Page 13 of Redemption in the Dark (The Righteous 5)
“Yeah, well, I’m not most people.” She glared at his stupid sexy face. Why couldn’t he have just gone home and left her the hell alone?
“I see that. Come on, Maeve, step away from the edge and come back with me. If you really are innocent, then I’ll help you build a new case.”
She laughed and shook her head. “You can’t help me even if you wanted to, which I don’t believe for one second. No one can help me. Whoever framed me did too good of a job.”
“There is always a way to prove your innocence,” he said and held out his hand for her to take.
A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as tears pricked her eyes.
“I haven’t been innocent for a very long time.” She looked around and really let herself take in the beauty of the mountains in the distance. It was magical and so beautiful that it seemed like a painting set in front of a cloudless blue sky. The dark browns and lush green of the tops of the trees called to her. She wanted to be free like them, to be free out here to roam until her heart was content, but that was no longer her reality. Somewhere along the line, she’d become a pawn and whoever was sitting at the board wanted her locked up and the key thrown away.
Her heels were hanging just over the edge, and she looked over her shoulder at the drop and swallowed hard. She wasn’t a fan of heights. Morry ensured that any punishment she received involved heights once she found out about her fear. Morry was such a fucking sadist. Maeve smirked at the thought. She’d made the mistake of calling her a sadistic bitch once. Morry laughed, but things didn’t go well with that punishment.
“I need you to know that I didn’t kill that man. I didn’t even know that detective, and I…I’m not going to prison for something I didn’t do. I’ve clawed my way through my whole life, and if I’m going to die, it will be on my terms and not in a six-by-six cell.
Wolf took another step, and she knew he was going to try and stop her, but she couldn’t allow that. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“The bruise,” she said, turning and leaping off the edge. As Wolf called out her name, it was loud in her ears as she pushed away from the cliff like she was a bird and going to take flight. There was this suspended feeling, a brief moment when there was no gravity, no weight of the world, no right, no wrong, just simply her and God. Then she started to fall, and it all came rushing back. She screamed as she swung her arms and legs, wishing she could sprout wings as the fast-moving water looked like it was rushing up to meet her.
At the last second, she straightened her legs and her arms at her side and prayed that the water wasn’t shallow. Her body jarred with the sudden impact, but she managed to maintain the proper form she’d been taught. The water was cold and dark and sucked her under like a creature swallowing her whole. The river was flowing fast, and she struggled to figure out which way was up as it tossed her around, making the surface hard to find.
Suddenly there was a glimmer of light in the dark, and she pushed for it as her lungs felt like they were on fire from the lack of oxygen. Finally, her head broke through the surface of the water, and she gasped and then screamed as she slammed into a massive boulder.
Her chin and ribs felt like she’d just taken two hard punches in rapid succession. The pain was immediate, and the intense sharp sensation radiated throughout her side before the swift current dragged her around the boulder and continued to push her along. She became a ping pong ball among the underwater objects, and the fuzziness was starting to cloud her eyes as her consciousness faded a little more with each blow.
Suddenly, the water seemed to spit her out of the crazy ride into a sudden calm, and she chuckled to herself that even the water didn’t want her. With a strength she didn’t even know she had, she managed to swim to the soft bank and collapsed with her cheek pressed in the mud.
You would be proud of me, Morry. I didn’t give up.
I didn’t give up.
Wolf dropped the reins, ran to the edge of the cliff, and watched as Maeve plummeted to the water below. His eyes searched for her to surface, his pulse racing as he tried to spot her among the rocks.
“Dammit, Maeve.”
When he didn’t see her, he quickly changed gears and grabbed the dangling reins. Leaping up onto Viho, he turned the horse around to head back along the path. He tried to calculate how far he needed to backtrack before he could start to make his way to the water. He had to find out if Maeve was still alive.
Her words were on a loop in his brain. He’d never met someone so determined not only to live but not be taken into custody. Her bravery, or stupidity, knew no bounds. And who the hell apologizes for a bruise before they jump to their potential death?
‘Someone innocent,’ the voice in the back of his mind said.
He leaned back and let the horse choose the path as they raced down the side of the slope. He had to lay his body down, so his back almost touched Viho’s powerful hindquarters as they streaked along at breakneck speeds. He loosened his grip on the reins as he gave Viho his head and trusted the horse to make the decisions. Adrenaline rushed through his body as they reached the bottom without tripping or worse. He turned Viho to follow the flow of the river, and the horse dashed along the soft edge sending mud and water flying with every footfall.
As much as he didn’t want to be forced to stop, he had to give the stallion a break to drink and catch his breath as the sound of his heavy breathing reached his ears and his sides expanded with each heavy draw of air. He paced as the horse had a drink and then he walked him in the direction they needed to go to make sure he didn’t tie up. The muscles seizing caused extreme pain and that was the last thing he wanted to inflict and it wasn’t going to help him or Maeve. He was trying hard not to let his nervous energy spook Viho as his ears continuously twitched in his direction.
He couldn’t shake the look in Maeve’s eyes just before she leaped off the cliff. The mixed look of terror and acceptance she’d given him was firmly planted in his mind, and his fear for her grew with each passing minute. The chances of her surviving that fall were slim. Her odds were even slimmer to survive the rocks hiding in the rushing current without drowning. If by some miracle, she managed to make it through both of those obstacles, she would need to contend with hyperthermia as night came.
“I’m sorry, Viho, but we need to keep going.” Mounting up, he pointed the horse downriver and urged him to run. The stallion bolted into action, his body racing smoothly under him, but the thunder of his feet did nothing to ease the anxiousness coursing through his body. He looked up at the cliff as they came around the large river bend and spotted the place where Maeve had jumped. His eyes scanned the water and the riverbank ahead on either side of the shore.
His heart sank with each footfall when there was no sign of her. The stallion ran on like he, too, knew the seriousness of the situation.
“Whoa, whoa,” he called out, and Viho skidded to a stop, his hindquarters coming underneath himself like he was about to sit as the horse slid. Hopping off the heavy-breathing horse, he knelt to inspect the imprint on the muddy surface. Only a person could make a print like that one.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said and smiled as he looked up and followed the shoe prints. At the edge of the trees, the sweater she’d stolen from him was discarded and lying on the ground in a soaking lump. How that piece of clothing alone hadn’t dragged her below the surface and held her there was beyond him.
He followed the uneven trail. It was clear she was dragging her right foot, but it was the drops of blood that concerned him more. She was definitely injured, and yet she pushed onward. His heart skipped in his chest. There was something intoxicating about the fire that burned in her so brightly. It made him want to cheer for her.
