Page 37 of Lion Conquers All
Helen gave a dry non-believing laugh. “Sure. You stick with that story then.”
“What?” Connie gave her best please-believe-me-smile. “You don’t think they’re ex-military?”
“Oh, that’s quite possibly true. But you know more than you’re sharing, missy.” Helen tapped a pencil against her mouth. “Our deputy has special eyes for you. There’s not more than a half-second at a time when he’s not watching you. And the others speak to you first when they come into the building, even the big scary dude, Col.”
Well, shit.
Connie stole a quick glance at Aarav. He was at the front doors of the gym, the Anchorage Search and Rescue team had just arrived. They were setting up tables and piling equipment inside. Many of the people milling about the community center had gone outside to help them unload their trucks.
“Are you ever going to give the deputy a chance, Connie?”
Connie turned back to Helen and tears burned at the back of her eyes. “I want to. For the first time in a really long time, I do want to try.”
Helen walked around the table and put her arms around Connie, wrapped her in the perfectmomhug. She put her mouth next to Connie’s ear and spoke gently. “I don’t know what you’ve been through, sweet girl, but I know you deserve to be happy. And that man has made your happiness his life’s mission.”
Connie hugged her back, taking the comfort Helen offered. It was rare for anyone to touch her. Even women. She didn’t flinch or avoid women on purpose, but her natural inclination to hang back and not join groups kept her out of situations where people became familiar enough for hugging.
Nobody was a stranger to Helen Tragher. She loved on everyone in Mystery with abandon. And it was genuine. Her boys were the same way. Connie had never met wilder, crazier, more death-defying young men, but they were the sweetest teenagers and young adults on the planet. They would do anything for you, just like their mom and dad. Their father was one of the volunteers out on the mountain right now.
“Go have a cup of coffee. You look like you could use the boost. We’ve got this. Until the Anchorage fellows decide to take over, Oscar and I have it covered.” Helen walked back around to the other side of the map table and picked up the clipboard with the master list of sites Gaven had provided.
Coffee did sound nice. Honestly, a nap sounded better, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.Coffee it is.
She grabbed herself a cup from the station at the back of the gym and watched as the gym filled with even more people and equipment. Her phone beeped in her pocket. She pulled it out and glanced at the storm warning that’d popped up.
Dammit.
Snow was falling already. She could see it through the front doors where people were helping to unload Search and Rescue equipment. She wiped a tear from her face before it could trail down her cheek.
The window was gone.
This was it.
Search and Rescue wouldn’t go out until the storm passed. The guys who were already out there were those kids’ only hope. Surely they were at one of the blinds. Surely they hadn’t gone somewhere unfamiliar.
She leaned back against the wall and took a deep shuddering breath. Her heart was in her throat. Her lungs felt like dead weights inside her chest.
For a mountain town, this rarely happened. Kids were raised here knowing how to take care of themselves. Everyone learned about the weather. Everyone learned basic survival and camping skills. Everyone learned how to change a tire. What to carry in your car in case you got stuck on the side of the road. All the emergency preparedness you could think of…they knew it. It was taught starting in elementary school.
A painful cry silenced the room.
All eyes fell on the sobbing mother standing next to Aarav and a couple of the Anchorage SAR guys. It was Sam Robert’s mom. Her husband was holding her from collapsing all the way to the floor.
Connie didn’t need to know what was being said.
Everyone in town knew.
The storm was here. It wasn’t safe to go out. SAR had to wait until the storm passed.
Right now, they were all praying for the men who’d gone out earlier to get back safely. And perhaps for a miracle that one of the teams would stumble upon the kids and bring them back, too.
Connie let her back slide down the wall until her butt hit the floor. She leaned her head forward, resting her forehead against her knees. There wasn’t anything else to do. There wasn’t anything for her to fix. No one was hurt. She was as useless as everyone else in this building.
They were all waiting.
“Hey.” Aarav’s voice was so close, so soft. She liked it. She liked the gravelly sound and the way her body warmed when he was nearby.
Connie looked up from her knees.
