I twisted, reaching for something to stop my fall. My hand caught the rifle strap across Doug's chest. Then a fistful of his shirt.
Our eyes met for a split second.
Then gravity took over, and we tumbled over the edge.
I hit the slope hard, my back slamming into rock and dirt. The world became a chaos of tumbling, bouncing, spinning like boulders in a landslide.
Rocks tore at my ass, my arms, my head. I held onto Doug's shirt and our bodies locked together as we rolled. Over and over. Sky, then earth. Earth, then sky.
Somewhere above, Charlie screamed my name.
Pain crashed through me in waves. My ribs. My spine. My skull.
My shoulder slammed into a boulder. The collision spun us sideways. We slid another ten feet in a spray of gravel.
We hit a ledge, and the impact punched the air from my lungs in a violent rush. My head cracked against rock, and the world exploded into white light. Stars burst behind my eyelids like fireworks.
For a moment, I just lay there, stunned, trying to breathe. White spots swarmed my vision, multiplying, merging, consuming everything.
When my vision cleared, we were sprawled on a narrow shelf of rock about six feet wide, protruding from the cliff face like an oyster shell. Below us, another fifteen or twenty feet down, the river churned brown and angry.
Doug was beside me, face down. Not moving. The rifle had landed a few feet away, wedged against a small outcropping of rock near the edge of the ledge. Miraculously still in one piece.
The jewels had spilled from the pouch and scattered across the ledge like priceless confetti. The blazing sun caught them, bringing them to life. Deep crimson rubies, vivid green emeralds, sapphires the color of deep ocean water. The diamond earrings dazzled. The chain glowed like a golden snake. One massive diamond seemed to glow from within, pulsing with its own internal light.
They were breathtaking.
And they were cursed. They'd already gotten one man killed. Nearly us, too.
"Doug. You alive, dickhead?" Pushing up on my elbow, I shoved his shoulder, and his head wobbled. "Hey, you okay?"
Doug groaned. His hand twitched.
"You happy now, you stupid bastard?" I tried to sit up, but pain speared through my chest. "Son of a bitch."
"Mitch!" Charlie's cry echoed from above, sharp with panic.
I didn't even have the strength to wave and let her know I was still breathing.
Doug turned his head toward me. Blood dripped from his nose and mouth. His face was a mask of cuts and dirt with red smeared across pale skin. "Asshole."
"Yeah, right back at you, dickhead."
The ledge beneath us was one massive slab of red rock. But dozens of tiny pebbles scattered across its surface were sliding toward the edge, rolling like marbles on a tilted table.
My stomach dropped. Shit. We'd dislodged it.
"Doug, we need to get off this ledge." I reached for him. "Now."
"No," he whispered. His eyes locked on something beyond me. "No, no, no..."
I followed his gaze to the jewels.
Doug started crawling toward them, fingers scraping across stone.
He'd completely lost it.
"This ledge isn't stable. We have to get off it." I pushed myself up on shaking arms, every muscle screaming in protest.