Page 21 of Colton in the Wild
“I know that. So you’ll have to go down past the lake until you can get a cell signal and let RTA know they need to get here ASAP.”
He stopped with the debris from his work on her in his hand, which, at her words, had curled into a fist. “That’s at least ten miles.”
She gave him a puzzled look. A ten-mile hike in this wild country might be daunting to many, even most, but not to Spence. He did it for fun whenever he had a day off.
“I’m not leaving you alone here, unarmed, with a shooter out there. No way, Hetty, I’m just not.”
Oh.
She felt heat rise to her cheeks, knew if they were out in the sun, it would show despite the darker tone of her skin. And if they were, she knew he’d notice. Mr. Sharp Eye never missed a thing. She turned her head instinctively, shielding her reaction to his words.
The movement shifted her balance, just slightly, but that was all it took to send a stabbing reminder through her leg. She winced, but managed not to cry out.
Spence’s jaw tightened and he turned back to the first-aid kit.
He came up with a small paper packet of pills and a collapsed silicone circle. He tugged at the outer edge until it expanded into a small cup, then handed her the packet. “These should take the edge off. I’ll go get some water for you to get them down.”
Leave it to Spence to remember, even now, that she sometimes had trouble getting pills down. Then something else drove that out of her mind. “But he could still be there, watching that spot.”
“I’ll be careful.” He hesitated then said, “And I need to go look at…what you found, anyway.”
She should have known. Of course, he would. With a smothered sigh, she nodded. She looked at the pills then back at him.
“These won’t make me groggy, will they?” That was the last thing she needed right now. She was having enough trouble keeping her act together, she didn’t want to be drugged into more sluggishness.
“No, it’s nonnarcotic. And like I said, it’ll only take the edge off.”
“That’s all I need.”
He gave her a smile that made her think of that moment in the plane when she’d threatened him with a knee applied to sensitive body parts and he’d laughed and said, “That’s my girl.”
And suddenly there was an ache inside her that almost surpassed the physical pain.
An ache that reminded her of just how long she’d been wishing that were true.
Chapter 12
It was hardly a waterfall, little more than you’d get from a healthy faucet, but it was consistent, clean and cold. She’d be able to get the pills down. Spence climbed the last few feet slowly, carefully. He scrounged a broken branch off the ground and tossed it ahead to see if it drew any fire from their invisible hunter. Nothing.
The Midnight Sun wouldn’t allow for the cover of full darkness, but the tall trees made it seem darker than the perpetual summer twilight normally would, so while he could see, he was still on uneven ground and paid attention. Every couple of yards, he paused, listening carefully as he approached the small, clear spot around the rockslide that formed the path of the rivulet. Listening for any out-of-the-ordinary sound.
Like somebody reloading a rifle.
He suppressed a shudder as the image of the bullet wound in Hetty’s leg slammed into his mind once more, shoving aside all else. He’d never seen her hurt or injured before, other than a sprained ankle she’d incurred playing basketball in school. After a beautiful, leaping dunk shot, she’d been jostled by an opposing player and come down wrong. Being Hetty, she’d made them tape up the ankle and gone back in to finish the game. Which they’d won, thanks to that shot of hers.
And during it all, she’d never let out a sound. She’d barely even winced. So that, if nothing else, told him the level of pain she was enduring now.
These won’t make me groggy, will they?
Shot in the leg and she worried about that, when just about everybody else he knew would be asking for a large dose of groggy.
He scanned the ground around the small water flow and was starting to wonder if what she’d thought she’d seen had somehow been a trick of the light. If perhaps the trees had cast enough shadows in the everlasting twilight to make it seem as if—
And then he saw it himself. What she’d seen.Whoshe’d seen.
He swore under his breath.
The body was only partially buried, the head and arms—no, just one arm—were above ground. It was barely recognizable as a woman, and he was only guessing at that because what hair was left was long and wavy. Oddly, it also looked as if the tresses had once been spread out neatly, although now there were leaves and probably less benign things tangled in it. She’d been fed upon, which was hardly surprising out here.
