Page 41 of Lion Conquers All
“Very.”
17
AARAV
Hour after hour the volunteers had come back to the Community Center with no news. No traces of campsites. No trails.
The first winter storm had settled over the mountain and the town and was pouring snow and wind all over everything. If there had been a trail. It was gone now.
Anchorage SAR had told everyone to go home. No one would be sent out again until sunrise and that was only if the storm had ended.
Connie hadn’t left. Even after the parents of both missing kids finally accepted the night as a failure and left to go home and attempt to sleep, she still didn’t budge. She knew he and Col were still waiting on word from Ryder, but it was almost 3am and she was nearly asleep on her feet.
“Let me drive you home.”
She glanced up at him, her eyes slightly glazed over with exhaustion. “Those kids…” Tears pooled in her beautiful brown eyes. “How are we going to find them now?”
He opened his arms and she fell against his chest. “We will. I don’t know yet, but we won’t stop until we do. Let me take you home. Everything will look better after a few hours of sleep.”
She nodded against his chest.
“I’m going to pick you up,shuarra.”
He waited a few extra seconds to give her time to object.
She didn’t. And he swept her up and carried her toward the front. He told the SAR people he’d be back at dawn. Most of them were turning in for the night too. A few were still working over the maps, getting ready for grid searching if the weather allowed tomorrow.
He turned backward, using his back to push open the front door. The bite of the wind was harsh. Connie flinched in his arms, tucking her face tighter against his jacket.
A minute later he had her in his patrol car.
Visibility was zero. The car was buried. He turned over the engine, but the tires grabbed nothing when he pressed down on the gas slowly. “Dalmeck.”
A tiny giggle came from his passenger. “Fuck would be better here.”
A grin slowly spread across his face, helping to wash away some of the worry and tension that’d built up over the day. “You’re right.Fuckwould be better here.”
“I can make you up a cot downstairs.”
She shook her head. The joviality of her mood ceased immediately, leaving the space between them empty. “I wouldn’t handle that well. My house isn’t far. I can—” She paused and stared out the windshield at the swirling snow. Anyone who’d lived here at least one winter knew walking in a storm like this was stupid. The SAR had finished spending hours drilling that into volunteers. Don’t go off the roads. Don’t go up the mountain. Don’t create another victim we have to find.
“The roads are buried. This storm dumped snow when it hit. You can’t walk.”
“I can’t stay here. I can’t. What about Dawn and Tor’s place. I could get that far.”
“Connie.” He said her name the way he wanted to reach out and hug her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks now. “It’s too far.”
“I was stupid. I should’ve left before this hit so bad. I wasn’t paying attention. I can’t do this.” Hysteria was creeping into her tone, now. Panic. Desperation.
“Don’t you trust me to keep you safe?”
“I don’t trust anyone, Aarav, especially when I’m asleep. You don’t understand. I have PTSD. I have to be alone and secure.”
Her words hurt, but he reached past those feelings and grieved with her. Her emotions weren’t about him. He had no right to take her rejection personally. She wasn’t scaredofhim. She was just scared. So scared the thought of spending the night in the bunker with him was going to bring on a panic attack. He could smell her adrenaline ramping up already.
“I could get you to your house.”
“How?” She whirled to face him in the car, hope and fear mixing in her gaze like a potent cocktail ready to burst into flames.
