft as a fuck you to Turner. I couldn’t say it didn’t feel good to stick it to the pirate. He would notice our absence but hopefully not before daybreak. We’d be off this rock before then.
    “There, yah see it?” Fran asked.
    I did indeed see it. It was a Harrier-class warbird. Crescent shaped, the pirates’ favorite ships bristled with cannons. Those bitches were slow compared to other warbirds, but they were armed to the teeth.
    “Turner lost his last cargo ship when fleet caught up with a trade in Jotunheim,” Fran explained, the half-light flittering in