Page 48 of Rescuer
“Gus! I asked the neighbor to stay with her, but only for a few hours. I don’t see how we’ll get home before dark.”
“Is there anyone you can call?”
She shook her head. Her eyes had a suspicious glimmer. Thankfully, she didn’t start crying. She held up her phone. “I don’t have a signal.”
“Maybe Gus will call your mom?” He dimly recalled her saying that Gus was her great-aunt on her mother’s side. So that would make Mia’s mom Gus’s niece. Shouldn’t she be willing to help out?
Mia got that look on her face. The one that said she’d die on this hill and there was no way she’d change her mind.
“She won’t ask my mom. She doesn’t have her number. And she doesn’t like to ask for help.”
“So it runs in the family.” He didn’t want to know what was going on there. Jackson had no love for Mia’s parents. He considered asking one of his buddies to help, but when he looked at his phone, there was no signal.
“If I had a signal, I could call for backup.”
She huffed a sigh. “True. And I could call Kay.” She shook her head. “Complaining won’t solve anything. We have to deal with this situation. Hopefully Kay will stay. I can’t do much about it right now though.”
There wasn’t a helpful reply to that, so he hummed a noncommittal response. They’d never make it back to their cars before it rained or darkness fell. Especially with him being injured. They’d have to wait for morning. They really needed to find cover. He motioned for her to follow him. She rolled her eyes, but when he started walking, she kept pace without argument. The way she side-eye watched him told him she continued to worry over his condition.
A large water drop smacked his nose. Great.
“It’s raining!” she gasped.
“Yeah. We can’t rely on those rocks to hide us and shelter us. Let’s find somewhere else.” Jackson waved for her to continue walking.
“How long will it take to get to the path that leads to our cars?” Mia kept pace with him. “Can’t we make it before dark?”
He sighed.
“What?”
There it was. That feisty, somewhat aggressive tone.
“Mia, be reasonable.” Wrong thing to say. He knew it the moment the words left his mouth. Couldn’t hit delete.
Sure enough, she huffed. But at least she didn’t stop marching along. If anything, her pace became brisker, her long legs eating up the distance between the base of the cliffs and the cover of the trees a hundred yards away. “Why, when men want to disagree with you, do they always tell women to be reasonable? What about wanting to get home tonight is not reasonable?”
“I didn’t mean to say you weren’t. But there are people out to kill us. If we head for our vehicles, how do we know they aren’t waiting there? And if we get caught in the storm, it will be even harder to navigate the terrain.”
Grumbling, she stomped beside him.
The rain increased to a steady fall. Still not too hard, but soon, they’d be soaked. And the dark clouds looming in the distance were heading their way. They were in for a doozy.
Just when he thought things couldn’t get worse, he heard a familiar sound.
Someone was flying a bird.
“There’s a helicopter coming.”
Her expression lightened. “Do you think it’s someone looking for us?”
“Huh? I don’t think so. It’s probably on the way to a hospital.” Still, his instinct told him to get out of the open until he saw it. “Let’s get into the trees.”
She gave him a look. “Why?”
“I have a feeling.”
Her cheeks paled, but she didn’t say anything. In silent agreement, they hefted their packs higher and jogged the rest of the way to the tree line. Once there, they ducked behind a couple of ancient oaks. Squatting down, he peered through the branches until he caught sight of the helicopter. It was black slashed with gray. The propellers beat at the air. Through the open door, he saw a couple of men scanning the ground.
