Page 14 of Disappearance at Angel's Landing
Rockfalls were the most common natural disasters within the parks, but this was his first. Any number of geologic processes contributed to them: weathering, bedrock fractures, earthquakes, erosion. There was no predicting the outcome, and he sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to a repeat. If he hadn’t noticed the few smaller rocks tumbling down the cliff before that boulder had followed…
No. He didn’t want to think about that. Didn’t want to consider what would’ve happened to Lila if he’d let her take one more step.
Lila slapped a hand against the towering cliff face, bracing herself as she brought that sky blue gaze to his. Then she glanced at the pieces of rock that could’ve crushed her more thoroughly than Sarah Lantos’s fall from Angel’s Landing. Her face paled. “Thank you.”
Shaky but confident. And he was still coiled tight as a spring. Branch didn’t trust himself to speak as adrenaline kept its restrictive vice around his heart, nodding instead.
The change was slow this time, as if Lila had forgotten her armor had dropped. Dirt trickled down the rock face under her touch. Then she brought her hand to her head and shoved that practiced smile in place. “If you wanted a reason to touch me, Ranger Thompson, all you had to do was ask.”
“You sign legal documents in glitter pen, don’t you?” He hated his title and last name coming out of her sweet mouth. Well, as sweet as it could be with death threats every few minutes. Turned out, he kind of liked them. Her playfulness and creativity. Her unwavering determination to make him as uncomfortable as possible in her own way. As much as he hated the idea of letting anyone get under his skin, Lila had a true talent for tricking his defenses into letting her slide on in. Branch couldn’t deny the electricity in his veins in the few minutes since they’d escaped death.
“And use pinky promises as a foundation of trust.” She winked at him with a twist of her mouth. Showcasing the laceration at her temple. “Shall we find a killer then?”
“You’re bleeding.” Every cell in his body screamed at him in condemnation. He’d done this. Used too much force and failed to protect her head when he’d practically tackled her against the rock wall.
Branch caught her arm before she had a chance to run from him, spinning her into his chest. Her palm pressed over his heart. Even with their height differences—she was more than a foot shorter than him—she fit against him perfectly. The perfect little murderous creature he hadn’t been able to ignore no matter how many times he tried. He prodded at the cut with the pad of his thumb, careful not to inflict more damage.
Lila flinched under the invasion. Or maybe the adrenaline had finally evened out, and her body got the message that something was wrong. “Ow.”
“Sorry.” Blood was already crusting at the edges. She wouldn’t have to worry about stitches. “The cut isn’t deep, but we should clean it to avoid infection.”
Her breath tickled the underside of his jaw as she looked up at him. “Okay.”
It took more energy than he expected to back away from the press of her body against his. Maneuvering his pack to his front, Branch dug for his first aid kit and laid it out on the ground between them. Alcohol prep pads and his water would do the best job of killing bacteria and flushing debris from the wound. “This might hurt.”
“Haven’t you heard? Barbies don’t feel pain.” Streaks of dirt interrupted the smooth skin of her cheek and forehead, sharpening her features to an almost ethereal level. Lila Jordan was breathtakingly beautiful, though he’d just started allowing himself to see past that first layer of defense to the trapped woman beneath.
“You know about that?” Branch focused on cleaning blood from the laceration in small sections. Overall the cut wasn’t more than two inches long, but the jagged pieces of skin at the edges made it difficult to ensure Lila didn’t walk out of this park worse off than when she started. She took his ministrations like a champ, though.
“You mean what the other rangers say about me? That I’m an airhead, and I only care about my looks? Oooh, how about that I throw temper tantrums if I don’t get the shifts I want? I’m shallow and clingy, and I don’t take anything seriously. I use my assets to manipulate my superiors, and I was handed this job by performing sexual favors. Yeah. I know about that.”
The brightness in her eyes dimmed, and Branch couldn’t help but free the anger he’d relied on to get him into this new stage of life. At the hurt in those blue depths. She’d known exactly how their coworkers—how Risner—perceived her, and yet, from his observations, she hadn’t done anything to earn their judgment. He’d simply gone with the flow. Never joining in conversations centered around her, but he hadn’t done anything to shut them down, either, and he hated himself for it.
“I know I can come on a bit strong.” She shrugged. “I know what they all call me and how everyone tries to get out of working shifts with me. I ask too many personal questions. Sometimes it turns people off when I want to know what’s going on in their lives, but I only ever wanted them to feel like they had a friend. You know? Someone they could talk to on breaks or meet for a movie. Come to if they needed help. Working on the trails can get lonely. I just wanted to help make it a little more bearable, but they don’t need me, and that’s okay. Talking behind my back and making up nicknames helps them bond with each other, and who am I to get in the way of that?”
She had to be joking. Lila had to see the damage that had been done by letting people disrespect and devalue her.
He couldn’t stop a torrent of memories from the past few months. Her throwing surprise birthday parties for the other rangers in the headquarters break room, complete with balloons of their favorite color and cake of their favorite flavor. Her handing out gift cards from local restaurants with an invite toget together for lunch. The dozens of times she’d brought her coworkers coffee at the start of her shift, including him.
Branch finished cleaning the cut, taping a butterfly bandage in place. Realization hit. She hadn’t done any of it for them. Hell, Ranger Barbie was…lonely. “That first time we worked together. You asked me out to coffee after our shift, and I turned you down.”
“Not sure a growl counts as a rejection, but you got your point across.” She pressed her pink manicured fingertips over the bandage with a half smile of appreciation. “The rangers here have worked together for years. They’re part of each other’s lives. I just wanted to help you fit in, but I don’t hold it against you, not wanting to get coffee or have me show you around Springdale. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.”
But she wanted to be. He could hear it in her voice. Saw it in the slip of her smiles. Smiles he was sure covered a pain she hadn’t let anyone glimpse, and Branch couldn’t let it go. The idea that her detailed perception in this case had been born of someone who had made her afraid, cultivated due to long periods of time spent in her fight, flight or freeze response. It was a coping mechanism of trauma survivors forced to adapt—to anticipate—a threat before it occurred in the name of protecting themselves.
He wanted nothing more than to wipe the face of the earth free of whatever threat she was running from. While he’d gone out of his way to isolate himself from everyone around him to endure the pain he’d suffered, Lila had never chosen to become an outcast.
Blond hair escaped from her low ponytail beneath her Stetson, and Branch shot a hand out to swipe it back behind her ear.
An indescribable need to ease that dullness in her gaze and fight her battles took hold. “I’m not a fan of tea, but I’m open to recommendations. If your invitation still stands.”
Her mouth parted, and the loss of all those defenses she’d kept in place only made her more beautiful. Real. This…this was the woman he’d caught glimpses of under the mask. And, damn, he’d never seen a more perfect sight. She was still holding back, but he could be patient. He had nowhere else to be.
“Sure.” That single answer left her mouth as more breath than coherent word, gifting him the slightest hint at what she might sound like pinned beneath him, his mouth on her skin, his hands tangled in her hair.
A swirl of desire caught him by surprise, nearly knocking him off-balance. Shit. He hadn’t felt anything close to this since before his divorce, but Lila had somehow made it easy. Constantly presenting a mystery to solve.
Branch ordered his hand to drop away from her face and his feet to add a few inches between them before he did something neither of them were prepared for. “We should keep moving in case there are more boulders looking to relocate.”
