Page 4 of Searching for Bristol
The longer Rocky followed the drag marks, the more sure he was that whoever had made them wasn’t someone looking to stash a dead body. Mostly because no one in their right mind would draganyonefor so long. He’d already passed plenty of places where someone could’ve hidden a body, including undergrowth and small caves along the cliff wall.
No, whatever path he was following was something else—a very determined and stubborn person, doing whatever they had to do in order to survive. He could see now that the trail he was following wasn’t one person dragging another, but someone scooting along the ground. And the only reason someone would do that was if they were injured and couldn’t walk properly.
Respect bloomed within Rocky, and the farther he walked, the more impressed he got. If this was Bristol, she was a fighter, that was for sure. He hated that she was probably hurt, but he respected her stubbornness and will to get back to civilization.
Without hesitation he lifted his chin and yelled her name once more, no longer worried that someone was out there lying in wait. “Bristol!”
For a moment, all he heard was more silence. He sighed in frustration.
Then he heard something else. A voice in the distance.
“Help! I’m here!”
Holy shit!
He’d done it. He’d found her.
Rocky’s feet were moving before he realized it. He began to jog, following the voice and the marks on the ground.
“Hello?” the female voice called out, sounding extremely stressed.
“I’m coming!” he yelled back. “Hold on!”
It took another few minutes, but when he finally saw Bristol Wingham, he almost tripped over her.
He’d turned a corner, having finally reached the end of the outcropping of rocks where the land began to gain elevation, sloping upward toward the trail once more, and suddenly there she was. Sitting on the ground, her legs pointed downhill, face flushed with exertion, long, tangled black hair in a scrunchie and tears in her eyes.
Rocky practically threw himself to the side to keep himself from stepping on her.
“Bristol?” he asked as he went down on his knees next to her.
Her dark brown eyes were wide and she was breathing way too fast. She nodded in response to his question.
“I’m Rocky. Are you all right?”
She took a deep breath and shook her head.
“What hurts?” It was obvious she was in pain, but Rocky was still impressed. She wasn’t hysterical. His gaze went to her legs before she spoke. The only reason someone would be crawling through the forest was if she couldn’t walk.
A rudimentary splint confirmed his suspicions.
“My leg,” she said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with it, but I’m guessing I broke something. It hurts. Bad.”
That was his thought as well. Bristol had done her best with the splint on her right shin. It was obvious she had no training, but she had the basic principle down. Immobilize the limb. Protect it. Rocky couldn’t see any bones sticking through the pants she was wearing, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a compound fracture beneath her clothes.
“How did you find me?” she asked quietly.
“Sandra,” Rocky told her.
“The owner of Sunny Side Up?” she asked, clearly surprised.
Rocky was equally surprised she knew who he was talking about. It was his experience that most tourists didn’t bother to remember the names of the locals. It wasn’t as if they were trying to be rude, but with the number of names people heard in their lifetime, it just wasn’t expected.
But just as he’d thought, this woman and Sandra had obviously made a connection. “Yes. She was worried when you didn’t come back to say goodbye. She asked if I would come check things out and look for you.”
Bristol’s brow furrowed. “So you…what…just dropped everything and aimlessly started walking through the woods?”
Rocky chuckled. He was so relieved to have found her, he didn’t even mind the look of disbelief on her face. “Something like that. I’m a member of our local search and rescue team,” he explained. “I know these trails extremely well. That’s why Sandra asked me to see what I could find.”
