Free Out of Control by Mary Connealy Page A

really wasn’t what she thought his point was. More likely he meant she was stupid. On that, he might be right.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWe have to climb down a cliff?” Rafe sounded just the littlest bit impatient. “And climb back up it once we’ve gotten you all settled and safe at home?”
    Maybe slightly more than the littlest bit impatient.
    â€œWell, I told you we couldn’t bring our horses. Why did you think that was?”
    â€œJust keep moving.” Rafe was very close behind her as they rounded her duck rock.
    â€œBe careful here.” The mountain sheered off in a fall almost straight down to a level maybe thirty feet below. But the broken rocks revealed layers in the earth, and Julia had no trouble using those layers for handholds and toeholds. It was almost a stairway.
    Julia turned and Rafe was only inches away. He said, “We should use ropes. Tie ourselves together. Then when you fall I can save you.”
    That was nice.
    Disrespectful, definitely doubtful, slightly sneering even, and she was very tempted to punch him in the nose. But his underestimation of her was rooted in his wanting to keep her alive, so there were heroic overtones to his sneering.
    And that was nice.
    She turned and began picking her way down, hanging on to the rock face. “It’s not the least bit death defying. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
    She heard Rafe grumbling, but she decided it was wise not to ask him to repeat himself.
    â€œSo, you found fossils down in the cavern? Bones?” Rafe asked.
    And that cheered her right up. “Yes, bones. The bones of a fish. I know quite a bit about fossils. I discovered my first one in Illinois when I was twelve. I’ve studied them extensively.”
    â€œI thought you said you were from Houston.”
    â€œMy father likes to travel around. It’s been fine.” She thought of how completely not fine it was. “I’ve developed an interest in geological studies and the search for fossils. And I am hoping to get an article published through the American Philosophical Society.”
    â€œA society? About fossils?” Rafe asked.
    â€œThe Proceedings is their quarterly journal.”
    Rafe grunted.
    She reached a level spot, and when Rafe came down next to her, she leaned close and whispered, “I believe my findings might make me eligible for the Magellanic Premium.” Julia felt the excitement shining out of her.
    â€œYou don’t have a brain in your head, do you?” Rafe sounded sad but resigned, the idiot.
    Julia resumed climbing to keep from going for his throat. “I’ve tried to get articles published before. I found the tusk of a mastodon when we lived in Kentucky.”
    â€œYou moved from Illinois to Kentucky?”
    â€œI told you I’ve lived all over.” Julia’s fingers hurt. She hadn’t given much thought to how she’d come to have blood under her fingernails, though she remembered a bit of clawing as she tried to find her way out of the cavern in the pitch-darkness. But now that she was clinging to the rocks, she realized she’d broken off several nails below the quick. She decided talking to Rafe and Ethan, however lacking they were in intelligence, was better than paying attention to pain she couldn’t do anything about.
    â€œWhat’s a mastodon?” Ethan was still with them. For some reason, Julia kept waiting for him to go home. He just seemed like the type.
    â€œIt’s sort of like a wooly mammoth.”
    â€œA wooly mammoth?” Ethan sounded very doubtful. “I’ve seen most the animals in these parts. I guess buffalo are sort of wooly. And grizzlies.”
    â€œIt’s a prehistoric elephant.”
    â€œElephant?” Rafe was joining his brother in being a doubter. “I’ve heard of elephants. But never in America.”
    â€œThere aren’t any.” Surely he’d heard the word prehistoric .