Page 40 of No Hope of Rescue

“He was the pilot,” Brock explains slowly. “He was in the helicopter when we got you.” It’s unclear to me how much of this she actually remembers.

Or wants to remember.

“You were awesome,” Ross says. “We watched you climb out that window.”

Now she looks up at him.

He throws a nod to Kelly. “She was really booking it. Determined.” He straightens out his gaze to only focus on her small face. “Here’s what I think: I think even if we hadn’t shown up, you would have found your way back down that mountain.”

Despite the uncomfortable spotlight, Codie smiles.

“We’re just grateful she’s back,” Kelly says.

“I’ve learned it doesn’t take much to make a mom grateful.” Ross grins.

I hear these things about moms, and I never know what to say or how to can add to the conversation. It’s all the other women in my life I think of. But still, they aren’t my mother.

Kelly nods her head. “You know your moms,” she says.

His face is unreadable. Then he tosses out, almost as an aside, “I’ve spent years studying them.”

That’s the cue for Jace and Ryan to start retelling an old, not-so-true story in overlapping narration, about the bear they saw while searching for Codie.

It involved chasing one of them up a tree. This time it’s Jace. I’ve heard the story before—the two tell it in various scenarios with ever-increasing hyperbolic embellishments. It’s not true, and she knows it’s nearly all made up, but it’s a sweet gesture and hilarious, and it leaves her smiling. Only when she catches my gaze does it fade.

The burner phone is in my pocket. She mouths, “Thank you” to me when Kelly moves to the IV to the side and gives her daughter another hug and kiss.

If this is about a boy, I can keep a secret. I need her to trust me because I know there’s more to her story. If I do this for her, maybe she will tell us what really happened to her. She might be embarrassed, guilty, unsure, and doesn’t know who to talk to. Sometimes, you just need a sister.

Chapter Eleven

Brock Weston

My side is completely numb with local anesthetic after fourteen stitches. The vial of antibiotics rattles with car keys in a front pocket. I didn’t fill the painkiller script. That’s the last thing I need to be: doped up.

These guys are still up there in the mountains. They have to be dealt with. But what agency? Local law enforcement? Cam Stevens, the sheriff, is a nice guy, and I went to school with his younger brother, but this is not in his wheelhouse. Echo Falls is a small town known for horses breaking through fencing and stray cattle. The occasional drug bust. Arson.

I’m not sure kidnapping and the smuggling of antiquities is something he can handle.

Seeing Riley standing up against the wall, her hand behind her, her throat catching the light when she turns her head, is enough to make me drag a hand across my face.

She’s a force to be reckoned with—strong, resilient, a goal maker, and she lets nothing get in her way. Without her, we never would have put together a company. And yet even with all that badassery, it’s her kindness, her tenderness, that moves me.

Jesus. The hours I spent yacking to her about Crystal and the rich guy that took her away. How hurt I was, how unfair it was. She never demonized Crystal—just listened to me, nodding, bringing me the occasional cup of coffee, or a beer, depending on the time of day.

What can I offer her?

Something in me is broken. Flying, the thing that made me join the service, is gone. I can’t do it anymore. That was the first flight in five years, and it was all I could do not to fling myself out the cabin door.

Shit. And then, She doesn’t see you that way. But what if she did?

In truth, I’ve never seen Riley even go out on a date. If she does, she never talks about it. But what if?

When Ross starts speaking, I’m jarred out of my fucking what-ifing.

We need to talk business. When he steps back and Jace and Ryan launch in with that bear story of theirs, I wave Riley to join me and follow Ross out the door.

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