Page 33 of Risk Everything

They’d eaten an odd breakfast of fish and protein bars, but it had given them the nourishment they needed.

Eva and Sam were bantering back and forth, talking at great length about all the details they were going to tell their friends—falling into the water, the snake, Sam’s intel about how to avoid a bear.

Tanner met Bree’s eyes, both of them struggling not to smile, as the kids decided that they would leave out any really scary parts so that their friends wouldn’t be so frightened of rafting that they were afraid to try it.

“Wise.” Bree nodded her head as she walked hand in hand with Eva. “You don’t want to overwhelm your friends with too much action all at once.”

They’d gone another mile before Sam lengthened his stride so he could be walking next to Tanner, leaving the females a little farther behind. The kid obviously had something to say.

“What’s on your mind, buddy?”

“Do you think Noah is going to be mad at us?”

“Why would he be mad?”

Sam shrugged. “Because we had all the food and supplies in our boat. And he didn’t really have anyone to help them out. Just Mom and Miss Barb and Miss Francis.”

Tanner swallowed a laugh. “Although I’m sure he would have rather had you there to help him, Noah is capable of handling just about anything. Even three women who don’t know much about the wilderness. Although your mom is pretty darn smart.”

Sam nodded solemnly. “Oh, I know. But she’s...”

Tanner knew the kids had been seeing a child psychologist. He wished he had a doctor’s advice on what to say right now to the little boy. He would just go with his gut.

“She’s what, buddy?”

“Broken,” he whispered, then touched his chest. “On the inside. My dad...he hurt her.”

“A man should never hurt a woman.”

“I know.” Sam’s voice got smaller. “I tried to help, but Dad would lock us in our bedrooms.”

“Hey.” Tanner stopped and crouched down beside him so they could be eye to eye. The girls came up on them, but Bree just kept walking, giving them privacy.

“I know you and I don’t know each other very well.” He smiled and winked at the boy. “Although after our river adventure, I think we have a bond, right?”

Sam nodded solemnly. “Yes, sir.”

“Then I want to say this man to man. Friend to friend. That stuff your dad did to your mom is on him, and nobody else. Not her, and especially not you or Eva. A real man should never raise a hand against a woman. Even if you could’ve gotten out of that room you were locked in, there’s nothing you could’ve done.”

Sam didn’t look like he believed Tanner, but Tanner hadn’t expected him to. It was going to take more than just a couple of sentences from someone the kid didn’t really know very well to unpack all the emotional damage done in this situation. All any of them could do was to continuously reassure Sam, and Marilyn, that they weren’t at fault for Jared Ellis’s actions.

“Hey, you’re not worried that Noah will hurt your mom, are you? Because I can assure you that will never happen.”

“I know Noah wouldn’t hurt her. I just didn’t want him to get mad at her because she sometimes has bad days. Sometimes it’s hard for her to get out of bed. Sometimes she cries.”

God, Tanner’s heart was breaking for this kid. When he and Noah had been this age, their biggest concern had been trying to talk their mom into letting them stay out past when the streetlights came on, and how to do enough car washes and lemonade stands to raise the money to buy the video game they currently wanted. There had been all sorts of laughter and chaos in their house. Never violence, and rarely tears.

“Don’t you worry about Noah.” Tanner stood and squeezed Sam’s shoulder, and they began walking again. “You know Miss Cassandra is our sister, right? And she’s kinda crazy. So Noah can definitely handle your mom, even if she’s not having a good day.”

“Oh, yeah.” A smile broke through on Sam’s solemn face. “Miss Cass is a little crazy. She’s not quiet like Bree Cheese or my mom.”

Tanner rolled his eyes. “You can say that again. Believe me, I had to live with her growing up.”

He told a story of the time Cassandra made him so angry he’d accidentally thrown a baseball bat through a window as they caught up with the girls. It wouldn’t take them much longer to reach the bridge. Probably an hour or two after lunch, the kids would be reunited with their mom and everyone would feel a whole lot better.

They were still a good six hours of hiking to where they’d left the cars, so there would probably be one more meal of eating fish and protein bars and whatever other edible plants he and Noah could find, but tonight everyone would be back together and in their own beds.

A flash of bright light reflecting from up on the ridge in front of them caught Tanner’s attention, but by the time he could pinpoint where it had come from it was gone. A reflection of that type was almost always from something people had brought with them into the wilderness. Animals did their utmost to blend in. People were the ones who carried items that reflected and drew attention to themselves—binoculars, cameras, cell phones...