The answer locks into place instantly.
Cold.
Absolute.
I’m not leaving her down there.
Lucas grabs my vest hard enough to jerk me back from the edge of the collapsed ridge. “Russ, move!”
I barely hear him.
My eyes stay fixed on the broken cliff where Olivia disappeared.
Dust still drifts upward from the collapse.
Loose rock keeps sliding into the canyon below.
She’s down there alone.
Injured.
And every instinct inside me is screaming.
Miles appears beside us breathing hard. “If you were gonna listen to reason, you would’ve already moved.”
I ignore him completely and drop to one knee at the edge, scanning the shattered slope below.
There.
A narrow descent cutting diagonally through the rocks.
Steep.
Unstable.
One wrong step and I’m joining her at the bottom.
Good enough.
“I’m going down.”
“Like hell you are,” Lucas snaps immediately.
“She’s alone.”
“So are we if you stay here!”
Gunfire cracks somewhere below the ridge.
Closer now.
Much closer.
Clay drops behind cover near the canyon entrance and fires downslope. “Movement west side!”
I barely register it.
Olivia’s voice keeps replaying in my head instead.
