Page 135 of Tracked
My attacker was dead before he’d hit the ground. The rangers hadn’t even attempted to help him, and when we left the shelter, Calder had already covered his body with a tarp from his bag so I wouldn’t have to see it. They’d come back later to remove the body, and with a few more stormy nights, even the ground wouldn’t have any trace left of his blood.
“Follow my finger,” I instructed, holding up my index finger and moving it in front of Matthew’s face.
With the medevac gone, there were only two people available with advanced medical training: me and one of the other women who’d been a nurse before joining Eden’s Children. Both of us had flipped into emergency-response mode. I asked for the first aid kit from the rangers and, after confirming no serious damage, instructed her to bandage the guard with the gunshot wound to his shoulder. Meanwhile, I went to evaluate Matthew and Dr. Julia for any sign of concussion or brain injury.
Dr. Julia was shaken, but the least injured—at least physically—of the two. Emotionally, I wasn’t sure even her professional training was strong enough to unpack all the trauma Adam Eden had heaped on her for decades.
Matthew, on the other hand, I found sitting on the steps outside Adam’s cabin, staring off like he was hoping to see a ghost.
“He made Hannah write him letters. That’s how I realized what was happening. I found an unfinished one in her room where she wrote about being nervous to leave school and move out here.” Matthew spoke, though I wasn’t sure he was really talking to me but instead just ... getting it out.
On the hike back to the compound, Calder revealed Matthew was Hannah’s boyfriend who’d joined Dr. Julia and Wilderness Within to get justice for Hannah, and I shared how Matthew had helped Rachel and me escape.
“I confronted Hannah. I told her they weren’t helping her. That they didn’t care about her. I told her I loved her and I wanted to marry her.”
My throat tightened as I checked the lump on his head.
“She wouldn’t believe me. She went back and told them what happened—what I said. They were furious that I knew—that I found out. She called me when she left Dr. Julia’s office. I’d never heard her so upset. She said they didn’t want her. They didn’t love her. That it was my fault. I’d made them not love her. I told her I loved her, but it wasn’t enough.” He paused then, emotion clogging his voice. “The next morning, they found her.”
I ran through the cognitive tests for any signs of a concussion, all negative.
“You told the investigator about the letters.”
Slowly, he nodded. “Then they disappeared, so I came here to find them.”
“She didn’t recognize you?”
“Dr. Julia?” He shook his head. “I transferred in sophomore year on a soccer scholarship. I never met her, and in college, I went by my middle name, Jack. My dad’s name is Matthew,” he said by way of explanation.
“You didn’t find the letters?”
He shook his head like that was the worst part of all this. “I think I came out here knowing I wouldn’t find them. Deep down, I knew itwould come to this.”To killing them.“I wish there was something worse than death for him.”
He looked up at me, desperate for something to relieve his pain.
“There is,” I said, and stepped back. “The life Hannah would’ve wanted you to live.”
The heartbroken man stared at me long and hard, then hung his head and sobbed.
Satisfied that he showed no sign of brain injury, I left him to sit with his grief. My own emotions were already at their bursting point, and I needed to make sure everyone else was okay.
After checking on the nurse and the bandage she’d applied, I returned to Rachel’s side. They’d laid her on a shady patch of grass. Kneeling next to the sled, I took her hand in mine, anchoring myself to its warmth.
“You’re okay now,” I murmured and bent over her, kissing her forehead.
When I looked up, my gaze swam into focus on the people congregated in the grassy middle of the buildings.
Calder had joined the police and rangers as they rounded up everyone else in the compound and began interviewing them. The irony of the scene struck me. All of the women were in the same area where Eden ministered to them on their knees. Some were crying. Others were holding each other in shock. Only now, they weren’t kneeling. They were standing.
Warmth fizzled along my spine, my gaze searching for the source.For him.
Calder finished talking to the officer he stood with and then came over. Dirt and blood caked to his clothes, same as mine, and that only made me pull him harder to me.
His lips went to the top of my head. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” There were so many other things I wanted to say—to tell him—but my body was nose-diving into an adrenaline crash, and all I wanted was to close my eyes and never leave his arms.
I got my wish for a few minutes. Nothing but the breeze invaded our embrace until the cavalry arrived.
